HC Ford and Sons are an incredibly difficult company to find information about, but chances are if you went to school in the UK between 1983 and 1985 you saw their products. This article is the second part, the first of which focused on the Star Wars range however, their Return of the Jedi range was far more diverse.
Some of the products are fairly easy to acquire and only cost a few pounds, whereas others are incredibly rare and collectors have been hunting for decades to complete sets.
Erasers:
I absolutely love the Star Wars perfumed erasers and it’s pleasing to see that full sets of the Return of the Jedi line are easy to pick up in used condition – and they still have their scent! Once again, there were six in the set; Han, Chewbacca, the droids C-3PO and R2-D2, Darth Vader, Ewok and very surprisingly a Gamorrean Guard. The display boxes are nice, featuring the common blue lightsaber held aloft logo, and many collectors have full sets of these which hold 36 in total.
There was also a small range of character logos in this range once again featuring everyone’s favourite Rancor fodder.
I personally thought that the droids and Boba Fett were very cartoonish in their style but the Gamorrean Guard was detailed in a far more menacing style.
And finally we have a bizarre set of 4 coloured record erasers. Thank goodness I didn’t own these as a kid as I’ve have been suspended from school for using these as a frisbee across the classroom. They were very impractical in their use and are very easy to pick up today in mint unused condition. The blue and yellow erasers used the typical lightsaber image on the reverse whereas the pink and grey erasers are found with the Luke and Vader image on the reverse.
A recent find of these showed how they were packaged:
Pencil Sharpeners:
Once again HC Ford made use of the domed pencil sharpener design with Darth Vader featuring prominently on the designs and packaging.
We again have Darth Vader and a Stormtrooper across all 3 colours although this is a slightly different design to the Star Wars ones. We then have oval shape sharpeners featuring the Darth Vader space battle designs in 3 different colours of blue, grey and red.
And finally to finish the range we have 4 different coloured more traditional looking sharpeners in blue, pink, mauve and purple.
Rulers:
No pencil case can be complete without the traditional backside swatting ruler. HC Ford released one design of white ruler which was 15cm in length and could be found in a display box at shop counters. The rulers could also be found in stationary sets which can be seen below.
Pencil Cases:
Once school kids purchased their stationary kits they would need somewhere to keep them and HC Ford wouldn’t be exactly keen on their products being inside the earlier released Helix cases. They released colours of the now overused Vader design which were available in a standard display box.
The case below is a pencil box type case which contained a ruler, four pencils and an oval style pencil sharpener.
Pencil Toppers:
Pencil toppers are very easy to find and again there are variations to track down such as different colours and sizes. There are also two display boxes – the red logo below and one available in white.
These pencil toppers must have used the Kenner action figures as their templates due to the close similarities found. It’s an interesting range of characters from different scenes in the movie. A personal favourite of mine is the Emperor’s Royal Guard.
A recent find of these shows how these were packaged:
Pencils:
There were two different types of pencil styles in the range. The first set was the shrink wrapped square style scented set of 40 pencils which are available in 3 different colour bases.
The second set was a more traditional pack of 12 pencils seen below in a yellow display box.
Note Books:
HCF Ford released an interesting range of paper note books some of which were far more practical than others. They are great fun to track down, although one or two are pretty hard to find.
In the top right we have three paperback pocket memos with a header card. If you think these are small they are nothing compared to the mini memos next to them which are tiny and meant for very small hands! The star logs top left and the mini notebooks bottom right are hardback. The quality of the artwork varies, but these are neat items to have in your collection.
Note the memo pads bottom centre are from the Star Wars range of products, which explains the different styles.
Exercise Books:
Although I love the movie still images chosen here it is a little disappointing that HC Ford moves away from the original art they used earlier. Most of these images have been seen in other licensed products, but HC Ford have a least done a very good job in the layout here.
Stationery Sets:
The first stationery set on offer was brilliantly titled “The Fancy” stationery set. There are two different sets to collect with the other featuring a yellow inner card shown below. However, these sets have been found with mixed contents so there isn’t a definitive contents list.
The school kit has an unusual non-branded generic header which is very 80’s in its design. As you can see it included the three pocket memo books, a pencil, a ruler and one pencil topper.
Below the yellow fancy stationery set are three carded random packs. These are available in the two different sizes shown and are very mixed in their contents.
Below are some of the catalogue gift packs which again were randomly assembled sets containing a mix of HC Ford products in sealed plastic bags.
And lastly we have the pencil topper gift set…. spot the difference?
Your eyes do not deceive you this is the ultimate random packing of overstock. As seen below they even used stickers to hide the contents! The pack on the left is correct (R2 has the sticker the correct way up!) and the pack on the right is… well…. MOTU mini memo and some random non-pencil topper items…. a completists nightmare! 
HC Ford were strong in their branding and pushing their products. These were available at newsagents, catalogue stores, stationery shops…but as there are so many unused contents out there, and many different examples of randomly assembled packs, the overstock must have been huge. Prices ranged from 40p for a pencil topper (6 for £1.60) to £2.25 for a stationery set. Good luck in your hunt!
Photos (c) theswca.com, Andy Preston, Craig Spivey, Craig Stevens, lulu-berlu.com, Rich Temple