Happy 40th Empire Strikes Back

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back, I wanted to reminisce a little about the greatest sci-fi adventure.

I grew up watching Creature Double Feature on Saturday afternoons and while there was a good mix of Godzilla flicks in there, I think ESB was the first real sequel I saw that continued the adventures of another movie. I"m not 100% sure but I think the first time I saw a trailer was in front of Moonraker (also my first Bond). If it had to so with outer space, I wanted to see it! I can't even convey to you the sense of how much 9 year old me was blown away by the trailer! Not only seeing the characters I loved coming back but all the new stuff. I didn't even know the name AT-AT yet but they were damn cool!

The Music
While the Star Wars main theme is certainly iconic, there's no denying that the Imperial March has become "the Star Wars song". Even people that aren't familiar with Star Wars (who ARE these people?) know it just like everyone knows the Jaws theme. Another reason I love the soundtrack is that the March's influence is felt in other tracks. When CDs first came out, this was the first one I bought. It was also the first CD I played in my first brand new car.

The Places
Okay, Dagobah doesn't bring much to the table aside from Yoda. Hoth is pretty much an ice cube but I love just about everything there from cold weather outfits to Probe droids. The Battle of Hoth is one of the best sequences in all of Star Wars. But Bespin? Out of all the locations in all the movies, that's the place I'd move to if I could. You know, when it's not under Imperial occupation.

The Characters
There were only a handful of new main characters but they make up for quantity with quality. It would take a few more years for me to fully appreciate Yoda's wisdom. I remember turning to my dad and asking him what "That is why you fail." meant. Lando was kinda cool but also a bit on the shady side.

Boba. Fett. So much hype for him even before the movie from his animated appearance in the Holiday Special to the mail away figure and articles like the one here. Imperial Shocktrooper that wiped out the Jedi? Bounty Hunter? Who was this guy and what's with the cool armor?

The Toys
OMG the toys! That mail away Boba Fett before the movie even came out was everything! Even though I had the AT-AT, it was always the smaller vehicles like Slave I or the Cloud Car that captured my imagination (again going back to Bespin). The new mini-rigs gave us a peek at what might be just off screen. I still wish we'd gotten a Kenner Carbon Freeze Chamber playset.

I remember having to go to a toy store in another state to get the Yoda figure after he was released. Sure it was probably easy enough to find down the road but when you're a kid, you had to have it!

The Fast Food Tie-Ins
Fellow fan Richard Woloski over at Skywalking Through Neverland has a great piece up spotlighting the Burger King and Burger Chef Empire promo items which is sure to give you some warm fuzzies.

The Speculation
Who was the other Yoda mentioned? Couldn't be Han, right? Leia? I dunno. A character in the next movie?

Wait, what? Vader's gotta be pulling Luke's leg, right? There's no way he's really his father, that's insane! This was the talk of the playground for the next three years.
Kids today will never understand.

Feel free to share your Empire memories in the comments!

I've also shared some Empire poster magazines over the years.

ESB #1

ESB #2

ESB #3
ESB #4

League Post - Hake's Auction #210

Ok, I know I said I was giving the goblins a week off but when the League of Extraordinary Bloggers partners with Hake's Americana & Collectibles, out comes the whip! The premise behind this assignment is to go on a crazy shopping pop culture spree.

The prices I'm listing are Hake's estimates on what the item will fetch.

Antikamnia Skeleton Calendar ($400-700)
The first thing that grabbed my attention is this six page calendar from 1898 that was distributed to doctors. The illustrations are truly weird. The caption of the page on the right is "'Fo' De Lawd's Sake What You Doin'?' - Uncle Rufus - 'De Doctah Said--Put De Plastah On De Ol' Woman's Back!'" Gotta love 1898! They have three other calendars from around the same time as well.

Full insert

Close up

Star Wars Action Figure Case Insert ($200-400)
If you're an OG Star Wars fan, you might remember those rectangular cases to hold your figures. The cases had a double-sided cardboard insert that showed off the figures. This particular insert is rare because one of the figures is a kit-bashed Boba Fett. This would have been a cool figure to get!

Johnny Eck signed photo ($100-200)
I absolutely love the 1932 movie Freaks so this is a special treasure to find up for bid. The auction mentions this tidbit: "The twins performed magic shows where the full-body twin would be sawed in half, and Johnny would crawl through the audience, much to their shock." Can you imagine?

Piece of Disney History Haunted Mansion Pin ($50-100)
"This limited edition pin contains a piece of one of the three Audio-Animatronic Hitchhiking Ghosts (Phineas) from Disney's The Haunted Mansion. The piece of the ghost is in a capsule on the left side of this pin." Sure it's a teeny tiny piece but how cool it would be to have! We have a Wizard of Oz trading card that has a tiny piece of the original Yellow Brick Road in it.

Vincent Price Ring ($400-700)

"This large and heavy ring is made of pewter with a silvery finish although with some brassy luster on his exceedingly high relief portrait which is surrounded on each side with claws. This is the example pictured in The Overstreet Toy Ring Price Guide with the notation that it was a licensed ring and that only 12 were produced." 

