Category Archives: Star Wars

Main, Star Wars, Star Wednesday

Star Wednesday: Space Food

It was easy to get excited about the Star Wars prequels when they were released because by then I had already spent at least half of my life excited about Star Wars. I was born in 1973. 1977-1985 were the prime collecting years when it came to the original trilogy. True, there were some lean times in the late 80s and early 90s, but by the time Power of the Force action figures appeared in stores in 1995, it was like the excitement had never left.

Something psychological was going on at that time. I had spent so many years playing with, buying, and searching for Star Wars toys that when the brand reappeared in stores (with a vengeance) in the mid-1990s, I bought it all. Not just the stuff I wanted, but everything I could find and afford, because on some weird primal level, that’s what it felt like we were supposed to do. I (and a lot of other people) bought the action figures, and then we bought the playsets and spaceships, and the video games, and the masks and the costumes, and the Pez dispensers… literally anything they put the Star Wars logo on, I bought it.

Even food.

2016-04-12 10.41.15

These Pop-Tarts are one of a few different boxes of food I purchased in the late-90s/early-00s. (I never thought about it before, but the concept of “lava berry explosion” flavored food sponsored by Darth Vader is kind of like Lizzie Borden’s parents endorsing a particular brand of ax, but I digress.) As much as I enjoy Pop-Tarts, I never thought to collect them before. All you had to do was slap the words “limited edition” on the box, and I was all in.

2016-04-12 10.39.32

Here’s another box of food, obviously from Episode I — Galactic Berry candy. I don’t know what the shelf life of any of these items are, nor would I be interested in finding out at this point. I once ate some gum from inside a 30-year-old pack of Ghostbusters II collector cards and wished I hadn’t for a couple of days.

I have no excuse for purchasing these things, nor do I have an excuse for not getting rid of them. They just sit on a shelf, taking up space.

2016-04-12 10.40.40

Way up on the top shelf is this box of Star Wars Episode II cereal. Again, why someone buys a box of cereal and then refuses to open and/or eat the contents is beyond me, and I’m the guy that did it. As long as it said “Collector’s Edition” like this box does, I bought it.

When the latest Star Wars film hit theaters, I walked into Target and saw two large shelves filled with Star Wars-themed food. From soup to cereal to candy and chips, if you could put a label on it, someone (Disney) had stuck the Star Wars logo on it. I’m over the phase now. I might eat a box of Star Wars cereal or drink a bottle of water with Yoda on the label, but my days of buying perishable items with the Star Wars logo on the packaging are over.

Main, Star Wars, Star Wednesday

Star Wednesday: Darth Vader Bend-Ems

1 Comment

2016-03-25 08.12.48

From the day Star Wars debuted in 1977 through the mid-1980s, it seemed like the Star Wars floodgates would never stop. It all started with only a few action figures, but by the time Return of the Jedi hit theaters in 1983, action figures and playsets were just one of hundreds of things Star Wars fans could purchase. By the age of ten I had Star Wars pillows, sheets, and curtains for my room, Star Wars pencils, markers, and folders for school, and all sorts of other galactic items. Where the theatrical movies stopped, the Saturday morning cartoon shows and made for television specials began. It seemed like it would never end!

And then it ended.

Other than the occasional computer or video game, not a lot of Star Wars items were released in the second half of the 80s, and save for a few bits and pieces here and there, things didn’t pick back up until the Power of the Force figure line relaunched in 1995. What were fans to do?

Well, in some cases, we bought Bend-Ems.

group-standing[1]

Photo courtesy of StarWars.com

Bend-Ems were a line of bendable, rubber Star Wars figures. They looked dumb when they were released, and their looks haven’t improved over time. Collectors bought them for the same reason (and with the enthusiasm) that people lost or stranded in the wilderness occasionally resort to drinking their own urine. Saying that you liked the Bend-Ems line of figures is akin to saying Jar Jar Binks is your favorite Star Wars character. It’s like saying you prefer the lines on an ’87 Yugo to a ’57 Chevy, or that your favorite movie of all time is the intermission cartoon they used to show at drive-in theaters.

I didn’t buy all (there were only around 20) of the available figures in the Bend-Ems line, but I bought a few of them, and Darth Vader was one of those. A far cry from the menacing Dark Lord of the Sith we had grown to know and love, the Bend-Ems version of Darth Vader seems proud of his opposable thumbs and hint of a goofy grin.

