Word: actioner
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Houston was missing in action all afternoon. With just 10 points on 4-of-12 shooting to that point, he had done an admirable job of wiping away all positive memories of his 30-point effort in the Knicks' Game 5 clincher one year previous...
...While Star Wars characters and logos now adorn nearly every type of product imaginable, one of the first and foremost products created for the original film was a series of action figures by a relatively small toy company called Kenner. Many stories surround the inception of the figures, but what is known for certain is that their small size (less than four inches) was a radical departure from the larger superhero figures of the late '70s. The figures' small size allowed Kenner to make vehicles and playsets that the figures could interact with easily but wouldn't take up half...
...years, all the way through Return of the Jedi. Around the late '80s, the line began to die out, and Star Wars merchandise became fodder for liquidation stores and thrift shops--and wise collectors. The early '90s saw a wave of nostalgia for the Star Wars films, and the action figures, now no longer in general circulation, became a hot commodity. Dealers thrived until Kenner unveiled a second, brand-new Star Wars figure line in 1995. Cashing in on nostalgic fans and people excited by rumors of the new film in the works, this new line was strongly influenced...
...After the big rush, many Toys 'R Us stores, including the one in Alewife, pulled most of their regular Phantom Menace action figures off the shelves a few days after the release, to hold them until the film opens, when they will reportedly be released for a lower price. While this may ostensibly serve to combat the collectors who took half the merchandise in the first place, I can't help but remember what it was like for me as a kid, when I went to get that new figure I was excited about and had to settle for some...
Last fall, thousands paid the requisite $8 to see "Meet Joe Black" just to catch a glimpse of the Star Wars trailer--those hard-core fans who stomached the movie itself were rewarded with an encore performance of the trailer at the end. And when "Phantom Menace" action figures went on sale three weeks ago at FAO Schwartz, there were stampedes of Cabbage Patch Kid proportions reported from Boston to San Francisco...