Han Solo's Hoth jacket: Blue or Brown?

[slynger]

Yes he did, but George just won't accept this.

George can say what he wants, we all know what we saw in '77.

And while I know that technically the coat is brown, it was blue when I watched Empire, it was blue when I played with my Kenner Hoth Han in the backyard and it will remain blue regardless of what the crappy new Blu-Rays show.

 

[devilof76]

Damn straight.

 

[TheFiend]

^ The best Sideshows Freaks has to offer.

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[Sachiel]

it was blue when I played with my Kenner Hoth Han in the backyard

You're gonna want to sit down for this...











...last warning...

 

[slynger]

You're gonna want to sit down for this...


...last warning...

How dare you, sir!

 

[EVILFACE]

The outcome of this poll will determine the best 1/6 Hoth Han of SDCC ...

Well damn, why aren't people screaming for a Blue Han Holster as well?

 

[creature4000]

Isn't that given??

 

[SixthScaleEdward]

I'm not interested in this figure, but I always remembered Han's coat to be blue in Hoth.

 

[VintijDroidGutzz]

It's like those pearl-ish paint jobs that custom cars get.

It's about five different colours, depending on where you're standing while you're looking at it - or what lighting's hitting it at any given time..

 

[kl241]

Well damn, why aren't people screaming for a Blue Han Holster as well?

Or a Blue Blaster as well?

 

[lerath666]

What colour did it appear to be in the film itself? That's what I'd go with.

That's the problem: it's both. It's brown in the Hoth exterior shots and blue (or at least strongly appears to be) in the Echo Base interior shots.

Having seen the Coat in person, It's brown. its's ALLWAYS been brown, and allways WILL BE brown.

The Bluish lighting used for the echo base interior shots COMBINED with the ( comparably) low quality of the VHS copies we all grew up with makes it look blue in the interior shots.

We also get our best looks at han in the coat in echo base, so those memoires stick out better.
Additionaly, the old kenner figure was blue.

However, in reality, the coat is now, and always has been brown.

 

[lerath666]

Blue jacket, no pants.

Scott Klauder would approve.

 

[Mr.Tanker]

Having seen the Coat in person, It's brown. its's ALLWAYS been brown, and allways WILL BE brown.

The Bluish lighting used for the echo base interior shots COMBINED with the ( comparably) low quality of the VHS copies we all grew up with makes it look blue in the interior shots.

We also get our best looks at han in the coat in echo base, so those memoires stick out better.
Additionaly, the old kenner figure was blue.

However, in reality, the coat is now, and always has been brown.

Have you completely ruled out the possibility of there being more than one coat used during production? Especially since half the Hoth scenes were filmed in Norway and the other half in England.

And we are not talking about VHS, but rather DVD, Blu-ray and photographs, which all three show a blue coat as well as a brown one.

I was personally convinced the coat was brown in every shot until I started going through some of these pictures. It is incredibly common for multiple versions of outfits to be made. These often vary, due to when they are filmed. The differences between the Stormtrooper armor in A New Hope being a prime example.

 

[kl241]

The coat that has been touring with the Star Wars exhibit is not the original screen used prop.

 

[lerath666]

Have you completely ruled out the possibility of there being more than one coat used during production? Especially since half the Hoth scenes were filmed in Norway and the other half in England.

And we are not talking about VHS, but rather DVD, Blu-ray and photographs, which all three show a blue coat as well as a brown one.

I was personally convinced the coat was brown in every shot until I started going through some of these pictures. It is incredibly common for multiple versions of outfits to be made. These often vary, due to when they are filmed. The differences between the Stormtrooper armor in A New Hope being a prime example.

While I Get what you're saying, Photographs of the coat in normal lighting inside the set show it to be brown, just like the one shown in outdoor shots. the interior shots were flooded with a werid blue light.
Which cuased his coat to look blue. Additionaly, Han's bespin Jacket actualy WAS blue ( or at the very least a Dark navy color) Which leads to some confusion.


Even the Dark brown parts of Chewbacca look Blue in some of the hoth shots.

So to answer your question, Yes, I have considered that posability, but Occham's razor requires I reject it in favor of the weird blue lighting being the cause. It's the simplier solution, and the far more likely answer.

Harrison Ford is not color blind. neither is the director, and likely the ESB costume designers were not either. while i do not doubt that they made multpile coats for han for the Hoth scenes, I DO HIGHLY DOUBT they made those coats from dramaticly diferent colored material, and that nobody on-set ever noticed.

So either the coat is brown, or Chewie was also blue. which is it?

 

[lerath666]

The coat that has been touring with the Star Wars exhibit is not the original screen used prop.

Has that always been the case? or is that a new development? It was my understanding 15 years ago that when i saw the magic of the myth exhibit at the smithsonian when it FIRST started to run, EVERYTHING was a screen used prop.

 

[lerath666]

Ah, here you go, Regardless of the one with the Magic of the myth, this is the SCREEN USED PROP that was on display at C4 a few years back... hasbro added to the exhibit with their two figures as well appearently.

And here is one more bit of info, taken from another site.

So many will question, why in the world did Kenner back in the day make Han's coat the Navy Blue Color it is? Quite simply, they messed up. This wasn't uncommon as the Blue Snaggletooth, the bodies of the rest of Cantina Aliens, 2-1B's legs and the 4-LOM and Zuckuss name switcheroo testify to this. In fact, thanks to one of the neater pieces of Vintage Memorabilia, Bill Cable of CreatureCantina.com, at one time was in the possession of the actual licensing slick used by LucasFilm to tell Kenner and other license holders how Han in Hoth Gear should look in their merchandise.

If you look closely at the Slick you see a bunch of different numbers and codes, one of which calls out the Jacket as 405U.


These codes correspond to a Pantone Color. Pantone is used in the Graphics Art industry as universal color system. Consulting a Pantone Color Chart one comes up with:

BROWN! Kenner may have read the slick wrong, gotten too far into figure production and LucasFilm not really being the control freaks they are today let them slide on the error. Perhaps there was a screw up at the factory and the switch was made then. Perhaps the Brown didn't look right and they wanted Han to stand out. Any of these could have happened.

 

[lerath666]

As for the stormtroopers, If memory serves, the "sandtrooper" costumes were made first, and by hand. the other suits were teh later made mass produced ones based off those original designs.

 

[lerath666]

Bigger picture of the scrren used Coat at C4

 

[Pixelpiper]

Pantone Color.

Those are just facts, and what good are facts in an internet debate about childhood memory? Seriously.