1998 Star Wars Expanded Universe: “A Starship is Born”
Here’s an awesome treat for any of you with an interest in Kenner’s 1998 Star Wars Expanded Universe vehicles and action figures (Amazon.com search*). From the March, 1998 issue of ToyFare magazine comes this article all about the creation of the Expanded Universe Speeder Bike*, Cloud Car*, and Airspeeder* vehicles.
You had better believe that as I work on my book about these 1998 Expanded Universe toys I am referring to this five-page article. One of the things that really jumped out at me was how the article mentions that Kenner considered these toys to be off-camera designs.
Hmmmm. That sure sounds a hell of a lot like the reason why the Mini-Rigs of the eighties came into existence. Just compare this quote from Star Wars: From Concept to Screen to Collectible*:
” . . . Boudreaux started designing one-man vehicles and body rigs that looked as if the could have been in the films, but maybe were just out of sight of the camera.”
with a quote from the article:
“Lucasfilm’s position is that these three vehicles are somewhere in the universe of Star Wars, but just didn’t make it into the films — kinda what you would’ve seen if the camera had panned left instead of right.”
The article is very much recommended, not only for Star Wars fans but also anyone who wants to know more about how toys are made. Even though this was published seventeen years ago a lot of the steps in the process remain unchanged. Read it and learn, gang!
Still have this issue with this article. One of the things I missed about the disappearance of a magazine like ToyFare was the disappearance of articles like this. Sure, we’re definitely seeing similar behinds the scenes looks from some companies but ToyFare seemed to be able to go a but further with larger companies.
@Barbecue17 – If I had time I would try and get in there and create some articles like this to post online. I think the toymakers want this level of promotion today. There’s just no big magazine with the cash flow to make it happen.
Awesome! I have two of the three vehicles: snow speeder and cloud car. I’ve always loved the concept art behind the movies and toys–so they were right up my alley. Thanks for posting!