I started working for the FAA in 1995, and on one of my first work trips, I had a terrible flight — one so bad that it kept me from getting back on an airplane for almost a decade. When I started flying again, I wanted to take something with me. Something I could put in my pocket and focus on. A good luck charm, if you will. That item became this Bend-Em Darth Vader.

This Darth Vader figure, as silly as he looks, as been on every single flight I’ve taken (and most road trips, too) since 1995. On flights, if my clothing allows, he usually rides in my front pocket. The rest of the time he stays tucked away in my laptop bag. I may not be able to see him at all times, but he’s there. Last year after visiting Hawaii I was able to claim that I had been in all 50 states, and I dare say Vader has been to all of them, too.

Darth Bendy doesn’t stand alongside my other figures on their display shelf. Instead he stands alone, right next to the door of my computer room. There are always things in that room that get packed up when I head out for a trip, and when I walk out that room on my way downstairs, the last thing I grab is him. I haven’t been in a plane crash yet since I started carrying him with me so it looks like he’s working.

Star Wars, Star Wednesday

Star Wednesday: The Empire Strikes Back Lunchbox

1 Comment

2016-03-03 06.08.31

What better way to publicly pledge your allegiance to the Empire as a kid in the 1980s than by carrying a Star Wars brand lunchbox to and from school every day? Sure, other kids might have Star Wars toys at home, but with a Star Wars lunchbox, you could represent Star Wars all day!

The lunchbox you see above is the one I carried to school for a couple of years in the early 1980s. The picture shows our four heroes (Chewbacca, Han Solo, Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker) standing on Hoth with their guns drawn and pointed toward the camera. This isn’t a scene from the film — in fact, I’m 90% sure it’s multiple pictures spliced together.

The first lunchbox designed for children was the Hopalong Cassidy lunchbox, released by Aladdin in 1950. The trend caught on, and for many decades, an important part of back to school shopping was picking out exactly which lunchbox you wanted to carry and to and from school all year long. This was no light decision; make the wrong choice and you could be a cafeteria pariah!

Like most kids (and collectors) I prefer the metal lunchboxes of the 50s-80s to the plastic ones (like this one from The Empire Strikes Back) that began to replace them in the early 1980s. A popular theory is that the lunchbox industry switched from metal to plastic because kids were using metal lunchboxes as weapons, but the reality is the plastic ones were cheaper and quicker to develop and manufacture. That’s a shame, because the metal ones, with their embossed graphics and artwork that wrapped around all six sides, were truly awesome. The plastic ones were essentially all the same, save for a single sticker affixed to one side.

2016-03-03 06.08.40

Here are a couple more Star Wars lunchboxes I’ve picked up over the years. Neither of these were ones I carried my lunches in, but I remember seeing other kids with them. There are two or three other vintage Star Wars lunchboxes I would like to add to my collection, but the ones I consider to be affordable (~$30) are all dented and rusted, and I can’t bring myself to pay the $75-$100 price for average looking ones. I’ll keep searching.

Interestingly (or perhaps not), these all reside with my “lunchbox” collection, rather than my Star Wars collection. The force is strong, but the smell of old milk in a Thermos is stronger!

Main, Star Wars, Star Wednesday

Star Wednesday: Stormtrooper Helmet

1 Comment

2016-02-17 00.06.03

Occasionally I’ll go off on a tangent and start collecting some random sub-collection of Star Wars “things.” Such was the case in the late 1990s, when I began collecting Star Wars masks and helmets.

Like most kids, my early Star Wars Halloween costumes consisted of cheap or homemade (or both) costumes combined with plastic masks from the store. I think the year I went as Chewbacca was the only time I ever went as a “good guy” — most of them time, I preferred the Empire. I remember loving this Stormtrooper costume my mom put together for me to death.

Rob Stormtrooper Halloween, Kids

Around the time I was in third grade, an uncle of mine gifted me a plastic Darth Vader helmet. It was the kind that came apart in two pieces — one that covered the front half of your face and the helmet part that covered the top and back of your head. The top was held on by a strip of Velcro. Other than the fact that someone had poked out the eye lenses before I got it, the mask was in pretty good shape. I wore it around the house from time to time with sunglasses on under the helmet to hide my eyes. I had a stand for it and eventually I found a couple of rubber eyeballs that I stuffed into its eye sockets. They bulged out and made Vader look like he had been eternally kicked in the nads.

