| Luke Skywalker in Bespin Fatigues Unproduced Doll Prototype (Early Version) | |
| The four 12" dolls planned, but not released, for Kenner's ESB line of products are among the most notorious of all unproduced Star Wars toys. The four, which were to include Luke in his Bespin fatigues, Han in his Hoth outfit, Princess Leia in her Bespin gown and Lando Calrissian, made it far enough along in the production process to have boxes printed for them. Little else exists, however, to prove that these dolls were in development-- they weren't even featured in any Kenner catalog literature of the time, a fact which suggests that they were never formally offered to retailers. In truth, Kenner wouldn't have had to do much work in order to produce these new doll prototypes; three of the four are simply the old figures jazzed up with new outfits. Lando, of course, represents the only entirely new toy of the bunch.
The pictures you see here come from promotional literature issued by French toy licensee, Meccano. For some reason, they jumped the gun and advertised the dolls as being among their upcoming releases. None of the unproduced ESB dolls were released in France or anywhere else. This, of course, is the Luke Skywalker in Bespin fatigues doll. It's pretty straight forward. It is believed that the doll, had it been released, would have come packaged with the holster and gun of the Star Wars Han Solo doll, as well as the blue lightsaber that came with the original Luke doll. I believe three examples of this prototype are known to exist; it's entirely possible that only three were ever made. You can see the box it would have come in here. This particular example appears to be a fairly early prototype of this doll. Notice its boots. They're not the roto-cast rubber boots that were eventually developed for the Luke Bespin and Han Hoth dolls. |
 | |
| Description by: | Ron Salvatore |
| Photo: | Anonymous |
| From the collection of: | Anonymous |
| Country: | United States |
| Film: | Empire Strikes Back |
| Licensee: | Kenner |
| Year: | 1980 |
| Category: | Prototypes / Product Concepts |