These are not the free-floating holograms of the Star Wars movies. These three-dimensional projections are trapped within their picture frames, and also, within their time -- the late 1990s.
It was National Geographic that first let the hologram genie out of the bottle, with their celebrated holographic cover to their March 1984 issue. However, that came at a relatively quiet period in Star Wars collectibles, and it wouldn't be until the early 1990s when the confluence of affordable holographic printing techniques and a flow of regular Star Wars products -- especially kid's books -- merged to create a bonafide fad.
Old school fans that longed for the release of widescreen versions of the trilogy got their wish in 1992, with a boxed VHS set adorned with a hologram cover. What was once touted as the mark of a "Special Collector's Edition" quickly became so commonplace that the hologram craze faded by the late '90s.
