![]() ![]() ![]() Instead she returns to Naboo, where she encourages Jar Jar Binks’ aquatic race, the Gungans, to join the fight against the Trade Federation’s robotic army. Queen Amidala fails in her mission for help, as the Senator for Naboo is actually an undercover Sith Lord. Anakin wins the race, is freed, and the group head to the planet Coruscant, the home of the Galactic Senate, to plead for intervention against the Trade Federation. He enters his vehicle in a dangerous podrace, and Qui-Gonn wagers the outcome with Anakin’s owner, in order to buy the boy’s freedom. Anakin is a boy genius, and has developed his own Podracer, a kind of jet-powered chariot. They meet a young slave boy, Anakin Skywalker, whom Qui-Gonn recognises as possessing ‘the Force’, making him a potential Jedi. When the ship is damaged on route, the group stop for repairs on the desert world Tattooine. Joined by a dopey, long-eared amphibian creature called Jar Jar Binks, the knights rescue the teenage Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman) and her entourage – which includes the droid R2-D2 – fleeing Naboo on the Royal Starship. However, the Jedi knights are betrayed by the Federation, who attack the planet and attempt to kill the knights. A pair of Jedi knights – an order of semi-religious warrior priests – Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) is sent to mediate between the Federation and the leaders of Naboo. The film opens with the Trade Federation – a ruthless interplanetary trading monopoly controlled by the evil Sith Lords – blockading the peaceful, isolationist planet of Naboo. The first of the new trilogy was Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, released in 1999. Advances in CGI technology made it possible to create incredible special effects, which would allow Lucas to bring his story concepts to life more realistically than before. ![]() New, enhanced prints of the original film trilogy were re-released to cinemas in the 1990s, and the success of these inspired Lucas to revive the film series. While there were no more films, the franchise was kept alive through cartoons, video games, novels and comic books. The Star Wars franchise remained extremely popular over the next few years, and attracted a huge legion of fans. So his proposed multi-sequel saga was shelved. The stress of producing three complex, big-budget blockbusters had taken its toll on him, and he no longer wanted to do any further Star Wars films. However, after the second sequel Return of the Jedi was released in 1983, Lucas was burnt out. Creator George Lucas envisioned the Star Wars saga as a series of 12 films, including three prequels telling the origins of all the characters introduced in the series. When the first Star Wars sequel The Empire Strikes Back was released in 1980, the opening credits revealed that is was not part two of the series, but actually part five of a much longer saga. When the new chapter in the saga was released in 1999, Galoob again got the franchise and produced a range of eight diecast vehicles that had featured in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. A huge range of merchandise was produced around this time, including a line of diecast vehicles produced by American toy company Galoob in its Star Wars Micro Machines range. During the 1990s, the original Star Wars trilogy was re-released in cinemas to a new generation of fans, and the films proved just as popular as they had the first time around. Mike Pigott looks at the diecast range of space vehicles by Galoob based on the first chapter of the Star Wars saga. ![]()
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