A Nerd Is Born: Star Wars In-Person At Toys ‘R Us September 1977 (updated)

By Steve Fulton

May 4th, 2012:  For Star Wars Day, May 4th, we are re-running our story about Star Wars in-person, 1977.

(update: since I originally wrote this story, a fine denizen of the interbaun provided the proof to the right in the form of an advertisement about the event.  It occurred on September 25th, 1977.  I reposted the story because the ad to the right is amazing it it's own right!)

I've been a consumer of nerd-laden toys and video games for most of my life.  There is not a January that goes by that does not see me searching through the After-Christmas red-tag bins at Target, looking for mark-downs on video games and toys that  others would shudder at purchasing.  Just yesterday, for example, I found three new Leapster games for my 4-year old for $6.44 each, Sid Meier's Pirates for The Wii for $13.78, but I passed-up the Spider Man pinball machine for $13.78 because it was the exact same table configuration as the Dora pinball game my 8-year old still plays, plus my girls are still not enthralled by super heroes. Even so, it almost made the cart too.

At Target this week, I noticed a few new Star Wars action figures with the classic packaging: something Hasbro decided to do last year to get old guys like me to buy the same stuff they have bought dozens of times already.

While I was holding a Storm Trooper action figure, I had a sudden flashback.  It was to a time before there were any Star Wars toys for sale at all.   It was the day I became a nerd consumer.