Obsessions - Star Wars Toys - Phase 3 (Conclusion)

Hello there

Just sneaking in to make it this week, here we are with the third and final part of the Obsessions pieces about Star Wars toys. This is Phase 3.  Not only is Phase 3 the final part in these writings, but I’m also hoping it will remain the final part in actual life too.  It’s difficult to imagine where it would go from here really.

If you recall, the last post ended with me making the decision to be very selective with buying action figures from Attack Of The Clones.  Which, amazingly, I did stay true to. I did have the weirdly helpful treat of going to the premiere of Attack Of The Clones, before any of the figures had properly hit the shelves.  The film had left me relatively nonplussed on first viewing, so I didn’t have the temptation to buy figures before seeing the film, tricked into grabbing some utterly insignificant early release character. I was able to buy only the main characters (one version of each, none of your alternate costumes nonsense) and didn’t go near any of the vehicles.  I was at a stage where, in all honesty, I think I could have happily not bought another action figure, but there was the annoying collectors trap of being aware of how abandoned the collection would look if I bailed at this point.

I repeated the same rules for Revenge Of The Sith, and settled on an incomplete complete collection.  It wasn’t every figure they’d made, but it was every figure I wanted, and all films were represented. Given that the Hasbro line has continued to this day, in all different forms, I can say with confidence that one could never complete the collection as far as Star Wars figures are concerned.  You could have a complete vintage collection, of the old Kenner/Palitoy toys, but not the Hasbro line.  In fact, thinking about it, I’ve seen additional characters be added in the retro style in recent years, so even that collection is ongoing from a certain point of view. For me, collections of specifics need to be finite. It was clear then, and has been borne out subsequently, the 3 ¾ inch Star Wars figures would have no end point. Compare this to, for example, the Palisades Muppetscollection, which - admittedly enforced by liquidation – became a finite collection that one could ‘complete’. Like a sticker book, you could plausibly get them all. I’ve no idea how many figures there have been since the Hasbro relaunch but I’m confident it’s well over a thousand by now. I know nowt about Pokémon, but I do know “gotta catch ‘em all” is both savvy and galling if there is no end point. It preys on the compulsion of a collector whilst exploiting with a dangled carrot of impossible conclusion. They all know the weaknesses of who they are selling to.

Taking a hard line on collecting action figures had sparked a shift in my collecting habits.  This was a period where I managed to get some mega-bargains on high-end items.  I got the infamous Gamorrean Guard 1:1 scale bust, that still resides in my grown-up bedroom, for the princely sum of £55.  Now, not that we value these things fiscally, but there is one of these currently available on eBay presently.  Just one.

Can’t see anyone ever paying that, like, but – oh - how I wish I’d kept the box.

I also picked up a Sideshow Premium Format Stormtrooper (they’re roughly 1:4 scale), which is in front of me as I type, and Premium Format Han Solo in Carbonite, which is also in my grown-up bedroom. I paid £150 for the pair.  This was at a time where the staff in Forbidden Planet, London, were particularly clumsy, and you could pick up damaged stock regularly.  Honestly, they were seemingly breaking everything. You may have noticed that I am a dab hand on the old repair front, so the shattered Stormtrooper leg is now good as new, and the electrics in the Carbonite Han all work fine.  I’ve no idea how I did the latter.  I basically ripped the back off, looked for any wires that weren’t attached and glued them back. It – incredibly - worked.

I was shifting well away from action figures, and in my head, I think I thought I was moving towards classier stuff. There was a brief phase of Lego Star Wars obsessive-collecting, but – in the main – I was reassessing my draw to displaying toys that looked like toys, in favour of replica pieces and statues.  I made the bid decision to part ways with my small-scale action figure collection.

It was getting rather unmanageable, and – more importantly – too eclectic.  There were vintage figures, the rebooted figures and I was starting to get things that made the old stuff look very tired and cluttered.  It had mostly been moved from house to house (or more accurately, loft to loft) in boxes by now.  It hadn’t been out on display for a very long time, cast aside for these newer, classier bits and bobs.

I listed the lot on eBay, in one job lot.

This was a significant collection of the Vintage toys, the Hasbro line, and various other bits and bobs.  For those who know about this sort of stuff, within the job lot was a boxed Empire Strikes Back vintage Millenium Falcon. That was just one thing, in hundreds of items.  I listed it with a starting bid of £400.

Days past, and with just 30 seconds left of the auction, and no bids, somebody took it at £400.  That’s how much I got for a collection that had been through so many twists and turns, so many rebuilds, all those hours working at the pub, the trips to Barnsley market…£400.

