r/ObscureMedia is one of my very favorite subreddits, and while I was looking at it today (as a tiny puppy we’re fostering slept on my lap), I saw this Star Wars figure commercial that Redditor RidleyScottTowels posted. I commented that I’d done a Star Wars figure commercial when I was a kid, and holy shit Redditor VonAether found it (I’m at 6:10 of this video):
But wait, there’s more! I thought I’d done a single commercial with different toys in it, but it turns out that I’d done two different commercials; the one VonAether found, and this other one that TheBoredGuy found:
If you couldn’t tell who I was, I was Boushh in the first one, and C3P0 in the second one.
I don’t have a lot of clear memories of the commercials I did when I was a kid, and I’d forgotten that I’d done two Star Wars figure commercials (something that was incredibly cool for a kid like me who lived and breathed Star Wars figures, even though we were forbidden from playing with them on the set), but I clearly recall that, on one of these two shoots, one of the ad agency people was a woman from New York, who wanted me to read one of my lines in a very specific way. She wasn’t a director, and wasn’t very good at communicating to 9 or 10 year-old me what she wanted, so she just started giving me line readings, and telling me to mimic her. I was very good at following directions, so I did as she asked … perfectly recreating her very thick, very nasal, very New York accent. I remember feeling nervous, and thinking she thought I was making fun of her, but wasn’t, I was genuinely confused about whether I should do her voice exactly the way she sounded, or if I was supposed to do my voice with the inflections she was using.
It’s amazing to me that I can clearly remember sitting in the backyard of this house in the valley where we were filming, this woman standing above me, holding the script, reading these lines for me. I can hear her telling me, “That’s better, but don’t sound so nasal,” and realizing that not only did I know what nasal meant, but that she meant I was not supposed to mimic her voice, but just the line reading she gave me.
That was a lot of stuff for little kid me to process, but somehow I got the job done, and thanks to the weirdness of this world we’ve made for ourselves, I can see the resulting commercial over 30 years later.
It’s funny how adults (wait, that’s us!) seem to forget that kids don’t have reference points for some of the things we say. I remember my first day at a judo class when I was 8 or something. The instructor was having us stretch. I had no clue what I was supposed to do…so I mimicked the way the instructor was doing it. He laughed and pointed at me and told the entire group made up of adults and teenagers in broken English how it was funny that I did what he was doing. At the time, I didn’t understand (this is also around the time after one move already, I was starting to shrink into myself and become more introverted) and was so embarrassed. I thought I’d done something stupid or wrong. All I did was what the person who was supposed to be telling us what to do had actually done. That experience turned me off martial arts and I never went back to that class after that day.
I think it’s part of the reason I’ve grown to be really good at coming up with analogies and thinking from other people’s perspectives more. Sort of taking the saying “walk in someone else’s shoes” to the extreme–without actually stealing someone’s shoes and walking in them…that’s not nice!
By the way, I remember most of these commercials. And zOMG that C-3PO backpack sucked! 🙂
I vividly remember “Surprise, surprise, it’s Lando in disguise!”
In fact, he was on my Christmas list that year as literally:
“Lando in Disguise.” 🙂
I like you. I wonder how your brain works? lol Happy day to u Mr. Wheaton .. oh i dig ur beard .. so smexy .. 🙂 lol lol
Now every time I see a bunch of happy kids enjoying fun toys and games on TV, I’m going to think about how they’re not really allowed to play with them : (
memories are interesting, hopefully she realized you were being earnest in your efforts 🙂 makes you wonder if you ever would have had those particular recollections if it weren’t for this random post and a couple of reddit sleuths (that guy really knows his vintage Star Wars figurine commercials, btw 😉 reddit is full of random surprises sometimes, isn’t it? it is terrible they wouldn’t let you play with the figures though; kind of weird actually…
Please tell me that Young America, Minnesota, is still called Young America, Minnesota. It would help me not feel so old watching these commercials again.
Also, I wonder if kids who bought action figures from the prequels actually re-created the plots from the movies or they made up better stories. I really really hope they made better stories. It couldn’t have been too difficult.
You know, it never even occurred to me to recreate the plots from the movies with my action figures when I was a kid…
I think it never occurred to most kids…or at least not after the first five seconds after ripping off those plastic covers and getting our hands on those suckers. 🙂
Fear not, it’s still called Young America 🙂
Now all I can hear (besides Yoda’s voice in my head) is David Bowie singing about “Young Americans.” sigh
We were supposed to have plots when we played with our Star Wars action figures?
“But wait there’s more!” I see what you did there.
I can vaguely remember watching these commercials… weird. I think my brother still has most of the original Star Wars toys in the basement LoL 🙂
I remembered most of the ads in that collection! That was a walk through childhood memories, wow.
No one I knew ever had all of the figures, so recreating the plots was pointless. The fun is in making your own story. I have long since forgotten how but my kids create fantastic stories with the Fisher Price Jedi toys.
