A Little-Known Handheld Return of the Jedi Video Game from 1983

Each of the four founding collections of The Saga Museum includes many prototypes of unproduced toys. Here’s a unique one from the Imperial Archives—a little-known handheld Return of the Jedi video game from 1983.

At the start of the 1980s, Parker Brothers was a major player in the young handheld video game market. Their Merlin game, launched in 1978, sold 2.2 million units in 1980, making it the single best selling toy or game in the United States that year. Two years later, Parker’s Atari 2600 console adaptation of Konami’s arcade hit Frogger outsold even Merlin, but they were shut out of the handheld market for that title when those rights were licensed to competitor Coleco instead. Their adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back was also limited to consoles.

For 1983, Parker Brothers intended to capture both parts of the electronic revenue stream with two new games planned to have both console and handheld versions: Q*Bert and Return of the Jedi: The Ewok Adventure. While they successfully released Q*Bert as a handheld game and for multiple computer systems and consoles (including ColecoVision), The Ewok Adventure never made to market. Apparently, Parker Brothers and the game’s designer couldn’t agree on the controller scheme for the Atari 2600 version of the game, so the whole project was cancelled. A prototype cartridge of the Atari game was awarded “Rarest Star Wars Video game” in 2015 by Guinness World Records.

A page from Parker Brothers’ 1983 catalog

This handheld prototype is equally rare. In this context, the word “handheld” is deeply misleading, as this fully functional prototype stands 43 inches high, 29 inches wide, and 40 inches deep. (The video below will give you an idea of the scale.) I’m told it was on display at Parker Brothers’ 1983 Toy Fair trade exhibition, where it was used to encourage toy distributors to order the finished product.

Gameplay is unusual (and, without instructions, took me a while to figure out). You move the Ewok left and right across a tree branch at the top of the screen while, at the bottom, two AT-STs patrol back and forth. One of the walkers is an enemy shooting up at you; the other is manned by Chewbacca (appearing as a yellow shape at the top of the AT-ST). Chewie throws rocks up to you, which you catch and toss back down at the enemy walker. Once you’ve hit the required number of enemies in each level, you coast down to the ground on an Ewok glider, still trying to avoid fire from the enemy AT-ST, and also trying to avoid the edges of the playfield. Whenever you do something wrong—such as getting shot, hitting Chewbacca, or when your glider hits an edge—a scout trooper advances up the tree trunk at the right side of the screen; when he reaches the top, your game is over.. As you advance through levels, the game gets faster, and the number of AT-STs you have to defeat is increased.

Game sounds are simple beeps and tones consistent with similar products of that era, and gameplay is on par with the average handheld of the time. (I think it’s moderately fun, but it lacks the diversity of Merlin or the addictive gameplay of Mattel Electronics’ classic 1977 Football.)

October 10, 2025October 10, 2025

Vintage Food Collectors Have Discovered A Lot From Star Wars Food Ads!

Vintage food collectors will often comment on the extreme scarcity of Star Wars food packaging that they’re able to find years later. While many saved highly-publicized Star Wars food premiums that were advertised with purchase of food items, few thought to save the actual packaging. As a result, there are still to this day many rare, one-of-a-kind, and unknown-to-still-exist Star Wars food items. As collectors, one way we are able to learn what was made is through these ads in magazines, newspapers, and comics from the period.

KP Outer Spacers was a corned-based snack food which the British call “crisps” and Americans correctly call “chips”. These snacks were shaped like spaceships, so it was well suited as a Star Wars promotion. This started in early 1978 shortly after the release of Star Wars in the United Kingdom and offered a mail away Star Wars “Fighter Kite”, made by the British toy company, Palitoy. The offer required kids to send in 3 wrappers and 95p to receive a kite, reducing the number of intact bags saved to this day. The promotion appeared on three different flavors of KP Outer Spacers: beef burger, chutney, and pickled onion.

The KP Outer Spacers promotion was advertised in various Star Wars comics such as the March 4, 1989 issue of 2000AD (a British science fiction comic) and in the Marvel Star Wars Weekly comic from February 29, 1978. Marvel’s Star Wars comic, which was monthly series in the United States, was published in a weekly series in Britain.

