Meanwhile there were dodgy looking Vader costumes making personal appearances at malls all over the country. I personally saw one which IIRC, was a record store promotion tied the the release of the ESB soundtrack. Vader was accompanied by someone in the rattiest Chewbacca outfit I ever saw. The fur barely matched the Don Post Chewie mask they were wearing! In an era before cell phone cameras and internets, I imagine this flew well under the radar.
Fox went a tad overboard with the lawsuits. They thought they could own the concept of spaceships shooting beams at each other. They wanted to sue over Hardware Wars, but George liked it.
I doubt they could do anything about certain SW actors cashing in. 😉
That’s really fun stuff. Thank you for sharing it. 😄