"These are not the droids you're looking for!"

Any Star Wars fan will remember the Jedi mind trick Obi-Wan Kenobi uses to evade Stormtrooper detection. With one simple sentence and a wave of his hand, Obi-Wan tricks the Empire's deadly ground force so that he and our hero, Luke Skywalker, can evade detection. They're able to slip right by with Obi-Wan's clever ruse.

Parents and collectors alike were also unable to find the droids they were looking for during the Christmas season in 1977. The first Star Wars movie, retroactively subtitled "A New Hope," opened in theaters earlier that year, with a record-breaking May debut. Six months later, with the holiday shopping season in full swing, kids nationwide were desperate for the chance to do plastic battle. Star Wars was poised to be the biggest property on shelves across the country, but there was one small problem. 

In 1976, The Mego Corporation was the first toy company to be shown concept art for the upcoming sci-fi release Star Wars. Ultimately, that company would fail to secure rights, with different accounts as to how and why they were unable to ensure exclusive rights to the soon-to-be-released movie. While some insist the company simply passed on the opportunity, internal sources claim that the company president, Martin Abrams, was in Japan negotiating a deal to bring stateside the popular Micronauts figure. With Abrams indisposed, nobody at Mego was able to sign the deal for Star Wars.

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So, Fox representatives moved on from Mego and approached a smaller company, Kenner Products. However, while Kenner held exclusive rights to make Star Wars toys, the corporation failed to anticipate just how big the mania surrounding the movie would grow. 

Public relations representative John Beck listed the available products, which paled in comparison to swelling demand for Star Wars toys and action figures. 

“We’ve got the Escape from Death Star board game,” Kenner’s John Beck told The Telegraph, “a Star Wars poster set, a Star Wars Dip-Dot Design Book, and four Star Wars jigsaw puzzles out.”

The issue facing the underwhelming line was the fact that action figures have longer production times, according to Beck. First, Kenner had to determine which characters resonated enough with audiences. Then, the figures had to be designed, sculpted, and produced. Even considerations like safety testing added to production times. 

“It usually takes a year of production time for toy figures like this,” said Beck. "And even though we hired extra people and cut the production time to seven months, we still couldn’t make it by Christmas."

Instead, empty boxes were shipped to toy stores to meet the holiday buying demand. Kenner was able to sell to kids the promise of Star Wars action figures, as each box contained a postcard to be filled out and mailed in. Each postcard was good for four Star Wars figures to be produced and mailed out in the following months.

Each box also contained a cardboard display stand and an official Star Wars Space Club membership card. While neither of these satisfied adventure lust quite the way an action figure would, the boxes would be the only other Star Wars toys available to customers for the time being.

“We did some market research to see if people would settle for certificates with the promise that the toys would be delivered by February 15th,” said Beck.

“The research told us it would work and so what we call our Star Wars Early Bird Certificate package is really selling.”