Icons Star Wars Skywalker Lightsaber Prototype

THIS IS IT GUYS AND GALS......The first Skywalker lightsaber prop replica prototype, that lead to the first issuance of a Star Wars license for this product category by Lucasfilm Ltd., that was prototyped and produced by the pioneering licensed film and television prop replica company, Icons Authentic Replicas. That has often been compared to the ambitious "Tucker" Automobile company.

In the summer of 1995, Icons Authentic Replicas was formed by five individuals : Douglas Conway, James Latta, Mike Moore, David Elkouby and Lance Davis. A 6th partner joined Icons in 1996, Michael Rogers.

In the fall of 1995, the first five partners began formalizing the founding of Icons and researched, developed and fabricated an extensive and unprecedented line of 1:1 scale film and television prop replicas. These were produced in total secrecy. The banner licensed property that Icons was most hoping to procure was obviously the blockbuster science-fiction franchise, Star Wars. In Lucasfilm Ltd.'s 18 years of overseeing the issuance of licensing to licensees of Star Wars merchandise, they had received over 1,000 licensing proposals submitted by various individuals, businesses and corporations relating to proposed prop replica licensed product-lines. Icons was well aware of this fact, due to Jim Latta's then close relationship with Star Wars aficionado and author Stephan Sansweet, who at this time, was still not an official Lucasfilm employee.

Icons endeavored to separate itself from the pack, per say, by striving to create a very comprehensive, formal licensing business proposal, complete with extensive emphasis on unique marketing, sales, merchandising, packaging and distribution strategies, together with extremely well-made and authentic 1:1 scale prop replicas, fabricated by actual film and television special effects prop fabricators. Icons access to extraordinary movie and TV professionals in various fields gave them a competitive edge that other prospective licensees would find difficult to match and or excel. What Icons developed in the way of proposing licensed Hollywood film and television prop, miniature and wardrobe replicas, over a decade ago, to this day has not been equaled or surpassed. The Walt Disney Company stated that in its long history of merchandise licensing, the Icons licensing proposal that was submitted to them, accompanied by prototypes was the finest they had ever received from a prospective licensee.

A pioneering company that inspired and altered the way, the entire licensed entertainment merchandise industry researches, develops, manufactures and distributes limited-edition collectibles, to this day. The often bitter-jealousy of lesser, unimaginative, dishonest and shallow individuals, often gets in the way of giving adequate credit where credit is due. Regardless of the controversy surrounding the collapse of Icons in the spring of 2000, the evidence of this legendary company's great influence and positive contributions is evident in every area of the film and television licensed merchandise arena.

In the summer of 1995, the Icons dream began to take hold. A dream that would change the lives of everyone associated with it. A dream that was often realized and reached the pinnacle of success, and a nightmare that descended into the deepest pit of despair.

As part of the licensing agreement, Icons needed to immediately provide five finished product samples of Star Wars Skywalker 1:1 scale lightsabers. The five units had to be manufactured by Icons and all be exactly similar in design and fabrication. The Skywalker lightsaber pictured here is #1 of the 5 requested by Lucasfilm Ltd. at this time. This exact lightsaber was archived at Icons from 1995 until 2000.

Like the other 4, it is very different from the final, mass-manufactured Skywalker lightsabers produced by Icons in their Sun Valley and North Hollywood, California locations. Firstly, the body was made out of an original Graflex 3-cell photoflash unit handle. As it had been fabricated by fans of Star Wars for many years. Thus, the end of this Skywalker lightsaber does not have the official Lucasfilm Ltd. stamp on the butt-end of the "D-Ring" clip area. The other customization pieces on the unit, were hand-machined and fabricated, one at a time, to create the authentic look of the original Star Wars Skywalker lightsaber used in the production of Star Wars. The saber's handgrips are made of cast polyurethane resin from the same masters that were used to create Icons injected plastic handgrips later seen in the final mass-manufactured versions.

 

Another extremely unique item that is included in the collection is the first plexiglas display case ever created for a licensed Star Wars lightsaber. It is depicted in the above photograph. The narrow plexiglas display case containing the Skywalker lightsaber is much different from the standard released version sold to the public. This display case has never before been seen by the public.

This specific Skywalker lightsaber was shipped to Lucasfilm Ltd. as one of the five manufacturer's prototype samples, and then returned to Icons to be referenced for the mass-production assembly-line of Star Wars Skywalker lightsabers.



Just above is an original 8" x 10", full-color studio photograph of the Star Wars Skywalker lightsaber, used in the Tri-fold brochure and advertisements, known as the "executive desk-model" photograph (one of Lucas favorite). Note : this was an important part of Icons marketing strategy, to appeal to older, and potentially more affluent collectors.



And finally, some "test proof comps" of the first Star Wars Skywalker lightsaber advertisement.

Icons Skywalker Lightsaber Prototype Documentation

This is the original Lucasfilm Ltd. licensing faxed product approval form, dated 10/10/96 for the Skywalker lightsaber pre-production sample with COA, plaque and case.



On the left, the original "blue-line" print master for the Star Wars Skywalker Certificate of Authenticity. These were used to produce, at great cost, the gold-metallic foil parchment COA's which were included with each licensed lightsaber prop replica made by Icons.

