What got you back into collecting?

TheJabbaWookie

Sith Lord
Joined
Jun 28, 2017
Messages
2,740
Location
Somewhere Down The Rabbit Hole
This is the third time I've got back into Star Wars Collecting as an adult. The first was in 1997, the 2nd in 2003 (discovering eBay) and this time round in 2016 (The Force Awakens).

But I wanted to talk about the first time for me. Surprisingly it wasn't the release of the special editions that reignited the fuse, and it sure as hell wasn't on the back of the 1995 POTF2 toy line release. No it was actually totally and utterly because of Walkers and their Star Wars Tazos.

I was at uni in Nottingham, getting pissed up with all my mates and generally eating really shittily and Walkers Salt and Vinegar crisps, Pickled Onion Monster Munch and Doritos Originals fuelled my lunch times and rekindled the love. It was the first time I'd come across Doritos and my memory is as much about sampling them as it was about collecting the tazos. Nottingham had a number of car boot sales where I picked up my first figures, and that brought back all the nostalgic memories and that was me hooked on Star Wars Toys again.

What got you back into collecting?
 

Attachments

  • A0468ADC-2E40-408A-B540-DC5B03B17930.jpeg
    A0468ADC-2E40-408A-B540-DC5B03B17930.jpeg
    81.3 KB · Views: 1,263
  • 1BD17CEC-602D-4E07-8A28-27467C508AAD.jpeg
    1BD17CEC-602D-4E07-8A28-27467C508AAD.jpeg
    134.6 KB · Views: 1,259

StarWarsFan

Grand Master
Joined
Apr 2, 2015
Messages
6,258
TheJabbaWookie said:
This is the third time I've got back into Star Wars Collecting as an adult. The first was in 1997, the 2nd in 2003 (discovering eBay) and this time round in 2016 (The Force Awakens).

But I wanted to talk about the first time for me. Surprisingly it wasn't the release of the special editions that reignited the fuse, and it sure as hell wasn't on the back of the 1995 POTF2 toy line release. No it was actually totally and utterly because of Walkers and their Star Wars Tazos.

I was at uni in Nottingham, getting pissed up with all my mates and generally eating really shittily and Walkers Salt and Vinegar crisps, Pickled Onion Monster Munch and Doritos Originals fuelled my lunch times and rekindled the love. It was the first time I'd come across Doritos and my memory is as much about sampling them as it was about collecting the tazos. Nottingham had a number of car boot sales where I picked up my first figures, and that brought back all the nostalgic memories and that was me hooked on Star Wars Toys again.

What got you back into collecting?

Great story thanks for sharing. For me was to get all the weapons I needed. After a long break got the itch with army building and thinking there are loads of variants time to start again :)
 

Robstyley

Sith Lord
Joined
Aug 22, 2014
Messages
2,736
Location
The other side of Mos Eisley
I didn't get back into collecting. I had Star Wars toys as a kid, sold some of them in about 89' and luckily stashed what was left in a box at my Mums house. Then in 07' one of my best pals I grew up with gave me his childhood Han and Chewy and I started collecting from there.
 

theforceuk

Grand Master
Supporter
Joined
Apr 3, 2014
Messages
8,749
As above for me, I'm still trying to collect all the figures on the back of the card. I just want them all MOC now!
 

Ruby2511

Sith Lord
Joined
Mar 11, 2018
Messages
2,379
Good topic 8) It was a Christmas gift from my son last year that got me back into collecting. Had the original figures back in the 80's, mum gave them away to my cousins. Bit more of the modern about 6 years ago, flogged all that and bought a Vespa.

