For today’s instalment of Toy Stories, focusing on the history behind some of our most loved toys and collectables from a galaxy far, far away, I chatted with my good friend Chris Cooke. Let’s dive in….
First toy collectible
My first Star Wars toy was actually something I picked up at a school flee market. I hadn’t even seen the film at the time, but I was walking around the tables and I saw this small figure with a green poncho and hat and a little blaster. It was the Princess Leia in her Endor Battle Poncho. I picked it up for about 20P or something and I was amazed that it was all complete. Even though I had no idea where it was from, I liked the design and I thought it would fit in well with the old Action Force figures, so I picked her up and shortly after I saw Return of the Jedi on TV – Yes, I watched the trilogy backwards! I put two and two together and that’s what kind of spurred on my collecting, so I was actually collecting before I even knew what Star Wars was.
Latest pickup
It’s been a quiet few months in collecting. The start of the year hasn’t really had much stuff coming out, a couple of Waves of TVC, but the latest thing that I’ve managed to pick up is actually the Disney Build-a-Droid figures. I managed to get the Chopper in Mining Facility Disguise figure. They’ve become a pain in the backside to get hold of given that they all seem to sell out within the first 3 minutes! So, unless you are there when they go live, you don’t stand a chance of getting one and they jump up in price very quickly on the secondary market. I’m still hoping to track down a couple of the previous ones down, but yeah, the Chopper figure is a nice sculpt and if Disney just made them that little bit more accessible to everybody, I think they’d be a bigger hit.
Favourite piece right now
This is always an odd one because as a collector it inevitably changes! We don’t get bored as such, but our tastes change and we start to look at other things in the collection. So yeah, I would have to say my current favourite piece is the HasLab Cantina. I think it’s a fantastic piece. It’s got so much detail and brings together so many of the figures that we have collected over the years into one diorama and is home to some of the most iconic scenes from the film that started at all.
First thing you need to complete set off
When I was much younger I was in the Cub Scouts and one of the badges that you could get was the collecting badge. Turns out I was a bit of a hoarder because I ended up getting collecting badges for Lego, Star Wars, Action Man and all sorts of other things. I ended up with about 4 or 5 collecting badges as a result! While I’d have loved to complete the original 96 as a kid, I didn’t have the funds to achieve it and ended up selling them all off at a later date, but we all make mistakes don’t we.
The first thing that I actually remember chasing and completing was a full set of that first wave of Power the Force 2 figures, with He-Man Luke Skywalker and Han Solo-flex. While much maligned by many, I still like them as a design choice even and a product of their time.
My current grail piece
I had this conversation with my good friend Jonathan the other day. I look at a grail as a piece that has very few items available, we’re talking about Indiana Jones where there is only one grail with 50 odd imitations behind it, so a grail needs to be something very limited. As such I don’t really have a specific grail piece at the moment. I’m quite content to collect action figures. I would say is one of the things I want to do before I die is to visit Tunisia and see the filming locations out there so maybe that could be considered a grail memory to make.
Favourite toy as a child
I can’t be alone in my choice for this one. When I was about 8 years old, I was at a car boot sale (yard sale for the American readers) with my dad and we’re walking along the aisles of this field and suddenly I dived under 1 of the tables and came up with this very tatty looking box and a huge grin on my face. It was the Palitoy cardboard Death Star. My dad turned to the vendor and asked how much? The reply, £5 pounds. My dad wasn’t new to this game and said “Come on mate, the box is all tatty, is it even all there?”. “Oh go and then, give us 2 quid” replied the vendor, so £2 pounds later I had myself a Palitoy cardboard Death Star.
Now, being 8 years old, I obviously didn’t realise the value that it would go on to be worth and I played the hell out of that thing. Luke Skywalker having adventures all over it along with Action Force and G.I. Joe figures joining in to raid the base as well. I absolutely adored it with all the action features and everything, so yeah, that was absolutely my favourite toy as a child. Sadly, once I got that little bit older and thought I was too cool for toys, I sold it, along with the rest of my Collection. I regret that day.
Biggest regret right now
Which leads into my biggest regret. Selling my collection seemed sensible to teenage me at the time, and I’ve since had to go back and try to rebuild it. I still haven’t managed to re-collect all of those Last 17 figures I used to have. However, at the same time, if I hadn’t sold my collection then, I wouldn’t have had the money to end up diving straight back into Star Wars collecting when Power of the Force 2 came out, reigniting my passion for Star Wars and collecting, so much as I regret it, I can’t be too sad about it.
What particular item holds special connection
For me it’s the Ralph McQuarrie portfolio from Return of the Jedi. 20 odd prints made by the concept artist to promote the film. It’s the one piece I actually still have from my childhood collection, because like I say, I sold the rest of it off. I love the artwork and it has some absolutely stunning pieces, the A-Wing and Luke on Speeder bike being my favourites. Since then, I’ve found the work of Malcolm Tween who has a very similar style and picked up a couple of his prints to complement that set.
What’s next
I continue to collect and build out the 3.75-inch world that I’ve been amassing over the years, so I’m always keeping an eye on what Hasbo are releasing as part of the Vintage Collection line, but with the ever-expanding amount of media that Lucasfilm produce, Hasbro can’t cover many of the characters that I’d love to see enter my collection. As such, I’ve started to dabble in customising a lot more and 3D printing to build out the dioramas with even greater levels of detail than I’ve been able to previously.
The other thing that I’ve found more enjoyable over the last couple of years is the community aspect of Star Wars, especially around the collecting side of things and the bi-annual pilgrimage to Redditch for Echo live is an absolute must in the calendar. I love just catching up with friends who I only get to see once or twice a year just great to have a natter.
Jonathan is off to the Edinburgh Festival and then taking a well-deserved break. He’ll be back with more Friday night articles in the Autumn.