On the right, the "printers-proof" of the Star Wars Skywalker lightsaber gold-metallic foil COA, numbered 01138 (a reference to George Lucas' film THX-1138), dated October 11th, 1996. Note : one day after Icons received formal product approval from Lucasfilm Ltd. to begin production of the Skywalker lightsaber.



This is a "test proof comp" of the promotional tri-fold brochure for the Star Wars Skywalker licensed lightsaber.



And here, the final and approved version of the promotional tri-fold brochure from 1996.



This is the original Lucasfilm Ltd. licensing faxed product approval form, for the Skywalker lightsaber tri-fold brochure, dated 06/19/96.

Icons Star Wars Lightsaber Chest Prototype

Here we have a new addition to the Icons Museum of Paris, France. A rare Icons prototype that took a few years to negotiate for and acquire, and one that has been largely un-seen by most Star Wars and Icons collectors.

This is the original, Icons Star Wars Lightsaber Chest prototype, produced 18 years ago in 1995. This is a highly unusual piece for a few reasons, as it was fabricated very early on during Icons first year of business, and before the company had a location and a formal, organized, professionally supervised creative development and art department.

The initial goal was to fabricate a precise, down-sized replica of the lightsaber chest seen in the first Star Wars film (1977), which Obi-Wan Kenobi used to store away Luke Skywalker's father's lightsaber, the sophisticated weapon of a Jedi, which Obi-Wan (portrayed memorably by acclaimed British actor, Alec Guiness) presents to a young and ambitious Luke Skywalker during a memorable scene in the movie ("Your Father wanted you to have this when you were old enough"). Although the screen-used chest would have been too large to replicate and impractical for collectors, as it was a larger trunk-like chest, Icons had intended on producing a smaller-scale chest, based on the one seen in the film. A chest that collectors could use to hold and display two Icons prop replica lightsabers. A Skywalker and a Darth Vader saber.

Icons co-founder and Vice President Jim Latta retained production illustrator & graphic artist Daren Dochterman (they had met and worked on James Cameron's motion picture The Abyss prior to working together at Icons) to render an illustration of the proposed lightsaber chest, of which the Icons Museum is proud to have the original illustration as part of its permanent collection. Shown here :



During this time, Icons co-founding partner and V.P. of Manufacturing Mike Moore (1995-1997) was still working in the Film & TV prop industry making props, and was phasing out of his partnership at Prop'er Effects. Mike and his staff at Prop'er were still consistently fabricating props for the various Star Trek television shows and feature films and between these projects Mike and his team would work on Icons prototypes as Icons being founded.

Icons co-founder and CEO/President Doug Conway (1995-1998), Latta and Moore agreed that the Obi-Wan Kenobi chest replica would make for a great replica to offer to collectors who purchased the proposed Icons lightsabers, so prior to Latta writing the licensing proposal for Lucasfilm Ltd. it was decided that the saber chest would be one of the first prototypes submitted to Lucasfilm Ltd. along with Icons Skywalker and Darth Vader 1:1 scale lightsabers.



The chest was put into active fabrication and due to Mike Moore's busy schedule, he out-sourced the fabrication to a fellow professional prop-maker who had worked with Moore on various Star Trek projects. The prop-maker proceeded to hand-craft the lightsaber chest, while not referring to Dochterman and Latta's concept of the Obi-Wan style chest used in Star Wars : A New Hope. Not surprisingly, the chest became greatly influenced by the concept design styling of the Star Trek franchise !!

When the piece was completed and presented at Icons, although Latta admired and respected the quality of the craftsmanship, he was not pleased with the prototype, as it was not what was expected, having not been based on the Obi-Wan chest seen in the film nor the Dochterman concept drawing of the smaller proposed replica chest.

The prototype had already been promised to Lucasfilm so the decision was made by Conway, Latta and Moore to submit the piece to Lucasfilm Ltd. and it did not have an impact on Icons being granted the first ever Star Wars prop replica license.

Interestingly, the design of the saber chest seems like it could have been used in the 2nd trilogy of the Star Wars films, as it is more like the futuristic, streamlined production design seen in Star Wars : The Phantom Menace, The Clone Wars and Revenge of the Sith.



Star Wars expert and author Stephan Sansweet actually delivered the Jedi lightsaber chest to Lucasfilm Ltd. on Icons behalf. This was directly following a memorable visit to Sansweet's Star Wars memorabilia filled home, by many of the original cast members of Star Wars, who Icons represented for personal appearances, through the now legendary Men Behind the Masks world tour.

 

Sansweet's sanctioning of the Icons Star Wars prop replica license was critical to the company being awarded it. In september of 1995, Lucasfilm Ltd. agreed to grant Icons the exclusive license to create an authentic, limited edition, authorized product line of 1:1 scale props from the Star Wars Trilogy.

Icons Star Wars Darth Vader Lightsaber

This one is the first licensed Darth Vader lightsaber prop replica ever manufactured by a Lucasfilm Ltd. licensee. It is numbered #AP01 on its original, all metal, stamped plaque (displayed here with a James Earl Jones Signature Edition plaque #0002).

 

It was THE first Darth Vader lightsaber that was assembled from Lucasfilm Ltd. licensed, authorized, approved and authenticated parts.

 

This specific saber was manufactured and then presented to the executive management and co-founders of Icons Authentic Replicas for approval in order to "green-light" the mass production of over 7,000 Darth Vader lightsaber prop replicas.

This is a "test proof comp" of the first Star Wars Darth Vader lightsaber advertisement.