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.
