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...

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Starlog #19 - February 1979


Starlog really is one of my favorite magazines from this era. It's not just the Star Wars stuff, but this issue alone spotlights a ton of other stuff I like such as Battlestar Galactica, Roger Corman and Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings animation. Not many magazines are such a joy to read from cover to cover.

This cover really has gone down in history as it's one of the few pieces of memorabilia connected to the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special. The dreaded show went out a month previous to this and the article doesn't give much away regarding public reception. It's really more of a set of stills with captions rather than an in depth look at the making of the show and other than a vague reference to 'creative differences', it doesn't say much about what must have been a fascinating production.




 
 
Also, a cool ad for Reel Images; a forerunner to home video. I like the art deco look on Vader.
 

Friday, February 6, 2015

Topps Trading Cards: Series 4




Here's the fourth series with the green borders. 1 more to go!





The puzzle of Han and Chewie is surprisingly tall and pretty hard to put together.  







We have 'movie facts' now instead of official descriptions and I like the one showing Lucas's influences like Flash Gordon and John Carter of Mars. I have to feel like they were groping a bit for new images to use on the card fronts. 'Luke's secret yen for action' made me laugh. Also cool; 'The Empire Strikes Back' way before there was a movie by that name.