The beggining of Lego Star Wars

[Captain Roger]

When did Lego decide to get the Star Wars license and release toys from such movies? Knowing that the Phantom Menace is from 1999 and that the first Lego Star Wars sets are from that same year, it is clear that it was in the wake of that movie.

However, knowing that the script for the Phantom Menace began to be written on November 1, 1994 and the film began shooting on June 26, 1997, it is possible that The Lego Company had negotiated with Lucasfilm long before 1999. In that case there are several possibilities:

A) Lego got the license but was unable to create Phantom Menace toys until the film was complete, since that's when it could see the new characters, vehicles, etc. However, it was able to take advantage of this to create toys for episodes IV, V and VI.

B) Lego had access to some Phantom Menace data before the movie was completed, which allowed them to focus on coming up with new sets, parts and minifigs before the general public was aware of the movie.

 

So what happened, when did Lego get the license, when did they get to work on the first sets in their SW line?

I find it very interesting how AFOL that topic, as I think that first license obtained changed LEGO forever, affecting also lines outside Star Wars.

I look forward to your help. Best regards and thanks in advance

[ARC2149Nova]

I recently learned that most toys take around 18 months from development to market, though that's usually action figures, I believe. Three years is also a common development time. While there are often exceptions to the rule, if I recall correctly, Lego general has a design & development period of about 2 years, so that would track. Of course, I don't know if there are any public documents that would outright specify when the license deal was signed, 1997 doesn't seem too much of a stretch, especially considering most merchandise would've started development at that time.

There's also the fact that unlike today, where new movies often work heavily off of concept art, the sets & figures from the Phantom Menace (and subsequent episodic films) are very accurate to what we have on-screen (well, accurate by 1999 standards at least), so it's likely Lego had a ton of finalized production to work with.

 

EDIT: Correction, I believe it's three years total development, 18 months from production to market.

Edited July 28, 2021 by ARC2149Nova

[TeddytheSpoon]

One or two years for the whole development cycle is a figure I've heard thrown around a lot (although don't take it as gospel from me), and for a company like LEGO that seems like a sensible time frame... At least these days.

It's fairly well-documented that LEGO in the late 90s to early 00s was a very different business to what it is today, and not in the best way. The number of new molds (battle droids, lightsabres, Jar-Jar, Qui-Gon, R2-D2, etc) would suggest they'd had at least a year of planning if not two, but back then TLG might not have been afraid to throw money at the problem to make things go quicker.

Its certainly an interesting question - would love to hear if anyone knows any more on it, or has more knowledge of LEGO's business processes from 20 odd years ago.

[1974]

TLG actually made rather few new moulds for the first wave of SW, about 20 I think?

Edit :

http://faberfiles.blogspot.com/2015/07/flashback-lego-and-star-wars.html

And :

 

So, with Advance (the marketing company working for TLG back then), getting involved in 1997, TLG surely was allready gearing up to SW before that

Cheers,

Ole

Edited July 30, 2021 by 1974