Lucasfilm Archives Star Wars Icons First Announcement / Teaser Concept Advertisement (1996)

Conceptualized 24 years ago by Icons Jim Latta & rendered by Daren Dochterman, these are early concept designs for the first announcement of Icons licensed line of Star Wars prop replicas. Icons was the first collectibles company to be granted a license by Lucasfilm LTD. to produce 1:1 scale Star Wars prop and miniature replicas (1995-2000), after LFL had received over 1,000 proposals.

Interestingly, Icons preferred the open wood door ad concept (above) with the illuminated eyes of C3-PO and a Jawa peaking out, and Darth Vader's lightsaber glowing in the darkness, but Lucasfilm felt the wood door concept appeared "too unsecure and could lead to break-ins by fans", so a bank-vault style door was created by Dochterman as requested by Lucasfilm. The Icons wood door version of this advert has never before been shown until posted here on this blog.

Stormtrooper's guarding the vault door (above) were added to feature more of a Star Wars theme to the advert but eventually Lucasfilm chose the simple bank-vault door design. Variations on this theme were rendered by Daren, before the final design appeared in a 1996 issue of the Official Star Wars Fan Club publication - "The Star Wars Insider".

Icons Glossy Collector Postcards (set of "4" - 1998)

The beautifully designed and printed, glossy Icons collectors postcard set (of "4") which were published and mailed-out to customers 22 years ago in 1998. Designed and rendered by freelance graphic designer Noel Martin. Designed to promote the Icons Predator, Terminator and Star Wars replica lines.

Icons Jim Latta recalls - "The Icons Collector Postcards were intended by me to be almost like jumbo trading cards. Noel Martin was an incredible talent. When I was introduced to him in 1998,  he was working full-time at the Southern California Gas Company as serviceman. I was blown-away by his gifts as a graphic designer and at the time, our in-house graphic designer was overwhelmed with all of the work that was needed. So we retained Noel to work on a few campaigns and he designed and rendered these postcards after a little discussion on what I had envisioned for them graphic-wise. He hit it out of the park in my opinion".

Interestingly there was a "5th" Collectible postcard designed by Noel for an Icons Star Trek full-size Captain's Chair replica. But it was never printed.

Icons Star Trek Ads

This is an ad for the Icons Star Trek Klingon Commemorative Collection....Finally, Icons grants all Star Trek fans their greatest wish !! A full line of 1:1 scale authentic props and miniatures based on the Star Trek television series and the motion pictures Each accurately reproduced from originals used on set and prototyped and supervised during manufacturing by actual Star Trek prop and miniature makers ! Icons Fabrication and Design Group craftsmen have worked on five Star Trek feature films as well as Star Trek's The Next Generation, Voyager and Deep Space : Nine.

This ad shows the Classic D7 Klingon Battle Cruiser, limited to only 950 units, precisely mold-casted from an actual filmed miniature used during the making of classic Star Trek (1966-1969) and currently archived at The Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. and the Klingon Disrupter Prop Weapons Set, limited to only 1966 units, molded off original props used during filming, all are incredibly detailed and custom finished.

The following is an ad for the "Star Trek Captain's Chair". This awesome 1:1 scale entertainment furnishing replica was supposed to be one of the finest limited edition collectibles of all time. Icons Fab & Design constructed helm set piece replicas for the Star Trek : Deep Space 9 cross-over episode "Trials and Tribble-ations". Including the Captains chair. 

Icons new woodshop staffed by skilled furniture craftsmen have created this amazing reproduction of the Captains chair seen in all three seasons of Classic Star Trek. 

I think only two were made. One finished prototype and one unfinished, sold on eBay in 2006. 
The final retail price was supposed to be about $3,500 and the edition limited to only 500 pieces !!

Icons Han Solo Blaster

The Han Solo blaster WAS in fact licensed. The Star Wars Insider magazine (LFL fan-club) was willing to sell it as an exclusive to try and help Icons. The piece was already tooled and ready for production. But it was not permitted to be manufactured or shipped. Icons had invested a ton of money into the tooling and it was ready to be produced. A total of 78 Han blasters were produced.

