Star Wars Collecting: 2015

[Jedieb]

I use to use the old collecting threads as a backup inventory. I'd buy too much stuff, post it here, and then months later go back in the thread and enter everything into a spreadsheet. Well, it's starting again,...

I basically quit collecting action figures when the The Clone Wars was released. A few weeks before the release of the film I was there at midnight when the toys were released and did what I usually did, bought one of every figure and whatever new vehicles were released. And then I went and saw the animated film opening night and was just stunned. The prequels have not aged well with me, but there was enough there that I could keep going. It helped that they got better as the story went along. But TCW was a friggin' train wreck. The baby hutt, the Truman Capote hutt, Miley Cirus the Padawan, "Sky-guy." Ughh. It was like a punch in the stomach. I just remember thinking, "It's not going to get better..." The irony is, once the story moved to the weekly cartoon it actually did get better. I didn't watch the entire series but I saw and heard enough to know the show got pretty good and had a loyal following.

But I was done collecting. I bought an occasional item, but I spent far more time selling a large portion of my collection. I just had too much stuff and I wasn't even displaying it well. I sold almost all of Gentle Giant statues, a lot of vehicles, and hundreds action figures. Basically, if it was prequel related, it was gone. I kept certain characters, but most went to ebay. I didn't come close to breaking even, but over the course of a few years around $6K came back to my wallet.

Now I'm starting to get excited again. I think for many fans my age these new films are going to be a different experience than the prequels. For one thing, my hero will up on the big screen again. I was six when I saw ANH in theaters and 7 when I got my first action figures. (Star Wars toys weren't even in stores in Dec. 77, Hasbro didn't have toys for kids until 78.) It was Luke vs. Vader over and over again. I would borrow my neighbor's Death Star playset and relive the movie over and over again. I was young enough to idolize Luke and not realize that Han was cooler. Luke was my guy, and now I get to see him again.

So I'm getting drawn back in. And to celebrate, here is my most recent purchase.

https://youtu.be/WNbM5YHHQxY

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Sweet! My husband also stopped collecting around the same time, and the whole of his collection is stacked up in boxes in our garage. We did buy nearly all the Star Wars toddler line for Owen which has been discontinued of course. I forget the name.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Galactic Heroes? I bought a bunch of those myself

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Yeah that's the one.

[Atreyu]

Last week I managed to snag my late grandmother's old glass display cabinet, so have been happily filling it with all my old SW stuff. Have all my EU books on display (I now have all the Bantam books, plus the early Del Rey books from the late 70s/early 80s) plus all my figurines, Micro machines and Pocket Tactic miniatures (never fussed with the game, but I LOVE the miniatures you can make).

It's not much but it's my little SW corner in my own home and I love it.

[Jedieb]

Rough couple of weeks for me. Everybody in the house has been sick and I got the worst of it. Spent most of my Spring Break sick and this next week at work has been rough. Took Monday and today off to go to the doctor but I think I'm finally kicking this. (Have to, softball season starts Monday!) I've still been able to start building a display coffee table with my father-in-law. It's eventually going to house the latest addition to my collection; the DeAgostini Millinneum Falcon. It's a studio replica quality build-a-model that ships 4 issues a month and takes 2 years to build. The display case is halfway done. I'm headed over on Sunday to keep working on it at my father-in-law's workshop. Good times.

[Jedieb]

Finished building the display case a couple of weekends ago. I'm in the middle of painting it. 3 coats of black paint, but it will probably need a couple more. I'll get some pics up when it's done.

September 4!!!!!
That's the day TFA product is suppose to hit the street. I don't expect the same level of Midnight Madness that we saw for TPM, but there will still be some hype. I'll be there once again, only this time my shopping cart won't be nearly as full.