Nostalgia Awakens: Watch 14 Minutes Of Vintage 'Star Wars' Toys Commercials

The onslaught of Star Wars: The Force Awakens merchandise kicked off back in September with a little event called Force Friday, and every week there's always something new promoting next month's release of the first chapter in the new trilogy. If that's just too much, maybe you'd rather go back to a time when there was a little less merchandise on the shelf.

While we're used to movies getting action figures, lunchboxes and more, back in 1977 it was a rarity. George Lucas was a pioneer in movie merchandising, and now we can take a look back at the beginnings of what would eventually turn into the branding of everything under the sun with 14 minutes of vintage Star Wars toy commercials.

Here's the supercut of Star Wars toy commercials from 1977 from Burger Fiction (via The Playlist):

Everything from action figures to playsets to electronic games is featured in these retro commercials that really new how to make a kid feel like garbage for not having these cool toys. Kenner was with Star Wars from the beginning, and they stuck round through the Special Edition re-release, which inspired a whole new generation of fans to start buying Star Wars toys, helping to make George Lucas a billionaire.

Nowadays it's Hasbro that handles the majority of Star Wars toys, but there are so many different companies who make a wide variety of products like water bottles, blankets, band-aids and pretty much anything you can slap a logo on. You could say that the merchandising of movie is getting out of hand, but as long as it makes children and adults temporarily happy to escape the horrors of adult life, then we really shouldn't complain.

What's your favorite Star Wars toy?