Some fathers fish, or hunt, or camp or work on cars, or more sadly, don’t do much of anything together at all. But my Dad, he and I always had three things we shared – Baseball, a love for Chicago sports, and my collecting of action figures.

He never treated my love of this genre as an oddity, or something to be ashamed of, even though it might have been considered abnormal or not over ‘manly’. Throughout my life, he was always there to drive me around on toy runs and share in the enjoyment of this simple pleasure of collecting these childhood mementos. He and I would hunt down the latest GIJoe figures at Lionel Playworld, or go look at the latest Masters of the Universe figures at the Toys By Roy at the local mall. And on occasion when I would go with him on cross country business trips, he would stop at every single store near the interstate that carries action figures to look for Super Powers and M.A.S.K. Or when I wasn’t with him, he would call and ask if I had the specific figure he saw at a store. And every business trip back east he would return with some amazing toy that hadn’t even been released in our part of the country, much to the amazement of my friends. The times we shared on our various toy adventures are the best memories of my life.

To this day, my Dad still supports my collecting, and I’ve passed on that acceptance to my own small son. We now share in the same fun of toy hunting that my Dad shared with me. In fact, last weekend when my parents visited, we all had another toy adventure with three generations searching for Transformers in Wal-mart. So to my Father, who has supported this crazy hobby of mine for a quarter of a century, no matter how silly it was to my family or anyone else – Happy Fathers Day.

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Has it really been 30 years since Star Wars hit the big
screen? As much as I don’t want to believe it (simply because of how
old it makes me feel) it really has been thirty years since George
Lucas’ space fantasy epic changed popular culture forever. 

My first memory of Star Wars
is standing outside my brothers house in San Jose, CA washing his car
with the front door to the house open. The TV was on and a commercial
came on for this movie with spaceships, aliens and lasers called Star Wars. The commerical had me hooked from the get go. I was 11 years old. I couldn’t wait to get into the local theater and see it.

My
dad took me. While I don’t remember the date (it was within the first
two weeks of its release, so late May or early June of ’77) I remember
the day vividly. We went to Century 22 theater and waited in line for 2 hours at least. As the theater dimmed, the curtains parted and the 20th Century Fox theme resonated from those great pre-Dolby surround speakers. To this day, I still asscociate the 20th Century Fox
fanfare with Star Wars. They are forever linked in my mind. Then came
the pause and those unforgettable words that immediately transported
you to another world, "Long, long ago…in a galaxy far, far away"
followed by the amazing music of John Williams. I lost my last baby
tooth on a Milk Dud at some point during the movie. I think it was
during the trash compactor scene…

I wanted the soundtrack before the title scroll ended (it
wouldn’t come out until December, so I got it for Christmas that year)
and, of course, I wanted action figures. I didn’t care that I was 11
going on 12 and about to enter Junior High School. Sure, I was supposed
to be too old for toys. Little did I know at the time that I would still be buying and collecting Star Wars action figures 30 years later!

The figures couldn’t come out fast enough. I learned through an article in the San Jose Mercury News that Kenner
would be the company making the toys, so I immediately wrote them a
letter to see what they had planned (I was an action figure newshound
even back then!) and amazingly they wrote back and sent me a catalog
(pictured here) that included pictures of the first twelve figures, Luke’s X-Wing, the TIE Fighter and Luke’s Lightsaber (with inflateable blade!). It also showed several retail merchandise displays.

I
still have that now 30 year old catalog. It, along with my worn copy of
the theater program for the movie, are among my most treasured pieces
of Star Wars memoribilia.

My life has been full of Star Wars
for thirty years from the original movies, to comic books and novels,
action figures, video games, the prequel trilogy (which nearly killed
my love for the property but ended up just intesifying my love for the
original trilogy) and so much more. It really is a part of who I am,
and has been for three decades now. That just boggles my mind.

