Yeah, That Figures.

        As a kid, I was absolutely obsessed with Star Wars. And I really want to stress the word "obsessed" here, not some glancing interest, not some mild amusement, not even genuine enjoyment or deep love, I was actually a Star Wars aficionado. I actually memorized the name of every background character and object because I was that obsessed. Give me a break, I was like 6. 

        Nowadays, I'm not really a Star Wars fan like I used to be because I am now a "professional sophisticated adult" and also, I would rather be caught dead than be caught a Star Wars fan. However, while going through my Star Wars obsession phase, I obviously got a lot of merchandise of it. I got books, toy lightsabers, a fake Darth Vader mask, Pez dispensers that I never used because Pez genuinely tastes like chalk, and I even went as Darth Maul for Halloween one year. 

        However, the biggest collection of Star Wars merchandise I had was of course, action figures. Well, maybe not action figures, "plushies" would probably be more accurate. Still, out of all the toys, the action figures were the ones I used the most because they had the most versatility and could be used as long as I had an imagination, whereas the other ones I needed to physically use. Looking back though, I notice a trend across all my plushies. They're all aliens. 

        There's no human plushies here, despite humans being the main characters of the entire series. In fact, the alien characters would probably be the ones I liked the least because they would be strange and unusual compared to the rest of the human characters who I would identify with more because I looked like them. Despite that, even with my massive plethora of merchandise, there was never a Luke Skywalker costume or a Han Solo action figure. And that got me thinking about why I only had alien plushies even though it would make more sense if I had human plushies instead. 

        From a business perspective, it would probably have something to do with non-human characters being easier to sell and produce. Unlike a human actor who will eventually get older and die, an alien design or costume can last forever, meaning it could be sold easier. Along with that, toys of a human would be harder to produce due to how complex and detailed the human face is, whereas alien toys would be easier to produce because they have more unique and recognizable designs. This means there doesn't need to be as much effort to make it look like the one from the movie because just the general look is close enough. However, just chalking it up to economics doesn't really seem like a serviceable explanation because it doesn't explain why a kid like me would want the alien toys more than the human toys. 

        This leads me to my 2nd explanation and the more personally reflective one, that Ryan Jr. liked the alien toys more than the human ones. In every test scientists run between adolescent and adult brains, the adults come out on top in every single category, except one; creativity. Now how one measures creativity is beyond me, but still. And I think it's this increased imagination in children that explains why I liked non-human toys more. If I wanted to play with humans, I could just bother my parents. Playing with human action figures would be infinitely less interesting than playing with distinct and unique alien ones. The alien action figures opened up my mind more since I could imagine more scenarios with them due to how unique they were, and there was more to do with something non-human than a plain human face. Since the entire appeal of action figures to me was that I could use them as long as I had an imagination, and kids are more imaginative than adults, is it any surprise that I used alien action figures because they opened up my imagination more? 

        In reality, the reason all of my Star Wars plushies were alien characters instead of human characters was because it actually appealed to me more. Their strange and unique appearance made it easier to imagine scenarios with them and inspired more possibilities within me, making me use and want them more.

        Even beyond my action figures, this explanation would explain why all of my Star Wars merchandise was alien-related. From my Darth Maul Halloween costume to my Pez dispenser being of Darth Vader, almost all of my Star Wars merchandise as a kid was of an alien, or at least, not a human character. And it all comes down to the fact that I most likely enjoyed the alien toys more because they lit up my brain with creativity more and inspired my imagination in ways someone who looks like me never could.