CLASSIC IMAGE: BUNKER SNARE!

On the forest moon of Endor, captured by a legion of Imperial troops, Han, Leia, Chewie and the Rebel commando team are unable to carry out their destructive mission against the shield generator protecting the Death Star. Soon enough, though, the tide will turn...

RETURN OF THE JEDI is showing today on the UK's ITV 1 HD channel this mid-afternoon.

ILM CLASSIC IMAGE: AN EMPIRE IN FLAMES!

Here's a great shot of a destroyed TIE fighter from the 1982/1983 model filming of the epic space battle for RETURN OF THE JEDI, supervised by ILM's Ken Ralston. I loved the shot so much I thought it might make a great cover for our MAKING OF RETURN OF THE JEDI Anniversary special issue a few years back (its still available in PDF format in our main sites back issues area-our biggest ever issue as well!) - the TIE in flames signifying the death of the mighty Empire - resulting in a few cover ideas that were put up by myself and regular AFICIONADO contributor Chris Baker.

Here they are (and I do still like them!):

Ultimately, however, because the image was just too dark, I decided against it and went with another rare photo of Mark Hamill in prime Jedi action on the Sail Barge instead (from an image kindly provided by another AFICIONADO contributor, Ian Trussler). As a nice curiosity I thought readers might enjoy seeing the above unused images anyway.