Food-related Star Wars collectibles have traditionally taken a back seat to the more prominent categories of collecting -- action figures, toys, posters, trading cards, etc. After all, candy wrappers, cereal boxes, and cheap pack-in premiums were often thrown out after use or at best tossed into the garage sale box after spring cleaning. But more collectors are beginning to recognize their appeal as artifacts of the pervasive Star Wars phenomenon, which seems to have infiltrated every aspect of pop culture.
Japan, like the US, has a strong market for food tie-in promotions with popular movies, including the Star Wars saga. Candy confectioners Morinaga and Meiji were among the first Japanese companies to use Star Wars to market their products in 1978, offering a vast collection of premiums and packaging that have challenged collectors for three decades to find them all.
Items associated with these campaigns are extremely rare, at least on this side of the Pacific. On the rare occasion one of the promotions' in-pack premiums comes up for auction, bidders will often drive the price for these "trinkets" up into the tens of dollars. Fortunately, Japanese collector Yuu Katagiri is one of the few to have successfully gathered nearly all the premiums and packaging associated with the Morinaga and Meiji campaigns, a difficult feat, to say the least. Yuu shared some photos from his collection at Celebration Japan this year, several of which are showcased below along with commentary from the panel.
Posters promoting Morinaga's Star Wars candy line are extremely rare, and occasionally showcased artwork exclusive to Japan (Vader's helmet and the X-wing). They also incorporated the popular Hildebrandt illustration used on US posters, as well as the droids Artoo and Threepio.
Morinaga offered Star Wars packaging and premiums for their strawberry caramels, "Slim Sticks", and candy lines, with many different illustrations available on each. The premiums packed with the caramels actually came in a separate box attached to the caramel box.
The third image in the slideshow at left shows candy store bags depicting the various Morinaga Star Wars candies of 1978.
There are allegedly 56 different in-pack premiums from Morinaga's Star Wars campaign, all of which are exceedingly rare. These included pinbacks, charms, pill boxes, combs, padlocks and keys, miniature models, rub-down transfers, mini vinyl bags, and "puffy tags" (a list of most of these -- with variations -- can be found at The Star Wars Collectors Archive.
Meiji, another company offering Star Wars chocolates in Japan, also included a number of pack-in premiums. The chocolate boxes featured four different artwork covers, 20 different movie scenes on the back, and 30 different stamp-like Star Wars stickers to be found inside.
Because Meiji had separate factories in Japan, a similar Star Wars chocolate line came packaged in paper tubes instead of boxes. A set of ten small plastic figures and vehicles were packed in the tubes, with an unproduced eleventh "Death Squad Commander" depicted in catalogs but allegedly never offered.
