MORE THAN STATUES… THEY’RE HISTORY! Making Maquettes for Return of the Jedi™


Aug 2nd 2024

ILM Legends Share How They Used Maquettes To Design Iconic Creatures!

One of our favorite things in the prop archives are the concept maquettes that were used to design creatures from the classic Star Wars™ films. We’ve spent countless hours examining and researching these, discovering who sculpted each one and exploring the history behind each one of them.

We’ve been especially fortunate to know so many of the original sculptors of all of these amazing little monsters and to share their stories on our Youtube channel. In this new video, we’ve put together a wonderful oral history of how the maquettes came together and how they were used to help create the creatures we all know and love.

These unique small scale sculptures aren’t just odd-looking versions of the characters. They were often the first step in designing some of the most memorable aliens every seen on screen. Our Star Wars Archive Collection pays tribute to these incredible sculptures and gives fans a chance to bring home a real piece of the archives, as each hand-finished replica was actually scanned off of the original artifacts.

Learn more about the history of these amazing maquettes in this video where you’ll hear from ILM legends ranging from Phil Tippett, who was the head of the Return of the Jedi creature shop, to creature sculptors and fabricators like Jeanne Lauren, Chris Walas, Dave Carson, Kirk Thatcher, Judy Elkins and Ken Ralston. 

We’d like to extend a huge thanks to all of those artists. They continue to inspire us!

And visit OUR ARCHIVE COLLECTION page if you’d like to see our replicas of these incredible maquettes!

©Lucasfilm LTD.

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