| Lando Calrissian Head Sculpting | |
| Prototypes come in many shapes, sizes, and stages. When it comes to figural prototypes, original sculptings are revered as the pinnacle by many collectors. While the Lando Calrissian head may be small in size, it's BIG on coolness and importance. It's rare to find action figure sculptings containing painted details since hardcopies and protomolded figures typically serve as paint masters and samples, but, while rare, its not completely unheard of either. An accompanying COA from Tom Derby contains verbiage speculating the head may have been painted since Lando represented the first African American figure for the toy line.
The above image affords a neck region view where the disk is visible. Similar discs are embedded into the sculptings at each attachment point; one on the head, five on the torso, and one on each arm and leg. The presence of these disks are often used to help distinguish and original hand rendered sculpting from a wax casting (wax part cast from a mold with little to no hand detailing).
The head sculpt looks killer displayed next to a complimentary painted first shot as seen above. The hand rendered sculpted detail, especially in the hair, is exquisite. Comparing sculptings, or hardcopies for that matter, to production quality toys gives one a true sense of slight detail loss between the sculptor's original creation and the final injection molded toy.
Provenance is extremely important when purchasing prototypes. The above COA offers history about the sculpting's origin. Tracing a prototype back to an original Kenner source requires some detective work on a collector's part, so this COA offers a verifiable method of validation. |
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| Description by: | Michael G. Mensinger, The Dark Artist |
| Photo: | The Dark Artist |
| From the collection of: | The Dark Artist |
| Country: | United States |
| Film: | Empire Strikes Back |
| Licensee: | Kenner |
| Year: | 1980 |
| Category: | Prototypes / Action Figure Related |
