While the Kenner figures of the 70’s and 80’s are fixed in our minds, memories of a childhood that we can still hold, pose (and if we really want to, still play with) their design wasn’t as straightforward a process as you might imagine. Many of the figures of the day went through significant changes in design, and writing over at the Rancho Obi-Wan blog, Vic Wertz takes a look at two such figures, the Emperor and Luke Skywalker.
Star Wars fans who had the original Emperor action figure that was sold in stores will likely recall that the cloak was molded onto the body as part of the figure, but that wasn’t the initial plan. The hardcopy here has no cloak, and the drawing shows that it was going to be a separate molded plastic piece, similar to the cowl on the Chief Chirpa figure released in the previous wave of figures. (Contrary to what some think, this version of The Emperor was not going to have a “soft goods” cloak—the Deco Design Drawing specifies the color as “Dr. Gray” (dark grey), the same as the figure’s body. If the intent had been to offer a cloth cloak, the callout for it would instead read “Dr. Gray Fabric.” The cloak also would be drawn on the figure, not separately. See today’s second item for how soft goods are treated on these drawings.)
We don’t know for sure why the separate cloak was dropped, but it’s easy to speculate that it might have been a cost-saving move, especially given that The Emperor was initially offered free with five proofs-of-purchase from other Kenner Star Wars figures.
