The Star Wars Trilogy 1995 VHS Box Set Discussion

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well. So I had originally planned on doing my discussion of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story today, but, I ended up starting to watch The Expanse on Blu-ray last night instead of watching the movie. Instead, I'm gonna be talking about the 1995 VHS box set of the Original Trilogy, which had its 30th anniversary almost two weeks ago. And while I didn't see the movies until six months later, I decided today would still be the perfect day to talk about this box set. So, let's get into it.

"For those who remember. For those who will never forget. And for a whole new generation who will experience it for the very first time. The Star Wars Trilogy!". That quote appeared at the beginning of the trailer for this box set that appeared on all three tapes included in this box set. The three movies could also be bought individually, but, let's face it, I don't think there were very many Star Wars fans who bought the movies individually when they could have all three in one set like this, unless they could afford the box set. This box set was probably under a lot of Christmas trees that Christmas. I know it was under ours as someone bought it for my dad for Christmas that year, which is how I saw Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi, as they were referred to as on the front covers of each tape, as well as on the outer box itself, for the first time when I was 9 years old.

Aside from the movies themselves, what I love most about this box set is the interview with George Lucas that was conducted by film historian, Leonard Maltin, and then split into three parts, one part for each tape. It's fascinating to see George talk about Star Wars as it was back in 1995. I don't think the interview was done earlier than sometime in late 1994, because George talks about the Special Editions, and writing the Prequel Trilogy, which he'd just started to write in November, 1994. There was no Disney+, no Andor, no Ahsoka, not even the Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition. Just a handful of novels, comics and the three original movies. It's fascinating because George talked about writing all three prequel movies at once, and then filming each back to back, similar to how Peter Jackson would make the Lord of the Rings movies in the early 2000s. This was before he realized just how much ILM had to develop the technology that would allow characters like Jar Jar Binks to believably exist in Episode I.

1995 was also the year that Hasbro began producing the Star Wars: The Power of the Force toyline under the Kenner name. The novels, Children of the Jedi and Darksaber, were published in hardcover by Bantam Spectra, and we were introduced to Lowbacca, Tenel Ka, and Em-Teedee in the first book of the Young Jedi Knights series of paperbacks, Heirs of the Force, which was published by Boulevard Books and Berkley Jam Books. We also had comics like Tales of the Jedi being published by Dark Horse. So this was an awesome time to be a Star Wars fan, no matter how old you were in 1995. 

They were also introducing THX sound to movies. Of course, THX was way more impressive in 1995 than it is today, but still, seeing that original logo before the movie, as well as the original green Lucasfilm logo still excites me to this day. 

You also can't forget about the box art. Star Wars had Darth Vader's face (half of it) with an X-Wing shooting a TIE Fighter near the Death Star, The Empire Strikes Back has a Stormtrooper with the Imperial attack on Hoth underneath, and Return of the Jedi has Yoda with Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker locked in a lightsaber duel with the Emperor watching. 

I managed to find an intact copy of this VHS box set in 2020, just before the pandemic hit. This was back when I was just starting to collect VHS again, and because this is the set that introduced me to the Star Wars franchise all those years ago, I grabbed it because it was one of the main VHS sets that I watched a lot when I was a kid, even after I got the 2000 VHS box set of the Special Editions, I still borrowed this set from my dad.

I still can't believe it's been thirty years since this box set was released. The world is different now, and indeed, Star Wars is very different today than it was 30 years ago. We've had so many more movies and TV shows given to us by the good people at Lucasfilm. Not to mention all of the books, comics, video games, and toys we've gotten since then too. And yet, as Andor showed us, the essence of Star Wars has stayed the same even though the people making the shows and movies are different than they were 30 years ago. To me Star Wars is about people. Not just the characters that we see on our screens, but the people behind the cameras, who worked extremely hard to bring those characters to life. From George Lucas to Dave Filoni and Carrie Beck to Tony Gilroy. 

That's it for me for this week my friends. I've got a few fun blog posts for you next week both here at The Star Wars Journal and at Josh's Geek Cave. So until then have a wonderful weekend and May the Force be with you.