So, it’s with great joy that I now watch my 2-1/2 year old daughter, Allie, walk around in the Darth Vader voice changer mask (which I proudly nabbed at Target on clearance for $6) and saying, "Luke, I am your father!". She plays with the Galactic Heroes Vader figure. She’s never seen the movies, just snippets here and there that I’ve shown her. But she knows Vader, Yoda, R-Deetoo (as she calls him) and Princess Leia. It’s a lot of fun to watch her take little steps into that galaxy far, far away that Daddy loves so much.

With (at least) two television series coming in the next few years, Hasbro having the Star Wars license until something like 2018 and novels, games and comic books continuing to expand the Star Wars universe it looks like it’s going to be a part of my life for the next thirty years. And that’s just the way I want it.

Share:

Has it really been 30 years since Star Wars hit the big
screen? As much as I don’t want to believe it (simply because of how
old it makes me feel) it really has been thirty years since George
Lucas’ space fantasy epic changed popular culture forever. 

My first memory of Star Wars
is standing outside my brothers house in San Jose, CA washing his car
with the front door to the house open. The TV was on and a commercial
came on for this movie with spaceships, aliens and lasers called Star Wars. The commerical had me hooked from the get go. I was 11 years old. I couldn’t wait to get into the local theater and see it.

My
dad took me. While I don’t remember the date (it was within the first
two weeks of its release, so late May or early June of ’77) I remember
the day vividly. We went to Century 22 theater and waited in line for 2 hours at least. As the theater dimmed, the curtains parted and the 20th Century Fox theme resonated from those great pre-Dolby surround speakers. To this day, I still asscociate the 20th Century Fox
fanfare with Star Wars. They are forever linked in my mind. Then came
the pause and those unforgettable words that immediately transported
you to another world, "Long, long ago…in a galaxy far, far away"
followed by the amazing music of John Williams. I lost my last baby
tooth on a Milk Dud at some point during the movie. I think it was
during the trash compactor scene…

I wanted the soundtrack before the title scroll ended (it
wouldn’t come out until December, so I got it for Christmas that year)
and, of course, I wanted action figures. I didn’t care that I was 11
going on 12 and about to enter Junior High School. Sure, I was supposed
to be too old for toys. Little did I know at the time that I would still be buying and collecting Star Wars action figures 30 years later!

The figures couldn’t come out fast enough. I learned through an article in the San Jose Mercury News that Kenner
would be the company making the toys, so I immediately wrote them a
letter to see what they had planned (I was an action figure newshound
even back then!) and amazingly they wrote back and sent me a catalog
(pictured here) that included pictures of the first twelve figures, Luke’s X-Wing, the TIE Fighter and Luke’s Lightsaber (with inflateable blade!). It also showed several retail merchandise displays.

I
still have that now 30 year old catalog. It, along with my worn copy of
the theater program for the movie, are among my most treasured pieces
of Star Wars memoribilia.

My life has been full of Star Wars
for thirty years from the original movies, to comic books and novels,
action figures, video games, the prequel trilogy (which nearly killed
my love for the property but ended up just intesifying my love for the
original trilogy) and so much more. It really is a part of who I am,
and has been for three decades now. That just boggles my mind.

So, it’s with great joy that I now watch my 2-1/2 year old daughter, Allie, walk around in the Darth Vader voice changer mask (which I proudly nabbed at Target on clearance for $6) and saying, "Luke, I am your father!". She plays with the Galactic Heroes Vader figure. She’s never seen the movies, just snippets here and there that I’ve shown her. But she knows Vader, Yoda, R-Deetoo (as she calls him) and Princess Leia. It’s a lot of fun to watch her take little steps into that galaxy far, far away that Daddy loves so much.

With (at least) two television series coming in the next few years, Hasbro having the Star Wars license until something like 2018 and novels, games and comic books continuing to expand the Star Wars universe it looks like it’s going to be a part of my life for the next thirty years. And that’s just the way I want it.

Share: