In the beginnning....

Let's start "a long time ago..."

When Star Wars came out in 1977 I was three years old. We were living in Middlesbrough, in north east England. One weekend my parents decided to take me and my brother to the cinema. My Dad was taking my brother was going to see a space film, and Mum was taking me to see Bambi. Nope. I wasn't having that! I wanted to see the film with the space ships and the aliens too.

Using the power of persuasion (!) I ended up going to watch Star Wars. Mum went shopping instead. And I was hooked.

From the age of three until about twelve I avidly collected Star Wars toys and, like most boys my age, indulged in a world of Star Wars sci-fi fantasy play; wielding a pretend lightsabre at play time, turning the sofa cushions in to the Millennium Falcon, and zapping Greedo, Stormtroopers, Squidface, Boba Fett and other baddies with my blaster.

A plastic Star Wars cap from 1977

 As I reached completion of my figure and vehicle collection some transforming cars came along and demanded I spend my money on them too. My parents wouldn't let me, unless, they said, I off-loaded my Star Wars figures. And so I did something I regretted for years; I went along with my parents and took all my figures and ships plus my brother's handful of Star Wars toys (he wasn't quite the same level of fan, but still insisted on being Han Solo!) to a car boot sale. Not everything sold, so what remained, including my beloved cardboard Death Star was sold via the local free ads. And for the money I got a handful of small transformers. Joy.

So, what was left? Well, my bro had one thing left - A die cast star destroyer. And me? My remaining items included Star Wars bed covers and pillow cases, a red Star Wars cap (not authentic merchandise), die cast landspeeder (missing a windscreen), some Star Wars pencil toppers/rubbers, a cut out piece of cardboard from a Star Wars figure package and the plastic package, and finally the Jedi training ball from the Millennium Falcon. This was the mid 80's. Transformers, comics, football and pop music dominated the next few years of my life. And yet Star Wars lingered - you can't shake a 10 year devotion just like that. As we reached the 1990's I had more pocket money to spend. Music was a big part of my spending, but I started to build a VHS video collection too. Amongst my first purchases was Star Wars videos.

A Biker Scout's Speeder Bike (boxed, mint)

I had aspirations to be a film-maker or an author, and George Lucas was always my inspiration for this ambition. So, after school I would watch the original Star Wars trilogy, analysing, observing and, let's face it, obsessing once more! Okay, I watched all the cult classics too and devoured as much celluloid culture as I could. But the seed that was sown several years ago at a car boot in Norwich had sprouted - I needed to buy my figures back!

In the very early 1990's I started collecting Star Wars figures again, buying whatever vintage stuff I could get hold of. Car boots, shops, collectors selling through small ads. I bought what I could afford. After a few years I had bought pretty much all the figures I had before, plus a few more. But by the mid-90's the prices were rising, so my collecting curbed.

As the prequel trilogy came along I added to the collection, but with less enjoyment than vintage Star Wars. After all, our toys from our childhood are so much more special.

May the Force be with you!

So, why am I doing this blog? Well, a time may come when I decide to sell my collection on. My sons would not want me to do so, but it will probably have to happen. With this in mind I've started cataloguing all my Star Wars toys, plus a bunch of other 1970's and 1980's toys (these might find their way on to another blog!) I figured by posting the photos on here I could at least share my Star Wars collection with my sons virtually in the future.

UPDATE - I've started adding thoughts on values to my posts. Here's my thoughts on adding my value thoughts!