Mechanical bank:Star Wars: Darth Vader Electronic Talking Bank

Hardly any American child could avoid George Lucas's "Star Wars" series of movies. The success of the "Star Wars" franchise changed forever the way Hollywood promoted and marketed its movies, and it changed the way toy manufacturers acquired licensed properties and manufactured toys of the heroes and villains of movies, TV shows, comic books, and other mass media. As movies, Lukas's first two films were hugely successful. They had raked in $870 million by the time Lukas released "Return of the Jedi" in 1983. The licensed products--96 action figures and 60 different accessories produced exclusively by Kenner among them--however, brought in an additional $2 billion. Other toy manufacturers altered their toys to be more like Star Wars action figures. Hasbro, Inc., for example, shrunk its 11 퉌_-inch G.I. Joe to 3 퉌_ inches and added stock, heroic pals for Joe as well as stock villains from some manifest evil called COBRA. As Lucas offered three more movies in the late 1990s into the 2000s, related toys and consumer goods again clogged store shelves.