This time I plan on keeping the loose vintage items i enjoy collecting and receiving :D
 

Snaketibe

Grand Master
Supporter
Joined
Jan 16, 2016
Messages
5,383
Location
United Kingdom
Good thread :)

For me it was stumbling upon Steve Sansweet's brilliant 'Star Wars: From Concept to Screen to Collectible' book back when I was at University in the early 90's. I'd foolishly sold all my Star Wars toys back before Jedi came out, something I'd never been entirely happy about, and this book rekindled a desire to correct that mistake! The price sticker might have said £12.95, but it turned out to be the most expensive book I have ever bought! :lol:

SWFCTSTC.jpg
 

Grant_C

Grand Master
Supporter
Joined
Sep 16, 2011
Messages
8,608
Location
South Wales
Very similar story to the above in August 1994
 

Attachments

  • E6953A30-38B8-4523-947C-45CD179EEABE.jpeg
    E6953A30-38B8-4523-947C-45CD179EEABE.jpeg
    49.5 KB · Views: 1,228

Wreck-It Ralph

Jedi Master
Joined
Jan 16, 2017
Messages
893
Great Thread

I was playing pool with my friend and we started betting £5 a game and I kept winning, just a lucky streak I guess as I am not a good pool player. He owed me about £30 but did not want to bet anymore as I kept winning, naturally I wanted to continue so I kept pushing for another game. He then said he did not want to bet anymore money but would bet me a Gammorean Guard, Greedo and Stormtrooper, I won again. The next day I drove to his house to collect my figures but I told him to keep the money, this guy was a tight bastard so I thought he would be pleased about me not wanting the money but instead all he did was moan about the figures, I still took them though. Shortly after that I amassed a significant loose collection including all 3 telescopic figures Luke, Vader and Ben and 2 Vlix's Glasslite and Kenner Prototype both with original Weapons plus all the standard figures and variations.
 

Sundancer Squadron

Jedi Master
Supporter
Joined
Aug 2, 2018
Messages
891
Location
Norfolk
Moral of the story, debt in friendship isn't friendly. :roll:



Kind of hard for me to pin down exactly what got me back into collecting as such, in the beginning I only ever had an original Vader from a school toy box a few years later my farther found his original Vader R2 Hoth luke and Han. They ended up in a little box until I discovered them again and set them up on a shelf around the time Episode 1 came out, I only got a few figures from the movie then that was it.

I think it was rogue one that got me collecting again, picking up the black series 6'' figures before discovering this forum. So far i'm sticking to modern 6'' and vintage as and when I find them.

Had some nice little purchases from Swf members so far, and i'm sure there will be many more :D
 

TheJabbaWookie

Sith Lord
Joined
Jun 28, 2017
Messages
2,740
Location
Somewhere Down The Rabbit Hole
Snaketibe said:
Good thread :)

For me it was stumbling upon Steve Sansweet's brilliant 'Star Wars: From Concept to Screen to Collectible' book back when I was at University in the early 90's. I'd foolishly sold all my Star Wars toys back before Jedi came out, something I'd never been entirely happy about, and this book rekindled a desire to correct that mistake! The price sticker might have said £12.95, but it turned out to be the most expensive book I have ever bought! :lol:

SWFCTSTC.jpg
Yep that book is a great re-introduction to Star Wars. Enough to fuel anyone's passion for collecting. I find the Tomart's Guide is another such book. So many things in there I never knew existed.
 

TheJabbaWookie

Sith Lord
Joined
Jun 28, 2017
Messages
2,740
Location
Somewhere Down The Rabbit Hole
Wreck-It Ralph said:
Great Thread

I was playing pool with my friend and we started betting £5 a game and I kept winning, just a lucky streak I guess as I am not a good pool player. He owed me about £30 but did not want to bet anymore as I kept winning, naturally I wanted to continue so I kept pushing for another game. He then said he did not want to bet anymore money but would bet me a Gammorean Guard, Greedo and Stormtrooper, I won again. The next day I drove to his house to collect my figures but I told him to keep the money, this guy was a tight bastard so I thought he would be pleased about me not wanting the money but instead all he did was moan about the figures, I still took them though. Shortly after that I amassed a significant loose collection including all 3 telescopic figures Luke, Vader and Ben and 2 Vlix's Glasslite and Kenner Prototype both with original Weapons plus all the standard figures and variations.
Ha, you might of been up in that game but it started an addiction that soon spiralled out of control by the sounds of it. Those items can't of come cheap :lol:
 

TheJabbaWookie

Sith Lord
Joined
Jun 28, 2017
Messages
2,740
Location
Somewhere Down The Rabbit Hole
Sundancer Squadron said:
I think it was rogue one that got me collecting again, picking up the black series 6'' figures before discovering this forum. So far i'm sticking to modern 6'' and vintage as and when I find them.

