Mel Brooks Explains Why You Can’t Buy ‘Spaceballs’ Action Figures
When the misfit heroes of Mel Brooks, they ask him just what he does in his hidden lair. “Merchandising!” he explains. “Merchandising, merchandising, where the real money from the movie is made. Spaceballs: The T-shirt! Spaceballs: The Coloring Book! Spaceballs; The Lunchbox! Spaceballs: The Breakfast Cereal! Spaceballs: The Flamethrower — the kids love this one.”
Last but not least, Yogurt introduces Spaceballs: The Doll, an image made in his own likeness. Pull the string and the toy kvetches, “May the Schwartz be with you.”
“Adorable,” coos Yogurt.
Don't Miss
The irony? In the real world, there was no Spaceballs: The Merchandise of any kind. Yogurt wasn’t wrong — Spaceballs (the Movie) could have made millions more if the studio produced and sold John Candy action figures. But unless you’re shopping the unauthorized action figure aisle on Etsy, no such toys exist.
That’s because Brooks decided to go to George Lucas for his blessing for a Star Wars parody, in the same way that he’d reached out to Alfred Hitchcock before making High Anxiety. He sent Lucas a script, who gave it a read.
The Star Wars creator responded, telling Brooks he was a massive fan of Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. The screenplay for Spaceballs was hilarious, Lucas said, giving his thumbs up on one condition: No action figures.
“He explained that if I made toys of my Spaceballs characters, they would look a lot like Star Wars action figures,” Brooks writes in his memoir, All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business. “And that would be a no-no for his lawyers and his studio’s business affairs department. So he gave his blessing to make my funny satiric takeoff of Star Wars as long as I promised that we would not sell any action figures.”
That seems like a big ask on Lucas’s part — did he really believe some kid was going to confuse C-3PO for Joan Rivers’ Dot Matrix?
But Brooks, afraid of the mighty Lucas intergalactic squadron of lawyers, agreed to the . “So even though in the movie itself we have Dark Helmet playing with action figures,” Brooks says, “we never sold any.” At least he stuck it to Lucas as Yogurt, making fun of the myriad ways Star Wars merchandising overwhelmed toy stores.
Don’t shed too many tears for Brooks’ wallet, though. There’s a whole line of Young Frankenstein action figures upon which you can spend your cold, hard cash.
What kid doesn’t want to spend their afternoons pretending to be Gene Wilder?