Oh my, this thing is gore-geous! The fact that it's only 1 of 12 ever made just elevates its awesomeness.

Ok, I have to reign myself in otherwise I'll be here all day!

Here what other League members have their eye on
Neato Coolville has got some retro scifi goodness
D.I. Treasures found some cool Pez dispensers I missed
Vintage board games and movie monsters at Achievements in Gaming

League Post - Hake's Shopping Spree

The League of Extraordinary Bloggers challenges me to a shopping spree!

You have very deep pockets but your shelves are bare. Go on a shopping spree at Hake’s Americana and Collectibles to make your place a little more awesome.

The challenge is that I'm limiting myself to three things.
There's so much cool stuff but where to start?

Naturally, my first search was for Star Wars items. While they have some vintage (and by that I mean truly vintage from the 70s/80s) carded figures, they're not doing much for me. But this...

Alien auction

I know this 18" tall guy is on a lot of collectors' lists and with a box in decent shape? Ohhh yeah! This was made by Kenner in 1979 and probably the first action figure from an R rated movie. Had I seen this on the shelf back then even without any idea about the movie, I would have been clamoring for it. And then it would have been inflicting untold horrors on my Star Wars figures with its snapping jaws and glow-in-the-dark brain.

And I was still browsing the Space/SciFi stuff when this next piece screamed at me.

Strato Gun auction

This gorgeous piece of retro goodness is actually a cap gun! I think it was a law before that whole "orange cap in the gun barrel" thing that all toy guns containing metal had to shoot caps. I absolutely love the retro future scifi aesthetic and I would get a nice custom stand/case to show this off.

I also did a bit of poking around for anything Halloween or Creature from the Black Lagoon related but nothing really grabbed my attention. But I did find some sweet Viewmaster reels.

Viewmaster auction

I'm scooping up this lot just for the Addams Family one. I don't give a bat's ass about Dark Shadows and I'll probably only keep the Munsters ones if they have Uncle Gilbert.

As Shawn points out in the comments, the Munsters and Addams Family images can be viewed at View Master World. Head over there and check the bottom of the page to see what else they have.

What Other League Members Are Buying
Branded in the 80s beat me to some amazing prototype figures
Superman and Dino-Riders go home with Robot's Pajamas
Henchgirl might be a crazy cat lady in the making

Star Wars Wednesday - Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

As I'm writing this, the internets and Twitter are blowing up with the news of even more changes Lucas has made to the Original Trilogy on BluRay. And if these leaked changes are real, it wont' take a Jedi master to foresee they're going to be met with much fan outrage.

But that is the big question right now. The videos of these changes did not come from LucasFilm and were uploaded to a YouTube channel and the audio seems to be lacking in quality. Is this just someone pranking the rabid fanbase? Only time will tell.

All the drama queens crying "Lucas raped my childhood" are just that, drama queens. Lucas can't take away the movies I already own or my childhood memories. He can do what he wants because no matter what we like or dislike, he's making these changes so the movies fit his vision. Although it seems like that vision keeps needing a new prescription every few years....ahem.

Since this dust won't fully settle for some time, these toy ads from Famous Monsters of Filmland should make you feel a little better. Go ahead and click on them to view larger versions.

 

Star Wars Wednesday - Action Figure Stand UK Ad

Click to enlarge

Here's a nifty ad from the Star Wars Weekly UK comic #159, 1982. The artist's choice of lighting makes it a very striking image.

Retro Star Wars Wednesday - Action Figures

These little guys were a huge part of my childhood. Hammerhead, Snaggletooth, R5-D4, Death Star Droid and Power Droid were some of my favorite ones from the original lineup. I used to bring Hammerhead with me pretty frequently. Maybe it was the soothing aqua jumpsuit, I don't know.

It wouldn't be until the 90s when these aliens got proper names and back stories courtesy of West End Games' Star Wars Role Playing Game and the anthology Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina.

Mail Order form from Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine

You can view a larger image of each figure by clicking on them below.

Retro Star Wars Wednesday - Kenner Blaster Rifle

 
Back in 1978, we didn’t need no stinking orange painted cap and our guns were all black…ok mostly black. The inside of the barrel was yellow but the gun wasn’t all freakin neon colored!

The gun made “laser sounds” when you pulled the trigger. In the first version (seen here) it wasn’t much of a sound, it was more like a whirring/grinding noise. If you’ve ever heard a Kenner X-Wing or TIE Fighter, it’s on par with that.

This baby was loaded with 2 D batteries. When was the last time you used D batteries? After ESB, it would make more of a laser sound and have two firing modes/sounds and take a single 9-volt.

The thing I love about this classic is the 3-way stock it had. They truly don’t make em like this anymore.

Refer to the above image to see what I'm talkin' 'bout.
Left - stock is folded up and under the barrel which is usually how you see it on film
Middle - a small handgrip folds down so you can hold it like a tommy gun
Right - entire stock flips back and the handgrip flips down to become a butt so you could hold it like a true rifle