



GARTHIAN STRIDER, Medium Attack Troop Carrier

80 tons, maxium speed 25 mph

"Unlike the tanks of Earth, the Garthian Strider walks on

two legs. This is the most efficient way to move on land

in the galaxy. To the Garthian, man might seem insignificant

as bugs." Lee Seiler 1981

In 1984 California artist Lee Seiler filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against George Lucas, Lucasfilm, and 20th Century Fox. He claimed that the walker designs seen in ESB and ROTJ were stolen from his designs. In addition to damages, Seiler's action asked for an injunction against Lucasfilm's use of walkers and their removal from prints of both ESB and ROTJ. If that had been the result, those would have been strange Special Editions.Lee Seiler claims to be a Hollywood set designer (though I could not find an entry on IMDB) and he is now one the foremost experts on the model of the Nautilus used in Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.Seiler claimed to first have published his walker designs in June 1976, selling them at science fiction and comic book conventions. He also co-authored a popular book on dinosaur stop motion effects for film. In 1981, his blueprints for walkers were bound in a collection entitled "The Garthian Culture: An Alien Profile". Seiler designed his walkers to be especially suited for stop motion effects.A year after the release of ESB, Seiler wrote to Lucas, asking for a meeting and monetary compensation. Months later Lucasfilm's attorney responded that there was nothing to discuss. Seiler then took his case to a patent attorney. One of the keys to Seiler's case was that Dennis Muren was on Seiler's Garthian mailing list.The case finally went to court in 1986.LEE M. SEILER, PLAINTIFF-APPELLANTv. LUCASFILM, LTD., INDUSTRIAL LIGHT AND MAGIC, TWENTIETH CENTURY-FOX FILM CORPORATION, GEORGE LUCAS, JR., AND JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON, DEFENDANTS-APPELLEESSeiler did not obtain his copyright until 1981, but he contends that he created and published in 1976 and 1977 science fiction creatures called Garthian Striders. In 1981 Seiler obtained a copyright on his Striders, depositing with the Copyright Office "reconstructions" of the originals as they had appeared in 1976 and 1977. Empire Strikes Back was released in 1980.After a seven day hearing, Seiler could produce no documents or published blueprints that antedated the release of ESB. He claimed that he had either lost or destroyed the original drawings. And no convention purchased blueprints sold before 1981 were ever found.With no admissible evidence, the district court granted summary judgment to Lucas after the evidentiary hearing.Strange.Copyright LucasfilmSources:Cinefantastique Magazine Sept 1984Seiler v. Lucasfilm, Ltd. http://www.law.berkeley.edu/