The first Star Wars movie was such a big hit that people wanted any piece of it that they could get.
So in addition to the movie, there was a huge amount of Star Wars merchandise.
Action figures, t-shirts, posters, and trading cards, not only featuring scenes from the movie but giving extra info about the Star Wars universe to fans that couldn’t get enough.
And then there was card number 207, in which C3PO is getting out of the oil bath at the moisture farm on Tatooine and he appears to have a… well, this card explains why Han Solo called the droid “Goldenrod.”
It was not a great look for a droid that was programmed for etiquette and protocol…
Furious parents demanded the Topps company recall this scandalous card, and the company did airbrush out the robotic appendage and issue a corrected version.
But how did that card even get made in the first place?
One story says it was a prank, either on the movie set or from the trading card makers.
The official Star Wars website for years said that it was actually just a trick of the light, and that’s why nobody thought anything of the card when it was produced.
But here’s the explanation given by C3PO actor Anthony Daniels himself.
He said that, to film the oil bath scene, the film crew actually heated up some vegetable oil in a tub and had Threepio get in.
It wasn’t uncomfortable, but the oil did eat away at the adhesive on a piece of golden tape that was keeping the suit in place.
When Daniels got out of the bath, the tape gave way and part of the suit got out of place.
Plus, the way his body was turned at the time made it look like C3PO had been doing something else in the bath.
Which we can’t completely rule out: I mean, he did say the oil bath was going to feel “so good.”
On July 25, 1911, Bobby Leach went over Niagara Falls in a barrel – and lived.
He was only the second person to ever survive the plunge (which, by the way, you should not ever do).
About 15 years later, Leach, a man who had survived the almost unsurvivable… slipped on an orange peel and hurt his leg, which led to gangrene, which led to an amputation, which led to medical complications that killed him.
It’s been that kind of summer.
