Jonathan writes:
In the years following the release of the original Star Wars, there was a frenzy to ride the wave of popularity generated by the film. Many opportunists chose to use "Star World" to brand their unlicensed products or promotions.
Introduction to Star World
My first action figure case was an unlicensed Star World Figure Case produced by the Tara Toy Corporation. I vividly remember getting that thing and being somewhat ungrateful because it wasn’t an authentic case made by Kenner. Now, many years later, I have a different appreciation for the weirdness of it. While I saved most of my childhood toys, sadly that case is long gone. I don’t recall if it was a victim of its flimsy nature, or if it was sold at a yard sale.
This case is from the collection of Erik Janniche.
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If you want to know more about the Star World Figure Case and early unlicensed action figure cases, I recommend this blog post authored by Jason Thomas.
At the bottom left corner of the case image, the text reads "STAR WORLD IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF M.A.C. MFG. CORP. used by permission."
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Not surprisingly, I can’t find any evidence of such a trademark in a search of the United States Patent and Trademark Office database. If your sleuthing skills are better than mine, please share what you find.
M.A.C. did produce at least two toys that utilized the same Star World name and logo as the figure case. One is a paper yo-yo called the Space Sword. This one is also from the collection of Erik Janniche.
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The other toy produced by M.A.C. under the Star World brand is the Space Ship, which is a triangular foam flyer. The round backer card features nice renderings of a TIE Fighter and a couple Y-Wing Fighters. This one is from the collection of Pete Vilmur.
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As I alluded to in the intro, M.A.C. was certainly not alone in their use of “Star World” as a way to avoid infringing on the Star Wars trademark. I’m going to devote the remainder of this post to covering a few other early, and unrelated, uses of the Star World name.
Snowflake’s Star World Show
A few years ago, I picked up this advertising poster for Snowflake’s Star World Show.
It was one of those auction listings that I stumbled upon, and kept passing on as it continued to go unsold. But, I eventually pulled the trigger and haven’t regretted that decision. I mean, look at this thing. It features an old-school (non-killer) clown and touts an exciting new family show featuring “Snowflake the Magic Clown,” and Chubbacca Jr. in an out-of-this-world magic and fun show.
Who wouldn’t want to see the floating U.F.O., the crazy outer space washing machine, Chubbacca’s escape, or Elmer the amazing blue droid?
The poster is approximately 15 x 20". It doesn’t translate all that well in the scan, but the image is silver on black, which makes it pretty sharp looking in person.
Snowflake the Clown was the character of Richard Snowberg, who was employed by the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Snowberg was apparently a clown of some renown. He was involved in teaching the art of clowning and authored several books on the topic.
In the summer of 1978, public libraries in the State of Wisconsin adopted Star Worlds at the Library as the theme for their summer reading program. This article from the June 18, 1978 edition of The La Crosse Tribune features photos of costumed youth at the Onalaska Branch of the La Crosse County Library.
This photo, from the July 9, 1978 edition of Baraboo News Republic shows three happy recipients of "I'm a Star Person" pinback buttons from the reading program.
This article, from the July 15, 1978 edition of The La Crosse Tribune describes a pair of appearances by Snowflake the Magic Clown at the La Crosse Public Library that were part of the Star Worlds reading program.
It's not clear if the Snowflake shows that were part of the library program were Star World themed or not, but Snowflake would go on to use Star World Show as the name of a series of recurring performances that continued at least into the summer of 1980. It seems that this was a family affair. This article from the July 2, 1979 edition of The Oshkosh Northwestern notes that Chubbacca Jr. was portrayed by Snowberg’s son Eric (then 8), with Star Patrol member portrayed by Snowberg’s other son David (then 6).
This photo from the July 5, 1979 edition of The Oshkosh Northwester features Snowflake, Chubbacca Jr., and (I suspect) Star Patrol member David, who would later be billed as David the Astronaut.
This advertisement from the June 22, 1980 edition of The La Cross Tribune, nearly a year later, features the Star World Magic Show with an appearance by all three characters at the Home Savings & Loan Association.
In the years since acquiring the poster, I’ve been hoping to add other items related to Snowflake’s Star World Show to my collection, but haven’t had any luck in that pursuit. But, as they say, a lot of the fun of collecting is in the search.
As if a Star Wars themed magic clown show wasn’t weird enough, meanwhile, an entirely different (and unrelated) Star World show was transpiring at race tracks, shopping malls, and car dealers across North America.
