Vader in Flames: From Concept to Behind-the-Scenes to Collectible

Gus writes:

 Fans might be familiar with the "Darth Vader in Flames" imagery used to promote The Empire Strikes Back. Through these artifacts, we're able to show its evolution from concept to behind-the-scenes items to commercial product. It began with the work of legendary artist Ralph McQuarrie. An early incarnation of "Vader in Flames" was in the form of a tiny thumbnail by McQuarrie:

Done in pencil and marker, this early concept is remarkably close to the final design. Note the light blue halo over Vader's helmet, which will play a part in some of the next stages.

These images below show how McQuarrie's thumbnail evolved into the design for the crew patch, with two design sketches on the left and two patches on the right. The leftmost design is a shorter, earlier version of the patch with some specifications on size and details filled in for colors. Then it progressed to the next sketch which matches the dimensions of the final patch. This sketch still has the light blue halo around Vader's helmet. The very limited early versions of the crew patch (second from right) have this blue halo as well, and no "TM" for trademark in the lower right, but these details were changed before the final patches were produced for the crew. The final crew patch (without the blue halo) is shown on the right.

This artwork below is extraordinary. This is Ralph McQuarrie's final specification art for the Vader in Flames patch. It has all the details for the manufacturer to produce and layout the crew patch including placement and choices for colors, the design of the Empire logo, and notes with specifics.

As many fans know, a version of the Vader in Flames crew patch was later made available to members of the Official Star Wars Fan Club. This patch had some differences with the crew patch such as the thick embroidered border (below, left). Years later, Anthony McNair, who worked for Industrial Light & Magic, made this wonderful samurai homage to the Vader in Flames patch as a giveaway at Star Wars Celebration Japan 2025 (below, right).

These patches were created primarily for the parkas issued to the Norway location crew filming the Hoth scenes for The Empire Strikes Back. In each version of the jacket, the Vader in Flames patch appears in the upper right position. Other than the Star Wars logo patch on the left sleeve, this Vader patch is what gives away that these are Star Wars crew outfits. The crew used these parkas to identify that someone belonged on set, because there were no other bright blue winter jackets during those years, so this allowed them to spot outsiders who attempted to observe the filming (which happened a numbered of times during the shoot).

There were three different styles of the Norway parka. From left to right: 1) the location crew parka, which also came with various accessories such as pants, goggles, and balaclava, 2) the press jacket in dark blue, and 3) the studio executive jacket issued to 20th Century Fox executives.

In 2018, Columbia Sportswear released a limited retro Norway crew jacket based on the originals used in Finse in 1979. The folks at Lucasfilm and Columbia reached out to me to help with this project, and I loaned my original jacket to them for reference in making their jackets. They kindly rewarded me with two of the jackets from their limited 2018 release. Here's one my Columbia jackets hanging on the rackin my room at the Finse 1222 hotel during the Hoth Strikes Back event in Finse in February 2025.

The Art Department for Rise of Skywalker created a parka in 2019 for its members as an homage to the Norway parkas. In place of Vader, they designed a Kylo Ren patch with a setting sun.

There were Empire Strikes Back Crew crew t-shirts with the Vader in Flames design, and these came in various colors and in women's and men's styles.

For the filming in Norway, the crew drove Aktiv Snow Trac vehicles, which are small car-sized versions of a Snowcat, for moving people and supplies between the set and the buildings in Finse. The Snow Trac was manufactured in Sweden between 1957-1981 for use in cold weather climates. These Snow Tracs were decorated with large Vader in Flames decals on the front, along with a large Empire Strikes Back logo above the windshield.

One of the early press briefs for The Empire Strikes Back also featured this familiar logo. This was used for the press visiting the set during production and covers information about the worldwide release of the film.

By the time of the film's release, the Vader in Flames image was used in a range of product. One of the earliest examples is this bookstore standee from the United Kingdom (below, left). Also in the UK, Lyon's Maid ice cream used the Vader in Flames image for ice cream wrappers, with an image of one of the characters from The Empire Strikes Back on the back (below, right).

"Empire Day" was a holiday celebrated in the England to celebration Queen Victoria's birthday on May 24. The Empire Strikes Back was released on May 20, 1980 in the UK, and early screenings used the Empire Day title and imagery to promote the release as on this t-shirt and button. Note that it's the same design except the flames are removed from the bottom.

And all this just scratches the surface. The Vader in Flames concept was later used for Star Wars Celebration III in Los Angeles during the release of Revenge of the Sith. Over years, other products have also used this design, and you can explore more examples on The Star Wars Collectors Archive.