Ron writes:
In case you haven't noticed, Archive editor Stephane Faucourt has authored or coauthored a number of wonderful collecting books over the years. Recently, he and coauthor Yann Leroux released three new publications. Below is Archive founder Gus Lopez's review of them. If you're interested, you might consider checking them out!
Gus writes:
Here are some of my impressions of Stef Faucourt and Yann Leroux's three recent books on the vintage Meccano and Trilogo Star Wars toys. You can purchase all of them on Amazon of course.
Stephane Faucourt and Yann Leroux have created a wonderful and comprehensive three-volume set of books about everything in the vintage Meccano and Trilogo Star Wars action figure line: Meccano Trilogo Cosmic Action Figures (covering mint on card examples of Meccano and Trilogo action figures sold in France and elsewhere in Europe), Meccano Trilogo Galactic Plastic (covering Meccano and Trilogo vehicles and playsets), and Meccano Trilogo Legendary Ads (covering consumer and professional ads along with catalog pages). Stephane and Yann have authored many Star Wars collecting books over the years, but this series sets a new bar with brilliant actual-scale photography in full-color hardcover volumes that share the history of the Meccano and Trilogo Star Wars toys that were sold across Europe.
These three books should really be bought as a set, but here are more details about each of the volumes.
Cosmic Action Figures shows the front and back of each of the French and Trilogo carded action figures in 1:1 scale, including 12-backs from the initial release through subsequent Bilogo and Trilogo figures. It features shots of the famous Meccano square-back cards that start with the 20-back release and continue on to The Empire Strikes Back. They provide a scarcity index for each item to give the reader insight into the difficulty in tracking these down. The book spans the entire Original Trilogy years for the Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and Trilogo/Power of the Force releases. It also covers action figure adjacent items like shipping boxes and playsets, and there are some extensive checklist tables in the appendix. This volume is a “must have” for vintage Star Wars action figure collectors.
Galactic Plastic shows every vehicle, playset, and accessory issued under the Meccano and Trilogo brands for the vintage Star Wars era. These images are at different scales based on the sizes of the toys, and some are actual scale where possible, and others at reduced scale for larger toys. This book features high-resolution scans of the boxes, toys, and instruction sheets. I especially love the images of my favorite Meccano item of all time: the cardboard hemisphere Death Star playset! The instruction sheets and boxes are detailed and look like actual Kenner prints!
Legendary Ads covers toy-related Star Wars ads from France from the vintage era. Star Wars pioneered toy-related movie merchandising, and the advertising programs and promotional campaigns were absolutely innovative and critical for keeping excitement for Star Wars toys alive for many years. The book shows retailer-focused and consumer-focused advertisements, and these print ads are shown in full color in the actual scale. This is probably my favorite of the three-volume set because it covers many obscure Meccano advertising pieces that most collectors have never seen.
I highly recommend this three-volume set for every Star Wars collector’s library!
No comments:
Post a Comment