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Star Wars Fun Fact
Surprising and little known Star Wars tidbits, usually related to today’s Force Feature.Did you know? The rocket-firing Boba Fett is real! The 3 3/4″ mail-in figure and subsequent store models all had the rocket secured in the backpack, but actual produced figures exist and command thousands of dollars in the secondary market. Wow!!!
Life on “Tweet”-ooine
A featured dispatch from the Star Wars Twitterverse!This child wearing a “Han Solo in carbonite” costume wins all the awards! #StarWars http://t.co/yxeOvpTwRO pic.twitter.com/1VrKHKDD2B
— Johnamarie Macias (@BlueJaigEyes) August 26, 2014
Star Wars Swag Bag
So many fun, quirky, and awesome ways to bring Star Wars into your daily life!Goodnight Darth Vader – click the pic for details!
Trivia Time!
Test your knowledge of the Star Wars universe!Yesterday’s answer: Threepio
Today’s question: What creatures approached Luke from the southeast?
Force Feature: What Toy Collectors Can Teach Us About Loving Star Wars
Exploring the many worlds of Star Wars, in the imagination and in real life!First off: I can’t really call myself a toy collector. I kept all the toys I had from the vintage collection for many years, and then I sold a large portion of that collection. Which, happily, paid for my wedding reception.
And funnily enough, it was our 14th anniversary last week, and we broke out the video and watched, among other things, what those toys made possible. And celebrated our continuing and undying love, of course!
I kept a dozen or so figures, and some of the key spaceships – X-wing, Y-wing, A-wing, B-wing, TIE Fighter. And I’ve let my kids handle them with something less than care, though it took me a while to loosen up about that.
But I know what the urge to collect is like. While on a business trip in Tampa, Florida in 1999 – the same trip during which I got my seven of hearts tattoo just below my shoulder – I also went on a crazy shopping spree. I stuffed my suitcase with a bunch of Phantom Menace action figures and accessories. I was never a mint-in-box kind of guy, I always wanted to the handle the merchandise. Which was a good thing, because I would have needed a second suitcase to bring them all home if I hadn’t de-boxed everything. I still wonder what housekeeping must have thought about me after they cleared the room of all that packaging.
That was the last time something like that happened, but I find myself poking around eBay every now and again. I’m after a vintage Snowspeeder, particularly. And some of the vintage action figures, related to a movie I’m going to make once we hit the $250 goal at Patreon.com/sw7x7.
So even though I can’t really call myself a toy collector, I’ve got some of the blood in me. Thusly, I feel safe in saying there’s a couple of things toy collectors can teach all of us about loving Star Wars.
1. Focus on what you love. I mentioned this little story many, many episodes ago, but Dustin Roberts, lead content manager of TheForce.net, one of the biggest Star Wars fan sites and communities out there, said this in an article for Vulture: “I used to try to collect all the Star Wars stuff I could find, but I met some people who have just about everything, and it’s just barns full of stuff, and I realized that I cannot match that. So I narrowed my focus down over the years.” And ultimately you wind up with a more satisfying and manageable collection.
No one would mock him for having an R2-D2 only collection. Yet I can’t tell you how many dozens of posts I saw inside the Jedi Council Forums at the Force.net after I joined, of people who were afraid of joining Star Wars forums and celebrating their unique take on fandom because of a small subset of fans who were brutal to the newcomers.
The moderators of forums like these have acknowledged the darker past and have definitely worked to make them a much friendlier place. The more we can all stay focused on what we love, and make nice with the people who think differently, the more we can enjoy this crazy thing we call Star Wars.
2. The details matter. A vintage Jawa action figure with a cloth cape? Cool, but not a big deal. A vintage Jawa action figure with a vinyl cape? Hoo boy, that’ll get collectors in a tizzy! It’s one of the rarest action figures out there, and thus one of the most valuable to collectors. Some of them have sold on eBay for almost $2,500!
Graded cards, weapons and accessories, and so on and so forth, all of these things add up in the mind of the collector. And they can add up for the casual Star Wars viewer without us even realizing it.
I love the fact that Bossk’s toes extend over the edge of the floor on the bridge of the Executor. I love Yoda’s hair in the breeze at the end of Phantom Menace. I love Han’s little bouncing from the ankles on the carbon freezing platform. All of those things, and so many more, contribute to my love of Star Wars. And Trivia Time on the podcast is a tribute to the details, too. What are the “little things” that you love about the movies and the Clone Wars cartoon? Share them with me and your fellow Likers at Facebook.com/sw7x7!