In the late 90s I began purchasing Don Post masks, the cheap ones. Over the span of a few months I had a Biker Scout, Boba Fett, and this Stormtrooper helmet. When The Phantom Menace was released in 1999, I began buying latex masks to go with the helmets. I filled empty three-liter bottles up with water and hung the masks and helmets on top of them. By 2002, this is what my collection looked like:

helmets

These masks and helmets looked good out of the box, but weren’t designed to last long (or for rough play). The kids dropped and broke the Biker Scout and Pod Racing helmets. I stored all of the latex masks in my closet on summer and every one of them melted together, looking like the last scene from The Fly. Of all the masks in that picture, the only ones I have left are my Boba Fett helmet, the C-3P0 one (which, despite it’s claims of “one size fits all,” doesn’t), and two Stormtrooper masks, both of which have pretty large cracks in them.

And for some reason, one of them has the eye lenses poked out. Full circle.

Star Wars, Star Wednesday

Star Wednesday: Tiny Yoda

1 Comment

2016-02-10 12.27.55

This is approximately 1/4th of my Star Wars collection. Although my collection is pretty big, some of my favorite pieces are actually quite small, like this one:

2016-02-10 12.28.53

In 1998, having just moved back to Oklahoma from Spokane, I threw a big birthday party — a really big birthday party, with kegs of beer and gobs of food and dozens and dozens of people. One of the party attendees walked through my front door, came right up to me, and handed me this tiny Yoda.

“I brought you this Yoda.”

“Where did it come from?”

“I stole it from Walmart.”

And that was that. A bit of digging revealed that this was one of several miniature PVC figures released by Applause in the mid-to-late 90s. Again, like many things in my collection, it’s the story behind it that I enjoy as much as the item itself. It’s a small Yoda, with a big, fun story. Off the top of my head, out of the hundreds and hundreds of Star Wars items in my collection, this may be the only one I know of that was stolen. If Walmart ever contacts me about it, “return him to the store, I will.”

Star Wars, Star Wednesday

Star Wednesday: Draconian Marauder

1 Comment

Depending on your level of Star Wars knowledge, you may be baffled by today’s choice. The Draconian Marauder, of course, is not from Star Wars at all. It’s from Buck Rogers.

While Kenner’s line of Star Wars action figures didn’t invent the 3 3/4″ scale, it quickly and definitively solidified it as a standard. Within just a few years of the original Star Wars line, figures for The Black Hole, Clash of the Titans, Lone Ranger, Flash Gordon, Dungeons and Dragons, CHiPs, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Lord of the Rings, M*A*S*H, G.I. Joe, and a whole slew of others, including Buck Rogers (and of course the original Fisher Price Adventure People, which pre-date Kenner’s figures). Many of these toy lines also had play sets and vehicles (including spaceships), and since they were all the same size, they were all interchangeable. This allowed wounded Wookies to visit the M*A*S*H unit, Han and Leia to take a vacation in my Adventure People van, and occasionally, bad guys to fly around in the Draconian Marauder.

I remember that the Draconians were the bad guys in Buck Rogers, but that’s about it. I don’t remember who flew this ship, or anything else about it, really. It looks like a bad guy’s version of an X-Wing fighter, and that’s what I used it for. When Luke would hop in his X-Wing and take off across the galaxy, I’d cram a bad guy inside this thing and send it off after him.

Like Star Wars toys, this ship had a cockpit that opened so that a figure could sit inside. Unlike Kenner’s line of toys, this ship (and many other non-Kenner playsets) seemed to be more fragile. I’m lucky that my ship still has all the major pieces (including the landing gear and rockets) attached. Most of the ones you see these days do not.

I’ve owned this ship since I was a kid, but I don’t remember who bought it for me — probably a well-meaning friend or relative who thought “he probably has everything related to Star Wars, so let’s get him something else.” I didn’t mind at all, and a few of these non-canon ships made their way into my pretend Star Wars playtime.

Star Wars, Star Wednesday

Star Wednesday: Yoda Tissues

1 Comment

While walking through the kitchen the other day I noticed this package of Star Wars tissues sitting on the counter.