KP Outer Spacers bags are next to impossible to find, but here’s an example of a bag of chutney flavoured [sic] chips with the Star Wars Fighter Kite offer details. This is also a rare example of a food promotion where even the premium is super difficult to come by!

Nabisco launched the first cereal promotion in Britain on boxes of Shreddies cereal. In this case, the premium is the packaging, as each box contained a small sheet of Letraset stickers of Star Wars characters that could be affixed onto the back of 4 different Star Wars scenes on the box backs.

The Shreddies offer was promoted in various UK comics such as the June 17, 1978 issue of Tiger and the May 24, 1978 issue of Star Wars Weekly.

The Shreddies offer appeared on 10 ounce and 15 ounce boxes of Shreddies cereal, so with 4 different scenes on the box backs, there are 8 different Shreddies Star Wars boxes to collect!

Coca Cola ran a massive campaign in Japan for the release of the first Star Wars film. Jonathan McElwain wrote an extensive blog article on the Star Wars Coca Cola promotion in Japan that I’d highly recommend to anyone wanting to learn more about this fascinating Coca Cola promotion. One of the places where this was advertised was in the July 2, 1978 issue of Weekly Shōnen, a weekly manga comic that is popular in Japan.

Each Coca Cola product brand (Coca Cola, Fanta Orange, Fanta Grape, Fanta Apple, Sprite, Fanta Club Soda, and Fanta Golden Grape) had 50 different bottle caps. Bottles were also sold in six packs with two different six pack trays: one with C-3PO, Luke Skywalker, and Ben Kenobi, and another with the Escape pod.

Some American Star Wars collectors might be surprised to learn that there was a Nestlé’s Quik Star Wars food tie-in. Well, not exactly. Nestlé, which offered Star Wars jewelry mail away premiums on wrappers of their candy bars, also did a newspaper campaign for Kenner toys, which included the Star Wars large size action figures and the X-Wing and TIE Fighter vehicles. Unlike other Quik food promotions, as far as I know, this promotion never reached the actual Quik cans, but here is an image of a similar Quik can for a toy promotion from 13 years earlier for a British boy band using a can label design that has remained largely unchanged over those years.

Kraft brought Letraset stickers back for The Empire Strikes Back in a Dairylea cheese promotion in the United Kingdom. There were four different Dairylea cheese spread boxes, each containing a different black and white Star Wars scene on the back of the container. Kids could find a small sheet of Letraset stickers inside the box that could be used to add characters and objects to the scene. This was advertised in the Marvel adaptation for The Empire Strikes Back in the Star Wars Weekly issue for May 29, 1980. Kids could also mail away for an Empire Strikes Back “bumper transfer pack” that contained additional Letraset stickers. This Marvel issue also included a small Letraset sheet for this Kraft Dairylea series.

Kraft would later go on to do another Dairylea cheese promotion for the Droids and Ewoks cartoons in the mid 1980s with different characters appearing on cheese wedges.

For Return of the Jedi, Amora offered Star Wars glasses in jars of Dijon mustard in France. This promotion was advertised in the Franco-Belgian comic, Spirou.

There were four different Star Wars glasses to collect: Chewbacca and Ewok, “Dark Vador” and Troopers, “Luc” and Dark Vader, and Luc and Yoda.

The Hi-C promotion for Return of the Jedi included a mail away offer for Return of the Jedi t-shirts and caps. This was advertised in newspapers and directly on drink labels. Kids could send 3 quality seal labels from any Hi-C drink plus $3.99 or $3.25 for the t-shirt or hat, respectively.

Labels and intact Hi-C cans are surprisingly difficult to track down. Even though the small rectangular quality seal was the only portion of the label that needed to mailed in, even partial labels were not often saved. This Return of the Jedi promotion appeared on 11 different flavors of Hi-C drinks. Looking at the three labels above, only the orange and grape drinks state “All Natural Flavors”, which tells you everything you need to know about Fruit Punch.

Possibly the most obscure food promotion from the vintage years was conducted by Doriana in Argentina. Over many years, Doriana has created collectible margarine containers for popular comic characters, superheroes, Disney characters, sports figures, and more. The concept is illustrated in this ad where kids are encouraged to cut out the character on the container lid along with a small plastic strip underneath it to make a stand. Needless to say, this tended to cause many of the container lids to be destroyed.

Here are two examples of fully intact Doriana margarine lids for “Wicket the Ewok” and “Imperial Scout”. The Imperial Scout (or Biker Scout) also includes the original Doriana margarine container.

One of the last Return of the Jedi food promotions occurred in Finland from 1984-1985 for Star Wars themed licorice and fruit candy, as indicated by the dates of these comic book covers. The back covers of these comics had full color ads where kids could mail away for 1 of 5 different flavors of these Star Wars candy boxes.

Here’s an example of one of the Halva licorice boxes. All the candy boxes featured Darth Vader on the front with 9 different images of Star Wars characters and spaceship card art on the back.

One of the most elusive food promos occurred in Sweden in 1984 for Hemglass ice cream. Hemglass “Star Mint” and “Big Star” popsicles could be bought from local ice cream vendors driving around the neighborhood in Hemglass trucks as depicted in the lower right hand corner of this ad in an issue of “The Phantom” comic. To date, I have never found nor have seen any packaging related to this food promotion, so it’s fair to call it a Phantom menace.

A little known cereal tie-in in 1985 appeared on covers of the Marvel’s Return of the Jedi weekly comic in the UK. As was standard in the day, toy premiums would occasionally get attached to the covers of these comics, literally taped onto the front. Two of the promotions were for Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, one in March 1985 for dinosaur 3D cards, and another in August 1985 for plastic plane models. Obviously, these premiums had nothing to do with Star Wars, but their placement on the Return of the Jedi made them canon!

August 15, 2025August 15, 2025

The Colorful World of Keshigomu Star Wars Part 3!

The Colorful World of Keshigoum Star Wars Part 3

It is time for part 3 of the colorful world of keshigomu (keshi) Star Wars! Keshi, as you hopefully remember, are the small rubber erasers that have been popular in Japan over the past half century. Of course, we are focusing on Star Wars. In 1978, when Star Wars was first released in theaters across Japan, myriad licensees put their own spin on the now-classic characters and events from that Galaxy far away. None were more prolific than Takara toy company. Most collectors recognize Takara as the sub-licensee of Kenner responsible for distributing the original action figures in Japan, but their contributions go well beyond that. There were dozens of different Star Wars keshi made by Takara and sold in capsule machines (remember think gumball machines). Due to the small size of the capsules, it is not uncommon to find heavily stooped or bent keshi. They are not suffering some spinal injury, just years of confinement in a plastic prison that didn’t allow them to stand tall, so to speak.

Three different “series” were available concurrently. Collectors have separated them into different series based on their attributes rather than release dates. So, as we discuss these, remember if you were a child in Japan in 1978 putting your hard-earned yen into the capsule machine, you could get a keshi from any one of these three “series.” In fact, here’s a display card that would have been inside the capsule machine to give prospective customers a glimpse of what they might receive.

The first series has been dubbed the “12-back” series by collectors. Many vintage action figure collectors will recognize that term as applied to the first twelve Kenner Star Wars action figures because the back of the original blister cards showed twelve figures. They consisted of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Darth Vader, Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi, C-3PO, R2-D2, Stormtrooper, Death Squad Commander, Sand People, and the Jawa. The 12 keshi match exactly those original 12 action figures. Clearly a deliberate decision on the part of Takara. These 12 characters are slightly larger than the other Takara keshi. Most are about two inches high with R2-D2 and the Jawa being smaller. Like all good keshi, they came in a full spectrum of colors including two different yellows. Possible versions are Black, White, Lemon Yellow, Desert Yellow, Blue, Green, Pink, and Orange. I am always surprised by the omission of red from these early lines.

