"Star Wars is a brand that speaks to people of all ages around the world and we've understood from the beginning that it belongs to the fans," said Lucasfilm Vice President Howard Roffman. "I've been lucky enough to be personally involved in this for the past 19 years and have worked hard with my team here at Lucas Licensing and with our licensees to develop the very best products possible. For us, it's always been about quality and innovation and stimulating people's imaginations through the experience of our products."
Roffman continued: "I look at the young men and women who work for our licensees designing these products and I'm struck by how many of them grew up playing with Star Wars toys. Some of their fondest memories as kids were going to the theatre to see the original Star Wars movies. Their caring comes through in every product they work on."
Among the new products slated for release:
- Talking Action Figures: For the first time ever, figures in the signature Star Wars scale can speak and interact with each other. Hasbro is set to launch a brand new line of Star Wars action figures which incorporates the breakthrough technology called COMMTECH. With a microchip base and a patented COMMTECH reader, Star Wars action figures can now speak up to four lines of dialog and can "talk" to each other.
- Star Wars LEGO®: With the microprocessor-based droid developer kit from LEGO® MINDSTORMS, fans can build several functional versions of R2-D2, a dodging battle droid, and an almost limitless variety of programmable droids beginning this fall. Also, now available for the first time ever are a series of LEGO Star Wars sets that allow fans to build their favorite scenes and vehicles out of LEGO bricks or expand the fantasy with their very own LEGO Star Wars creations.
- Interactive Animatronic Banks: Imagine three static figures on a child's dresser -- Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn and Darth Maul. With the drop of a coin they spring to life, lightsabers swinging and crackling as they speak to each other and face off in the ultimate duel. Thinkway Toys has created this unprecedented series of Star Wars banks using sophisticated animatronic technology never before seen in toys.
- Books: "With the novel for Episode I, we wanted to create a literary work that would go beyond the film," says Roffman. "We needed an author of considerable stature and we were very fortunate that Terry Brooks agreed to write the book." Brooks, author of the renowned Shannara series, worked closely with George Lucas, who contributed extensive background material not included in the film. Other books for younger readers will be available from Random House, Scholastic and Dorling Kindersley.
- Video Games: Two new games from LucasArts Entertainment greatly expand upon the characters and settings from Episode I as they push the envelope of graphics and sound. Racer (for Nintendo N-64 and PC) takes players into the high-speed sport of Podracing and transports them to seven new, never-before-seen worlds in addition to the planet Tatooine setting from the film. The Phantom Menace (for Sony Playstation and PC), allows players to retrace the steps of their favorite hero through key events of the film and introduces a broad range of new threats and challenges.
- Learning Software: From Lucas Learning comes The Gungan Frontier (for PC), an interactive experience that allow players to create an entirely new world on one of the unpopulated moons of the planet Naboo and tackle key environmental and ecological issues.
Although not all stores will open at midnight to sell Star Wars products, a broad range of retailers who have long carried Star Wars product will be adding Episode I to their assortment on May 3, including Target Stores, Barnes & Noble, B. Dalton, Borders Books and Music, Waldenbooks, J.C. Penney, Sam Goody, Suncoast, and On Cue. Many on line retailers, including shop.starwars.com, will also begin selling product on May 3.
Lucas Licensing Ltd. manages all the domestic and international merchandising activities of the Star Wars and
