A long time ago, in a field nearby…
One of the most enduring Star Wars stories—a tale of Jedi Knights and the dark forces of the Empire that has been passed down by word of mouth for decades—is brought to life in a documentary about an abandoned Palitoy action figure dump.
Legend has it that when the Coalville factory that produced the highly popular collectible toys based on the franchise closed in the 1980s, the remaining stock was taken to a field in Leicestershire and buried.
Director Matt Holt made a documentary about the alleged treasure and said: "Next year marks 50 years of Star Wars - let's celebrate the fact that we're part of pop culture history.".
In the 1970s and early 1980s, Palitoy produced millions of figures, vehicles, and playsets using molds shipped from the United States.
Along with characters like Action Man, Pippa, and the Care Bears, the Jackson Street factory was the birthplace of the plastic figurines that became a staple of children's toy boxes for a generation.
Some vintage Star Wars figurines are now worth millions of pounds [BBC]
Palitoy closed most of its factories in 1985, laid off some workers, and stopped producing Star Wars toys.
While the factory left its mark on the city's history—including Action Man Road and a Death Star-like roundabout—the only place left unmarked is the infamous dump.
Now Leicester filmmaker Matt Holt, whose mother and grandmother worked at the Palitoy factory, is searching for buried treasure across the city for his new documentary, 'On a Dump in a Place Far, Far Away'.
In an interview with BBC Radio Leicester, he said: "Richard III, everyone said, 'No, he's not here.'".
«"I heard it from a guy in a pub who said, 'You should do a story about buried Star Wars figures.'".
«"I've never heard of this.".
«"We were a big part of popular culture. In Coalville, we were used to digging things up; it's a mining town.".
«"They would say they don't know where it is because they don't want people going around with shovels, right?"»
«"When a factory goes bankrupt, inventory is written off so the IRS knows where it is because it has to prove it won't be sold again.".
«"Everything was buried and thrown away throughout the entire period that Palitoy was active, especially during the Star Wars era.".
«"This was a time before recycling. Things were simply dumped in a landfill; it wasn't just one pit, and not all waste ended up in a landfill.".
In addition to featuring local Coalville residents, the new film also stars Shaun Williamson, who played Barry Evans on EastEnders. He appears in the film, claiming that his father was driving a truck full of toys headed to the dump.
Rumours persist of a pile of buried toys in Coalville [BBC]
However, Stuart Warburton of the Coalville Historic Preservation Society said Coalville is not the place to find droids.
He said: "We all love myths, but unfortunately there is not a grain of truth in the legends.".
«"There was a dump on the outskirts of Coalville, which is now on someone's private field, that was used in the 1960s to collect old parcels of Action Men and Tiny Tears figures.".
«"Kids used to go to this field to find old boxes, cut them into stars, and order a free Action Man toy.".
«"All the kids in Coalville who are my age now know exactly where this field is, but this was long before there were Star Wars toys.".
«"When the Star Wars toys were disposed of, they were taken to a landfill, dumped here and there, driven over by trucks, excavators, and crushers, and then buried until the next shipment arrived.".
«"So, outside of Coalville, there's a dump full of broken Star Wars toys. There's absolutely no chance of grabbing a shovel, digging around, and finding a rare Obi-Wan Kenobi action figure.".
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Read more about this story
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Star Wars: The Workforce Behind the Toy Empire
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The Rise and Fall of Action Man
Related links
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In a landfill somewhere very, very far away