In the days before videos and DVDs, kids had lower tech options for viewing scenes from their favorite movies and television shows. Kenner had designed a popular movie viewer toy that was used for the Six Million Dollar Man, Bionic Woman, and Snoopy lines through the mid 1970s. The viewer was designed to take color film cartridges that are advanced by turning a manual crank, and the film reel repeats in a loop after a few times around.
This is one of several examples of toys that Kenner rebranded for the Star Wars line, enabling the company to bootstrap the surprise success of the Star Wars license in 1977. The movie viewer shown here is actually a Six Million Dollar Man viewer as visible on the top and side panels, with a single face of the box pasted up with Star Wars graphics and branding.
The choice of Star Wars logo on the box is the early design with a pointy "W" that was mostly phased out before release of the movie, while the loose viewer in the shot has a sticker with the updated logo. It's entirely possible that this toy, hastily constructed for catalog photography, doesn't even have an actual Star Wars film reel. But an early photo like this is all that is required to get the toy concept into Toy Fair and shown to retailers in printed catalogs.
Be sure to check out our previous feature on early Star Wars home movies and related toys discovered in the Lucasfilm Archives!
Make sure to check out Gus and Duncan's Comprehensive Guide to Star Wars Collectibles, available exclusively online.
