Is chewing gum food? That is the kind of question that must be answered when attempting to categorize every Star Wars collectible ever made. As my co-author, Gus Lopez, and I began to organize and classify all the products for our book, we found ourselves asking the unlikely question: "Is chewing gum food?" Since this column is about food collectibles and now features a chewing gum promotion, you might conclude that we decided yes. But many people would argue that it is inedible (especially the kind usually packaged with trading cards). Either way, let's table this discussion for now and look at this week's collectibles.
Spain had several promotions for Return of the Jedi. Many of their products were released under licensee "Promo-V.I.P." or Promostaff. I believe that this was an umbrella licensee with several sub-licensees within it. In this particular case, the actual manufacturer was Chupa Chups, a famous Spanish candy company. The 1983 promotion consisted of 32 "cromos" or stamps on the backside of the gum wrappers. The wrappers came in at least three different colors: pink, baby blue, and an appetizing shade of green. Each had repeating images of Darth Vader's helmet and Princess Leia in her slave outfit. On the other side of the wrapper were numbered images of key characters or scenes from Return of the Jedi. The first twenty featured unique comic style scenes and the remaining 12 were colored character line art.
Once Spanish fans started amassing their cromo collection, where could the display it? Luckily, the people at Chupa Chups had a solution. They offered a two-sided poster with spaces to place each stamp. The poster was available by sending in 12 cromos -- a good way to get rid of those unwanted doubles. I am not sure how one decides to display a two sided poster with stamps on both sides. Do you switch sides depending on your mood? Or do you hang it on a glass wall so both sides can be seen?
No matter which side of the chewing gum/food debate you are on, we can at least all agree that this is a very fun and interesting set to collect. For the record, we decided that chewing gum is not food and listed this set under Stickers and Stamps in our book. But it was too interesting to not feature it in this column on vintage food premiums.
Make sure to check out Gus and Duncan's Comprehensive Guide to Star Wars Collectibles, available exclusively online and now shipping!
