Death Star Tile orginal

Hi, I've been asked by a friend of mine to find out some information about a piece of the Death Star Tile his has.
It belongs to the estate of a friend of his who passed away. It's authentic because it was given to his friend by the former head of the Lucas film fan club.
Seems sometimes in the 1990's the head of the fan club was told to "get rid" of some of the excess stuff they had around.
The piece is 24"x24" and I think was used in the filming of the close up for the attack runs.
What I'm trying to figure out is how the pieces were made.
This parts seems to be a foam cast with model bits glued to the surface.
Does anyone here know how they made the original tiles??
I was wondering if the made smaller tile pieces and then put four together to make a bigger piece and cast that.
Rotated the parts, mixed and matched and then cast another large 4 panel tile.
If anyone has any information I would appreciate it.
Thanks,
Michael

If I had a dollar for every time I saw, 'I have an original.......".

Your friend might be the exception and I hope he is.

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If I had a dollar for every time I saw, 'I have an original.......".

Your friend might be the exception and I hope he is.

mash3d said:

... It's authentic because it was given to his friend by the former head of the Lucas film fan club.
Seems sometimes in the 1990's the head of the fan club was told to "get rid" of some of the excess stuff they had around.
...

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It is quite possible that it´s an authentic item. The easiest way to authenticate it´s origin story is to contact said former head of Lucasfilm Fan club. I am sure that they did not just throw stuff out but had held a contest, or that your friend´s relative was friends with said fan club head, so that person should remember giving away an original piece of Star Wars memorabilia, especially since by the mid 90ies there already was the LFL archive in place at Lucasfilm Ranch, IIRC.
Nice piece, would work well with the ds turret that´s currently up for auction

This one's simple to answer: I believe the "former head of the Lucasfilm fan club" is none other than Steve Sansweet, owner/curator of Rancho Obi-Wan in Petaluma, CA, where you can join the club, take the tour, and meet Steve at the end. You can also probably just call or e-mail him from the contact info on the website. He's a nice guy, still loves Star Wars (duh) and still really appreciates every Star Wars fan he meets -- I had the privilege of visiting this summer, and what I thought would be a 45-minute tour ended up being 4 hours of awesome, so I highly recommend it. The website is http://www.ranchoobiwan.org and though it says this: "Regrettably due to the high volume of requests, Steve cannot provide identification, evaluation or valuation of collectibles." I suspect that because Steve has original Death Star tiles in his museum, and he would have been the one to have given yours away originally, that he either would (or would not) recollect the story if you related it to him via e-mail with a picture attached. As a last resort, you could always visit the museum and bring the piece with you, at which point he would be very happy to give you his expert opinion. He does, pretty much, know just about everything about the Star Wars universe.

My two cents: from what I saw at Rancho Obi-Wan, your piece does look original. Biscuit foam construction with greeblies added on top, and a flaking/peeling multi-gray paint job is pretty much what all his pieces looked like. I'm conscious that model builders can replicate this look pretty well and/or easily, but to my eye you've got the real deal. They did make different scales of Death Star tiles, I believe three of them, for distant, medium, and close-up shots, and yours looks like the close-up version. And they did make them as individual tiles, cast them up, and then arrange them in different layouts to produce the randomized non-repeatable pattern of the DS surface.

That look original to me
Basically ALL the tiles were cast in a quick/fast setting self skinning expanding 2 part foam. They had to make hundreds of them.
The back will look something like this:

The detailing is from kit parts, but these were in the mold too, not added after.
Here's an example of the same tile, from the same mold, just painted differently (and with an added turret)

They were also made in different scale, for different shots.
This is the largest and used for very close shots like this:


It's a very valuable piece today!

mash3d said:

Hi, I've been asked by a friend of mine to find out some information about a piece of the Death Star Tile his has.
It belongs to the estate of a friend of his who passed away. It's authentic because it was given to his friend by the former head of the Lucas film fan club.
Seems sometimes in the 1990's the head of the fan club was told to "get rid" of some of the excess stuff they had around.
The piece is 24"x24" and I think was used in the filming of the close up for the attack runs.
What I'm trying to figure out is how the pieces were made.
This parts seems to be a foam cast with model bits glued to the surface.
Does anyone here know how they made the original tiles??
I was wondering if the made smaller tile pieces and then put four together to make a bigger piece and cast that.
Rotated the parts, mixed and matched and then cast another large 4 panel tile.
If anyone has any information I would appreciate it.
Thanks,
Michael

Click to expand...

I sent Steve an email as I have direct contact with him. He sometimes takes his time getting back to me as he is incredibly busy but let's see what he says.

Steve didn't run the fan club, he was the LF fan relations. Best person to contact would be Dan Madsen http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Dan_Madsen

Steve says it looks original but he has never been in possession of it.

Hi, Thanks for the info. From what I understand the gentleman acquired it in the late 80's or early 90's. The head of the fan club then was a woman.
I don't know her name but they are in touch with her to get a letter of authenticity.
Lee Thanks for posting the images. I almost recognize the two parts that are the back of a tank engine in the lower right hand corner.
The back of it is flat but looks like it was cast on plywood. There is a slight plywoody pattern to it.
Yeah that sounds weird to me also but that's the only way I can describe it.
I'm curious now as to what type of two part foam it was. The hard ware store stuff I know expands too much.

if I stand on my head and squint really hard I can almost figure out which piece it was.

mash3d said:

Hi, Thanks for the info. From what I understand the gentleman acquired it in the late 80's or early 90's. The head of the fan club then was a woman.
I don't know her name but they are in touch with her to get a letter of authenticity.
Lee Thanks for posting the images. I almost recognize the two parts that are the back of a tank engine in the lower right hand corner.
The back of it is flat but looks like it was cast on plywood. There is a slight plywoody pattern to it.
Yeah that sounds weird to me also but that's the only way I can describe it.
I'm curious now as to what type of two part foam it was. The hard ware store stuff I know expands too much.

if I stand on my head and squint really hard I can almost figure out which piece it was.

Click to expand...

That's a beautiful piece! and yes the texture on the underside comes from the flat wood surface that was clamped down onto the mould to contain the expanding foam.

Here are a couple of grabs from a home movie shot at the time by ILM's Dave Berry.






You can see the film here. It's amazing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu4HK-fSNqk

That would be one of the most awesome finds in years. I hope it pans out.

I just love the amount of detail for something thats in the background for so few time.