Collecting the Holiday Special

Gus writes:

As a Star Wars fan, I had fond memories of the Holiday Special in the years that followed its one and only airing. I had seen it as a kid when it was broadcasted on November 17, 1978. Even a year and half after the release of Star Wars, there was still so much pent up demand for anything Star Wars related: collectibles, magazines, and especially coverage on TV, that a two hour program on Star Wars was destined to be the highlight of the wait for The Empire Strikes Back. To see all the main actors from the film take part in a "sequel" of sorts, was something truly amazing.

Years later as a fan and collector, I watched a copy of the Holiday Special on bootleg VHS. Of course the show didn't hold up to my memories, and in fact was so bad that for years I used to offer a vintage Star Wars action figure to collectors at our SARLACC meetings in Seattle if they could sit through the entire Holiday Special. Many bailed out of the "Holiday Special Challenge."

But something happened years later... it grew on me and I came to appreciate the Holiday Special for its kitsch value: the holographic dance performance, the wookiees' red outfits, the Jefferson Starship performance, Carrie Fisher's song, Itchy's moment with virtual reality "entertainment," etc. There are also some great moments that stand on their own without the ironic qualities: cut scenes from the first film, the cantina creatures reunited, the Kenner commercial, and of course, the introduction of Boba Fett in an animated cartoon.

While so much stuff has surfaced over the years from all the Star Wars movies, it turns out that it's extremely difficult to find pieces used in the actual production of the Holiday Special. The first items to turn up were cels from the animated sequence. I saw a dealer at San Diego Comiccon selling Holiday Special production cels in the mid 1990's at what seemed like insane prices at the time, and these have popped up from time to time although still remain scarce. Unfortunately, since the Holiday Special animation sequence is so brief, very few cels were made for the program and few are known to exist today, especially with backgrounds. 

The sequence opens up with Luke and the droids landing on the planet Panna which consists of an ocean of red jello where they meet Boba Fett riding a dinosaur. The cel pictured here shows a wide angle shot as Boba Fett rides off with the heroes. For the story, Luke abandons his usual X-Wing ship to ride in a two-seater Y-Wing.

During the live action scenes for the show, the Imperials break into Lumpy's room. To show the depths of their oppression, they actually break the head off Lumpy's plush bantha toy and ransack his room. On the floor of Lumpy's room are three different masks that look like welder's masks, all custom made props for the show.

The costumes and masks used for the Holiday Special were assembled from various sources. The cantina masks were the originals from Rick Baker's crew used in Star Wars. The Imperial costumes were likely from the film as well. Wookiee costumes were so difficult to make that for the final scenes, they dressed the wookiees up in red robes to avoid building many tall hair costumes. Most of the wookiees had Don Post Chewbacca masks with different highlight in the hair.

The costumes from the holographic dancers were all custom made. The five acrobatic dancers were known as the Wazzan troupe a family of acrobats who did performances at shows and circuses for many decades and across several generations of the family. For some Star Wars fans, their performance is the kitsch highlight of the show. This is one of the original costumes from that performance.

Well, Sir, There's Nothing On Earth Like a Genuine, Bona Fide, Electrified, Six-Car Monorail

Ron writes:

Many years ago I posted an article on the SWCA focused on a Star Wars-themed "Outer-Space Station," the plans for which were published in a '70s issue of "Woman's Day." Since that time I've received a few emails a year from folks who remember the playset. Some even claim to have built it. But until now I've never seen images of an actual consumer-created example.

The images featured here were sent to me by collector Nathan Lange. He was fortunate enough to purchase a finished example of the set from an individual who'd received it from the original owner, whose father had constructed it in the '70s.

The guy's dad did a bang-up job; it looks really similar to the example featured in the magazine, right down to the meticulous applications of colored tape.

This shot reveals the modular nature of the item. It was designed to be constructed in units. If you were a really lame dad, you'd build just one or two of these units. Clearly, the guy we're dealing with here was no lame dad.

Come to think of it, I imagine the arrival in the mail of this particular issue of "Woman's Day" was an event greeted with something less than enthusiasm by fathers around the country. I bet most '70s dads would have scoffed at the prospect of such a labor-intensive project.

