30 years ago today The Empire Strikes Back was released in theaters.
The Empire Strikes Back is considered by many fans to be the best of all 6 Star Wars films. It had a much darker story, introduced Yoda, and had a great cliffhanger ending. It also introduced some of the best toys from the time period, like the AT-AT shown here from my collection, which is getting a new release later this year. The music of the film is also one of the best scores from any of the movies as it introduced many of the themes that are associated with Star Wars today, with the main to being, The Imperial March (Darth Vader’s Theme) and Yoda’s Theme. The film also introduced the fan favorite character Boba Fett. At the time, I think most thought he would have a bigger role in the movie. Boba Fett was first shown in a cartoon from the Star Wars Holiday Special in late ’78. Later, he was offered as a mail away offer from Kenner to help get kids excited about the Empire toys roughly a year before the film was released.. 
The character ended up with very little screen time, but he did what Darth Vader couldn’t do, capture Han Solo. I think the little screen time he had actually helped the character thrive. Kids could make up whatever stories they wanted to about him and his origins. Later in the 90’s he was featured in many books and comics which also added to the character.
Tonight we’ve decided to celebrate by having a little BBQ and watching the film. I’m trying to decide if I want to dig out the Laserdisc player and watch the version closer to the theatrical release or just watching the Special Edition version. We’ll also be going to celebration V in Orlando later this year which will be heavily focused on Empire.
Here is one of the original Trailers for Empire. It is pretty interesting to watch as some of the special effects weren’t finished, like the lightsabers.