CT Was there a potato in The Empire Strikes Back?

I saw a documentary on the TV once, where a guy said he put a potato into the asteroid field in The Empire Strikes Back and a tennis shoe into the Rebel Alliance fleet that goes off into hyperspace in Return of the Jedi.

I told a friend about this and he swore at me three months later, telling me he had gone through both scenes frame by frame and wasted ages doing it.

I never asked him to watch the films, but were these things in the original prints and pulled out for the remastered versions? Or were they pulled out for the VHS or DVD versions?

 

Yes, and by all accounts it's still there. They didn't erase it in the SE versions. But here's the thing: how could you possibly tell the difference? Most of the asteroids already look like potatoes.

 

Anybody got a photo? I never noticed.

 

Select any photo of the ESB asteroid field and decide which one looks most like a potato. Boom.

 

It would be nice to have some "evidence" to show to my friend, so that I can prove that I didn't trick him into staring at a ton of asteroids.

 

Best image I could get from my HD version

I have circled both the shoe and the potato.

 

In the original print of TESB, you can spot the potato, the remastered version makes it harder. In ROTJ you can still spot the tennis shoes in the alliance ship even in the remastered version.

 

From what I've heard, a lot of the asteroids in ESB were potatoes - they weren't there for a joke, it was just easier.
Why bother spending hours constructing 'asteroids' out of materials in the prop department, when you could pick up a few dozen for a couple of bucks on the way to work, then take them home for dinner?

I've always heard about the shoe in ROTJ - never been able to find a decent pic, always heard it was just a Star Destroyer in the background of the main battle. Admiral Volshe, that pic's not coming through.
Google image search just brings up rubbish pics from the asteroid chase in ESB identifying one asteroid as a potato and another as a shoe, neither of which looks like either. I don't doubt it was there, but from all accounts it was ROTJ, not ESB.

 

Sorry, I have had that problem with one of the sites I use today. No idea what the problem is. Here it is, rehosted.

I believe there is a shoe in ROTJ, but there is also one in ESB. Watching it gives a better effect.

 

I'm glad I don't own any shoes that look as bloody awful as that.

 

Thanks for your help.

It doesn't look much like a potato. No wonder I could never find it.

I thought the shoe was supposed to be a tennis shoe going to light speed in the Rebel fleet that attacked the Second Death Star.

 

i thought it was your "friend" lol.

 

No, I saw a documentary and told my friend. And he went looking for it...frame-by-frame.

I am pretty sure the guy in the documentary had said that he was making a zillion Rebel ships fly off into the distance and had stuck a tennis shoe somewhere in the fleet. At least, that is what I told my friend.