Have you ever wanted to see Darth Vader take on the Millennium Falcon with only his lightsaber? Or how about teaming up Boba Fett and Luke Skywalker on a tauntaun to fight the probot and miniature snowtroopers?
In 1980, the marketing people at Kraft Foods were hoping kids in the United Kingdom wanted to create such fantastic battles using this mail-in premium from Dairylea Cheese. Collectors from the United States might notice this "Bumper Transfer Pack" looks similar to the Prestomagix Rub-Down Transfers that were sold in retail stores starting with The Empire Strikes Back. The product comes with a mostly empty backdrop art scene and a small sheet of plastic with various characters, ships, and explosions. The budding artist places the plastic sheet over the backdrop and uses a pencil to rub over the desired image until it magically transfers onto the backdrop. This process is repeated until the page is filled with a cool battle scene as originally imagined in the mind's eye of the artist.
Kraft Foods contracted with British company Letraset to make this premium. This was not the first time Letraset had done Star Wars transfers. They had released several rub-down transfer sets for the initial release of A New Hope in the UK and created four scenes for a Nabisco Cereal promotion. But for Empire, these cheese spread premiums were the only sets they made. This Bumper Transfer Pack has a backdrop divided into three zones: Hoth, Bespin, and Asteroids. The sheet of transfers has corresponding letters so you would know on which world to put each character (if you wanted to be so prosaic as to stick to the movie scenes). Modern-day purists are probably enraged over the uncanonical depiction of X-Wings in the asteroid field, or at the very least, seeing the X-Wing with S-foils in attack position since that never happens on screen in The Empire Strikes Back at all.
While kids were waiting to receive their bumper premium they could take the edge off of their rub-down cravings by creating mini-scenes on the cheese wheel boxes. Each box featured a small size scene and sheet of transfers. There was Bespin, Hoth, and Dagobah. The interesting part of the Dagobah set is the depiction of Yoda. It is the early concept art that is more gnome-like than the finalized film version. Most early Empire items did not feature Yoda at all in an attempt to keep his look a secret and add some shock when Luke first discovers the Jedi Master he was seeking.
Make sure to check out Gus and Duncan's Comprehensive Guide to Star Wars Collectibles, available exclusively online and now shipping!