'70s Dad:

"You want me to what? Build a space fort for an action jigger what now? I don't care how much you like these Starwhatsits, go fix me another bourbon and quit interrupting 'Barnaby Jones.' And stop playing with dolls."

Monorail . . . monorail . . . monorail.

In the '70s, if you wanted to communicate the idea of THE FUTURE, you had to build a monorail. Even if it was more of a Shelbyville idea. The "Woman's Day" version was made from a piece of shelving bracket and a soda bottle. Unfortunately, their plans say nothing about Leonard Nimoy showing up for its inaugural run.

Here's the working conveyor belt on which the "Woman's Day" folks posed about eight-million dollars worth of vinyl-cape Jawas.

These last shots provide a sense of how much detail work went into the building of this monstrosity.

Thanks to Nathan for sharing these images. If any readers remember building the Outer-Space Station, or recall someone had one, please share your stories in the comments.

You can read about the playsets "Woman's Day" designed for The Empire Strikes Back here.

Power Spark Ignite!

Steve writes:

The Star Wars toy merchandising fire was rekindling with increasing intensity in 1994. In addition to a brand new 4" scale action figure line on the horizon, Kenner was developing Star Wars incarnations for its short-lived hands-on build 'em and crash 'em "Power Spark" toy line in the form of an X-Wing and AT-ST. As described in the Database entries, the concept of the Power Spark toys involved constructing, destroying, and re-building vehicles with a welding gun and plastic rods -- essentially combining imaginative (or vicious) play with classic model-building. During the line's two year run, a basic starting kit with a generic car-like vehicle was released, along with add-on sets for one Batman and one G.I. Joe vehicle.

From the collection of Yehuda Kleinman

From the collection of Yehuda Kleinman

Though the Star Wars vehicles never made it to retail, they progressed significantly through the production process with each vehicle even featuring corresponding pairs of small articulated figures. According to a former Kenner engineer who drew up the plans for these toys and their distinctive gadgetry, only 6 functioning first shots were created for each of the sets. Only one hardcopy of each is known to exist. What set these Star Wars vehicles apart was a seemingly different purpose for the welding gun. Rather than simply welding parts together, the gun provided power to built-in electronic action features.

Now 20 years later, good friend Yehuda Kleinman recently performed an intriguing experiment with first shot examples of each vehicle from his collection which brought these little mechanisms to life.


After assembling the first shots, Yehuda used a standard Power Spark gun to activate each toy's device. All of the action was captured on video by Yehuda and his son Jacob.

The AT-ST's head swivels from left to right:

While the X-Wing's mechanism causes R2 to spin in a circle like a record:

These unique clockwork-based mechanisms were clearly intended to take the Power Spark concept to the next level, but alas, the line was scrapped before they could ever make it to kids' hands. Pretty cool to see these would-be toys still operational after all this time.

Vintage Collector Etsy Gift Guide

Amy writes:

Ever get the old 'I don't know what to get you because I don't know what you already have in your collection' comment? One solution is to direct people to find hand made collectibles, supporting small businesses and often artsy collectors at the same time.

Here are a few treasures that you may need in your collection:

Nerdy Soap in the UK features Star Wars soap cast from vintage figures and collectibles such as this Jabba and ESB candy head set.

Dr. Mutato's shop has a handful of a vintage figures as art prints including our favorite bounty hunter Boba Fett. The artist, Jorge Baeza also has a website for his art.

Dougy74Design creates unique paper sculpted figures in vintage packaging:

Vintage collector Robert Sharp has a store called WoobiesTreasures that sells Kenner offers and store displays as buttons.  

If you need a card, ComradeCards has you covered with their witty vintage figure cards.

Ornaments make great package toppers too. TheFandomsMenace sells both laser cut Star Wars ornaments and necklaces.

If finding space in your collection is an issue, CarvedCrayons may be the solution.  These one of a kind works of art are hand carved on the end of a crayon.  

Temple7e on Etsy sells hand painted wood figures. For the full listing of Star Wars figures available check out this link.

Happy hunting!

