May the Fourth Be With You

From Left to Right:  Stormtrooper, Darth Vader, Death Squad Commander (behind C-3P0), C-3P0, Chewbacca (behind Luke), Luke Skywalker, R2-D2, Princess Leia, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Han Solo, Sand Person, and Jawa

"May the Fourth" Be With You!  Happy Star Wars Day, everybody.  I grew up with Star Wars.  I saw the the original film in it's initial theatrical run in 1977.  I was 5 years old, and I was convinced that Star Wars was the greatest film in the history of cinema.  Naturally, I went nuts for all the toys, as well.  Over the next few years, I amassed a huge collection of Star Wars action figures, vehicles, and playsets.  However, tragedy struck when I grew a little older and was entering jr. high school.  My interests evolved from spaceships and robots to rock music and girls, and I decided that toys were only for little kids, so I gave all of my Star Wars toys away to the little kids in my neighborhood.  That was a decision I came to regret more and more over the years, as I learned that growing up didn't mean I had to give up the things I loved when I was a kid.

Flash forward to September of 2014.  As an adult , I started collecting toys again as a hobby, but I had resisted the idea of collecting Star Wars toys again.  There were just so many toys to collect, it seemed like too big of a task.  However, I knew I really wanted to have all of my old toys back again.  So I decided to start recollecting all of the vintage Star Wars figures and toys I had as a kid.  In order not to get overwhelmed by it, I decided to collect them slowly, and in more or less the order they came out.  So I would start out with the original 12 figures from 1977, move on to the next batch of 8 figures from 1978, and so on.  Then once I had all of the original Star Wars toys, I would move on to The Empire Strikes Back, and then eventually to Return of the Jedi.

I also decided that I was going to go with inexpensive, loose, played with toys, rather than expensive ones in pristine condition.  Not only would that be easier on my wallet, the figures would be closer to the ones that I owned as a kid, which were all very well played with.  And I still wanted to handle them and play with them now, and I didn't want to worry about damaging them or ruining an investment.

A few weeks ago, I realized that I had collected 10 of the original 12, and with May Fourth Star Wars Day coming up, I decided it was the perfect time to pick up the final 2 figures!  And I'm already halfway through to collecting all of the 1978 figures as well, as I picked up the the Cantina aliens ahead of schedule few months ago.  1978 also saw the debut of the vehicles and playsets, though, so I'll have to start collecting those as well. I'm not looking forward to seeing how much money I'm going to have to spend to get a Death Star in even halfway decent shape, but I know it will look awesome on my shelf, filled with Darth Vader, Stormtroopers, and Droids.

Well, I hope I didn't bore anyone rambling along about Star Wars toys.  Thanks for reading, and "May the Fourth Be With You!"