Editor's note: Today begins a new semi-regular column by author Duncan Jenkins on a somewhat obscure area of Star Wars collecting: food-related premiums. We recently unearthed a treasure trove of early food premium imagery from Lucasfilm's Licensing Archives that has never been published, and have been fortunate enough to enlist the help of premium aficionado Duncan Jenkins to share some expert insights into this vastly unexplored area of the hobby.
Collecting Star Wars food promotions can be fun and challenging. One of the reasons why this area of collecting stays fresh (pun intended) is that there are always new discoveries about promotions from the original trilogy that were previously undocumented. Due to the short shelf life of food promotions and the throw-away nature of food packaging, very little remains for many of the vintage Star Wars food items. Add to this the fact that many of these promotions took place in other countries (there was no world wide web in those days, kids) and you can see how difficult it can be to learn about some of these food related tie-ins.
Here is one great example. At first glance it looks like an A New Hope-era promotion since it only uses the Star Wars logo. Most movie tie-ins would use the movie specific logo. But, in fact, this is from the Empire Strikes Back.
Smarties candies from France are chocolate covered candies similar to M&M's and were made by Rowntree-Macintosh. This particular offer comes from 1981. Eager fans could send off for a Star Wars model kit for only 35 French francs (about $15 in those days). There were four models to choose from: C-3PO (or Z-6PO as French fans knew him), R2-D2, Luke's X-Wing, or Darth Vader's TIE Fighter. The models are identical to the model kits released in the USA by MPC. In France they were sold by the Meccano toy line, a name very familiar to vintage action figure collectors due to the popularity of their toys.
It is of interest to note the "double-M" logo for Miro-Meccano used on the promotional material. This helps us in dating the promotion since that logo was only adopted after Meccano merged with another French toy company Miro in 1980-81. Smarties crossed paths with Star Wars once again in the early 1990's with a Euro-Disney Star Tours tie-in, which is kind of ironic since M&M's is the sponsor of the Star Tours ride at the Orlando Disney World.
Make sure to check out Gus and Duncan's Comprehensive Guide to Star Wars Collectibles, available exclusively online.
