Recommended video: John Williams – Anakin’s Theme
It’s #FunkoFriday, so let’s have some fun. Today, instead of talking about articulation or paint details, we’re shining the spotlight on the Funko Pop! Vinyl Star Wars Episode I – The Phantom Menace: Young Anakin Skywalker!
The teaser poster for Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace was revealed on November 10, 1998, and marked the start of the prequel era’s marketing. It created huge excitement for George Lucas’s return to Star Wars after sixteen years away since Return of the Jedi. The poster is still seen as a great example of minimalist marketing. It was also the first theatrical Star Wars movie poster to use photo-realistic digital art instead of a traditional painting.
Ellen Lee and Jim Ward designed the poster, and its power comes from its simple idea. It shows nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker standing alone by a Tatooine sand hut, while his shadow clearly forms the shape of Darth Vader.
The image captured the meaning of the tagline “every saga has a beginning” by showing childhood innocence alongside a sense of unavoidable tragedy. The poster came in two versions: a long theater banner with the shadow stretched across the desert, and a standard one-sheet with the shadow on the hut.
Funko released a Qui Gon Jinn figure in 2016, and later that year, they also introduced this Young Anakin Skywalker Pop! Vinyl figure based on his likeness from The Phantom Menace.
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