Original Kenner Artwork
Maintained by Gus Lopez (gus@theswca.com)

This is a realm of collecting that nearly stands alone. Original artwork can range from simple pencil sketches, to full-color paintings, to three-dimensional sculpts and patterns used to create such toys as figures or vehicles. In the case of the graphical artwork, some of it was destined for the figure blister cards while some was meant for ship and playset packaging. Kenner had almost abandoned the use of photographs and was using more and more original artwork for their packaging towards the end of the Star Wars line. Some of the most extravagant artwork was used for in-store displays to draw attention to the toys. Since computer graphics hadn't quite taken off at this time, many layouts and logo designs were sketched and airbrushed by hand which adds to the vast number of individual pieces that were made. Most of the original artwork was never attributed to individual artists in order to avoid royalty fees so few of them are signed. Kenner had most of it created by outside firms and was the sole owner of the artwork. They had purchased a service not a piece of art, though nowadays some of us might disagree with that description. The artwork used for the toys themselves is equally impressive. Generally speaking, the masters for the toys themselves were either sculpted in wax or hard acetate, or assembled from various plastic and wood materials in a process known as "patterning." Most of this artwork was destroyed during the mold-making process, making in-tact examples nearly non-existent today. Unless you have the utmost trust in the seller it is wise to be extremely cautious if the opportunity ever arises to purchase these kinds of materials. All of them are one-of-a-kind pieces, though there is the chance that a talented sheister could attempt reproduction. It's probably best that you just enjoy the photos and relish the fact that these things avoided the disposal they were destined for.

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