Let's face it -- when Star Wars was released over 30 years ago, it was pretty much a boy's world, at least merchandise-wise. Frilly things just weren't in the cards for fangirls of the '70s and '80s, even though one of the central characters in the original trilogy was a two-fisted-take-charge kind of heroine with the reddest smear-proof lipstick in the galaxy. No, fans hoping for girl-specific merchandise would have to wait for the prequel trilogy's Amidala and The Clone Wars Ahsoka to bring on the handbags, pink peejays, jewelry, dolls, fuzzy plushes, and other female-specific merchandise.
Or would they?
Actually, three decades have faded the memories of some who may have forgotten about the Princess Leia dolls with "Star Puffs" hair, the scores of girl's shoes and sandals, the pink pajamas, barrettes, beauty bags, skirts, costumes, posters and yes, even toy guns and sporting goods aimed at young female fans.
We've compiled a list of some of these items in the following pages, and frankly were surprised at the amount of girl-specific items we uncovered from Lucasfilm's Licensing files and a few equal-opportunity collections.
The Girl with the Trademarked Hair
Most fans would confess the most memorable girl collectible from the early years was Kenner's Princess Leia doll with comb -- what they may not remember, however, is that Leia came packaged with her own trademarked -- that's right -- trademarked hairdos: Star Puffs™, Star Burst™, Star Swirl™, Sun Sweep™, and Lunar Loops™ were five dos (don'ts?) depicted on the back of the doll's box. We're pretty sure mint-in-box examples of this figure just registered a spike on many-a-collector's radar.
Oh, and we think that if Leia had sported Star Burst™ for The Empire Strikes Back, it would have been hard to wedge in that "beauty among the clouds" line with a straight face.
