One of the many things that George Lucas did very early on to ensure that Star Wars was the success it was to secure the financial rights to merchandising for the franchise early on. Because of this, George himself managed to become one of the richest men in Hollywood, and he started a tradition as deep and rich in the toy aisle, as it was in the theatres and expanded universe.
Without a doubt, there are those of us who have been looking forward to the new storm of toys and merchandise that will be coming out with the newest Episode in the Star Wars Saga we know and love, and what we should all be looking forward to is the fact that the day when Star Wars blasts back into the stores? It's not too far away.
They're calling it "Force Friday", and to be honest, I've been getting news and reports on this for weeks to come at this point, with a myriad of emails every day reporting new deals, new plans, and leaked items that will be available. Every time I thought I'd be able to write this post, I kept getting buried under more and more information, and I chose to hold off on it.
However StarWars.com ran a story yesterday that made me finally get around to getting this post up on the site. That is of course the announcement of a global live unboxing event. If you've never watched an unboxing event, traditionally it's where a super excited fan gets their hands on a new piece of equipment, and films himself opening the equipment, generally whilst gushing with overloving joy and praise. Much as I imagine we'll all be doing in the weeks to come with the new Star Wars gear.
Obviously, there's not going to be a single monopoly on the games and toys and Merch we can buy from any single store. I know there are multiple Toys'r'us locations throughout Canada and the US who are participating in the midnight launch. But what we also know is that some other chains like Target are getting in on the fun, hoping you'll join them and #ShareTheForce. Chains and retail outlets around the world will be participating in this, and we're likely in for one of the biggest commercial events we've ever seen in relation to our beloved Star Wars saga. Personally I can't wait to see everything they have up on offer.
Not to be denied by traditional storefront operations though, some of the new wave enterprises are also getting on board with the upcoming wave of Star Wars fandemonium, including a new Star Wars themed Humble Audio Book Bundle, featuring the original trilogy, as well as other classics like the Dark Forces collectors trilogy, Dark Empire, and the original Star Wars Radio drama featuring Skywalker himself. Not only that, but Nerd Block is offering up a Hyperspace themed block for September which is guaranteed to include 4-6 Collectibles (of which they have strongly hinted will be featuring some of the newest items from the Force Awakens,) and one T-Shirt exclusive to Nerd Block itself. Personally I purchased mine last night, and at the time of this writing the site says they have a little less than 700 total Hyperspace blocks available, so if you're interested you'd best jump on that soon!
As I said earlier, there has been a huge amount of information about Force Friday already and rather than try to disseminate it all here… I'm just going to leave everyone with a massive link dump. Peruse at your own peril.. but be warned, there are spoilers lurking in this list!
When I was in the process of going through all the back log of links, I noticed that the ever diligent Mouse has continued his reign of terror, and a lot of the sites that used to be reveals and articles were 404s. If you want the most up to date news and information on all these things, make sure you subscribe to our Twitter, Facebook and Reddit pages!
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Ooooh...lots of shiny fun.
I remember going to Wal-Mart when Ep 3 merchandise went on sale. It was a pretty cool experience, particularly consider my age at the time. Will have to check out Toys-R-Us this coming weekend!