My wife, the eternal Girl Scout, is prepared. For anything. If we suddenly had to rappel off of something, build a sailboat, or perform a tracheotomy, I’m pretty sure my wife has the necessary components in her purse to do any of those things. If you were to be stranded on a desert island with only one person, she’s the person you should hope for. I’m sure my wife knows how to open a coconut on an island and get the milk out of it and all those other things you need to know to survive on an island. I, on the other hand, would be the guy that made a coconut bra and did a funny dance to keep everyone entertained.

My point here is that my wife probably needed some tissues for her purse and happened to pick some up that had Star Wars characters on them, whereas I would be the person who would buy these because they had Star Wars characters on them, even if I didn’t need any tissues at the time.

My Star Wars collection didn’t start out as a collection — it started out as a bunch of toys that I played with when I was a kid. As I previously said, anything in my collection that I have actual memories attached to, those are the things that are worth the most to me. I don’t know what percentage of my collection those things make up, but it’s not as much as you would think. 25%, maybe. The rest consists of newer toys I’ve bought just to fill shelves, or items like these tissues. I never got into collecting food with Star Wars characters on the labels, but I do have a box of cereal, a box of fruit roll-ups, and a box of Pop-Tarts in my collection. I have some Star Wars candy and some Star Wars Pogs and some Star Wars markers and, of course, a pile of those Star Wars Pez dispensers that came out several years ago.

As I find myself running low on display space (again) for my collection, I am becoming more discerning as to what I add to it. During a recent trip to Target I was met at the front door by a large display of Star Wars branded food. There were at least half a dozen different brands of cereal with Star Wars characters displayed on them, not to mention the cans of soup, the bottles of water… you name it. I’ve even seen pictures of fruit in Star Wars bags! I enjoy seeing these things, but I’m not as tempted as I once was to buy them.

There was a time when I would buy anything related to Star Wars. In my defense, there were some pretty dark and sparse years for a while for Star Wars fans. There were times — years at a time, in fact — where one might not see anything related to Star Wars on store shelves. Walking into Target or Walmart now and seeing an entire aisle dedicated to the new film is great! I love it! I just don’t need to own it all, anymore.

I’m glad my wife bought these tissues, but they probably won’t go up on a shelf to be treated like some kind of rare find. Instead we’ll open them and blow our noses into them and, depending on which side is facing up when I use one, I’ll probably do either a Yoda or a C-3P0 impersonation afterwards. (“Blow, or blow not. There is no try.”)

God help me if these things become rare and worth a million dollars in twenty years. I guess saving one package of them couldn’t hurt…

Star Wars, Star Wednesday

Star Wednesday: Cup Toppers

1 Comment

My Star Wars collection consists of hundreds upon hundreds of different items, but my favorite ones are the ones that have memories associated with them, like these cup toppers.

On December 17th, 2015, my family and I watched the premiere of The Force Awakens at El Capitan theater in Los Angeles, California. For the film’s debut some theater chains were distributing Star Wars branded popcorn tubs and drinking cups, and our theater happened to be one of those. Before the movie began, we purchased a set at the snack bar. Our cups came with these two figures (Chewbacca and a Flamethrower Clone Trooper) affixed to the lids.

When it comes to Star Wars collections, there is always another plateau to achieve. Guys like me with vintage (but well played with) toys look up to the guys with mint toys. In turn, those guys look up to guys with toys and action figures still in their original packaging. There are collectors who own things so rare that I’ve only seen pictures of them in books, and still other collectors who own actual props from the films. No matter what your collection looks like, there’s always someone else with more (or more valuable) stuff.

But things like these cup toppers possess a different kind of value. They’re worth more to me not because of how much they cost or how rare they are, but because of the memories associated with them. The Twin Pod Cloud Car Pilot my mom stuck on top of my eleventh birthday cake, the original Star Wars comic books my dad collected and passed down to me, the Star Wars posters I had hanging in my room as a kid that are now neatly folded in my closet… those are the collectibles I value the most. I own hundreds of Star Wars action figures, toys, and random collectibles that I’ve purchased over the past three decades, and while I like and enjoy them, they aren’t anywhere as important to me as the things I own that contain memories.

There will come a time, maybe sooner than later, that I “retire” from collecting Star Wars memorabilia. There’s even a chance that I could see myself parting with some of my collection. But you can bet that no matter what happens, I’ll hang on to things like these cup toppers forever. Ever time I see them I’ll be reminded of how I saw the first six Star Wars films in theaters with my parents, and how I saw The Force Awakens in the theater with my kids.