Bob Perry’s Star World Wheelstanding Dragsters
In my pursuit of Snowflake’s Star World Show material, I came across this cool oval-shaped belt buckle. It features the Star World logo and a strangle-looking vehicle surrounded by stars and planets.
If you look closely at the vehicle, you will see that it is called "Death Ship."
The back side of the buckle is pretty goofy looking.
The buckle is dated 1978 and is noted as a "reality by Bob Perry." It is a relief to know that this is a genuine bona fide "Collectors Item."
The Death Ship is a wheelstanding dragster. A wheelstander races in the wheelie position, with its front wheels lifted high in the air. Based on this article from the June 9, 1978 Tucson Citizen, Death Ship was designed by Bob Perry and debuted at the American Hot Rod Association (AHRA) Tucson National Open on June 10, 1978.
As referenced in the article, at the time, Bob Perry was well known for his earlier wheelstander named "Hell on Wheels" which looked like a tank. The article notes that Perry was still working on a "good guy" dragster named Galaxy, when the Death Ship made its debut.
This advertisement from the August 13, 1978 Chicago Tribune promotes upcoming appearances by Chewbacca, Darth Vader and the Bob Perry Star World Space Ships.
These clippings with rather crude renderings of Vader and Chewie are from the September 28, 1978 and September 29, 1978 editions of The Arizona Republic.
The characters are the same as those from the Chicago area appearance about six weeks prior, however Darth Vader is now billed as "Death Raider," while Chewbacca is billed as "Tobokka." For the most part, these are the character names that will remain in use moving forward.
This clipping from the November 17, 1978 Wisconsin State Journal advertises upcoming appearances in Madison, Wisconsin. By that point in time, the Star World cast of characters had grown. Joining Death Raider and Tobokka were Lance Sky, QO 1000 Robot, Star Trooper and Princess Scherleis. The appearance also featured the Death Ship dragster and the Galaxy II dragster with R3D3 1000.
This appearance at O'Rielly Chevrolet was advertised in the December 24, 1978 edition of the Arizona Daily Star. Here, the Vader character is billed as "Death Rader," but I think that's simply a typo.
The character and vehicle appearances continued into 1979. This advertisement from the March 29, 1979 Kingsport Times is for an appearance at the Kingsport Mall where Star World is described as "A Space Odessey [sic] For All Earthlings."
Fortunately, this advert gives us an albeit fuzzy image of what the characters looked like. I don't know about you, but I think these characters look kind of terrifying. Tobakka looks sort of like a cross between the Yeti and Dr. Zaius.
The advert mentions the availability of Star Worlds "souvenirs," which presumably would have included the belt buckles. It would be interesting to know what else was available.
This article from the April 6, 1979 Florence Morning News previews an appearance as the pre-race entertainment for the upcoming CRC-Chemical Rebel 500 NASCAR race.
This is the Program from the Rebel 500.
As you can see, the race is not celebrating the fictional Rebellion against the Empire, but rather the rebellion of the Confederacy against the United States of America.
Inside the program, there is a nice feature article about the "Star Wars Invasion."
Notably, the Vader vehicle is listed as "Death Ship II." I'm not clear whether or not that dragster is actually a second version of the vehicle, or if this is an error. I suspect the latter.
I was able to track down these period photos of the Death Ship and Galaxy II vehicles at the Rebel 500 with annotations on the reverse side, presumably by the photographer.
As you can see in the Death Ship photo, the Vader dragster is labeled simply Death Ship (not Death Ship II). The Galaxy II photo includes copilot R3D3 1000.
The Star World wheelstanders crossed the border into Canada. This pair of clippings is from an appearance about a month later at the Napierville International Speedway in Québec. The clippings are from the May 5, 1979 editions of The Gazette [Montreal] and the Montreal Star.
I pieced this article together over a long period of time as I gathered the few things that I’ve been able to track down. All of the newspaper clippings and advertisements came from digital archive research.
I took the Death Ship belt buckle to a recent collector gathering and showed it off to some friends. One collector that I showed it to was Vinny Tricomi. After we chatted about it, he was able to find a second belt buckle for the Galaxy II car and add it to his collection.
Needless to say, I'd love to find another one of the Galaxy II belt buckles to pair up with my Death Ship buckle. I'm sure there are also other related items waiting to be discovered.
These Star World items are pretty far outside my normal areas of interest in collecting, but it's nonetheless proven to be a really fun area to pursue.
Special thanks to Erik Janniche, Pete Vilmur and Vinny Tricomi for sharing images of items from their collections.
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