Wednesday 19 October 2022

Masks

 A long time ago, well, the turn of the century, I picked up these Star Wars masks whilst on holiday in Orlando. I bought them from Tatooine Traders at Hollywood Studios. I got the Vader mask in 1999, and then the Stormtrooper mask the following year. 

Now, with the Darth Vader mask I disposed of the packaging in Florida, and put the mask in my hand luggage. With the Stormtrooper mask I once again carried the mask in my hand luggage, and had the cunning idea of putting the packaging in my suitcase. Why I didn't think of that first time round I don't know. 🤦

Anyway, they've been sat on a shelf for a long while just gathering dust. Every so often I'll take them out and put them on - I tried to scare my kids in their early years, however, because they'd seen Star Wars very young (gotta start them early) they were not phased. In fact they just walked up to me, said something like "cool, can I have a go" whilst pulling the mask off my head!

Anyway, here they are. They're in cupboard gathering dust, but every so often I get them out, wipe off the dust and contemplate wearing them for trick-or-treaters on Halloween! 🎃

Stormtrooper mask

Darth Vader mask



Star Wars Micromachine Vehicles

Micromachines Star Wars original trilogy vehicle sets 








 





Friday 23 September 2022

Star Wars C-3PO's Exercise Book

C-3PO's purpose may be human-cyborg relations but he also makes a snazzy cover model for this 1977 Letraset Star Wars exercise book, especially set against the starry blue background.

This 24-page faint ruled exercise book has survived from my childhood. I say survived, but, well... there's not much of this book left. The pages are gone - it's just the cover remaining. But it's here, so this Threepio collectable gets documented on this blog.


I love the fact that on the back there are some "inter-galactic" translations of a handful of English words in to strange alien languages such as French, German and Italian!


On the inside of the cover there are some stickers - E.T. and Weetabix - I've even included a photo of these for your amusement (or your disgust, if you're a purist who can't stand the thought of a kid in the 70s spoiling this future collectors item). At least I had the foresight to keep this.

Is Uncle Owen interested in buying this collectors item?

Perhaps, if the back of the book had some bocce translations! Complete and good condition examples may fetch £25+. Not sure about the cover only. Sure, there's a value, but I wouldn't be sure on guessing. Funnily enough, the stickers inside may add to the value.
 

Tuesday 20 September 2022

Values of Star Wars Collectables

So, What's your Star Wars stuff worth? What would you want for it? Gimme a ball-park to work in.

When I first started posting to this website I was just doing it for me. For posterity. I've got loads more to add when I get the time, but I wanted to keep it ticking over and wanted to add some relevance to anyone stumbling across the site.

So, I decided to start adding some comments on about item values. Now, I want to state, values can subjective. Ultimately, something is worth what someone wants to pay for it. We can get an idea of a rough ball-park value by monitoring eBay, auction sites, collector sites and various books on the subject. I've tried to do this when mentioning cost. But sometimes, there is little to go on, so a gut-feel "what I might consider selling it for" value may be mentioned. 

There are so many factors to take in to account, such as condition, scarcity, where you're selling, who is in the market for the item, trends, births/deaths/marriages, the economy, new Disney Star Wars properties, and just pure good/bad timing. Personally, if I sell on eBay I prefer to go for a "minimum I'd be okay with" with price rather than risk a 99p disaster sale. That's just me.

I'm no expert, so don't take it as gospel. Just another Star Wars collector, like you.

Wednesday 14 September 2022

R2-D2 Pez Dispenser

Yes. It's an Artoo Pez dispenser.

There are a few different R2-D2 Pez dispensers over the years. Other Star Wars characters are available too, but I think it work best with an Artoo Detoo dispenser. It just look right. I know. I'm sticking my neck for that little droid.

Apparently there is one that plays the Star Wars theme music. If you're looking for that one, well, I don't think this is the droid Pez dispenser you're looking for. 😉




Saturday 3 September 2022

General McQuarrie

 Not much to say on this, other than it's a figure based on Star Wars concept artist, Ralph McQuarrie, putting him in an Empire Strikes Back rebel general's outfit. This is an unopened carded original action figure, which was released in 2007 as part of the 30th Anniversary of Star Wars.  The package includes a special collectors coin.




Thursday 17 February 2022

Palitoy ROTJ 1983 Competition Promotion Comic Entry Form

Entry Form for Lucasfilm/Palitoy Star Wars ROTJ 1983 Competition

Whilst rummaging through my comic collection I found this old competition leaflet. To be honest, I'd completely forgot I had it, so it was a nice "oh yeah, I remember this" moment.

The competition was to win some Palitoy toys including a special viewing of Return of the Jedi, the Rebel Transport and AT-ST vehicles. To enter you had to finish of the story outlined in the comic. I honestly can't remember if I entered the competition or not. I suspect I had intentions of doing so and never got around to it. 




Pretty cool, huh? I think so. I wish I'd entered the competition though. 

Value and rarity?

I've scoured the internet, and whilst I've seen a few websites on the internet with images that at first glance look the same, but they seem to be two-page ads from comics/magazines. I have to date only found one website with an another example of this comic/competition entry form. 
Difficult to put a value on it. If there were definite plenty of other examples out there then in it may be £40-60 ball-park. Certainly I've seen similar leaflets go for this type of money on eBay. Scarcity could push the value up a lot more. That's just my gut feel, and I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination so don't quote me on it. 😊