HISS BOO! LUCASFILM PUTS A STOP TO STAR WARS KITS FROM FANTASTIC PLASTIC

Sadly, the movie studio LucasFilm chose the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing to order Fantastic Plastic to stop marketing its excellent Star Wars kits.

In FP’s words: “On July 20, 2009, Fantastic Plastic received a "Cease & Desist" order from LucasFilm demanding the removal of all unlicensed products from our Website.  In compliance, we have retired all "Star Wars"-related kits to the Virtual Museum Store “Hall of Fame”. We will no longer market or sell these or any other kits that fall under LucasFilm's jurisdiction.”

SMN’s not going to preach about the rights or wrongs of the situation, but we will say it’s a shame that Fantastic Plastic’s Allen Ury and LucasFilm couldn’t come to an amicable arrangement, especially as the range included fascinating kits, such as the 1:72 scale Incom Skyhopper (top pictures) and 1:144 Jawa Sandcrawler (bottom. Hey ho, looks like we’ll all have to bombard Revell with requests for new subjects to release.

On a brighter note, Fantastic Plastic's range blossoms otherwise, and its latest offering is another sci-fi movie subject, a 1:48 scale Bubble Fighter from the movie Lost in Space. The movie was not so hot in the acting department (and may have marked the nadir of Matt LeBlanc’s career) but the special effects were pretty good and the spacecraft designs excellent. So this big kit - standing more than 305 mm (12 in) high - should be on any sci-fi modeller’s wish list.

Visit LucasFilm here, and Fantastic Plastic here.