The second “series” (remember they are concurrent with the 12-backs) have been called the “base series.” In many lines, a base series connotes the standard, non-special versions such as the regular cards in a trading card set. However, in this instance “base” is actually derived from the fact that the characters each stand on a base. This Keshi set is more action posed and slightly smaller than the static 12-backs. Also, there are far fewer characters depicted but, since some have multiple poses, there are actually more in this series than 12-backs. Thirteen to be precise. Two poses for C-3PO, Stormtrooper, and Chewbacca; one pose each for Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan, and R2-D2; while Darth Vader has the most with three different poses. The other characters are not represented at all. Again, the same color palette was available for these erasers. Due to their smaller nature, facial likenesses, especially with the humans, is not very accurate and the sculptor clearly took some liberties designing the weaponry. But a very fun line nonetheless. Sticklers for detail will note that the R2-D2 in the base series does not, in fact, have a base. The base of his legs are thicker than the 12-back version. So, what I have told you is true…from a certain point of view. Another quick way to distinguish the 12-back R2-D2 from the base version is the pronounced indentation under the dome of the 12-back version.

The third concurrent Takara series were all vehicles and roughly the same size as the base series, slightly smaller than the 12-backs. The vehicles were also available in the same colors as the other two series. This vehicle series consists of the Landspeeder, Millennium Falcon, X-Wing, TIE Fighter, Darth Vader’s bent-winged TIE Fighter, and a Star Destroyer that is much flatter and wider than depicted in the films. It is closer to an equilateral triangle. If you are keeping track at home that’s almost 250 variations on these three Takara series if you want all combinations. And, let’s face it, who doesn’t want all combinations!

Eagle-eyed readers have probably noted the metal R2-D2 in the center of the capsule machine display card. Even stretching the bounds of credibility, it’s not possible to call that an eraser. In fact, it was the top-prize in the capsules: the R2-D2 100-yen coin holder. Few lucky enthusiasts received this instead of a rubber keshi. It has a spring in the body of the droid that held coins and allowed you to remove them like a pez dispenser, presumably so you could buy more keshi.

This seems like a good place to stop this month’s Keshi installment but, don’t fret, our story is not at the end. Just like the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy had a fourth book “So long and thanks for all the fish,” our Keshigomu magnum opus trilogy will also have a fourth part “of Jumbos and Bootlegs.”

Check out parts one and two of the Keshi blogs!

July 30, 2025July 30, 2025

Thank you for your support of The Saga Museum at San Diego Comic-Con 2025!

We are still catching our breath after returning from San Diego, but wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone who showed enthusiasm and support for The Sage Museum Initiative of Rancho Obi-Wan at San Diego Comic-Con 2025!

Whether you attended our panel on The Saga Museum, bid on items in the Julien’s Auctions and Turner Classic Movies: TCM ECHOES from the GALAXY auction or took the time to come up on the convention floor to say hello, we truly appreciated and felt your support. Thank you!

Stay tuned for an official recap of all things from San Diego coming soon.

July 2, 2025July 2, 2025

Echoes from the Galaxy Auction now open for Bidding!

Julien’s & TCM Present: Echoes from the Galaxy.

Comic-Con Museum presents: TCM & Julien’s Auctions Echoes from the Galaxy

The exhibit and auction will feature many items from the founding collections of The Saga Museum® of Star Wars Memorabilia.

Additional featured collections include those of former Lucasfilm Art Director Rio Phior and former Lucasfilm In-House Designer Melanie Paykos.

The auction will end with live bidding at Comic-Con Museum® in San Diego on July 27. You do not need to be present to continue bidding. See Julien’s for different ways to bid on the last day.

REGISTER AND START BIDDING TODAY!

More about The Saga Museum® Initiative

June 9, 2025June 9, 2025

The Colorful World of Keshigomu Star Wars Part 2!

Let’s continue our look at the colorful world of Keshigomu (rubber erasers), the popular Star Wars collectibles from Japan! If you missed out on part one you can click here to look at the Maruka Toy Company series of small erasers from 1978. For part two we are turning our attention to the Jumbo series, also by Maruka Toy Company in 1978!

Although the series is called “Jumbo”, don’t let that fool you. To paraphrase a wise Jedi Master, “Size…is relative.” Whereas the small series are about 1.5 inches high, this larger series are roughly 2.5 inches high. Another easily noticeable difference, is that the Jumbos come in individual bags with colorful headers depicting a photo of the character or vehicle for that keshi. The small keshi, you will recall, were sold in bags of 50 random pieces, or in blind bags of five. These were sold individually. An attractive display box holding these erasers would sit on the counter of small mom and pop shops, confectionary stores, or kiosks. The first series of the Jumbo line consisted of many of the same characters and vehicles that made up the smaller counterparts: R2-D2, C-3PO, Landspeeder, Millennium Falcon, X-Wing, and Y-Wing. Fans of the Empire were out of luck. Also, just like the small series, the Jumbo were made in opaque and translucent versions of each color. It is worth noting that the opaque versions are significantly more difficult to find than the clear ones. Another fun observation when looking at the Jumbo series is that the Millennium Falcon has two cockpits!

