Ron writes:
As readers of this blog are likely aware, Boba Fett made appearances to promote Star Wars.
Not the real Boba Fett, because -- and I hate to break this to you -- he doesn't exist. But a guy in a Lucasfilm-sanctioned Boba Fett costume.
This guy (surely a series of guys) would show up at a store or a movie screening, often accompanied by another guy dressed as Darth Vader, and he'd pose for photos, shake hands and generally impress upon people the awesomeness of Star Wars.
It was a whole thing.
As the above advertisements demonstrate, these appearances were especially prevalent around the time of the debut of The Empire Strikes Back -- for obvious reasons.
Although Boba Fett was introduced in the Star Wars Holiday Special, which aired on November 17, 1978, he was essentially a new character in ESB. And he was mysterious.
Funny thing is, the movie came and went, and he remained mysterious -- which partly accounts for his popularity.
People are fascinated by mystery. Especially when it involves a flamethrower and knee darts.
This may explain why the recent Boba Fett TV show met with mixed reactions. No one wants a demystified Boba Fett! And we certainly don't want a Boba Fett mired in paunchy degradation.
I mean, he's not Al Bundy.
But Boba Fett didn't make appearances just to delight and impress fans; he also occasionally appeared as an ambassador to Lucasfilm licensees. And some of these appearances occurred long before Empire was even in theaters.
As I mentioned in this 2019 article, Boba Fett visited Kenner, the principal toy licensee, in late 1978. His appearance at the company's headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio was even documented in a Kenner newsletter of the period.
The newsletter was called Kaleidoscope. The issue in question was published in January 1979.
The inaugural issue of the publication, it was devoted to celebrating Kenner's achieving $200 million in sales for the year 1978 -- a record in no small way attributable to the success of Star Wars.
Per the newsletter's cover story, Kenner staff attended a "Star Wars is Forever" meeting in November 1978, and Boba Fett joined them.
Though the content of the story doesn't confirm this, my hunch is that it was at this meeting that the surviving commemorative mugs and prints of the graphic adorning the cover of the newsletter were distributed.
The mug bears a date of November 27, 1978.
And so does the print.
So that's my guess as to the date of the meeting -- November 27, 1978. A mere 10 days after Boba Fett debuted as an animated character in the Star Wars Holiday Special. It was the Monday after Thanksgiving -- the perfect date on which to celebrate a blockbuster year and gear up for future success with Star Wars!
Of course, November 27 is just a guess based on the few pieces of evidence available. Maybe the meeting was held on some other day in November...
Questions pertaining to dates aside, the newsletter's photographs illustrating the meeting focus on the interaction between Boba Fett and Kenner staff members.
What better way to encourage staff to get behind selling Star Wars than to throw the greatest bounty hunter in the galaxy into the interoffice mix?
If his mere presence wasn't enough to boost morale, perhaps the threat of disintegration did the trick.
The guy in the costume, on the other hand, was probably a bit less enthusiastic.
Dude has seen some sh#t.
This photo provides a sense of the effort involved in a Boba Fett appearance. [1]
According to Archive editor Pete Vilmur, the woman in the photo is Shelle Neese, Lucasfilm's official Boba Fett handler. In this case the handling involved guiding Mr. Fett around the narrow hallways of Kenner's offices. Looks of mild concern adorn the faces of most of the folks comprising the Fett phalanx. You kinda get the sense they're worried the guy in the suit will stumble and break something.
So we've established that Boba Fett traveled to Kenner headquarters in Cincinnati. Did he travel all that way just to attend a party and press the corporate flesh?
No!
There was real product-development work to be done.
As detailed by Archive editor Chris Georgoulias, Kenner used Boba Fett's visit as an opportunity to take photographs of the bounty hunter's costume.
Kenner's photographer appears to have positioned the fellow wearing the costume in front of a white backdrop, then snapped photos of him in several poses.
If this one looks familiar it's because it (or something very close to it) was used to generate the image that appeared on the blister card of the Boba Fett action figure, which finally hit stores in 1979.
It's an iconic figure, all the more so when you consider that its central image was many kids' introduction to Boba Fett as he would appear in The Empire Strikes Back.
