April 1996 marked the beginning of the biggest SW blitz since 1983 and the beginning of the all around SW blitz that lasted through 2005.  The Shadows of the Empire "multimedia event", as it was billed back then, consisted of a novel by Steve "Not The Guy From Journey" Perry, a kiddie book, a comics series from Dark Horse, a videogame, an all-new original soundtrack by Joel McNeely, toys, trading cards, a behind-the-scenes type book, and various collectible items.  It had everything except an actual movie.

It told the story of what went down between TESB and ROTJ, as villainous Prince Xizor makes his move for power and to get Leia in the sack, as robo-girl Guri beats up a lot of people, and as the Rebels get the assistance of a Han Solo wannabe, Dash Rendar.  I thought the novel was actually pretty good, one of the best EU novels to date.  It was fun, it had real tension (oooh nooo, is Leia gonna cheat on Han thanks to Lizard Man's power pheromones?!), and Vader kicked butt.  He taught Xizor not to mess with his kids or his job. 

The other SOTE items I got were some of the toys with their purple packaging, the kiddie book, the behind-the-marketing-scenes book, the soundtrack, and the trading cards.  Joel McNeely's soundtrack wasn't quiiiiite up there with John Williams's classic scores.  But as a soundtrack fan once told me, McNeely is a star high school basketball player and John Williams is Michael Jordan.  And as such, the score isn't bad.

The trading card set consisted entirely of all-new art by the legendary Hildebrandt Brothers, capturing all of the best moments of the novel.  For you trivia buffs a girl from a New Jersey SW fan group posed for a lot of the Leia paintings, since she bore a close resemblance to the real thing.

The only thing I completely skipped was the video game, and the Applause knicknacks.  But for younger SW fans, SOTE was one of the first SW video games that they played.  Oddly enough both PT Anakins used to play SOTE, not knowing just a few years later they'd get sucked into that universe as well.

SOTE was an interesting footnote in the history of SW fandom.  It was in the end a marketing dress rehearsal for 1997's Special Editions which in turn was a dress rehearsal for the prequels.  Nearly all of the SOTE licensees with the exception of Bantam and Varese Sarabande managed to stick around at least through the TPM promotion.  Someday SW fans curious about that era might usher in a SOTE revival.  We'll just have to see.  In the meantime, relive the memories of 1996:

http://www.starwars.com/databank/droid/guri/index.html

http://www.starwars.com/databank/character/princexizor/eu.html