You were a smart kid. That’s not easy to imitate an accent right away. If I were directing you and heard you mimic my accent, I’d say “Eycellent following of direction. Really good take on the accent.(mental note to self. I have to not be nasally. This kid has me pegged. ).. Now let’s try how I said it but in your voice. “. If there are kids in scenes, they need to have people working with them that actually know how to talk to kids and be patient. They aren’t miniature adults.
Can you still nail accents like that? IF so, what’s the weirdest one?
Hey! I remember those! My brother and I “learned” how to play with our Star Wars figures from those commercials… thank you sir for the stroll down memory lane
You need to start billing yourself as “Wil Wheaton, star Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Wars [smallfont]action figure commercials [/smallfont].
Not many folks (at least in front of the camera) can say they were involved in both, right?
Oh, these commercials – I can’t hardly watch them without feeling like a youngling (cough cough) again. The deep desire for the toys… it overwhelms… [Hear Yoda’s cranky voice, I can: “Focus. Focus! You must learn CONTROL! (Even to this very day, speaks in my head he does. For this, require a psychiatrist I do not. A geek gathering or convention, sate the voice, it might. sigh)]
The marketing force is strong with this one.
I remember those commercials and the ones for Empire. I desperately wanted a Yoda action figure after I saw Empire and conned a friend of my mom’s into buying it for me. Good times!
How well I remember the image that the photo above evokes, as well
as the commercials in the video. thanks for the memories
It would have been nice to see an impression of a Tusken Raider by young Wil Wheaton.
The Internet faces its greatest challenge ever…
Find all of the grown-up children in the Star Wars action figures commercials and reunite them for shot-for-shot recreations.
One of you charismatic and connected social media bastages get right on a Kickstarter campaign.
Also…
“If it’s frozen.”
This means that before you ever put on a Wesley Space Sweater, you once played C-3P0!
I love that with all the commercials the “playsets” appear to have been built by the kids. “Welcome to Cloud City”…and it’s just a mound of dirt…no overly expensive playsets just the kids imagination. That’s pretty cool.
OMG!
Disassembled C-3PO was my favorite Star Wars figure – I never knew you were part of the reason why I ended up getting one when I was a kid.
The universe works in strange ways. 🙂
What memories. I don’t recognize you at all. I guess that means you really nailed the role.
I remember wanting the big marble thermal detonator and being disappointed it didn’t come with any of the figures.
Also, aren’t you glad you didn’t have any dumb lines like “deccelerate to light speed.”
I was coming home over Easter Break from my Aunts in the desert outside LA. When the I got in the car my mom had some new Star Wars Figures for me. C3P0, R2D2, Jedi Luke Skywalker and Darth Vadar. I thought it was weird to get presents for Easter with out a hunt.
I found out the my dad was in the Hospital and told my mom to ease the news with the Figures. Sorry to say I did not play much with them until my dad was alright again. He was proud that I was strong enough to wait to open them until he was home again.
We had the best time playing together. Star War “A New Hope” Was the first movie I remember walking in the theater with my dad. We waited in line for 2 hours. My dad took me to a lot of movies over the years but Star Wars was always the best.
Thanks for being there Wil
I tried to recreate a new hope with my figures when I was 7 but Leia and Snaggletooth just didn’t cut it as Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru so I gave up…
There were a group of us in the neighborhood that used to play with figures together. One of them claimed that the kids doing the commercials got to keep the figures at the end of the shoot. Is this true?
Wow these adverts bring back some memories. I remember that I used to have a lot of Kenner Star Wars figures. I also remember all the kids at school getting really excited at the news that Darth Vader was Luke’s father.acted like children and thought they were on your wavelength
Ahem.. Ignore everything after “Luke’s father”. I was writing a story about some acting I did as a child, but in the end decided that it wasn’t worth telling. I thought I’d deleted it all before pressing submit.
Wow. I actually remember those commercials (well, most of them). I remember my best friend in first grade got his hands on the first R2D2 and C3PO action figures and brought them to school. He was the BMOC for DAYS after that.
Still have a few of the originals lying around in a box somewhere.
Man, Wheaton … that takes me back. Now that I’m older and wiser, I see you there, not just some random kid. Pretty cool and nifty.
The music in the second one is hilarious. It’s like they composed something that sorta kinda sounds like Star Wars but isn’t. I wonder why it took them until RotJ to use the actual soundtrack? At any rate, try watching a YouTube video with a bunch of the older ones stitched together and then try to get it out the music out of your head… 😉 Good times, though, good memories… 🙂 Oh, to still have the ability to carry around that level of sheer THRILL with you. Every forest was Endor, every winter Hoth, and every playground jungle gym was the bowels of the Death Star. I used to make the jump to hyperspace by sliding down the slide or jumping out of a swing at its zenith.
What was this post about? Got distracted. Puppy?! PUPPY!
Hey Wil!
I know this is a shot in the dark, but do you have ANY idea what house(s) in the valley you shot these commercials?
I’m working on an article and am trying to track down where some of the vintage Kenner commercials were shot.
Let me know and thanks!
Steve