Anchorhead said:

SilverWook said:

Lucas has been known to borrow from things...

He has indeed;

http://moongadget.com/origins/index.html

That said; I've never made any secret of the fact that I doubt nearly every word he speaks and generally think of him as a dishonest person - at least with regard to his Original Vision Bullshit Story. However, I don't think he would blatantly copy something that closely and then claim it as his own. Conveniently leave it out of any discussions and hope no one ever noticed? - you bet. Steal and change the paint job? - no.

My take is post-Star Wars on those pictures. The clothing is correct for my high school years. (shut up) ;-)

What about the Imperial Walkers he stole, I think from Syd Mead? Or C3P0 being straight out of Metropolis? I'd say its well within the realm of possibility and pretty consistent with the style of Star Wars, which is entirely assembled out of borrowed pieces, which is part of what made it so clever. Some of them are cultural and meant to be apparent to the audience to engage their own knowledge of cinema and pop culture(Chewbacca=Cowardly Lion, Han Solo=John Wayne, C3P0=Metropolis robot, trench run=Dam Busters), but some of them are obscure and not obvious (droids=Hidden Fortress duo, Chewbacca="Analogue" mag design, Darth Vader=The Lightning from Fighting Devil Dogs serial, Bespin=Flash Gordon base), many of which are never admitted by Lucas (he may have even forgotten).

So, I'd say it's legit. It may turn out not to be, but if you are going to judge it based on his past actions then the only logical conclusion is that he deliberately borrowed it ("stole" seems a harsh word; if you are going to judge it as theivery, then you ought to write off the entire film in virtually every aspect, element, character, design and story point).