Thanks for all of the comments everyone. I'd really like to put a display together at some stage, because my collection is pretty extensive up until 1999. I still have pretty much everything I collected.
The Chewbacca in front of the laser rifle is a bootleg money box. The Darth Vader one is sitting next to him. The Palitoy laser rifle in the picture has a piece of red card inside instead of the actual insert, as it was missing when I found it at a boot sale. The Luke Jedi display behind the 12" figures is a header for a book stand for the book "Dark Force Rising". My R2-D2 book stand on my Flickr page was produced for Return if the Jedi – which I found out after I set it out with Star Wars books for the picture. There is a giant standee also produced to sell the ROTJ novel behind the Imperial troops display.
I started collecting in 1978 and didn't slow down until around 2000. I'm wishing that I had made a final push to collect the final MOCs I need but I didn't envisage them rising in value quite so much. Of course MOCs were cheaper in the late 80's, through to the mid-90's but they were still comparatively expensive and in those pre-internet days – extremely difficult to find. It was about establishing contacts in those days and getting up early to travel to collector's shows. If I had seen a MOC Jawa or some of the last 17 that I need, I would have bought them but in my despite my best efforts I just couldn't locate them. Still, I'm not too far away if I ever wanted to go on a spending spree.
I have dug up an extra picture, of a giant SW standee that I got free from the HMV store in Oxford Street in the 90s, that's also in storage. It's wrapped in about a mile of cling film to protect it. In the picture, it looks like the blast from Luke's lightsabre is shooting right through my head!
I update my Flickr page pretty regularly, especially with my latest Lego creations. The Blockade Runner in my main project – which l never stop tinkering with.
Craig.
