theswca blog: Vintage Star Wars Sun-catchers & Instant Stained Glass

Yehuda writes:

I bet you are wondering if you made a mistake by clicking on this esoteric article on obscure ephemera…and the answer is probably yes.

I fully expect the majority of readers to get less than halfway through this blog entry and dismiss it. After all, the idea of crafting anything today, much less a melted plastic artificial stained glass ornament, seems somewhat archaic. Nonetheless, I plod on because this kind of stuff fascinates me.

It’s not like I don’t love the Kenner line of action figures, but frankly, there is a lot of other cool stuff out there. At least I think so, and I am betting that two or three other people who read this article agree. They may even make it all the way to the end.

At least that’s my delusion.

Prior to the advent of the personal computer and anything beyond network TV, there seemed to be a lot more free time. In order to combat boredom, people often turned to handcrafted projects. This was reflected in the available product lines.

Many people may not even remember sun-catchers or instant stained glass kits even if they were around when these things were sold. They never achieved the popularity of macramé or picture frames made out of pasta and glue. But they have a similar concept to the more popular and well-known Shrinky Dinks of the time. Basically, these products used plastic materials combined with heat to create a collectible. And if that wasn’t fun enough, the fumes of the melting plastic were likely to enhance the experience.

Like many of the earliest Star Wars collectibles, the first iteration of Star Wars sun-catchers were unlicensed. A series of four different multicolored adhesive translucent appliqués were produced by a company called "Instant Stained Glass." These sun-catchers were ready made and required no assembly.

Proudly declaring themselves of the era, they display a cartoonish quality and color palette which is unapologetically groovy. These things are truly rare. I have been actively searching for an example for quite a few years and at this point I am convinced that they probably only exist in the back of Duncan Jenkins’ closet.

The set includes Darth Vader, C-3PO, R2-D2 and an X-Wing Fighter.

Now let’s get crafty.

In 1981, Lee Wards Creative Crafts was granted a license to produce sun-catchers. Lee Wards, a well established crafting company out of Elgin, Illinois, produced a line of 13 sun-catchers featuring characters and ships from The Empire Strikes Back. Borrowing a familiar packaging design from their Kenner counterpart, the company incorporated a chrome double racetrack around the film title and handsomely framed either side of the black card back with stills from the new film featuring the characters and ships used in the sun-catchers.

A metal alloy skeleton of the sun-catcher along with a variety of vibrantly colored bags filled with plastic pellets were shrink wrapped to the card. The back of the card contained instructions to craft the individual sun-catcher.

The overall appearance of these pieces is quite stunning and they remain amongst my favorite Star Wars collectibles.

Putting a full set together can be quite challenging. Besides being inherently rare, the Lee Wards pieces are curiously not labeled as sun-catchers (or anything else for that matter), confounding any attempts to search for them.

Unique in including two separate characters, this particular example features Yoda and R2

Pair of Snowspeeders along with a single Snowspeeder variant

Snowspeeder Reverse

Princess Leia

Luke Skywalker

Darth Vader bust

(not much skill required for this one)

Darth Vader (standing)

Stormtrooper

X-Wing Fighter

C-3PO

IG-88

IG-88 In Real Life

Millennium Falcon

Luke on Tauntaun

In 1984, Makit & Bakit (at the time a subsidiary of Fundimensions) was granted the license to produce sun-catchers featuring characters from Return of the Jedi. Makit & Bakit seems to have been the most prolific producers of these things and are somehow still in business producing them mostly as Christmas ornaments today.

The company was in their heyday in the mid 1980s and even produced their own craft oven for the most enthusiastic crafters.

The once elusive Star Wars license was likely more of a booby prize by 1984 as tastes in pop culture began to shift.

Despite this, Makit & Bakit took on Star Wars and chose to produce 4 very well made kits, but did not feature them in their advertising, choosing the likes of the more popular Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears and Garfield to hock their wares.

The card design employed a silver background with the movie title highlighted in red, typical of licensed Jedi products of the time. They are similar in make and feel to the Lee Wards products.

Unlike the previous generations of sun-catchers, a large surplus of these still remain available typically for little cost. This is likely due to over production and poor sales at the time.

I got a nice set from Todd Chamberlain at toychamber.com. He may still have a few.