How Topps' 'Star Wars' Trading Cards Took the Galaxy by Storm (No Thanks to C-3PO)
Cover/Original Card Wrapper
“Movies were generally considered an iffy proposition for trading cards prior to Star Wars, because they came and went so quickly,” explains Gerani. “On top of that, science fiction was sort of a tough sell. NPD [New Products Division] Creative Director Len Brown and I fought hard to get Topps to license Star Trek the year before, and we bombed in the mass market. … So getting Topps President Arthur Shorin interested in a new, untested, science-fiction movie wasn’t the easiest thing in the world.” But Shorin came around and Topps cashed in. (Credit: Abrams ComicArts and Lucasfilm, LTD 2015)
1977 Sell Sheet
Once they secured the license, they needed to fill enough material for a complete set: 66 cards, plus 11 stickers. But Fox and Lucasfilm had only a small amount of available image inventory: only one dogfight scene, for instance, and no shots from the Cantina. Most images were publicity stills and press photos that had been widely disseminated. (Credit: Abrams ComicArts and Lucasfilm, LTD 2015)
Luke Skywalker, Sticker 1 (Series 1)
The 11 stickers covered the film’s main characters, leading with Luke. The background space scene was borrowed from the previous year’s poor-selling Star Trek line. (Credit: Abrams ComicArts and Lucasfilm, LTD 2015)
Death Star dogfight, Sticker 11 (Series 1)
The last sticker in the first wave was the only image Topps had of the film’s epic space battles. It was also repurposed for card No. 53. Says Gerani: “We did everything possible with what we were given. But our need for additional pictures was extraordinary. We tried flopping, cropping, airbrushing… anything we could to stretch the soup. The redundancy of image content bugs me to this day.” (Credit: Abrams ComicArts and Lucasfilm, LTD 2015)
R2-D2, Card 3 (Series 1)
“I have a special fondness for our first series, the one with little hand-drawn stars within the blue borders. It brings me right back to ‘the good old days,’” says Gerani. Curiously, Topps tended to write out the names of the droids, instead of using the more familiar letter/numeral combination. (Credit: Abrams ComicArts and Lucasfilm, LTD 2015)
Han and Chewie, Card 44 (Series 1)
One of most famous and widely disseminated publicity shots from Star Wars (so iconic that J.J. Abrams borrowed it for The Force Awakens teasers), this image was staged by the actors on set, and does not actually appear in the film. (Credit: Abrams ComicArts and Lucasfilm, LTD 2015)
Luke on Tatooine, Cards 74/85 (Series 2)
For the second wave of cards, Topps changed the borders to solid red and eliminated the stars. The company also used early scenes of Luke on his home planet that wound up being cut from the final film, but can be seen in the bonus features of recent DVD/Blu-ray releases. (Credit: Abrams ComicArts and Lucasfilm, LTD 2015)
Missing FX, Cards 83/109 (Series 2)
Because the cards used images from the unit photographer — i.e., shots taken during the filming — none of the post-production visual effects was visible on the cards. That means no holographic chess or tractor beams in these shots. As Gerani notes: “It would be a while before we could print a decent shot of those holo-creatures.” (Credit: Abrams ComicArts and Lucasfilm, LTD 2015)
Air-brush overload, Cards 105/106 (Series 2)
Asked about the most egregious gaffes in the collection, Gerani says, “Some of those weirdly colored airbrushed cards come to mind. Pink isn’t exactly a Star Wars color!” (Credit: Abrams ComicArts and Lucasfilm, LTD 2015)
Death Star dogfight, Card 131 (Series 2)
Gerani calls this the “money shot” of the second series because it contained the trifecta of an X-wing, Darth Vader’s TIE fighter, and the Death Star. “Granted,” the editor notes, “the shot was significantly airbrushed and somewhat contrived, but we Star Wars licensees were starved for visual-effects battle scenes.” (Credit: Abrams ComicArts and Lucasfilm, LTD 2015)
Miscellaneous cards (Series 3)
The subsequent wave featured yellow borders and again, a mix of stills from the film, unit photography, and publicity shots. Card 175 shows a closeup of a Jawa taken on set; 187 has C-3PO and a fellow protocol droid posing together between scenes; 189 is another shot of Luke from the deleted opening scenes; and 176 gives us the iconic shot of wistful Luke at sundown on Tatooine — minus the binary stars that would be composited later. (Credit: Abrams ComicArts and Lucasfilm, LTD 2015)
Incorrect caption, Card 206 (Series 4)
Green was the theme for the fourth installment of cards. As happened throughout the various sets, the caption had nothing to do with the image. Luke (in a Gilligan-style hat!) isn’t searching for the missing Artoo, instead this is another image from the cut Tosche Station sequence. To meet the demand, Topps rush-published the cards, so inaccurate captions slipped by. (Credit: Abrams ComicArts and Lucasfilm, LTD 2015)