Star Wars, Star Wednesday

Star Wednesday: Cardbacks

I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but there’s a new Star Wars movie coming out two days from now. For this week’s Star Wednesday article, I decided to write about something that really takes me back to my childhood: these vintage cardbacks.

Cardbacks were, of course, the pieces of cardboard that Star Wars action figures came attached to. All of these cardbacks are ones I acquired as a kid. Santa always opened the presents he left in our stockings or under the tree, so chances are most of these were birthday gifts from friends or ones I begged my parents to buy me at the store. I have nine cardbacks in all: three from The Empire Strikes Back (AT-AT Commander, AT-AT Driver, and Twin-Pod Cloud Car Pilot), five from Return of the Jedi (Biker Scout, Chief Chirpa, Emperor’s Royal Guard, Logray, Princess Leia Organa as Boushh), and one Power of the Force card (AT-ST Driver).

Most of the cards still have their price tags intact. The cheapest price tags are for Boushh, Chief Chirpa, and Logray. Each of those Return of the Jedi figures cost me (or someone) $2.59 each at Target. The most expensive figures, the Biker Scout and Emperor’s Royal Guard (also both from Return of the Jedi) cost $3.49 each at Hyde Drug. AT-AT Commander, AT-AT Driver, and the Twin-Pod Cloud Car Pilot all came from TG&Y. The first two were $2.77 and the pilot was $3.29. My lone Power of the Force card has the price tag completely scraped off.

Kenner changed their mail in offers frequently. These two cards contain offers for a Star Wars Display Arena and 4-LOM, a bounty hunter from The Empire Strikes Back. 4-LOM would have set you back 5 proofs of purchase (available on the back of all action figure and playsets), while the Display Arena required 10 (plus $2 for shipping). Don’t bother sending them in now. The display offer expired in May of 1982, while the 4-LOM offer expired three months after that.

Each cardback contained a list of every available figure at that time so kids would know which ones they were missing. The earliest cards released contained 12 action figures and are known as “12 Backs.” Those are super expensive and I don’t have any of them. The oldest cardback I have shows 45 figures, while the most recent one has 92.

I know that a lot (and perhaps the majority?) of Star Wars toys purchased today are by adult collectors (like me). My kids don’t have any interest in Star Wars toys (or most toys at all, for that matter). Maybe things will change next week. These cards remind me of a time when Star Wars was for kids, when there was nothing more exciting than talking your mother out of a new action figure while visiting Hyde Drug.

May the Force be with you all. See you Thursday night!

Star Wars, Star Wednesday

Star Wednesday: Yoda Hand Puppet

In the late 1970s, Kenner released twelve unique 12″ Star Wars action figures. The first ten figures were from Star Wars, while the last two (Boba Fett and IG-88) were from The Empire Strikes Back. The line didn’t sell well and was abandoned before more figures from Empire and Jedi were released. And while this particular toy wasn’t actually a part of Kenner’s vintage 12″ line of toys, he was close enough to scale that I always thought of him as one.

The Yoda Hand Puppet, released in 1981, was made out of vinyl and, other than a few strands of white hair stitched to the back of his head, was made of one single piece. Yoda is a puppet in the loosest of terms. He is hollow, but his mouth (which most people think of when they hear the word “puppet”) is not articulated. Instead, kids could make Yoda nod (“Yes, Luke!”), bring his hands up toward his chin, and… that’s about it.

This Yoda Hand Puppet is the one I owned as a kid. I can’t remember if I got him for Christmas or a birthday, but I do remember opening the box.

Again, as far as puppets go, the Yoda Hand Puppet is pretty lame. Of course as a display toy, he was pretty cool. The sculpt was detailed for the time, and as a kid there was always something cool about having toys that were “big.” While this Yoda was actually a little too large to be a part of the original 12″ line of figures, he’s almost perfect when displayed next to Jakks Pacific’s newer line of 18″ figures.

The back of the Yoda Hand Puppet box shows one child playing with the Yoda Hand Puppet and another playing with the then recently released yellow Force lightsaber. Both items were also featured in television commercials as well. Check out the amazing range of articulation on that puppet in this commercial!