Despite the excitement many collectors felt when a number of these
Toy Fair trade ads
turned up in August 2000, a broad range of evidence (documented below) now leads
us to believe this item is a recent reproduction of an item produced for the
1980 Toy Fair and other trade shows.
Please see below for more details.
As you can see, it shows a grouping of Kenner toys, some drawn from the
proposed ESB line, but the majority coming from the older line of Star
Wars figures and vehicles. These pieces were discovered and sold by
collector Garry Pedersen.
Here's a close-up of the text. It's pretty self-explanatory. Note, however,
the employment of Kenner's oft-used "Star Wars is Forever" slogan.
Of course, one of the cooler aspects of this piece is its display of the four
never-released ESB 12" figures:
Han Solo in
Hoth outfit,
Princess Leia
in Bespin gown,
Lando Calrissian
and Luke
Skywalker in Bespin fatigues. Shown here are the former three.
And here you see the Luke doll, backed up by the older Sandcrawler toy.
There is some controversy in the community as to the authenticity of these
pieces. Some collectors are concerned that two dozen, easily reproducible
photographic prints would turn up on the market for an image that would have
obvious collector interest (unproduced ESB dolls). The misalignment of the
slide/photo and sales of these pieces through third parties have added to the
concern, but there are other issues that are even more troubling.
The ESB trade ads are photographic prints on Kodak Professional Paper that
did not exist in 1979/1980. We confirmed this independently with two
professionals who specialize in photographic dating, identification, and
printing.
We walked through authoritative Kodak photo sample books to date the color
print paper. These photo sample books itemize and illustrate all the different
photographic papers that were made by Kodak for a given year. If the photo paper
for these trade ads matches the photo paper in one of these books, then we have
a potential match for the paper used for a print.
First, a scan of the photo paper on one of the trade ad prints:
which reads
Kodak PROFESSIONAL
PAPER o PAPIER o PAPEL
To prove plausibility of these prints, we need to find a Kodak paper pre-1980
that shows the "Kodak professional" branding
instead of the more common "This paper manufactured by
Kodak". The 1976, 1979, and 1984 Kodak color sample books show that
all 3-color and color print papers read "This paper manufactured by Kodak".
No photo paper with "Kodak Professional Paper" was
produced during this timeframe only two color print papers known
during these years: Kodak EktaColor (negative film) and Kodak Ektachrome (slide
film). Both read "This paper manufactured by Kodak".
It's not until the 1998 Kodak sample book that we found two
professional papers called Ektacolor Ultra and Professional Supra with an exact
match on the "Kodak Professional Paper" printing. There are other professional
color papers with slight logo differences from the one on the trade ad and with
Kodak Professional branding.
For completeness, we also checked through black and white sample books to see
if there's any evidence of black and white paper with the Professional branding
pre-1980. There is none. The 1976, 1979, and 1984 black and white sample books
show all papers with the "This paper manufactured by Kodak" printing. The 1998
and 2000 sample books show some papers with "Kodak PROFESSIONAL" branding.
The obvious conclusion is that these prints must have been made recently
since Kodak Professional paper was not available in the 1979/1980 timeframe.
Independently, we consulted another photographic paper expert who stated that
"Kodak Professional" branding first appeared on the RA-4
process type papers (i.e. Ultra and Supra not Ektacolor or Ektachrome),
and was not available prior to the introduction of the RA-4 process (this
explains why "Kodak Professional Paper" branding does not appear in the earlier
sample books). Kodak's RA-4 process was commercially introduced in late 1989,
fully replacing the former EP-2 process. See the following links for more
information on the introduction of RA-4 in late 1989:
Color
Negative Photographic Paper and Certain Chemical Components From Japan and the
Netherland
Jobo Quarterly
Since Professional branding arrived with the
introduction of RA-4, all the evidence leads to the conclusion that these prints
were made in 1989 at the earliest.
We also corroborated this information on the introduction of Kodak
Professional Paper with Kodak themselves. In a customer service email, Kodak
wrote:
Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2001 12:22:56 -0500
From: Kodak
To: Gus Lopez
Subject: Re: Color Negative Films (KMM853564C0KM)
Gus,
I am sorry that it took so long for me to get back to you on your
inquiry. From the information that you provided, that product would
have been manufactured in the mid-1990's. If you need a more specific
dating, please provide us with information on your specific need (e.i.
is this for legal purposes?) and a sample print, and we will research
this for you. Please send samples to the address below.
Thank you for visiting our Kodak web site. If you should have any
questions on Kodak products or services, please be sure to revisit our
site as we are continually adding information to enhance our service.
Sincerely,
Peter Vimislik
Kodak Information Center (USA)
Kodak Professional
800 Lee Road Door C
Rochester, NY 14650-3109
1-800-242-2424 ext. 19 (Monday-Friday, 9am-7pm EST)
http://www.kodak.com/go/professional
Another issue of concern is that the seller vouched personally that the color
photo paper used for these display pieces is no longer available in the sizes
needed for these displays, as a point of authenticity and vintage.
Unfortunately, it turns out that Kodak color paper (with the exact Kodak
Professional label illustrated above) is currently available in several sizes
large enough to make prints of this size.
Kodak's website has tons of information about the professional papers they
sell. The "trade ads" have the dimensions: 20" x 34". Just scanning the
production info for Kodak Professional SUPRA III Paper and Kodak Professional
Ultra III Paper (there are lots of others but these are the two that exactly
match the Kodak professional logos on the trade ads), both SUPRA and ULTRA come
in max individual print size of 30"x40" and both are available as 40" x 100 foot
rolls, contradicting the claim of lack of current availability of Kodak
Professional paper in this size (Ultra also comes in a whopping 72" x 100 foot
rolls!)
See Kodak's pages for more technical details on these papers:
Kodak Professional Supra III Paper
Kodak Professional Ultra III Paper
With a slide of this image, it would not be difficult to generate two dozens
prints. The only logical conclusion is that these prints were made at least a
decade after the Kenner Empire Strikes Back line if not more recently. We have
contacted the seller to try to show contrary evidence that Kodak Professional
Paper existed in 1979/1980, but it seems overwhelming clear these prints were
made more recently, after the introduction of RA-4 papers and "Kodak
Professional" branding.
In the end, collectors looking to buy these should read carefully through the
facts and decide for themselves, but there seems to be an overwhelmingly strong
case that these trade ads were printed in recent
years and made to sell to collectors. If additional information
becomes available, we will surely update this Archive entry. | 
