This stunning one of a kind R5-D4 original artwork was created by Kenner's packaging vendor in 1978 to appear on all blister cards for the character between 1978 and 1985. It was photographed, separated into CMYK layers, and then mastered to print Cromalins and then proof cards for R5-D4, before being sent to printing vendors.
The original packaging art was then used on all subsequent releases of the action figure, in more than a dozen formats across SW and ROTJ – including the planned (unreleased) 1985 POTF package (though proof materials for this release were created in 1984).
Kenner's Star Wars packaging art was created by hand using the photoart process, which was the industry standard prior to the arrival of digitization. It offers a view into old world design, and was assembled and re-touched by hand long be prior to the Graphic Design world moved across to Photoshop, Indesign and other digital editing software.
The artwork features the original crop marks, percentage ratio, and character name written along the bottom edge. It shows significant air brush retouching in the upper left corner portion of the image. Hand crated pieces such as this are scarce in number, primarily because all are one of a kind items, and not every character from Kenner's 93 action figure line escaped the dumpster.
99 percent of all surviving packaging artwork examples trace back to a single find from former Kenner Marketing Executive Tom Neiheisel. He was fortunate to rescue the majority of vintage Star Wars character packaging artwork from the trash when Kenner 'cleaned house' in the early 1990s.