“Phil Tippett is a legend in the world of movie effects and stop motion. He’s been a hero of mine since I was a child, when seeing him in the making-of documentary about Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back inspired me to tinker with 8mm stop-motion movies of my toy tauntaun!
This set of four wonderfully unique busts were a part of the design process in creating that creature. Although they can be seen in just a handful of vintage photos, we were very pleasantly surprised to find they still existed, hidden among the various maquettes from the Star Wars:Return of the Jedi™ creature work. The variety of style, even down to asymmetry where some busts have different designs when looking left and right, is a tribute to the creativity of the artist.
I feel so fortunate to know Phil and proud to have had him involved in several of our Archive Collection editions. Phil hand-signed each plaque for this limited run of just 100 pieces and I’m excited for fans to bring another piece of behind-the-scenes history into their homes!” – Tom Spina (Regal Robot founder).
During the production of films, the creature effects team will often dream up new and fantastic aliens and beasts by creating small scaled sculptures, called “maquettes,” to showcase their ideas. From this menagerie of maquettes, the film’s director and producer choose which characters will be brought to life for the film as costumes or puppets and what roles they will play in the story.
These four designs were part of the process in designing the Tauntaun, a ridable beast that would be a trusty steed for Han Solo™ and Luke Skywalker™ (and a tasty snack for a hungry Wampa™) on Hoth™. Stop motion animator, Phil Tippett sculpted the original maquettes to explore possible designs for the creature.
We are excited to share this new addition to our Archive Collection and look forward to sharing our latest art and characters with you. Be sure to follow @RegalRobot on social media to keep up with all of the new collectibles we have in the works.
Learn how you can bring the archive to your collection by JOINING OUR EMAIL NEWSLETTER and don’t miss out on this or any of our other upcoming new Star Wars creations!





























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