I have a passion for collecting vintage Star Wars merchandise from the late 70's. Action figures, comics, trading cards etc - anything related to the first Star Wars movie. But why only until 1980? It's not that I don't love The Empire Strikes Back and beyond (I really do), but there is something about that first wave of Star Wars mania that really grips me, back when it was all fresh and exciting...

Friday, May 25, 2012

Happy Birthday Star Wars! + Burger King and Burger Chef Commercials


Well, it's been 35 years and we can all feel a little old today. May 25th, 1977 was the date that changed cinema. It never fails to amaze me how old my all time favorite movie really is. And it's a little frightening to be honest. To celebrate, here's a couple of fast food commercials from way back then...




Saturday, May 19, 2012

Starlog Magazine - December 1978


I've only just picked up an issue of this Sci-fi fan favorite magazine and can only say that it's brilliant! The quality is top notch in comparison with the slew of cheaper magazines put out at this time. As well as covering the upcoming Star Wars sequel, issue #18 of Starlog also has a feature on Battlestar Galactica which I also like mainly as it stylistically borrowed so much from Lucas (probably down to Dykstra's involvement). There's also an update on the Star Trek motion picture which was in development at the time and several articles on monsters and make-up that one might expect to find in Famous Monsters of Filmland.

The article on 'the continuing adventures of Luke Skywalker' is a very interesting read. I'm surprised that Empire had a name this early on (a good year and a half before the film's release), albeit a working title. Gary Kurtz is really hammering home the point that 'Star Wars II' is actually 'Episode IV' and it's interesting to see the discussions on how confusing this could get for fans in the future. We coped with it Gary! Although he keeps referring to a possible 12 installments... I'm kind of glad they left it at 6!  





 There's a few tasty advertisements in its pages too. 


Saturday, May 5, 2012

Donny and Marie 1977

I'm a bit late for the whole 'May the 4th be with You' Star Wars day thing (I much prefer to celebrate on May 25th in any case) but I only just found this vintage clip from 1977 and thought I'd post it now.

It's pretty God-awful but I'm a sucker for any early pop culture references to Star Wars and the more disco and polyester I see accompanying it, the better!