Only "3" APs were made at Icons in 1998-99. "1" went to LFL, "1" went to Steve Sansweet, "1" to Icons co-founder Mike Rogers.

An additional "75" Han APs were made at a new shop in 2000, owned by one of Icons co-founders / investors after the company closed its doors in March 2000, with original Icons parts, so that he could recoup financially.

"200" AP samples were supposed to be sent to LFL for Christmas 1998 but only a few were finished, with display case and numbered plaque (no packaging nor paperwork yet !!).

Note : I have heard that the goal of the aluminum grill in the background of the display case was to look like a piece of the Millenium Falcon.

Icons Han Solo Blaster Ad :

This ad shows the very rare Icons Han Solo blaster replica (which only a handful were made) and the Planet Of The Apes Gorilla Infantry Rifle (nothing was made but Icons acquired the license and had direct access to numerous originals. No drawings. The rifle was scheduled to be molded and was at Icons. The rifle pictured on "The Vault" was of a screen-used one).

The following are never before seen images of some of the original reference studies referred by Icons Fabrication & Design Group, which were referred to by during the research / machining phase of the Icons 1:1 scale Han Solo Blaster prop replica. The first ever produced under license by Lucasfilm Ltd.

These are blow-ups of photo-images of a screen-used blaster. The original images provided by Lucasfilm to Icons. At the time, the Han Solo blaster used on screen's whereabouts were unknown.

The notations were hand-written by Icons prototype fabrication artisans Mike Moore, Steve Horch or Brian Bero.

That one is a progress report, for Icons Han Solo blaster customers, explaining why the production of that replica was delayed !!

 

Icons Aliens M41-A "Hero" Pulse Rifle Prototype

One of the most highly anticipated Icons Authentic Replicas : the M-41 A Pulse Rifle replica seen in 20th Century Fox's Aliens, James Cameron's heart pounding sequel to Alien.

Icons team was fortunate to be provided with extensive research material from 20th Century Fox Archivist Alan Adler and his staff, including never before seen, highly detailed photographs. They were also provided with an original Pulse Rifle used in Aliens and Alien 3 by Icons resident archivist James Latta. It was one of only two known copies in the U.S. The other belonging to James Cameron.

The big challenge they faced in replicating the Pulse Rifle was translating the metal components of the piece to resin which are then plated in metal. Yes, the Icons replica was not manufactured in solid metal components (like the Icons Star Wars lightsabers) due to very, very prohibitive costs. The goal of that very limited edition was to keep the working Hero model's cost down so that it's still affordable.

So the non-metal pieces were metal plated, in thick gun metal black (copper with a special coating). Bolt and barrel are all metal components. This "Hero" version also features simulated bolt action, retractable stock, an illuminated digital counter which "fire down" from 95 to 00 with each pull of the trigger. You then reset the counter by pulling out and reloading the ammo-clip.

Another challenge was to reproduce the carry/shell housing and tooling it for injection casting. On their reference original, the shell housing was slightly distorted. It was thick in certain places (remember that Aliens budget was in the area of only 17 million dollars. A low budget film by today's standards. So propmakers were probably rushed). In removing the housing on the reference original, they discovered the original detail on its interior and were then able to reverse engineer the carry/shell housing. Examining the interior was also invaluable for Icons Fab & Design Group because they were able to color match the original military green paint job on the exterior of the carry/shell housing (the reference original had been painted black for Alien 3). 

Mike Moore adds : "The green color for the Hero Pulse Rifle was from a military surplus store. It was a real U.S. military camp paint, that we purchased in spray cans. It was a government spec color paint".

This Icons Aliens "Hero" Pulse Rifle prototype took 6 months in active predevelopment and another 6 months of hard tooling for production. They wanted it to be the best that could possibly be made. It's extremely accurate and in many ways, superior in detail to the original.