At some point after the first series, a second series was briefly released. This much rarer set is considered by most collectors to be the most difficult to find. Another six Jumbo keshi make up the second series: Darth Vader, Stormtrooper, Sandcrawler, Star Destroyer, Vader’s TIE Fighter, and R2-D2. But wait a second, I hear you saying to your computer screen, wasn’t R2-D2 in the first series? Good catch, however, the first series R2-D2 has two legs and the second series version sports three legs. If you want a major challenge, try tracking down even one of these second series Jumbo keshi.

The final area we will discuss regarding the Maruka Toy Company’s vintage keshi involves their “Magic Ruler” (or stencil) line. At the same time they released their large and small keshi, Maruka released a set of ten small plastic stencils that featured outlines of Star Wars characters and vehicles. The trick was that the outlines were separated into right and left halves so that when you traced them together the full character would appear like magic. Don’t worry, no need to burn anyone at the stake, it’s really science. Now that you have extinguished your mob torches, you are probably all asking what does that have to do with keshi? I am glad you asked. These magic ruler stencils came in several different colors but they were sold in solid black plastic bags so you couldn’t tell what character or color you were buying. Once you purchased it, you opened the bag at the counter and if you were lucky enough to get a black plastic magic ruler, the store owner also gave you one of the Jumbo keshi as a prize. There were only three black stencils in each counter display box. Collectors today occasionally find sealed boxes of the magic ruler stencils. If they were to open the box, in addition to the 36 black bagged stencils, there are also three bagged Jumbo keshi that the store owner would remove and set behind the counter to be handed out as prizes. Yet another way young Japanese students could get their insatiable fix for erasers to help them fix the countless errors they were writing. After all, as we discussed last time, that was the sole purpose of the keshi. They were certainly not toys.

For our third installment in the colorful keshi trilogy (which may or may not be longer than a trilogy depending on how verbose I feel) we will look at those erasers made by another famous Japanese company, Takara. Stay tuned!

May 24, 2025May 24, 2025

A Vintage Star Wars Kenner Toy That Never Was…

This month’s item from the Imperial Archives features the story of a vintage Star Wars Kenner toy that never was, but this prototype of an unproduced rifle shows it was apparently considered for release in 1980.

This toy is a hardcopy, meaning it was hand-cast from a silicone mold using a two-part urethane (unlike production toys which are made from steel molds using injected plastic). It’s hand-painted, with a hand-applied photographic logo sticker, and it includes bespoke electronic components. Pulling the rear trigger activates a motor, creating a whining sound effect and lighting up a kaleidoscope contained in the gun’s sight. Squeezing the front trigger mechanically alters the kaleidoscopic view and decreases the motor’s speed, changing the pitch of the sound effect.

Before this item turned up, about two decades after it was made, Star Wars toy collectors didn’t know it existed. Kenner had never solicited the toy for sale, so it never appeared in a catalog or on a product list; there were no known photos of it, and no Kenner employee had been known to mention it. It doesn’t look much like any weapon in Star Wars or The Empire Strikes Back; the only indication that it has anything at all to do with Star Wars is the paper Empire label hand-glued to the toy.

When we bought it, the primary reason we had to believe that it was really an unproduced Star Wars toy prototype was the excellent reputation of the seller, The Earth Collectible Toy Mall in Cincinnati. As that city was the longtime home of Kenner, a stunning number of prototype toys had come to The Earth from Kenner employees over the years, so we believed that this probably was a real Star Wars toy, but we nevertheless wished we had some hard evidence.

