From the pages of Blue Harvest Episode Six...
Summer 1995

Confessions of a Star Wars Collector
props and costumes
by David Toof

So, why am I broke?
I'll let you in on a little secret:  it's because I must support my habit, a holdover from the '70s, I'm afraid.  I'm in constant need of a fix...I'm talking about, of course, Star Wars.

Star Wars props is by far the most-expensive venture of SW collecting, and I'm hooked!  Prices for props can range from a few hundred to several thousands of dollars for items like full costumes or full-sized remote-controlled R2 units.  This, of course, depends on where you get them.

Unlike collecting action figures, posters, or trading cards, collecting props has no end to it.  You can never collect everything because there is an infinite number of props being created.  Obtaining these props and costumes is not too difficult once you find people who own them or can get them.  It's not legal to manufacture these items, as they are copyrighted materials.  It is legal, however, to buy them and possess them.  But if you are manufacturing these items, and Lucasfilm's spies find out, you may find yourself displaying a helmet for Mr. Lucas with a tag marked "Exhibit A."  If Lucasfilm was smart, they would do what Paramount does, and cash in on selling props themselves in limited quantities.  Lucasfilm would not only by selling limited editions of the props, but they would slow the flow of props being built and sold on the underground.

The props available on the underground market are extremely accurate--at times, you can't tell if they're real or fake.  I personally prefer to collect items taken from the actual molds.  These are rare, as most items are just reproductions or upgrades.  If you are told that the item you want was taken from the actual mold, nine times out of ten, it is not.  Dealers usually say this to make a quick sale and use it as an excuse to inflate the price.  Those who do that are bantha fodder, in my opinion.  Some very respectable people who didn't know any better have told others that their items were taken from the original molds, only to discover they had been lied to in the first place.

I know for a fact that one, perhaps two, of my lightsaber props are made from the original Lucasfilm molds.  The prop-maker showed my friend (/////) the "stunt" or "stand-in" props that he obtained from a Lucasfilm employee.  These were sabers tossed around the set during lightsaber battles.  I'm guessing they were stolen off the set, but I've never asked.  Stunt props are generally rougher around the edges, are not painted perfectly, and lack detail.  They are meant to be knocked around.

My Darth Vader lightsaber is a close reproduction of one of two lightsaber styles Vader used in the films.  (One was like the saber used in the Energizer bunny commercial, the other--called a "highland"--was actually an antique piece of camera equiment called a "flash bar" or "flash handle" with added parts).  I had the prop maker custom make my Vader saber with a removable clear, solid blade, with a light inside the handle to illuminate it.

The saber Luke used in the first and second film is also a flash unit with added parts, called a "graflex."  The graflex saber was slightly different in each film.  The ANH saber has the hand grips that mine has, but also has the same "bubble" touchpad as the Vader and Kenobi sabers.  In TESB, the grips changed slightly with the addition of a little notch at the bottom of each grip, and the touchpad was changed from the bubble to the "computer chip," which my saber has.  So, my saber has elements of both SW and TESB sabers.  When I first got my lightsabers, I noticed that the belt rings were actually key rings.  I later replaced them with the correct kind of rings.

There are many different guns and blasters used in the SW films.  These are easy to make, as most are based on actual WWII guns.  Some prop guns are plastic, some are resin, others are metal.  One of my Kenner SW rifles was upgraded for me.  My friend added items, streamlined it, painted it, gave it weight, and finished it by adding dents and dings for that "used universe" look.  He even added a little Imperial insiginia on one side of the gun.  It looks great.

Never try to pressure the people who are building these items, or rush them to finish a prop.  Most prop makers take their sweet time.  It makes no difference how much money you are willing to pay them, because they love creating new things.  If they get bored with a helmet, they will create a totally new one.  Also, get photos from the seller in advance--any respectable dealer will do this.

Prop collecting is not for everyone (an American Express Platinum card is useful at times), but it can be one of the more unusual and one of the most-rewarding of all kinds of SW collecting.  My home looks like I raided the Lucasfilm archives!  People think I own the real film props.  As Yoda might say, "Prop collecting is fun, for once you start down the collecting path, forever will it dominate your destiny.  Consume you it will!"  For this consumer...it did.

Next issue:  cast and crew items...what is the story behind some of these rare collectibles?

©1994 Blue Harvest




Clone Wars: Spaceballs
by Mary Jo Fox

Ten years after ANH's release, Mel Brooks unleashed his sci-fi spoof, Spaceballs.  Brooks had had success in the 1970s spoofing classic films and genres with Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, and High Anxiety, but had experienced a series of flops in the 1980s.  Brooks hoped to turn that around with this big-budget comedy--unfortunately, it flopped too.  Industry wags immediately claimed it was because the film came out 10 years too late; in other words, in 1987, nobody cared about SW anymore.  (One such article stating something to that effect put your editor into a deep depression for weeks).

Spaceballs remains controversial not only among SW fans (some were terribly offended that someone DARED to make fun of SW), but among Brooks' fans as well.  Some really enjoyed it, others put it down as one of his worst films.

The film begins in a distant galaxy where Princess Vespa (Melrose Place's Daphne Zuniga) is about to marry Prince Valium, a man so dull, he's yawning during the wedding ceremony.  Vespa decides to ditch Valium at the altar, and heads for the stars with her faithful droid, Dot Matrix (voiced by Joan Rivers).  Vespa's father (Dick Van Patten) hires a mercenary by the name of Lone Starr.  Lone Starr is a cross between Luke Skywalker and Han Solo.  He's a cynical space jockey who travels in a ship that looks like a Winnebago, with his half-man, half-dog sidekick Barf (John Candy).  But little does Starr know that he's a long-lost prince with the power of the "Schwartz."  Along the way, they meet up with Yogurt, a Yiddish-accented version of Yoda (played by Mel Brooks), and with the diabolical Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis).

Spaceballs mostly spoofs SW, but there are also references to Star Trek, Alien, and Planet of the Apes, among others.  As with all Mel Brooks movies, there are Jewish jokes galore, such as the whole Schwartz business, and the fact that Vespa's a "Druish" princess with a nose job.  Some of the gags produce more groans than laughs (like Dark Helmet's infamous line, "I bet she gives good helmet"), but others are pretty funny.  My personal favorites are the "Hello My Ragtime Gal" routine with the baby alien, and Yogurt's massive Spaceballs merchandise collection.

While Spaceballs is not quite up there with brilliant classics like Blazing Saddles, and it probably would've been more appropriate had it been released some years earlier, it's not a wholly terrible movie.  In fact, it's quite enjoyable to those who like Brooks-esque humor and science fiction.

Spaceballs is widely-available on video and pops up on local t.v. every now and then.

Word has it that Fox (the t.v. network) is producing a show called Space, which is being billed as "Star Wars meets Beverly Hills, 90210."  You can best believe this show, if it materializes, will get its own Clone Wars column.  That is more than a promise, it's a threat.  Even more threatening are memories of the wretched 1984 comedy, Ice Pirates, which I will dredge up for you next time around.

©1994 Blue Harvest
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