| Klaatu Skiff Unpainted Hardcopy | |
| The Klaatu Skiff unpainted hardcopy shown above is an extremely nice representation of this particular production process stage. A hardcopy, due to its early
positioning within the production process, retains most of the fine detailing inherent in its predecessor and parent, the original sculpting. Hardcopies are
born from a silicone mold cast directly from the original sculpt. Some hardcopies, like this one, remain unpainted and serve as a tooling master used in
production steel tooling generation. Others undergo hand painting to prepare them for life as a
paint master or display/photography sample.
By the time Return of the Jedi product development rolled around, dynacast, a green pigmented urethane, was the most prevalent urethane being used by the company. This Klaatu hardcopy, now shown above from the rear side, provides a fine example of the dynacast material.
The figure is capable of being totally disassembled, as is true with all unpainted hardcopies and many painted hardcopies. The cylindrical steel dowels protruding from the torso provide torso attachment points for both the head and extremeties.
Our fourth and final image shows Klaatu's partial impersonation of a Smurf...well, maybe not, but Smurfs deserve their time in the limelight too! The blue head, an example of a urethane type which post-dates the vintage line's development, serves as a nice stand-in for the missing original dynacast noggin. For additional information on blue urethane hardcopies, commonly referred to as "Blue Harvest, please refer to the entry located here. |
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| Description by: | Michael G. Mensinger |
| Photo: | Broc Walker |
| From the collection of: | Michael G. Mensinger |
| Country: | United States |
| Film: | Return of the Jedi |
| Licensee: | Kenner |
| Year: | 1983 |
| Category: | Prototypes / Action Figure Related |
