"Things were different back then," us old timers say, sitting back in our rocking chairs, adjusting our corn cob pipes and reaching for a handful of Pepperidge Farm Cookies.

"In our day," we say, "we didn't have movies spoiled for us by some dad-blamed Internets. Why, no one, I daresay no one could have seen the ending of The Empire Strikes Back coming! Everyone in that theater was totally shocked about Vader's relationship to Luke Skywalker."

Hardly. No remembers that a few periodicals actually got their rumors right, though everyone does remember the UK Tabloid that printed that Obi-Wan was Luke's father, thanks to some loose-lipped member of the cast mouthing out what he didn't know was misinformation. But there's more to it.

I recall each April preceding the prequel release when spoiler-free fans would get in a tizzy when the novel would be released. They'd rail against the Lucasfilm for only wanting a quick buck and putting books and toys on the shelves over a month before the release of the movie.

But let's be a bit more realistic. To be fair, yes, it is money that drives the release pattern of movie merchandise, but it's hardly LFL's doing. That's the cycle that retailers and consumers have created. Retailers only want to stock their shelves with movie product when it's hot, and it's never hotter than right before release. After that, the next big thing has already come along and begun gobbling up shelf-space. Granted, in the days of the original trilogy release, the cycle didn't seem nearly as accelerated, but the prequel release had Spider-Men, Matrices, Batmen and Fantastic Foursomes breathing down retailers' necks, battling for shelf-space, end-of-aisle placement and the spending dollars of consumers.

And any claim that it was different back in the day, that the Empire secret was kept until the day of release, is simply not true.

Because the novelization of Empire came out on April 12, 1980.

Fans had over a month to peek at the back of the book and find out the truth there, and that's not even taking into account storybooks and comics that were also available around that time. Or the fact that some cities had to wait till June for the movie, but the novel was released everywhere at the same time.

Why bring this up now? Because Pirates and Superman merchandise is coming out, proving the cycle true yet again. And, because I'm on a retro kick and just came across the 1980 Bantha Tracks that let readers know the novel was coming out in April 1980.

ph