Starting yesterday and continuing today, the Star Wars Youtube channel is livestreaming a product rollout like we’ve never seen, with 15 locations in 12 countries—in an all of them, people unboxing toys. It’s an anticipation-stoking preview for Force Friday, tomorrow’s debut of the first officially licensed merchandise for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The product preview, followed by a midnight on-sale release, is a massive and unprecedented event, shrewdly taking advantage of the rise of unboxing videos to unveil the new goodies from the year’s most highly anticipated film. But it’s not the only way Disney has amplified the already dominant Star Wars product line.

The Mouse House is already the world’s largest licensor—in fiscal year 2014, it sold $45.2 billion worth of licensed product around the world—but it’s about to get bigger. The company won’t say exactly how many different manufacturers have an official license to create Star Wars-related products, but that list runs the gamut from the largest toy companies in the world down to individual artisans like LA jewelry designer Brandon Schoolhouse, aka Han Cholo. “This is one of the biggest and most sought-after licenses out there,” he says. “This is the Holy Grail of sci-fi and culture.” For a smaller manufacturer like Schoolhouse, who doesn’t have the marketing capabilities of bigger companies, it’s huge to be a part of Force Friday, for which Disney has built fever-pitch levels of anticipation by embargoing details on product designs until midnight tonight.

Even for more established companies, there’s been a shift in how Star Wars items are treated now that Disney oversees the brand. Hasbro has technically been a part of the Star Wars product legacy since the beginning—it acquired Kenner, who produced the original line of toys for the first trilogy from 1977-1985, as part of the company’s purchase of Tonka in 1991. Force Friday sees the debut of over 100 Hasbro toys; the company has been developing it in cooperation with Lucasfilm, just as it did for the prequel trilogy when it began some 15 years ago. But even with Hasbro’s wealth of experience launching products, Disney’s marketing push is unprecedented.

“I don’t think that there’s ever been as much of a hyped excitement around product launch and the movie itself,” says Joe Ninivaggi, a senior marketing manager at Hasbro. “In 2005 [when Revenge Of The Sith was released], Facebook was just in its infancy and only being used by college kids. So the social media is a massive departure from what it was.”

A New Hope for Smaller Companies

That advantage is a boon for lower-profile companies as well. Take Vandor Products, a company that creates branded glassware, tote bags, lunchboxes, and other everyday items. The company has produced licensed Star Wars items for six years, dating back to before Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm. But even though it doesn’t produce highly sought-after collectibles, Vandor’s Force Awakens license means that its product line will be available just about everywhere, from big-box stores like Target and Kohl’s to mall staples like Hot Topic, and even to Urban Outfitters.

“This particular launch has definitely helped open up some doors,” says Vandor CEO Tom Russo. “We have our merchandise going into a wider variety of different types of retailers than anything we’ve done before.” It’s also a unique experience for Vandor given the new line’s secrecy. Non-disclosure agreements are now standard in the company’s conversations with retail partners before showing designs–something they’d never needed to do before, despite producing branded items for Marvel and other Disney properties.

And then there’s Walmart. The world’s largest retail chain plans to carry more 500 individual Force Awakens products in its stores, with “thousands more” available online. “It’s like a Thanksgiving week blitz-type event because of the embargo and the 12:01 Friday morning unveiling,” says Anne Marie Kehoe, vice president of toys at Walmart. “They’ve made this feel really special just because of the size of it, the sheer magnitude of the brand relative to other really big licensed brands with Disney,”

The thing is, this isn’t just a special stunt reserved for the first new merchandise since Disney acquired the Star Wars brand. It’s the beginning of the new normal. Kehoe says the company already has plans for another event around the release of EA’s videogame Star Wars Battlefront in November, and is looking ahead to the Force Awakens home video release next year, and then Rogue One next December, when the cycle will repeat.

Star Wars is already synonymous with tie-in merchandise. And even in a year that has seen wild success for Jurassic World and Minions, it’s the 800-pound gorilla on the movie schedule. But now, with the booster engine of Disney’s marketing capabilities and retailer relationships, it will be impossible to escape licensed products for the foreseeable future.