In early 1992, long before the
Magic of Myth
exhibition, Hata International,
a Japanese company which sponsored many traveling
art exhibitions throughout Japan, approached Lucasfilm
about organizing an exhibit. Lucasfilm
quickly seized the opportunity to treat the Japanese
people to a behind-the-scenes look at the imaginative
world of George Lucas. In the exhibition, which
ran from July 1993 till September 1994, tens of
thousands of people saw first hand the puppets,
figures, props, costumes, storyboards and artwork
from all the previous Lucasfilm
projects, including Star
Wars, Indiana Jones, Willow,
American Graffiti.
Several of the props, in order to
be part of the exhibition, had to be restored
because they had structural damage. Don Bies who
was in charge of the restoration process explained
the reasons, "The warehouse that originally
housed the pieces was just that, a warehouse that
had no insulation, no heat, no air conditioning.
So, it went through extremes in temperature. That
probably speeded up the decay in some things.
Plus, this stuff gets beaten up while they're
shooting the films, and when they were done they
just put it in the warehouse." Besides, when
a film crew is on location in the middle of a
shoot, in Hawaii, hustling to get one last take
before it rains, or in Tunisia, enduring the desert
heat, preserving model, props and costumes for
prosperity is not a priority. Among the many props
that went through refurbishing were the Imperial
Speeder Bike, a miniature Land Speeder, C-3PO's
armor, the miniature mine cars and figures from
Temple of Doom
and the Ark of the Covenant from Raiders.
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