Here we have The Star Wars Iron-On Transfer Book, uh....book, copyright 1977. It is in near mint condition, as I never actually used any of the iron-ons. I was aware, even in 5th grade, that there was something sort of uncool about wearing such a t-shirt. I would have been way too self-conscious. Nonetheless, I did wear a "May the Force be with you" shirt in 5th grade, so I'm not sure why I would have been embarrassed to wear one of them. God knows, some of these images were on an awful lot of shirts once the merchandising maelstrom was unleashed about a year after the film's original release!
(Most of the following comments are tongue-in-cheek.)I love how the droids were called "See Threepio and Artoo Detoo", thus completely missing the point that "C-3PO/R2-D2" were model numbers for two machines. Maybe it's just me... It's just me, isn't it?
Of course, we now know from Revenge of the Sith that Chewie is most likely pining for Yoda in this picture, since they had already met and were close buds...
I thought these guys were robots, or something. Little did we know, they were actually clones of Boba Fett's father!....Yeah, Boba Fett's father!
This iron-on depicts the obvious confusion and disorientation C-3PO, I mean See Threepio, must have been experiencing after having his memory wiped clean so he wouldn't remember Attack of the Clones. He's so lucky! I guess R2, oops, Artoo forgot how to fly and shoot motor oil...
Ah yes, Vader, looking dapper and elegant, ready for a night of ballroom dancing and general swishing about. He sort of killed his wife because he couldn't save her from something.
See-3-Pee-Oh is pointing out the grave marker for someone named "Shimi Skywalker" right next to the Skywalker home onTatooine. I guess Luke never wondered about that.
One of Ralph McQuarrie's interpretations of Lucas's original vision. It's a beautiful thing. And here's an image burned into many a young mind that far, far away summer of 1977:
After I read rumours that more tweaking is to be done to the original trilogy (for example, "The Imperial March" may be added to the first appearance of Vader, and "Anakin's Theme" could be added to the scene where Obi-Wan tells Luke about his father's "death") to coincide with the thirtieth, yes, thirtieth anniversary of Star Wars, I sort of panicked. Luckily, copies of the 1995 VHS release are still fairly easy to obtain. 8/06 addendum: I've finally watched Star Wars. It holds up in lieu of the prequels. Some of it is enhanced by the "alterations" resulting from the production of the prequels. Obi-Wan Kenobi's "death", in particular, has a new depth of tragedy (Shakespearean) it didn't have in 1977. I don't think Lucas needed to make nearly as many changes as he has made (in the recent "overhauls" of the original film). Most of it still looks pretty good! The scene where Luke stares forlornly up at Tatooine's two setting suns may be the greatest moment in movie history.
This is despite the fact Lucas shamefully humped it in the last two prequels. He was lucky in getting John Williams to do the score. Pure magic. It gives me goosebumps. Also, beyond a doubt, the prequels suffered from a lack of Han Solo.
You can't say they didn't warn us! They weren't messing around.
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