[Star Wars] McQUARRIE CONCEPT SERIES

These are no longer as rare as they once were. I need to just get that statement out there before anything else. After Hasbro's typical "Re-issue! Re-package! Re-package!" form of marketing there's really nothing that rare at all about them. But, they were at a time, harder to find, and quite desirable for that reason. The reason I bought this wasn't for the scarcity or monetary value at all. I bought these for the art history they stand for.

I grew up a Star Wars fan, a fan of the movies, the toys and the art. I had a glimpse early on of an art portfolio from the original Star Wars film and fell in love with the work inside. When the "Art of Star Wars" book were released I bought it right away. I just absorbed the beautiful artwork and imagery of Ralph McQuarrie's work. To this day I just sit in amazement at the art when I look through the Star Wars art books. So when Hasbro decided to honor the man who helped shape the entire Star Wars universe I was extremely excited.



The first figure released in the McQuarrie style was the Stormtrooper. I didn't get him, I never even saw him in the stores. The next figures that were going to be for sale at retail outlets would be in stylized packaging, so I was hopeful. I managed to find the Stormtrooper and Darth Vader McQuarrie figures after a good amount of searching. I didn't even realize the Stormtrooper I had found had a rarer coin inserted, which to this day means almost nothing to me anyhow. I had quickly popped them out of their plastic prisons and fell in love with the McQuarrie designs all over again. These pictures were taken the day I got the toys. I only just recently found them again while searching old CD-Rs for old Transformers toy pics.





This pic below is just a digi-deco I did for fun. When I first saw a Gundam robot back in the 80's the first thing I though of was the McQuarrie Stormtooper. And yeah, I think that image came to mind for good reason.