| Skor-Mor Darth Vader knock-off plastic bank | |
| This 8-inch vintage knock-off bank is made of blow-molded black plastic and features Darth Vader-like character complete with lightsaber hilt hanging on his right hip. The mask features prominent "teeth" which are a variation of the "teeth" on the original Vader mask and the upper and lower robes are very much based on the A New Hope Darth Vader costume. The outfit is completed with a horizontal chest box, again a major trait of the Darth Vader costume. On the back there is a slotted feature for loading coins and on the bottom there is a circular area for eventually extracting the coins inside. The owner would have to cut these areas himself, but this particular bank is in unused condition.
The bank was created by Skor-Mor, a manufacturer of puzzle and board games from the late 1960's though the early 1980's, and held registered trademarks at the time for several of their games. They registered as the Skor-Mor Corporation in California in 1964 and in 1970 were awarded a trademark for the Skor-Mor name while still located in California. In the early 1970's Skor-Mor had an important change of ownership as evidenced by the 1972 release of a series of plastic puzzles noted as: STAR ART, Sculpture that Comes Apart, Geo-Logic Puzzles by S.T. Coffin for NYLON PRODUCTS CORP, Clinton, Mass 01510." Also, there was the Pagoda Puzzle bearing the description: Skor-Mor, Inc., a Nypro Company, Plain Street, Clinton, Mass 01510. This transition was official by 1975 when the Skor-Mor Corporation of Anaheim, CA was renamed to Skor-Mor Products, Inc. and operated from Clinton, MA. The new parent company shortened their name from Nylon Products, Inc to Nypro, Inc in 1977 and is still located in Clinton, MA to this day. It's unclear when Skor-Mor Products, Inc. went out of business or quit manufacturing games, but the trademark for Grab-A-Game was registered in late 1981 and seems to be one of the last gaming items bearing the Skor-Mor name. Any bowling-related companies using the Skor-Mor name appear to be completely unrelated to the gaming company. Also marked on the base of the bank is "#010" which appears to be a product number since the Thinker Series puzzles and games (1970) is numbered #148 and Chess in the 3rd Dimension (1976) is numbered #110. However, the product numbers for those items are not sequential so it's unknown exactly how the #010 bank fit into their line-up because the earliest possible year it could have been manufactured is 1977. Interestingly, the plastic chess set was a revisit to their wooden version from 1971 so the new connection with a plastics manufacturer was of some significance to the product offerings at the time. It's unusual to see an established American company not only release a knock-off Star Wars item, but actually put their name on it and it's odd that a gaming company would create a bank anyway. Not that a plastic bank is specifically related to games and puzzles, but at least those are all "fun" items unlike this fancy keychain clearly marked Skor-Mor Corp and displaying the trademark arrow & target logo. Certainly the extent of their non-gaming products appears to have been quite diverse. There are no indications that Skor-Mor produced other banks, but it wouldn't be surprising if that was due to receiving a Cease and Desist letter from Lucasfilm about creating an obviously Darth Vader character. Without a doubt, though, this thing is a fun and seldom-seen piece of vintage Star Wars collecting history! |
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| Description by: | Chris Georgoulias |
| Photo: | Chris Georgoulias |
| From the collection of: | Chris Georgoulias |
| Country: | United States |
| Film: | A New Hope |
| Licensee: | Unlicensed |
| Year: | 1977 |
| Category: | Banks |
