KOTOBUKIYA MCQUARRIE ! ! !

One of my all-time favorite Star Wars images is Ralph McQuarrie's classic 1975 pre-viz painting of Darth Vader dueling with Luke Starkiller. The energy, mood and stylistic design were amazing and had a huge impact on me as a child. I still want an animated series that looks like McQuarrie's artwork.

According to McQuarrie, early versions of the script implied that the Rebel starship's hull was breached by the Imperials to board it, releasing the pressurized atmosphere into space. As a result, both Luke and Vader were required to wear breath masks for a duel sequence that was later revised & delayed until Empire. While Luke no longer required the mask after script rewrites, Vader kept his since it was fucking awesome.

Now, Kotobukiya is turning the painting into 2 amazingly kickass statues!! Check em out!! Vader stands about 11-inches tall, to give you an idea of scale. And dig the yellow lightsaber!! Sweet!! Oh man, I am definitely buying these mofos!!

*Click on images to enlarge!*

Previous post about Kotobukiya's SW statues.
Kotobukiya website.

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*thanks, Melchy!