In February (February!) 1978 Lyons Maid started a run of Star Wars themed ice lollies as to capitalise on the success of the Star Wars phenomenon that was sweeping across Britain. I have no memories of these promotions, but I was one of those kids where if the ice cream van appeared in the streets we were promptly directed to the choc ices in the freezer or given 2p to buy one of the self-made lollies the local shop made.
The Star Wars wave are particular cool as they featured a range of paper masks that were handed out upon the purchase of one of the special themed lollies. Unusual in that such a cool item was available without needing to send in proofs of purchase and postage costs!
None of these are particularly easy to track down and they’re virtually impossible to find in mint condition due to the disposable nature of such products.
The Masks:
In these very simple steps you could possibly pass as Darth Vader, Stormtrooper, C-3PO or Chewbacca. “Separate mask from surround. Push out eyeholes. Fold as indicated and attach elastic bands (or string) and loop over ears.” Although the Darth Vader design seems to be a little odd to me, I think the other three are amazing and would love to own a set myself.
The lolly wrappers feature the awesome artwork of the time when retailers hired their own graphic designers, it’s no wonder so many collectors focus on UK based food products when they start collecting with many of my friends having careers inspired by these early designers. They all featured the same shot of the X-Wing v TIE Fighter on the reverse, with character images and descriptions on the opposite side. It’s particularly interesting to see the Tusken Raider’s likeness used on a product like this and the avoidance of any human character likeness.
What cannot be in doubt was the success of this range as children bought the chocolate flavoured ice lollies from stockists up and down the country. Although there was a brief hesitation, as with all sequel movies at that time, Lyons Maid did jump onto The Empires Strike Back bandwagon fairly quickly and produced another 6 wrappers and a set of 12 stickers to collect.
This time, the ice snacks were flavoured with toffee and mint and used a simplified version of Ralph McQuarrie’s Vader In Flames design which can be found on patches and cards. For the completist, each wrapper can be found in two slightly different designs with the one on the left advertising the free sticker inside.
And the six characters to collect which includes both Lando and Leia as human characters. Note that the text describing Darth Vader is unchanged from the Star Wars release.
The 12 stickers to collect are quite a let down when you look at the quality of the artwork on the wrappers. These were stock images from the movies featured on unnumbered white backing paper such as Han and Lando pictured. The other 11 are Boba Fett, C-3PO, Carbon Freezing Chamber, Chewbacca, Darth Vader, Han Solo, Lando, Luke X-Wing, Leia in Bespin Gown, R2-D2, Stormtrooper in Carbon Freezing Chamber and Yoda.
Lyons Maid did not produce any product for Return of the Jedi but did produce some interesting designs and products for other movie tie-ins at the time such as Star Trek and Superman.
So, where does one begin in finding items such as these? Many collectors have reported success in purchasing scrapbooks, children’s furniture, school books… anywhere a kid would stick or glue these wonderful items to! Good luck in your hunting.
Photos (c) theswca.com, starwarsmovieposter.com