Had some nice little purchases from Swf members so far, and i'm sure there will be many more :D
Rogue One, such a good film. If I hadn't ventured back into collecting before then, that would of definitely re-ignited the flame.
 

SAVORY100

Sith Lord
Joined
May 29, 2014
Messages
4,186
Location
Wiltshire
As two others have said.. this bl*ddy book!

Sansweet.jpeg


I'd started Uni a few months, so sometime before Christmas in 1994 I guess, popped into London on the tube with a friend and ended up in the basement of Forbidden Planet, saw this and didn't hesitate. Life changing reading and with the same guy started going to a tonne of Car Boots around North London, my home town and where he was from in Kent too. Good times!

A few year's later when I'd left Uni, I worked at Habitat and I collected Tazos, I was blessed though that literally no one else wanted them and everyone had crisps for lunch, I was getting dozens a day.. living the dream!
 

subzero

Sith Lord
Joined
Jun 20, 2017
Messages
3,052
The very first time I got into vintage collecting was in 2002, I did collect Star Wars merchandise previously though from the 90's after the Special Editions came out when I was barely a teen, collecting random modern 90's tat such as the original trilogy Micro Machines and also Tazo's too which I loved, and there was lots of other little things which iv'e now forgotten about.

Memory is very hazy now about what it was that got me into collecting vintage figures in 2002 since it's been so long, but I think it might have had something to do with Attack of The Clones coming out which coincided with me rediscovering a couple of our family's old vintage figures in a landing cupboard full of old family junk. Those figures ( with zero accessories whatsoever ) were a Gamorrean Guard, an ERG with the cloth all completely torn off and a 4 Lom with no coat, I always remember finding and displaying those figures before I collected anything else.

From that point on I started travelling to an indoor market after work on Saturdays where I discovered a guy who used to sell a very small handful of vintage figures, and I started collecting from there. Then I discovered an ebay advert in a collectors magazine which told me I can find and buy all the Star Wars figures I need from there website, many postal orders got put through their paces for a while along with my bank balance. :lol:

This collecting stint didn't last long though, maybe about a year ( or less ) I had that typical young person's 'fad mindset' where I discovered it, needed everything right now and went into debt for it, until one day I suddenly needed money and sold everything and moved on. :lol:

And then in 2015 I got back into SW collecting again because of collecting other toys from my childhood from other franchises, this fed my nostalgia bug again and eventually wanted more SW, so iv'e now basically ended up with the perfect nostalgic collection I dreamed of having in 2002 that never happened, only this time it's here to stay and i'll never be selling it.
 

bosk70

Jedi Master
Supporter
Joined
Jun 26, 2014
Messages
633
Same as above still one of my favourite books, Steve Sansweet's From Concept to Screen to Collectible' , just loved all the pictures and as mentioned in other threads discovering all the other figures I did not know existed having stopped in 84. Mentioned in another thread I made my first recollecting purchase in the early 90's at a boot sale, five odd figures 20p each and a strange staff with skulls on picked it up cause it looked good, it was only when I looked at this book later I realised I had left the yak , amamaman and barada in the box all 20p each as I did not know they were star wars :eek: still haunts my dreams to this day :lol:
 

TheJabbaWookie

Sith Lord
Joined
Jun 28, 2017
Messages
2,740
Location
Somewhere Down The Rabbit Hole
SAVORY100 said:
A few year's later when I'd left Uni, I worked at Habitat and I collected Tazos, I was blessed though that literally no one else wanted them and everyone had crisps for lunch, I was getting dozens a day.. living the dream!
Man that's cheating. I literally had to eat hundreds of packets as all my uni mates were collecting back then and there was no eBay to pick up your missing tazos. Just swapsies.
 