C-3PO, Card 207 (Series 4)
Some on-set prankster apparently thought it would be a hoot to add an anatomically incorrect appendage to the droid and the result was the most infamous of all the Star Wars cards. “I think something funny was attempted on the movie set, and a photo of this gag wound up among the various Lucasfilm images,” says Gerani. “Remember, we were digging deeper into their archives than anyone else for photographic content.” In any case we’re sure this isn’t what Han Solo meant when he called Threepio “Goldenrod.” (Credit: Abrams ComicArts and Lucasfilm, LTD 2015)
Revised C-3PO, Card 207A (Series 4)
Once the “anomaly” came to light, Topps airbrushed and re-released a G-rated card. Gerani, who says he’s asked about this card more than any other, explains the second card is actually the rarer item sought out by collectors because it had a more limited print run. (Credit: Abrams ComicArts and Lucasfilm, LTD 2015)
Han Solo, Card 260 (Series 4)
Here’s an example of a card made from a publicity still taken before filming, as obvious by Harrison Ford’s shorter haircut. (Credit: Abrams ComicArts and Lucasfilm, LTD 2015)
Cantina creatures, Card 277 (Series 5)
It wasn’t until the fifth and final wave of Star Wars cards that Topps was able to get images of the film’s popular Mos Eisley Cantina scene and its bizarre patrons like “Hammerhead,” later known as Momaw Nadon. Many of the last series featured aliens from that sequence. (Credit: Abrams ComicArts and Lucasfilm, LTD 2015)
Lucas directing Cantina scene, Card 308 (Series 5)
Gerani recalls “having fun with Lucas photo editor Sherry Holstein as we exchanged some funny nicknames for the Cantina characters… ‘Don Rickles’ was one, if memory serves.” (Credit: Abrams ComicArts and Lucasfilm, LTD 2015)
Millennium Falcon, Card 320 (Series 5)
The final wave of cards featured tons of behind-the-scenes photos giving fans a glimpse of the movie-making process. Here Richard Edlund sets up the Falcon. (Credit: Abrams ComicArts and Lucasfilm, LTD 2015)
Grand Moff Tarkin, Wonder Bread Trading Card 6
Topps didn’t have a monopoly on Star Wars cards. Wonder Bread printed its own 16-card set for inclusion in its baked goods, which are reprinted for the first time in the new book. They include Peter Cushing’s ill-fated Tarkin, complete with a previously unstated biography indicating his aspirations to supplant Emperor Palpatine. (Credit: Abrams ComicArts and Lucasfilm, LTD 2015)
Topps ‘Star Wars’ wrappers
As noted on the wrapper, each packet came with a stick of love-it-or-hate-it bubble gum. Gerani counts himself a fan. “Collectors used to complain that sugar from the gum would rub off on the card it was next to in the pack, making that card useless for re-trading,” he says. “After a while, we stopped putting gum in card packs altogether. As a Topps Brooklyn kid, I would instantly pop the slab of semi-fresh pinkness into my mouth as I opened the pack and examined the contents. It was all part of the classic experience, a reflection of 20th Century Americana. Things changed, became less fun and more collector-serious in the 1980s.” (Credit: Topps and Lucasfilm, LTD 2015)
BB-8, ‘The Force Awakens’
With a new Star Wars movie comes a new series of cards, and that makes Gerani happy. “It was a genuine thrill to be at the forefront of that sea change in pop culture back in ’77,” he says. “We enabled everyone to take Star Wars home with them. … I’m certainly proud of my role in all this. How could I not be? It’s an ongoing relationship with no signs of letting up, as I’m working on The Force Awakens cards for Topps even as I answer these interview questions. Like Luke Skywalker, I guess the Force of George Lucas’s amazing creation will be with me… always!” (Credit: Topps and Lucasfilm, LTD 2015)
Back in 1977, as Star Wars blew up in the zeitgeist, iconic scenes from the film were plastered on everything: books, records, posters, lunchboxes. Perhaps the most popular and enduring ephemera created during that period were the Star Wars trading cards by Topps. The publisher, best known for sports cards, had a spotty track record with the pop-culture lines produced by its New Products Division. One of the in-house editors, Gary Gerani, pushed hard for the company to take a flier on Star Wars, which went on to become one of Topps’ all-time sellers. To coincide with the release of his new book, Star Wars: The Original Topps Trading Card Series Volume One (Abrams), which reprints all the cards, stickers, and related material from the initial 1977-78 lines, Gerani revealed to Yahoo Movies the genesis of the trading cards, the mistakes that made it to print (including a legendarily bawdy C-3PO), and how the legacy of those cards extends to The Force Awakens.