A couple years later, Lisa was looking through an auction lot of items being sold by someone whose father had worked on the Star Wars line at Kenner. The lot consisted largely of paperwork, though Lisa was drawn to a set of photographs that wouldn’t have attracted the attention of virtually anyone else:

These photographs show the wood pattern for our mysterious gun. A wood pattern is essentially the original sculpt of a toy—a one-of-a-kind piece of original art that would then be duplicated to create the finished toy. In this case, the wood pattern would have been used to create the silicone molds that were then used to create our hardcopy. Sadly, the person who sold us the photos didn’t have the pattern, but at least we now had independent evidence connecting this rifle to Kenner’s Star Wars line.

But the best was yet to come. A while after that, we had the opportunity to purchase some artwork from former Kenner designer Steve Hodges, and among the pieces he had were these drawings from August 1978:

While none of the drawings that Steve had saved precisely match our rifle, their design style unmistakably matches that of our gun, so we asked Steve about it. He recalled that Kenner was contemplating a follow-up to their Laser Pistol (based on Han Solo’s blaster) and Laser Rifle (based on the standard-issue Stormtrooper weapon), but lacking solid reference for any other movie guns, they asked Steve to come up with a handful of original designs. And it appears that a year or two later, one such design made it all the way to hardcopy stage before being cancelled. Perhaps Lucasfilm balked at the non-movie design, or perhaps cost analysis or some other internal factor killed the project—we likely will never know, unless some bit of paperwork happens to turn up someday—but at least we have this evidence of a vintage Kenner Star Wars toy that never was.

May 7, 2025May 7, 2025

Rancho Obi-Wan at Star Wars Celebration Japan

Rancho Obi-Wan was excited to be at Star Wars Celebration Japan! We had so much fun at our booth meeting fans from all over the world who came to celebrate all things Star Wars!

We had a small display of Japanese Star Wars Collectibles and handmade crafts, but utilized most of our space for attendees to sit and create their own Star Wars sketch cards!

Rancho Obi-Wan at Star Wars Celebration Japan

About 350 sketch cards were completed by guests of all ages and were displayed at our booth for all the enjoy!

We had fourteen volunteers that assisted with the booth and we couldn’t have done it without them. Many fans had never heard of Rancho Obi-Wan, so it was a great opportunity to introduce them to our museum. We also had visits from faithful fans who stopped by to say hello!

Friday evening the Lucasfilm Celebration Live Film crew stopped by and interviewed our volunteer lead (and wife of Duncan Jenkins!) Anne Jenkins was interviewed about our booth and what we had to offer. It was another opportunity to highlight the beautiful sketch cards that had already been done at our booth and promote our plans for The SAGA Museum!

On Saturday of Celebration Japan, ROW board members and The Saga Museum founding collectors Gus Lopez and Duncan Jenkins gave a presentation at the Fan Stage titled “Inspiring and Serving the Community Through Star Wars Memorabilia.” The panel allowed Gus and Duncan to reach a new audience regarding our plans to create a permanent public museum, The Saga Museum of Star Wars Memorabilia, and our desire to bring inspiration to all who visit it. The quickest way to impart our vision was to show the short video about the genesis of our project. Duncan and Gus could tell the audience was excited about the possibilities when they eagerly applauded at its conclusion. They then proceeded to share our goals, progress, and hopes of inspiring and serving the community with the combination of our collections. Having our memorabilia serve a higher purpose is the core of this endeavor. At the conclusion, there were many thoughtful questions and it was obvious our project had gained many new supporters who were eager to see the museum and its programs come to fruition. It was exciting to see that even half a world away, the universal appeal of the galaxy far, far away and its collectibles was strong indeed!

Special Thanks to Duncan and Anne Jenkins for providing photos and recap!

April 28, 2025April 28, 2025

Interpretation: The Art and Science of Communicating Information about Objects in Your Collections

Each of the collector’s that are part of The Saga Museum Initiative have done a great deal of research on the items in our Star Wars collections. We have all also spent a lot of time on interpretation of these items. Interpretation is the art and science of communicating information about the objects in our collections and their meaning.

Interpretation includes plenty of written information, but some of the most powerful tools we have are visual. And perhaps the most effective visual tool we have is providing context by displaying related items together in a way that each enlightens the other.

Each of the collector's that are part of The Saga Museum Initiative have done a great deal of research on the items in our Star Wars collections. We have all also spent a lot of time on interpretation of these items. Interpretation is the art and science of communicating information about the objects in our collections and their meaning.

