Quoted from Haymaker:Yes, I was there too, the perfect age to be sold on Star Wars merch and entertainment items and there just wasn't much. My much older brother who grew up with the movies when they originally dropped in the 70s was always a huge star wars fan and because of that, so was I. You're simply just wrong that Star Wars was the utterly massive property it is today or was in the late 70's to mid 80's in 1991-1993. Not saying it was small, but it was not the same as landing an Arnold movie at the time. Everyone knew what Star Wars was, but being a "star wars fan" was not the absolute commonplace thing like today or when the movies were more fresh. By the time hype about the new special effects in the special editions was going on and especially by the release of episode 1 things had greatly ramped back up again, but in the early-mid 90s Star Wars was simply not that hip in the general publics eye. "HAHA YOU LIKE STAR WARS? NERRRD!"
FWIW that was my experience as well, as a young teen in Chicago at the time. The feeling around Star Wars then - at least among people my age - was "oh yeah, a one-and-done trilogy killed off by cutesy Muppets and Ewoks 10 years ago... what are you like 9? Why do you like that crap? Terminator and DieHard and DemoMan and (***insert early-90's gun-hero action trope here***) are where it's at". Hell, even the Indiana Jones trilogy was more recent and relevant and to recall lingo of the time, "hip". And the Star Wars prequels weren't even a whispered rumor yet so... yeah. They were those movies that UHF stations sometimes ran after Wizard of Oz.
The kids who grew up with Star Wars in 77-83 were too busy desperately trying to NOT be kids in 92-93. And the adults of that time generally (excepting such lovable nerds like my own dad) were a less frivolous sort who let the past stay there and, also, didn't have anything marketed toward them to buy anyway. Except via Franklin Mint in the TV Guide.
Hell, in 92/93 even STTNG (at its arguable peak then) had more merchandising across all realms than Star Wars. Which I specifically recall due to my dad being a huge ST nerd, I'd often look for stuff for him as gifts. And I worked at KMart at the time (*shudder*). Star Wars stuff was still being made, but barely existed and was little stocked in comparison. Freaking "Starting Lineup" figures and NASCAR diecasts (even in Chicago!) were way more popular. And wow but you had to look for TOYS then because the "adult / pop-culture / fandom collectibles" market as we know it today simply did not exist back then. It was sorta in its infancy, as a lot of those action-figure "toys" were silently if not-so-secretly appealing to older wallets - but you certainly didn't have the cross-marketing orgy in every venue and market you see today. Comic shops sold... comics, as in paper, only. Media stores sold... tapes and discs. Sure, for the last 15-20 years, you can't go to any comic or media store, or bigbox electronics department, without being awash in licensed toys and nostalgia trinkets and related crap and yes Star Wars is the big dog now. But none of that was a thing in 92/93. You wanted Star Wars stuff you were stalking yard sales because no internet!
That all changed by the late 90's of course, when things like Comic-Cons and nascent internet culture began to prove that Nerds had lots of buying power and influence. (Remember those first cons? "Who the hell goes to those? NERRRRD!" Now they're an industry to itself).
Oh and somewhere in all of that cultural shift, the OG Star Wars re-releases - themselves only made to reboot nostalgic interest and hype the forthcoming prequels (which were still NEW and thus not the controversy they are today), happened. So if anything Star Wars is a masterclass in how to take a moribund but fondly remembered franchise and kick its money printer into high gear on the backs of nerds. See every IP "reboot" which has followed.
BUT TDLR All of that is to say: if I had seen the Star Wars machine in 1992/93, I probably would have skipped it myself if there was a Terminator or STTNG or hell even LAH anywhere near it. At its evident nadir, the Star Wars license should not have been anywhere near as valuable as it would become even just a few years later.
