Lucasfilm Patent for FX-7

If you’re a fan of Kenner’s Star Wars action figures from the seventies and eighties then you’ve already got both Star Wars: The Ultimate Action Figure Collection and The Ultimate Guide to Vintage Star Wars Action Figures, 1977-1985* and have studied the books to the point that you’ve memorized them. Awesome, but have you chased down the various patents for a peek at the remarkable patent artwork that exists as the legal protection of the character and toy designs?

There are dozens of these patents online, but today I’d like to direct your attention to the FX-7 patent that was filed in 1980. What I find fascinating about these old patents is that some are under Lucasfilm and some under General Mills. I’m betting someone smarter than I could figure out how and why the division exists.

As I wrap up the files for Universe Expanded and Empire of Shadows for the printer I find myself looking back earlier than the nineties and studying the work of Kenner in the seventies and eighties. It’s fantastic that there are resources available such as the newspaper and patent archives, and looking at these I realize I could get lost for weeks if I wasn’t careful.

Related articles

• Patent for Kenner’s 1979 Boba Fett Action Figure (battlegrip.com)
• Shadows of the Empire in the 1996 Hasbro Toy Fair Catalog (battlegrip.com)
• Kenner’s 1998 Star Wars Expanded Universe Action Figures in ToyFare Magazine (battlegrip.com)