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Weird early lightsaber design... anyone know anything about this one?

Discussion in 'Original Trilogy' started by Chairman Kaga, May 5, 2015.

  1. Chairman Kaga

    Chairman Kaga Rebel Official

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    I was reading my daughter's "Star Wars Heroes" book to her last night (a Scholastic board book for 1-2 year olds) and on the very first page, which I've read 100,000,000 times before, I noticed that Luke was holding a very different lightsaber than any I've ever seen before. Certainly different from the iconic "Anakin's saber" used in eps III-V, and shows up again in the trailer for VII.

    I have the old 1979 edition of The Art of Star Wars and there's nothing like this in the concept art either. In fact, it looks more like an aluminum billet than a Graflex tube. Also look at the blade emitter - it looks flat, like an actual sword, and not round like an actual filmed saber.

    Weird, huh?
     

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    #1 Chairman Kaga, May 5, 2015
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  2. John Crichton

    John Crichton Rebel Official

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    Interesting. I see the flatness of it too. It almost makes it look like a lightsaber katana.

    What's interesting is that this book shows as being published in 2010 according to Amazon, not sure if that's the only edition or not. Is that the same as yours?

    Amazon link for those with curiosity. It shows the same exact images he posted here if you choose the "Look inside" option on the image.
    EDIT: for some reason the link keeps being listed as "media" and refusing to show. Anyways, if you go to Amazon and search "Star Wars: Heroes Board Book" you can see it.
     
    #2 John Crichton, May 5, 2015
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  3. Chairman Kaga

    Chairman Kaga Rebel Official

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    Why would they PhotoShop this???
     

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    #3 Chairman Kaga, May 5, 2015
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  4. John Crichton

    John Crichton Rebel Official

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    That's actually pretty bizarre...
     
    #4 John Crichton, May 5, 2015
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  5. Chairman Kaga

    Chairman Kaga Rebel Official

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    501st and Saber Guild have no ideas either. They're equally intrigued!
     
    #5 Chairman Kaga, May 5, 2015
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  6. Bosc

    Bosc Force Attuned

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    Looks like they photoshopped it to make it look like it's supposed to. You can tell by looking at Mark's hand. Still no clue why the original is some different saber. Maybe they didn't have the right one handy for the photo shoot?
     
    #6 Bosc, May 5, 2015
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  7. Chairman Kaga

    Chairman Kaga Rebel Official

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    Mystery solved... partially. It's the '78 saber hilt from the Holiday Special!
    http://www.partsofsw.com/holidaysab.htm
    Still no answer as to why the '77 promo/costume test photo was manipulated to incorporate the '78 saber. Once again, how bizarre.
     
    #7 Chairman Kaga, May 5, 2015
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  8. Grand Master Galen Marek

    Grand Master Galen Marek Jedi General

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    I still think that lightsaber would be hard to handle during a duel IMO.
     
    #8 Grand Master Galen Marek, May 8, 2015
  9. Get In Gear

    Get In Gear Force Sensitive

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    The thing is, it is most likely the other way round.
    Any photos you may have seen from that shoot where Luke is holding his "proper" ANH graflex saber are the ones that have been manipulated - the one on the front of your book is the unaltered version of the pic.
    I don't know the exact story behind the pics, but here's another from the same shoot with the Holiday Special saber again:
    LukeANH.jpg

    I believe the promo shots of Han with short hair (and with random trooper blaster in the one below) were from the same shoot:
    468617-209011.jpg

    Like I said, I can't recall what the exact story behind why these pics were taken was, but it appears they were taken some time after the first film's release (and presumably after the Holiday Special was made too) using a few (slightly) random available props. Why they would need new ANH promo photos to be taken in 1978 is a bit of a mystery, but I'm sure I did read the story behind these pics somewhere. I'd be inclined to say they were to promote the Holiday Special itself, but then Luke's hair is so different in that it just doesn't make sense.

    At what point the "proper" saber was added to the Luke photos is another mystery.
    I'd like to know when pics from that photoshoot first surfaced officially. The earliest I can find any of them being used is in the Star Wars Chronicles book from 1997.
    I wonder if they were hauled out of the archives and touched up to promote the Special Editions...?
     
    #9 Get In Gear, May 26, 2015
    Last edited: May 26, 2015
  10. Chairman Kaga

    Chairman Kaga Rebel Official

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    Totally bizarre. Agreed. These look almost like costume test shots, not promo photos. MAYBE they were shooting different versions of the costumes to see how they'd appear on video as opposed to film? If I recall, the Holiday Special was a mixture of both formats, but also shot on TV standard film cameras in 4:3 and not Panavision, as the film was. I suppose it's as good a theory as any!
     
    #10 Chairman Kaga, May 26, 2015
  11. Get In Gear

    Get In Gear Force Sensitive

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    Hah - yeah, it is weird. The more answers you find, the more questions seem to come up.
    Like, doesn't Luke only ever appear (in new footage) in his flight suit in the Holiday Special anyway? Why would they be testing his Tatooine costume?
    And I can understand someone digging out an old reference photo, adding in the correct saber hilt and then adding in the blade effect to create a new promo photo... but that raises the question, why does a version of the original photo also exist with the blade effect added? Whether that was done back in the 70s or done more recently - neither option makes a lot of sense given the circumstances.
    And why was that weird lightsaber prop ever made in the first place? It's not like there was a reason for Luke to have a new one for the Holiday Special.

    And, and, and...

    How did that get there...?
    FG-vase.png
    ROTJ-vase.png
     
    #11 Get In Gear, May 26, 2015
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