'I created the Star Wars toys'
Witness History

'I created the Star Wars toys'

B1IntermediateAugust 31, 202610 min

In 1976, American toy designer Jim Swearingen was working at Kenner, a mid-sized company in the American Midwest. When a script for a new film called Star Wars landed on his desk, Jim was intrigued. Larger toy companies had already passed on the chance to make the figures. "It was difficult from the point of view that it was a movie, could be in and out of theater in weeks, maybe months," he said. "It was science fiction, and toy buyers at that time had been turned off to science fiction because they still...

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Sentence 6 of 12 · 1:42

Star Wars was about to change toy marketing forever.

the stuff even got on a peg.

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  • 31 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

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0:00

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. I'm a woman, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a man, I'm a I'm Stephanie, but I'm the Barker, baby. Let me take you back nearly 50 years to 1977, the era of disco and flares, when a film called

1:38

Star Wars was about to change toy marketing forever. Boxes would come down the aisle to a toy store and kids were ripping through the boxes before the stuff even got on a peg. We'll come back to that moment later.

1:51

That voice you heard though was Jim Swearingen. 50 years ago he was a toy designer at Kenna, a mid-sized toy company in America's Midwest. They were always looking for inspiration for toy ideas and one day a movie script came in that had already been turned down by the big beasts of the toy world.

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