Wow, I honestly never noticed that typo, and now it’s really bugging me.

However, I’m curious; was “Vader Lives” (with or without the typo) a ‘thing’ back in the 70’s?

Having grown up during the release of the PT I already knew that Vader would have to survive the events of ANH considering there were two more films with pictures of him on the VHS covers. However it just recently occurred to me that for kids (and adults for that matter) back in the 70’s him being shot out into space by Han must have been somewhat ambiguous.

So for those of you who actually remember this time, was “Vader Lives” a common thing? I haven’t heard of it before, but when I googled it I found a few pieces of merchandise (both official and unofficial) with this ‘slogan’.

Poster from 1978, also with the “Vadar” typo;

Comic ad with an oddly drawn hooded Vader from Fantastic Four #194 from 1978. Even though it’s in a Marvel comic it’s apparently trying to sell a bootleg SW toy. This one actually spells “Vader” correctly in the title, but misspells it in the actual ad several times. Source

This one can’t be real. At the very least it was not licensed.

Were these things common back in the 70’s, or are these just some weird attempt at (possibly bootleg) marketing?