Space Wars: October 1977

There was a ton of these cheap sci-fi magazines put out in the wake of Star Wars. This one's from October 1977 and also features an article on the future of Star Trek which had been a thing of reruns for nearly ten years. The magazine begins with a list of the greatest sci-fi movies including the conventional titles of Forbidden Planet, Metropolis, 2001: A Space Oddity and THX 1138, which, the magazine states, was due for a re-release in light of Lucas' more profitable movie. It's strange to think that most people reading this in the days before home entertainment wouldn't have had the chance to see THX 1138 as once it left cinemas after it's initial (and poor) release, it vanished into obscurity for several years.

There's also a section on the classic serials that inspired Star Wars like Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. I particularly like this little snippet of an article that looks at the easy translation of comic book sci-fi to cinema in regard to the relative difficulty of adapting ideas found in the novels by H. G. Wells and Isaac Asimov.

There was nothing in the article about the movie that I hadn't read elsewhere (particularly on the backs of trading cards for some reason) so I don't know if this was written first or compiled from other sources. But there's some good pictures here, the lightsabers in the Ben Vs. Darth pic are particularly nice I think.

Kenner 3-3/4" Action Figures - Cantina Crew

Yes, I know Greedo is missing from this collection of scum and villainy Kenner put out in 1979, but I'll get to him in another post. While far from spot on with their depictions of the background characters (Kenner was often working from one or two production shots of costumes), this is a fun and colorful trio of weirdos perfect for blaster fodder for your Luke and Han figures.

Hammerhead. You've gotta love how Kenner made up names for nameless characters based simply on their physical traits regardless of the fact that there was probably a whole species wandering the galaxy.

This guy is so bizarre, I love it. From his tree-like feet to his humpback and shifty eyes, he is a figurehead for the Star Wars weirdness that captured people's imaginations back in the late 70s. Despite the fact that all he does in the movie is sit around enjoying a drink, Kenner gave him a Stormtrooper rifle in an effort to make him more of an 'action figure'.

Snaggletooth here has an odd history. The figure was already released previously as part of a Sears exclusive cantina playset. Only that version was tall, dressed in blue and had funky silver moon boots. As I stated earlier, Kenner was working from a handful of production photos and only ever saw 'Snaggletooth' from the waist

up. His size and footwear (not sure if it was any more accurate the second time around) were corrected when the figure was released as part of the second wave of figures. Of course the rarity of the early 'blue Snaggletooth' figure makes it a hot collectors item. And no, I don't have one...

This amphibious-looking fella was named 'Walrus Man' (another all night brainstorming meeting at Kenner, I'm sure). This is the poor sap that loses an arm by Kenobi's blade in the movie. Not much to say about him except that it is very hard to find him without any paint loss on his bulbous 'lips' as they tend to scratch very easily.

The Star Wars Album

In November 1977, Ballentine put out this 75 page Star Wars Album featuring tons of color and black and white photos from the movie and behind the scenes shots. The contents seems to fall into three sections, this first of which is a look at the influences on the movie. Everything from early sci-fi like H. G. Wells to Flash Gordon, robots in movies (i.e. Metropolis and Forbidden Planet), comedy duos like Laurel and Hardy, westerns that influenced the character of Han Solo and the whole cantina scene, monster movies and Errol Flynn swashbucklers are referenced. I like this bit as it's easy to think of Star Wars as its own entity nowadays rather than the throwback to old fashioned adventure serials it was originally intended to be.

The second section is a breakdown of the movie's plot accompanied by many pictures.

The final part of the book is devoted to behind the scenes stuff with articles, pictures and concept art.

Topps Trading Cards: Series 2

Series 2 here (#66 - 137) with the red borders.

Most of the backs of the cards feature either 'Movie Facts' or 'Actor's Profiles'.

Two jigsaw puzzles can be put together from the backs of certain cards; a Sandperson and good ol' Chewie.

Famous Monsters of Filmland #142

It's been a long time since I blogged. Things have been chaotic but the good news is that a new job = an increased income so I have hunted down a few items I'll be taking a look at over the next few weeks.

First up is this issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland from April 1978 featuring the Dark Lord of the Sith himself on the cover. This was the 20th anniversary issue of the magazine that began in 1958 and it's a whopper of an issue at 132 pages.

Star Wars had been released nearly a year previously and was still a hot topic in many magazines. FM takes a look back at the movie in an article entitled 'Lord Darth Vader: Badnik or Merely Misunderstood?' which, (well ahead of its time), points out that he may not be such a bad dude after all.

Being the 20th anniversary issue, a ton of film stars and film makers wrote in and sent signed photos wishing FM all the best. Here's one from Lucas himself and appears to be a behind the scenes shot from the movie.

There's also an abundance of Star Wars related ads including a fantastic one for the Kenner figures which I've never seen before.

Artoo Detoo's Activity Book

Random House put out a bunch of these activity books in 1979 filled with the usual word searches, puzzles as well as a few oddities like Star Wars based recipes and ideas for things to make. Although this one is called 'R2-D2's Activity book' it really belongs to C-3PO too and is mainly based around their Tatooine adventures.