Action figure:Star Wars Episode I: R2-B1 Astromech Droid

After 16 years without a Star Wars film, fans swarmed to the movie theaters in May 1999 to "Episode I: The Phantom Menace," (TPM) the first of three planned prequels to the movies of the 1980s. The film inspired extensive media coverage and hype, and devotees of the epic space opera eagerly sought out the first of the new waves of film-related toys made available to the buying public precisely at midnight on May 3, 1999. Hasbro issued action figures of entirely new characters of the Episode 1 narrative as well as prequel versions of familiar characters like Obi-Wan and Darth Vader's Anakin Skywalker. The line of action figures for "The Phantom Menace" continued to sell until 2000.