The Awesomeness of Ralph McQuarrie

Gus writes:

One of the first Star Wars collectibles I owned was the Star Wars Portfolio by Ralph McQuarrie. I remember being blown away by McQuarrie's spectacular imagery that enabled Lucas to convince Fox  to produce Star Wars and formed the characters, vehicles, weapons, and settings of this amazing universe that would take the public by storm. As most fans are aware, many of McQuarrie's concepts evolved during pre-production while still retaining many of his initial characteristics to create the Star Wars universe.

I kept my original Star Wars portfolio, along with all my Star Wars items from my youth, during those quiet years when little was happening with Star Wars. As I started to ramp up on Star Wars collecting in the early 1990's one of the first areas I pursued was autograph collecting. This was a time before the big Star Wars conventions and paid signings, and I wrote to many of the cast members and behind the scenes staff who made Star Wars possible.

I was able to obtain Ralph McQuarrie's address via a friend, so I unpacked my original portfolio from the late 1970's and mailed it off to him. My vision was to get McQuarrie to sign every print in the portfolio to eventually frame them as a set along with a signed photo of the artist. Realizing that this was probably a huge imposition, I also sent him a check for the trouble and for the postage costs back to mail back to me. 

Several months had passed, and I thought the portfolio might have gotten lost, but then one day it arrived in the mail. I was surprised to find that Ralph had sent my check back, refusing to take any money for signing or for postage. He signed every print in the portfolio and wrote a nice letter. I didn't realize it at the time, but that moment was significant in my evolution as a Star Wars collector because it had bridged something I had owned as a kid with this newly found hobby I was learning about in 1990's. McQuarrie is a legend. And like other people who achieve such greatness, he was also generous and humble.

Moichendizing!

Ron writes:

I was amused by something said by Mel Brooks in the documentary Mel Brooks: Make a Noise.

Brooks claims to have sought George Lucas' blessing before making his legendary Spaceballs.

Lucas, he says, had no problems with the idea of Star Wars being spoofed. But he did issue one warning: stay away from marketing action figures!

According to Brooks, Lucas felt that Spaceballs figures would resemble his characters to such a degree that they would cut into Lucasfilm's merchandizing profits. It's a funny idea, especially when you consider that by the time Spaceballs debuted in theaters (1987), Star Wars was fast disappearing from toy aisles.

Well, if Lucas put the kibosh on Spaceballs action figures, at least we got to see some prop versions in the movie itself. Of course, those figures now reside in Gus' great collection. You can view them on the SWCA here.

Mel Brooks: Make a Noise is available now on Netflix Instant.

"Chewbacca Blocked in Effort to Go Home"

Steve writes:

With the 36th anniversary of the Star Wars Holiday Special coming to pass yesterday, what better time to point out a couple of interesting related items in the Archive Database and elsewhere on the interwebs.

Funnily enough, a couple of toy concepts were in the works before the train went off the rails, namely a set of prototype action figures representing Chewbacca's family and potentially, Boba Fett's Sea Serpent.

From the collection of Lisa Stevens and Vic Wertz

Lumpawarrump's facial expression is appropriately creepy. I'd imagine he'd be equipped with a small X-wing toy as an accessory, while Chewie would be draped in a crimson choir gown, Malla would be adorned with a kitchen apron, and Itchy with a disturbing virtual reality "movie" viewing device.

From the collection of Lisa Stevens and Vic Wertz

We've discussed this set of sketches on the podcast before (Episode 34 from November 2012). It's a pretty nifty design, but I imagine a toy version from 1979 wouldn't deliver the same effect.

Tommy also recently posted a November 11, 1978 preview article for the special at The Newsstand. The article weirdly refers to one of Harvey Korman's characters and C-3PO as "Dromboids" -- a term I had never come across before.

Also, an intriguing auction on eBay for Miki Herman's script for the special recently topped at out at 29 bids and an unmet reserve price of $2,225. Should be interesting to see how the sale of that item pans out.

Lastly, if you haven't had a chance to listen to last year's Holiday Special 35th Anniversary podcast put together by our friends at Galaxy of Toys, it's a must.

Hope your Life Day was a blessed one. Stir, whip, stir, whip, whip, whip, stir, beat....