TheJabbaWookie

Sith Lord
Joined
Jun 28, 2017
Messages
2,740
Location
Somewhere Down The Rabbit Hole
subzero said:
The very first time I got into vintage collecting was in 2002, I did collect Star Wars merchandise previously though from the 90's after the Special Editions came out when I was barely a teen, collecting random modern 90's tat such as the original trilogy Micro Machines and also Tazo's too which I loved, and there was lots of other little things which iv'e now forgotten about.

Memory is very hazy now about what it was that got me into collecting vintage figures in 2002 since it's been so long, but I think it might have had something to do with Attack of The Clones coming out which coincided with me rediscovering a couple of our family's old vintage figures in a landing cupboard full of old family junk. Those figures ( with zero accessories whatsoever ) were a Gamorrean Guard, an ERG with the cloth all completely torn off and a 4 Lom with no coat, I always remember finding and displaying those figures before I collected anything else.

From that point on I started travelling to an indoor market after work on Saturdays where I discovered a guy who used to sell a very small handful of vintage figures, and I started collecting from there. Then I discovered an ebay advert in a collectors magazine which told me I can find and buy all the Star Wars figures I need from there website, many postal orders got put through their paces for a while along with my bank balance. :lol:

This collecting stint didn't last long though, maybe about a year ( or less ) I had that typical young person's 'fad mindset' where I discovered it, needed everything right now and went into debt for it, until one day I suddenly needed money and sold everything and moved on. :lol:

And then in 2015 I got back into SW collecting again because of collecting other toys from my childhood from other franchises, this fed my nostalgia bug again and eventually wanted more SW, so iv'e now basically ended up with the perfect nostalgic collection I dreamed of having in 2002 that never happened, only this time it's here to stay and i'll never be selling it.
Nice little story Richard
 

edd_jedi

Moderator
Staff member
Supporter
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
8,877
Location
UK
I was in Tesco shopping with my mum in 1994, I would have been 12 or 13. We saw these videos near the checkouts and my mum bought them for me:

vhs.jpg


I hadn't seen any of the films for years and my toys all went in the late 80s, so even aged 12 it gave me a real nostalgia hit seeing the film after "all those years" (which in reality was probably only 5 or so years.) It instantly made me think of the toys, and as others have said the first thing I did was buy the black/gold Steve Sansweet book.

I lived in Poole back then and a local indoor market had two shops that sold Star Wars toys. I bought all my loose, MOCs and vehicles there for the next 5 or so years until eBay took over.

so in summary I owe it all to those videos.
 

sith-smith

Grand Master
Joined
Oct 25, 2006
Messages
7,391
For me it was initially finding and reading non-stop the Heir to the Empire book in 1992. That re-awoke my obsession/passion for Star Wars - and luckily I had kept al my childhood toys. Later that same year my then girlfriend bought me a handful of imperial figures she found at a carboot sale and from that point on, having realised I could get loads more quite easily I went to every carboot sale I could till around summer 94 when Star Wars had almost dried up there and was now considered a collectible item so the prices of what I could find were by those days' standards really high.

I stopped at that point thinking it was all over. Girlfriend bought me the Sansweet Book with all the toys that were released pictured in it and I saw all the items I never knew existed (RC sandcrawler, dewback etc) plus the remaining last 17 figures I hadn't found at a carboot sale. I was keen to get at least the remaining figures but had no idea how until I stumbled across a collectors shop, probably around 97. Bought a few things over the years there but prices were high compared to what I'd seen at carboot sales so I wasn't really that willing to spend that sort of money.

By 99 I'd discovered my first toy show at Cheshunt, quickly followed by Memorabilia at the NEC.

Not long after that came Various forums (Imperial Outpost and Rebelscum. And then eBay!

By that point I was fully determined to buy the pieces I didn't have so had a definite focus and was more willing to spend the money. From then it just continued
 
Old Thread: Hello . There have been no replies in this thread for 365 days.
Content in this thread may no longer be relevant.
Perhaps it would be better to start a new thread instead.

Latest posts

Top Bottom