Welcome to the fourth, and final, installment of a colorful look at Star Wars Japanese Erasers, Keshigomu (Keshi for short). When last we met, we learned about the Takara line of characters and vehicles. But there were actually more Takara keshi. An entire other line that are some of the rarest, biggest, and most unique!
This “Jumbo” line consists of an interesting mix of larger versions of some of the previously discussed characters and vehicles, different sculpts of other characters, and even characters that are not available in any other eraser form. As stated before, the term Jumbo is relative. These erasers are about twenty-five percent taller than their counterparts in the regular line, with most being up to 2.25 inches tall. It is most likely that these were released in larger versions of the capsule machines. I am sure many Japanese collectors have first-hand knowledge of how they were distributed but I have not confirmed my hypothesis yet. Regardless, they are among the rarest Japanese items from Star Wars and seldom come up for sale. Compound this with the array of colors (opaque and translucent) each came in, and you have a nearly impossible chance of completing this set. If you only focus on one character or vehicle, you have a decent chance but still challenging.
There are thirteen jumbo characters and vehicles from Takara. Over half of them are nearly identical to the smaller versions. They are C-3PO, Jawa, Millennium Falcon, R2-D2, Stormtrooper, Tusken Raider, and X-Wing. The ones that have noticeably different sculpts are Chewbacca, Darth Vader, and Landspeeder. And, finally, the ones that are not available in other keshi lines are Bantha with Tusken Raider rider, Dewback with Sandtrooper rider, and R5-D4. It’s interesting to note that since Japan did not have the Kenner Dewback or R5-D4 action figure and there was not a Bantha for the original toy line, these three jumbo erasers represent the only dimensional versions of those characters available in Japan during the release of the first film.
The last major area of Star Wars keshi are the unlicensed ones. Collectors often refer to them as “bootlegs” but that is a misnomer since they are not fake versions of existing items but rather merchandise created without a license to do so. Just like other unlicensed items, these erasers run the gamut from clear rip-off identical representations to similar/vaguely looking characters but with plausible deniability that they are not meant to be Star Wars items. Often they are promoted as “Space Warriors” or some other safe-from-copyright-infringement name. Among Star Wars collectors, there is no consensus as to which of these “inspired by” creations get included in collections and which are too removed in appearance to be considered a Star Wars collectible. For example, some will collect all domed-robots as R2 units and others will say that once you add facial features or appendages such as hands or bipedal legs it no longer is similar enough to R2-D2 to count. Hence, there can never be a definitive list of these unlicensed keshi; everyone draws the line at different spots. So, I will just include a photo of some of the ones I have collected. As usual, these are found in a rainbow of colors.
Now that we are at an end of our rather lengthy treatise on Japanese erasers (probably much longer than you would have guessed even possible), you might have noticed an interesting fact. Every eraser discussed has been from the original release of the first Star Wars film in 1978! That’s right, as prolific as it was then, by Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, there was no one making keshi for either of those two movies. Fast forward to the reawakening of Star Wars saga merchandise in the 1990s, there was still no keshi. During the tsunami of Episode 1 products where seemingly everything under the sun had a Star Wars label slapped on it, keshi were noticeably absent. Throughout the rest of the prequels and even the animated runs of The Clone Wars and Rebels, you guessed it…still no keshi. It was not until 2015, with the release of The Force Awakens, that keshigomu were once again part of the Star Wars portfolio in Japan. A company names Sun Star Stationery created two lines sold in blind boxes. One line for Episode VII and one spanning the first six films. Since then, there have been some others including an interesting set of keshi sold in mini-metal lunch boxes for The Mandalorian. Hopefully this trend will continue so future generations of Japanese school children will have the benefit of going to school ready to play (I mean correct written mistakes) with erasers that are definitely not toys.