By November 1978, developmental work on the Boba Fett action figure was in its final phases. The sculpt was completed, and it's likely that Kenner had injection-molded samples of the figure on hand.
However, as the aforementioned Boba Fett photo session demonstrates, the figure's packaging was still being developed. Here, Kenner needed to move quickly -- samples were needed for Toy Fair in New York City, a mere three months away!
They did indeed move quickly. And when Toy Fair rolled around in February, Kenner was able to display a mockup example of the carded Boba Fett figure.
Toy Fair was a big event for Kenner -- perhaps the biggest of any given year. It was the event at which the company demo'd products to prospective wholesale buyers. And to do it right, they utilized a whole showroom in Manhattan, which was specially outfitted to present each Kenner line in the best possible light.
So it's no surprise that Toy Fair 1979 was prominently featured in Kenner's internal newsletters.
The second issue of Kaleidoscope, published in April 1979, contains a page devoted to happenings at Kenner's New York showroom during the big event of two months prior.
And if you look closely, you'll see that the center image shows two stylin' guys standing alongside Boba Fett.
The photo bespeaks a second engagement between Boba Fett and Kenner, this one occurring at Toy Fair in February 1979, a few months after the Cincinnati engagement.
Here's a print of that same photo, which contains additional information on its sides.
Now tell me if the below location looks familiar. It's a small section of Kenner's 1979 showroom.
Same place, right?
As you've no doubt noticed, this area contained a display featuring the large-size action figure representing Boba Fett.
I'm guessing that it was in this area that Boba Fett made most of his appearances. In other words, one of his primary jobs at Toy Fair was to sell the large-size figure.
Remember, the small figure was already being advertised as a mail-away. Further, it was part of the general action figure assortment -- which sort of sold itself. So it's understandable that Kenner was more concerned with pushing orders of its larger counterpart, which constituted its own assortment and was somewhat unique even within the range of large-size figures.
Who better to promote the large-size Boba Fett figure than Boba Fett himself?
Posed right there beside the imposing character in his idiosyncratic armor was Kenner's miniaturized version of him, and the latter included all of the appurtenances that made Boba Fett sure to be loved by children everywhere.
Well, except the flamethrower. For some inexplicable reason, Kenner didn't give their Boba Fett toy a flamethrower.
Still...do you see why Kenner might have wanted Boba Fett to make an appearance at Toy Fair?
Weirdly, the large-size figures displayed at Toy Fair 1979 were posed inside dioramas fashioned after ancient Greek temples. It was a discordant design choice, especially when one considers that the coverings on the walls surrounding these things was a futuristic metallic silver.
In the image of the Kenner reps standing alongside Boba Fett you may have noticed a pile of photos situated beside the Greek temple.
These are the stills provided by Lucasfilm for the purpose of distributing autographs during official Boba Fett appearances. They were produced under the banner of Black Falcon, a Lucasfilm subsidiary of that time.
So it appears that in 1979 a visitor to Kenner's showroom had the opportunity not only to meet Boba Fett, but to obtain his autograph. It's likely that not every visitor had this opportunity. You probably had to hit the showroom at the right time, i.e. when Boba Fett wasn't taking a leak or having a smoke or whatever.
By the way, three of the display boards seen on the right wall of this particular area of Kenner's showroom still exist. They're in the collection of Will Grief. They were created to give Kenner's buyers a taste of the point-of-purchase signage the company had developed in support of their Star Wars line. [2]
You can read more about them here.
Further evidence of Boba Fett's appearance at Toy Fair 1979 was published in Kenner's Forum newsletter.
It's a Toy Fair tradition to utilize youthful acting talent as showroom spokespeople. If you don't believe me, check out this amazing clip of a young Vin Diesel demonstrating Mattel's Street Sharks in 1994.
Now, I'm far from a Vin Diesel hater, so don't take this the wrong way, but I truly feel that Street Shark Spokesperson was the role he was born to play. The casting could not be more appropriate.
What I mean to say here is that Vin Diesel is undoubtedly the human version of a Street Shark.
"Say hello to that mound round of pound and his power slam!"
Hey, at least he didn't characterize Street Sharks as being about "family."
