WINDMILL CERAMICS LAMPS

Way back in 1979, Windmill Ceramics started making unlicensed ceramic busts of a few Star Wars characters. These were "blank canvases" distributed to craft stores and such for people to paint, decorate, turn into a lamp, and sometimes give to loved ones. Well, I guess this is the kind of thing you'd give to people you didn't like.

Chewie stands about ten inches (roughly 25.5 centimeters) tall.

These are considered lamps, although they weren't originally sold with any of the actual lighting equipment. There was space left for the bulb and a hole for the cord to travel through, through. You could purchase those separately and I can imagine hobby and craft stores bundling these pieces with lamp kits.

On the bottom, the artist who decked out this Chewie inscribed "TO DONALD H" and "FROM GRANDMA [unidentifiable name] 1979". That grandmother did a good job, in my opinion. She got enough of the colors right for one to recognize it as being Chewbacca, but that red bandolier gives him that awesome unlicensed feel.

Windmill didn't limit their set to just one character. Here's R2-D2.

This lamp has had some love and attention put into it. Check out the fancy crystal stuff put into the dome and body! And you can't miss that red "diamond" in R2's holoprojector.

This one, as you can see, has had a light installed. Notice that someone managed to get the words "GREAT PLAINS" to protrude from the bottom of R2' body.

Here's what the lamp looks like when taken out, for anyone wondering.

And for historical purposes, SS and 83 are marked on the foot. SS is most likely someone's initials while 83 is probably the year. Did they wait to do this until 1983? Or did Windmill keep producing these that late? I've seen a few different ugly Yoda ceramic lamps, and we know he couldn't have been from the 1979 line. Our little, green friend didn't appear until the Empire Strikes Back hit theaters in 1980. Perhaps there was another series of lamps (possibly made by Windmill or a different manufacturer) that was made sometime during or after 1980 that included Yoda. There's also a silly looking C-3PO lamp out there somewhere that I have yet to find an explanation for.

Here's another R2-D2 lamp I own. Its paint scheme doesn't look as screen accurate as the one above, but that just makes it more fun to look at.

This one's foot has been marked PG 80.

No lamp set would be complete without Darth Vader!



Although Vader was not originally sold with one, it's common to see him grasping a lightsaber. 







Windmill Ceramics released a set of Star Wars inspired mugs that pretty much look like someone decapitated these lamps and stuck a handle on 'em (except R2, who's a full droid in both lamp and mug form). You can read my post about them by clicking here.

In a comment left by "star wars zombie" at the end of this post, the legend of a box arises! These ceramics apparently originally came in boxes, though I have no further details to report just yet. Any collectors and/or grandmas know anything about these boxes? Just leave a comment.

Story time! I was so excited when I found Chewbacca at a toy show for only $10. When I bought it. I told the dealer it was probably going to be the coolest thing I'd buy all day, which I think surprised him. He said he had put it up on ebay for $15, and jokingly offered to break the item before shipping it, figuring that's what the buyer would do to the ugly, ceramic monster. Luckily for me, it didn't sell on the web, so he brought it out to the toy show. Now I consider it one of my favorites, and a good example of good luck.