You may think I was gutted, but – genuinely - I was mainly relieved that a bid came in right at the end.  I can look back at this now and think it’s a travesty, but at that point, I just wanted to not be burdened with it anymore.  Not just burdened with the physical items themselves, but burdened with the risk of adding to the collection.  Of being swept back into obsession and pouring more cash into it. There was every chance I’d have looked at it one day and thought, “actually, I think I should try and get all the figures from the last two prequels…”

Out of that £400 I paid £120 to get the jumbo versions of the Vintage C-3P0 and R2-D2 (still in my art room), as a sort of space-saving representation of the original collection, and I imagine the rest went on monthly bills or something. It was a long time before I experienced any regret about any part of that sale.  Eventually I did wonder why I’d allowed the original 12 vintage figures to go in the box, I reckon it would have still sold without them, and I’d have liked to have had them as representative.  A back-to-basics display of where it all began.  There was a video post on here of when I eventually brought them back home, and the picture up top shows they are back in the fold.  I don’t think I’ve missed any other part of that collection subsequently.  I did have them for literally decades.  If I see them for sale nowadays, I don’t have a reaction of “Woah! I remember that!”, I have the reaction of “yeah yeah, had it for years, know it so well that I’m pretty indifferent to every inch of it”.

In fact, between then and now, I have dispensed of another whole collection of Star Wars stuff.  I collected Kotobukiya pieces for a while, which were snap-together, just over 1:6 scale action statues, and eventually let them all go on eBay in a period of poverty.  Well, all except for C-3P0 & R2-D2, as I think that particular statue of my favourite pair remains my absolute top small-scale piece.  I find it insanely pleasing, and it is also in the grown-up bedroom.

Incidentally, I should say, I’ve not littered this writing with pictures because, firstly, I no longer have many of the things I’m talking about, and secondly, I’ll do a beauty pics post on here of what’s left at some stage.  I could do with updating my insurance pics anyway.

As of today, I have a – what I rather pompously describe as – curated collection.

I’ve a lot of time for the discipline to have just a few bits of vintage toys.  A shelf of retro figures without the need to seek out every last scrap of a collection.  In recent years, I’ve somewhat managed to do it.  As I said, I now have the original 12 Star Wars figures on a nice display stand in my art room.  And that is it from the originals.  Admittedly, after drawing the Bounty Hunter figures I started tentative searches to see if I could get hold of them, and spoke about it quite a lot, but nobody picked up on the hints.  Christmas and Birthday came and went.  I think I’ve managed to temper that lust for the time being.  More or less.

I’ve never again committed to the idea of completing a toy collection. Of getting every bit of it.  The Star Wars Hot Toys line is well represented in my office, but it’s been heavily discerning.  There’s nothing from outside the Original Trilogy, and plenty from even that which were released and not bought here.  There’s no Emperor, for example, on my shelves, and that was actually a nice figure. I’d have wanted the Royal Guards too though, and three Hot Toys figures right adds up. One Hot Toys figure adds up actually. It’s been a long time since you could get bargains like in those Utopian old Forbidden Planet days.  There’s a handful of Lego pieces out on shelves, but far more is languishing in storage, and – of course – there’s the stuff I built myself. Which is what did feel like the culmination of all this collecting.

To be able to work out how to make the – let’s be honest – ultimate Star Wars figures, in 1:1 scale representation, felt a fitting conclusion.  Almost as though I had worked up from 3 ¾ inches, to 1:6 scale, to 1:4 scale, to life size.  I’ve said many times before, since seeing the life size Threepio and Artoo at Blackpool illuminations in the seventies, and then having that refuelled when they were in the corner window of Planet Hollywood in London, I’ve wanted to have them in my house.  I certainly thought, over the years, that I’d be able to afford to buy official replicas on them one day but hadn’t factored in my – what should have been entirely predictable – abject financial failures. If I could go back and have the choice between being able to afford them or building them myself, I’d have taken the same path I already took.  It was when my collecting shifted from consumer to creator (or a hybrid as in the case of the recent Haunted Mansion display pieces), and I’m really content with that.  Of course, I still grab stuff – but only ever stuff I really like.  It takes very special pieces to get me to find a shelf for them these days.

And that, is pretty much that.  I actually will do a beauty shots post of everything at some point, as long as you promise not to accuse (or think of) me as showing off.  It shall merely be an illustrative accompaniment to these posts, which is completely valid, right?

Oh, and if anyone is ever chucking out those vintage Bounty Hunters from your own loft, give us a shout eh? Reckon I’ve got about a fiver left from that 400…

Thanks so much for reading these – 7000 words these posts were on aggregate -  and hope you’ve had a wonderful week and a peaceful weekend ahead.

Much love

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