Friday - 5-25-2007

Acme Archives

Acme Archives is relatively new to the Star Wars license field, they debuted their first piece at Celebration III back in 2005.  That first piece, the Yoda Character Key, led to some really awesome Clone Wars pieces over the last two years.

The Clone Wars character keys are winding down with only two more pieces, but Acme has since added the six movies to their pool of potential characters and their first film piece was an animated version of Slave Leia which debuted at the NYC Comic-Con this year.

Adding to their movie characters at CIV, Acme produced an exclusive Grand Moff Tarkin key that is limited to 1250 pieces.  Some were held back for on-line sales so everyone had a good chance at picking it up.

Following in the tradition that they set at CIII, Acme chose Celebration IV to debut a new line of collectibles, the Sketchplate.  Each Sketchplate will have an aircraft aluminum plate etched with art and affixed to an acrylic backer.  Sketchplates are similar to data plates that you can find attached to machinery.  According to one of the guys at the booth (I forgot to get his name), the owner of Acme is a huge airplane fan and based these on pieces that he'd seen on airplanes he's been on.

The first piece in the line depicts R2-D2 using Ralph McQuarrie's concept art.  Limited to 1000 pieces, the sketchplate was also available on-line for people not attending CIV.  I was happy to be one of the first people in line and bought #10. 

Although I asked a couple of times, Acme hasn't settled on the final two designs for the Clone Wars character keys yet.  I didn't ask about the next in the movie line but now that Tarkin is out I'm sure we'll be hearing from them soon.

I also didn't ask about the next in the Sketchplate line but I have my fingers crossed for a McQuarrie C-3PO to go with R2.  Acme did say that not all pieces in the Sketchplate line will be based on artists works so I take that to mean movie vehicles, equipment and other items will be fair game for the line. 

Personally I'm hoping for a Republic Gunship as well as lightsabers, blasters and maybe even helmets like Boba Fett and Darth Vader!

With their fun collectibles and wonderful customer service, I'm sure I'll be following Acme for quite some time.