Another image-centric blog post! Man, I'm getting lazy. Anyway, when
The Empire Strikes Back premiered in 1980, acclaimed fantasy artist
Boris Vallejo (whose
Buck Rogers and
Flash Gordon images from the period are also memorable) was commissioned to paint these dramatic posters as premiums for Coca-Cola.
I don't recall if these were available at fast food restaurants or at theaters. Can someone who actually remembers let me know in the comments?
ADDENDUM: From the comments, it appears that these posters were available at
both the Burger Chef/Burger King restaurants
and at "participating theaters!"
In my neck of the woods you could get them at Burger Chef, same place the Star Wars posters came from.
ReplyDeleteIntersting, I never saw these. Great post.
ReplyDeleteI remember getting the Vader with two lightsabers poster from my theater. I LOVED that poster!
ReplyDeleteI remember these. I had the last two as posters in my room for the longest time.
ReplyDeleteI've still got the top one somewhere.
ReplyDeleteI also had the last two in my room for some twenty years. Really wish I had the Carbon Freezing Chamber, though!
ReplyDeleteYeah, definitely a Burger Chef promotion: http://www.thebawdycloister.com/reliquary/2005/10/empire_strikes_.html
ReplyDeleteI remember these being available at Burger King out here in Utah, which I think is the same thing as Burger Chef...
ReplyDeleteThey're beautiful pieces. Always admired them, never got around to getting them.
They were at my Theater in NC
ReplyDeleteI think the bottom batch (with the captions) were a fast food promotion for chains that served Coca-Cola. Sounds like Burger Chef for most areas. Not sure for areas that didn't have a BC unless the bottlers gave them to theaters that were clients. Considering how many times kids came back for Star Wars in those pre-VHS release days, I'm sure a few movie houses did a different poster each week to get the kids back in.
ReplyDeleteThe top one was definitely sold at theaters during the summer of 1980, but I only remember the other three being offered at Burger Chef a few months after the film came out (and unlike the Del Nichols posters, these were not available at Burger King also). As a kid obsessed with everything Star Wars, I had all four.
ReplyDeleteI still have the bottom three.
ReplyDeleteI used to have the second, third and fourth posters. They used to be a promotion for kentucky fried chicken and coca cola in 1980.
ReplyDeleteThe bottom 3 were available at Burger Chef along with limited edition glass tumblers. I used to have all 3, with the tumblers, but now only have the middle two, and the tumblers are long gone.
ReplyDelete