For example, the item shown here is one of the first props that Lisa and I ever acquired. While Star Wars fans are likely to recognize the nose of an X-wing fighter, it may not be as obvious to a more casual observer, and even though there’s an explanatory plaque, we all know that a lot of viewers don’t read much of the text provided. In a museum setting, each object generally has a fraction of a second to catch someone’s attention, and “non-obviousness” is a prime reason for someone’s eyes to keep moving on.

A few years after we purchased the X-wing, we had the opportunity to pick up this original storyboard art, which is now displayed directly above the model. This provides an additional opportunity to catch the viewer’s eye, and the shared context also increases the recognizability of the model; odds are now good that even a casual viewer will have an immediate understanding of what these objects are, and they might even take a second now to read the plaque.

Once we’ve captured a viewer’s attention, we gain the ability to share more information, and this is where written information can enter the picture. In a museum setting, this pair of items would be accompanied by text that explains what you’re looking at, and why you’re looking at it. The basic information that would always be present—what is it, who made it, and when—is called a tombstone, and it would look something like this:

Star Wars Original Storyboard Art, Lucasfilm, around 1976

Star Wars X-Wing Starfighter Pyrotechnics Model Fragments, Lucasfilm, around 1976

Below that, we’d provide brief additional text that would attempt to answer obvious questions–for example, if you’ve read the plaque, you may be wondering who Joe Viskocil was, so we’d want to explain that he was a pyrotechnics specialist who worked on more than 80 films including Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, and he won an Academy award for his work on Independence Day.

We would also provide brief information, likely just a couple of sentences, specific to the overall theme of whatever exhibit the items are part of. For example, if they’re displayed in an exhibition about modelmaking, we might focus on the construction of the X-wing prop; in an exhibit about moviemaking, we might focus on how modelmakers work from concept art; or in an exhibit about special effects, we might focus on how the model was blown up.

Finally, a good interpretation would encourage you to think beyond the simple facts. For example, in an exhibition about special effects, if we’d already introduced the concept of computer graphics, we might ask you to consider the pros and cons of practical effects compared to CGI. In an exhibit about moviemaking, we might ask you to consider how you would make an X-wing explode in a YouTube short.

April 9, 2025April 9, 2025

Visit Rancho Obi-Wan Booth and See Saga Museum Member Panels at Star Wars Celebration Japan!

If you’re attending Star Wars Celebration, be sure to visit the Rancho Obi-Wan booth and see Saga Museum member panels at Star Wars Celebration Japan!

Visit the Rancho Obi-Wan booth to draw your own Star Wars Sketch Card and see select items from our collection, and collections of The Saga Museum collector’s Duncan Jenkins and Gus Lopez.

Gus Lopez will be a presenter for the Star Wars Coins and Medallions Panel Friday, April 18th, 12:30pm–1:30pm on the Collector’s Stage.

Duncan Jenkins will be part of the The Colorful World of Vintage Keshigomu (Rubber Erasers) Panel Saturday, April 19th, 12:30pm–1:30pm on the Collector’s Stage. *See Keshigomu sneak peek now!

Visit Rancho Obi-Wan booth and see Saga Museum member panels at Star Wars Celebration Japan!

Duncan Jenkins and Gus Lopez will be presenting the Inspiring and Serving the Community Through Star Wars Memorabilia Panel Saturday, April 19th, 2:30pm–3:30pm on the Fan Stage. This panel is about The Saga Museum of Star Wars Memorabilia Initiative of Rancho Obi-Wan and will cover the history and background on the five extraordinary collections that will be part of the Saga Museum, and feature a glimpse of the incredible Star Wars items and stories that will be unveiled to the public.

Duncan Jenkins will be a presenter for the Star Wars Around the House Panel on Sunday, April 20th 1:00pm–2:00pm on the Collector’s Stage. This fun panel will cover household and kitchen products from a galaxy far, far away!

Bonus! Gus Lopez will be hosting all the panels at the Collector’s Stage at Star Wars Celebration Japan!

We hope everyone has a wonderful time celebrating Star Wars together at Star Wars Celebration Japan 2025!