Among the many famous scenes in the original 1977 Star Wars film is the sequence in which Chewbacca and R2-D2 play Holochess (later renamed Dejarik) against each other in the Millennium Falcon.
Now, thanks to our friends at the themed collectible company Regal Robot, Star Wars fans will have the opportunity to own a highly detailed deluxe replica set of the Holochess pieces copied directly from Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic’s digital scans of the pieces, including two rare “lost” creatures, with a plaque signed by three of their creators.
What’s happening:
- The themed furniture and collectibles company Regal Robot has announced a Holochess Prop Replica Deluxe Signature Edition set from the original Star Wars film (AKA Episode IV: A New Hope).
- The deluxe set, limited to 77 copies, includes ten figures that replicate the stop-motion puppets used in the creation of the movie, plus a hand-numbered plaque signed by Industrial Light & Magic’s Phil Tippett, Jon Berg, and Dennis Muren.
- The figures will also be available in smaller two-figure sets, though only the Signature Edition include the above-pictured “lost” creatures (Scrimp and Bulbous) from the famous Holochess scene.
- The sets will go on sale Tuesday, May the 4th at 12:00 noon Eastern Time in honor of Star Wars Day, and order will only continue through Friday, June 18, “at which point the editions will be closed and capped.”
What they’re saying:
- Regal Robot: “We’re excited to share a first look at our amazing prop replicas that will be available on May the 4th! The hand-painted, static resin replicas in our Dejarik sets are 1:1 scale to the actual puppets used in filming the stop-motion chess sequences in the Star Wars Saga and with lineage to those original puppets! Our replicas were prototyped using the digital files that Phil Tippett’s team created in 2015, when they used 3D scanning and photogrammetry of original props used in Star Wars: A New Hope to accurately recreate the wildly imaginative creatures he and Jon Berg hand-sculpted in 1977.”
- Tom Spina, Regal Robot founder: “A few years back, I was at Tippett Studios working on a restoration project. At the same time, Phil’s team was preparing the holochess puppets for their stop motion work on Solo: A Star Wars Story. As a kid, I was pretty obsessed with stop motion after seeing the making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and how the tauntauns were brought to life. I’d always been fascinated by the chess creatures, but seeing these incredibly accurate modern interpretations in person and feeling the heft and scale of the puppets… it was really something special. I asked about recreating those awesome creatures for our fans via Regal Robot and I was over the moon when Phil graciously agreed to share the digital work his team did for the modern era Star Wars films.”
- Phil Tippett: “We had made 10 characters… George [Lucas] started placing them and then there just wasn’t room for two of the characters, and so those got cut from the movie. I made one, Jon [Berg] made one… I made the red guy, he made the green guy… and as kind of an appreciation for Dennis turning George onto us… we gave them to [him] as a thank you. When Ron Howard was doing his [film], we pitched to him the idea of bringing those characters back in.”
Be sure to visit Regal Robot’s official website for more information and to purchase these items beginning on May the 4th.