Any ESB Official Poster Monthly experts here?

ZippyNL

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Mar 18, 2013
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Hello all,
In an effort to set myself an easier goal than the collection of Palitoy figures on their first card, which gets more impossible with everey figure I obtain, I have recently been trying to collect mint copies of the 1980 ESB Official Poster Monthly, and in order to keep it a bit interesting, I've decided to focus on the UK versions only. There were five published in total, and as far as I can tell the way to tell the difference between the Uk and US versions is the cover price (pounds rather than dollars), and the lack of a bar code on the UK versions, which have a coloured rectangle in the same place.

So far I've fairly easily found issues one to four, but issue five is proving tricky. I can find the US issue 5 with the black and white bar code, and I can also find issue five with a blue coloured box where the bar code should be, but it is clearly marked $1.50 every time. Then I found some double packed bundles of issue 2 and issue 5 which are UK issued (they sold for 90p), but issue 2 is UK and issue 5 is the hybrid with a dollar price but no bar code. I also vaguely remember picking up a double pack back in the day.

Is it possible that issue 5 was never published with a pound price on the front because of a misprint, and that when the publishing company realised this they bundled all of the copies of the "$1.50 but without bar code" versions with unsold UK copies of previous issues in order to still sell them?

Or is it just the case that I've been unlucky in finding an issue 5 with a UK price?

If anyone knows, I guess this is the place to ask, right?

Thanks chaps

Jason
 

wayneg

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Jun 7, 2011
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Hi Jason,

I subscribed to the ESB Official Poster Monthly through my local newsagent and only ever received up to #4 so I'd guess that this never hit UK news stands?

I've checked my poster mag collection and I, like you, have a #5 with a bar code and one with a blue coloured rectangle where the bar code should be both with US dollar pricing.

I'm eager to hear if anybody does have a UK priced version!

Wayne
 

ZippyNL

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Mar 18, 2013
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127
Hope it's OK to dig up an old post, but I do have an update on this, and thought it best to post it just in case. I opened up some old boxes of comics etc from when I was a kid, and found to my surprise issue 5 of the poster monthly. Sure enough it had a blue box where the bar code is on the US version, but the price was $1.50. This was definitely bought in the UK (I didn't go to America until the 90s and didn't buy it then), and as I mentioned I believe it was in a double pack with another issue. Looks like somebody really did accdentally print the price in dollars on the UK version, and this would explain why they had to bundle it and sell it with a piece of paper in the bag with a price in pence.

Don't know if anyone's really into these old poster mags, but if so, hope this info is useful.
Cheers

Jason
 

Simply Sci-fi

Jedi Knight
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Jan 30, 2014
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The Poster Magazines were written and the prototypes created in the U.K by Bunch Associates and printed in the USA by Galaxy Press. The finished product was then shipped back to the U.K. I have only ever found dollar priced copies of issue 5 of the ESB poster magazine but I'm pretty sure it was sold in the shops over here.

Every issue of the Star Wars poster magazine after issue 4 was also priced in dollars but I believe that it too continued to be sold in U.K shops. It would be good to hear from someone who remembers buying the SW poster mag past issue 4 because my memory is foggy on this one.

I have always assumed that after the initial four issues of the SW and ESB poster magazines, the U.K version print run didn't warrant its own unique cover (in those days of time consuming hand-crafted magazines) and Bunch Associates only created prototypes of the U.S version.

I don't remember issue 4 of the ROTJ poster magazine being sold in U.K shops and I have only ever seen them with U.S pricing.

I hope that's of some use.

Craig.
 

ZippyNL

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Mar 18, 2013
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127
Cool, thanks Craig, good info, sound like you know your stuff (sorry for the late reply BTW). I can vaguely remember buying a two pack, and maybe issue 5 was included in that, but then again maybe not. I suppose they could have put a price sticker on it back in the day, that was certainly common practice. And the two pack could have consisted of two other issues.

I never even knew about the SW poster magazine until I started checking EBay, so I'm no help there I'm afraid. I dug out the ROTJ monthlies but I only have 1-3, all UK priced 75p.

This could be a new focus for me....
 

Simply Sci-fi

Jedi Knight
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Jan 30, 2014
Messages
428
No worries. Pleased to be of some help.

I'll be including the history of the poster magazines in my upcoming Star Wars book (now at the proofreading stage).

Most fans don't realise that the poster magazines were essentially a British product, so hopefully I'll have some information which will be of interest to people.

Craig.
 

Tony jedi

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Jun 6, 2017
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Yes four issues of Star Wars Poster Magazine were produced in the UK whereas in the USA 18 issues were made. Also Four issues of The Empire Strikes Back Poster Mag were in the UK AND four issues of Return Of The Jedi Poster mag were available as well. Just picked up issue one of Star Wars Poster Mag just need issues 2 3 4. Awesome stuff.
 
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