Star Wars went from scrappy popcorn-movie gamble to the most merchandised story ever told in 12 parsecs. It’s easy to forget that toy distributors and tie-in retailers had zero clue what George Lucas had cooking in 1977 — but a lack of merch supply only exacerbated demand for the movie. Mark Hamill will never forget that explosive moment.
“When the movie came out, it was such an overwhelming pop culture phenomenon,” Hamill tells Polygon on a recent call. “They didn’t have toys ready!”
Half a century later, I’m talking to Hamill as he sits at a desk in Lego HQ in Los Angeles, California. He’s been recruited to spread the word on Lego’s new Star Wars’ SMART Play sets, a line built around interactive bricks that react in real time. There are X-Wings and TIE Fighters and dioramas of iconic scenes, all with responsive pieces meant to add to the bleeps and bloops kids are already making while sending the builds flying around the room. While it’s an obvious payday for the Luke Skywalker actor, I get the impression that Lucas found the perfect lead way back in 1977. Hamill isn’t just an actor who loves the fantasy and the fans, he also deeply appreciates the franchise as a space for play.
“I’ve never outgrown my love of toys,” Hamill says with the biggest grin.
Hamill looks back fondly at that gap between Star Wars’ release and the moment actual licensed toys hit shelves. For a hot second, he would only encounter kids “making their own lightsabers out of the paper towel rolls,” he says. Slowly, the corporate world caught up — and Hamill felt like a superstar. “I remember coming to work and going up to Carrie and Harrison, and I said, ‘You guys, look, we’re masks on the back of Kellogg cereal boxes!’ And of course, Harrison was like, ‘Hey, whatever.’”
The hustle to commission Star Wars toys is history worth repeating. Kenner, the small company that took a chance on Star Wars after larger toymakers passed, couldn’t manufacture figures in time for the first Christmas. Instead, kids unwrapped an “Early Bird Certificate,” a promise that action figures would arrive later. It worked. And they did, at a then-unusual 3.75-inch scale.
Those early toys were imperfect translations. “It had bright yellow hair,” Hamill says of the original Luke Skywalker figure. “And I didn’t mind, but I said, ‘Why is my hair so yellow?”
Limitations didn’t matter. Star Wars escaped the screen and forever changed how people, kids especially, spoke to Hamill. Or rather, they’re surprised to learn he isn’t actually Luke Skywalker.
“The thing that surprises me is that the ultra-passionate fans, they don’t just see the movies 10, 15, 20 times,” Hamill says. “They read the novels, they play the games, they do it all.”
So if you ask Mark Hamill about Kashyyyk, the Wookiee planet, don’t expect the pereft answer. He is not actually Luke Skywalker.
“They’ll ask, ‘Well, when you went to the planet of Kazizik…’ I go, ‘Kazizik? What is that’? I said, ‘Did we go to the Wookiee’s home planet in the movies? ‘No, no, no. It was in the novel, Splinter of the Mind’s Eye by Alan Dean Foster. […] I think in a way they’re disappointed because I’m not as informed as they are. They know more!”
Hamill doesn’t pretend like he knows what fans are talking about. He doesn’t need to. His connection to Star Wars isn’t about mastery of canon, but the fire that forged cardboard tubes into lightsabers and cereal boxes into costumes. He sees a connection to the Lego era of play.
“The only limitations are your imagination,” he says. “My sons are grown now, but when they were kids, they played with Legos. They had to make their own pew sounds. Now, the Legos make that sound for you.”
And if you’re a grown-ass adult wondering if there’s room for you to play with the newfangled Lego sets, good news: Mark Hamill sees you.
“[Toys] are therapeutic in a way. I think people need toys to just calm themselves and go to a happy place.”
But if your happy place also involves Luke Skywalker, good news: On April 8, from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. ET, U.S. fans can call 1-877-80-ASK-MARK to hear Hamill go deeper on LEGO Star Wars SMART Play sets. A limited number of callers will get pulled into a live video chat with Hamill himself, which I can now attest is a pleasure.
