Star Wars: The empire strikes cash
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 7 December 2023
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When Star Wars launched, it helped usher in the era of the blockbuster. In the wake of the film, came the figures. Forty years on from their launch, the original toys have now become highly sought after - some fetching a few hundred thousand dollars.
We head to the largest toy fair in Europe dedicated to buying and selling Star Wars figures. We look at how much the toys are now worth and speak to some of the super fans now buying them - and explore how big the market for the vintage figures is.
Presenter/producer: Rowan Bridge
(Photo: Someone dressed in The Mandalorian costume at a Star Wars toy fair, with fans in the background)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Global Story is the podcast helping you make sense of the news. |
| 0:06.7 | Join me, Katya Adler, every weekday as I take a closer look at the stories making the headlines, |
| 0:12.1 | with insights from the BBC's Global Network of Experts. |
| 0:16.0 | Search for The Global Story, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. |
| 0:22.8 | Hello and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 0:26.2 | I'm Rowan Bridge. |
| 0:31.9 | Star Wars is one of the most iconic films of the 20th century. |
| 0:36.6 | The adventures of Luke Skywalker, Hans Solo and |
| 0:39.4 | Princess Lear of delighted generations, and it helped to usher in the era of the blockbuster. But |
| 0:45.1 | he'd also changed how movies are merchandised in ways that are still felt now. And those original toys |
| 0:51.1 | from the 70s and 80s have found a new life amongst the collectors of today. |
| 0:55.7 | People like me who were kids when the Star Wars films first came out. |
| 1:00.8 | So this is my Empire Strikes Back X-Wing fighter. |
| 1:05.2 | I got it about 40 years ago as a child when I was fascinated by Star Wars and Star Wars figures. |
| 1:11.1 | And it's still in its original packaging. |
| 1:12.7 | I keep it in a special protective case, but I can take it out for you. |
| 1:21.1 | And there it is my X-Wing fighter. |
| 1:23.6 | And it sits in my office alongside some of my original Star Wars toys that I got as a child. |
| 1:29.1 | But I'm not the only one who started to recollect their childhood memories from 40 years ago. |
| 1:34.5 | Just wonder, when it's in an 8,000-pound-figure salt. |
| 1:38.4 | What is one of those worth? |
| 1:40.2 | Between £100,000, right up to probably 350,000 pounds, depending on what some Star Wars nut is |
... |
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