| Mos Espa Fruit | |
| When I first saw this image of a Mos Espa fruit stand, I knew I was in prop heaven. There are so many cool pieces in this one image from the set, and I had hoped to track down as many items in this photo as I could find.
At first, I didn't see any of these pieces among the prop junkyards in nearby towns, but after I showed the above photo to enough people, kids and moms (the dads were all at work at the time) started coming from their houses with handfuls of styrofoam painted pumpkins and dried fruit that matched the items in this photo. One of the more visible items in the Mos Espa set pictures are the bunches of brown nuts seen at vendor stalls. In reality these are unusual-looking acorns that were brought to Tunisia from England for the filming. Most of them have long stems. This shot contains some assorted fruit props that were used for Mos Espa vendor stands. Although no closeups of the movie shots are available, these pieces are part of the rich collections of produce found under the many Mos Espa tents.
These fruits look similar to the ones Aunt Beru was dipping into her food processor in A New Hope. They are dried out and have spokes radiating from the sides. Like many of the other prop produce, this is lightweight and dried so that there is no risk of spoiling. Some of the prequel speculation sources outline events surrounding a particular vendor at a fruit stand. Whether these fruit stands are significant in the plot of Episode I remains to be seen, but one thing that is certain is that they are a prominent fixture in the Mos Espa scenery. This stand is heavy in gourds. Most of the gourds are a particular kind that appears to have veins yet hangs like a candy cane. These are so out of the ordinary that when I showed one of these to people, they didn't believe it came from a real plant.
Here's a closeup of one of these dried gourds. These items make an excellent choice for Tatooine produce as it has an out of this world appearance. This is the largest of all the fruit visible on the Mos Espa stands.
This small gourd is a familiar style of gourd and can be seen hanging from some of the stalls in the Mos Espa photos.
In this image, you see two different styrofoam pumpkins that have slightly different external shapes and stems. Paint is added to the styrofoam to give it a realistic look. Even in one's hands, these pumpkins appear to be real. Bon apetit. |
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| Description by: | Gus Lopez |
| Photo: | Gus Lopez |
| From the collection of: | Gus Lopez |
| Country: | United States |
| Film: | Phantom Menace |
| Licensee: | Lucasfilm, Ltd. |
| Year: | 1999 |
| Category: | Movie Production Pieces / Props |
