Via Fun.com:

In 1978, a little-known director released a gamble of a movie called Star Wars upon an unsuspecting populace. Coming off of his first monster hit, American Graffiti, George Lucas was in a position to make himself a large payday on his next major motion picture. What he did instead would change the landscape of film for all of time. Lucas asked for a small sum of $150,000 and in exchange, he would retain the rights to any sequels and all merchandising. 20th Century Fox took the deal, which eventually made Lucas a billionaire, thanks to the ensuing mania over all collectable Star Wars items. Over the last 35 years, those merchandising rights became worth over $27 billion.

No Star Wars merchandise is as iconic as the countless number of action figures that have been released in conjunction with the films. Explore how these awesome toys have changed over the last 37 years as we concentrate on that farm boy turned Rebel hero, Luke Skywalker.

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