Vintage “Do You Dare Recreate All The Adventure?” Advertising Slick from Kenner

This is an “ad slick,” which is a piece of camera-ready art that a company might send to a magazine for them to photograph and print in one of their issues. In this case, it’s an ad by Kenner for their new line of Return of the Jedi action figures (including Jedi Luke, Gamorrean Guard, and Bib Fortuna). I have been told that it was used in the Summer 1983 issue of Muppet Magazine, although I haven’t been able to get one of those  to check for myself. This was originally obtained from a former Kenner employee, and I think there are only a handful in existence. It’s roughly 10 x 12, and you see it here matted and displayed in an 11 x 14 frame. Click the image for a closer look.

There are a couple of interesting things about this image. One is that the Jabba figure pictured has a lot of little pockmarks on his face that don’t exist in the actual production figure, and the surface of his skin looks more like paint than colored plastic. This leads me to believe that it was taken with some sort of prototype rather than a production figure. I also find the composition interesting, with the figures in the foreground and Jabba in the background. For quite a while I couldn’t figure out what the figures were supposed to be standing on, but then it hit me that Jabba is supposed to be holding them in his hand. I think the difference in scale is what threw me off, as well as the fact that it’s not possible to pose Jabba’s hand in this position. But I’m pretty sure that’s the idea here.