Star Wars and merchandise have been hand in hand since the very beginning. But there was still something unlike anything the galaxy had ever seen when, 25 years ago this coming weekend, The Phantom Menace launched: a brand new Star Wars saga, completely backed by an overwhelming, frequently insane merchandising push that made the original trilogy’s mania look quaint. But above the sea of lightsabers, pod racers, and droids, one icon stood above them all: Jar Jar Binks.
The Phantom Menace’s Gungan hero has developed a complicated legacy in the two and a half decades since the movie’s release, but there was no doubt at the time or on the toy shelves and beyond that Jar Jar was a star. The Chewbacca of the new film, he was the iconic alien design, an evolution of George Lucas’ technical ambitions made digital flesh—and, of course, highly marketable to kids in the process. You name it, they put Jar Jar on it, in it, or made out of it—as you’ll see in our nostalgic look back at the wonderfully weird array of merch that Jar Jar mania swept the galaxy with 25 years ago.
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