The 35 year wait is over!

Palifan

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Oct 28, 2012
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Hi all,

After growing up with Star Wars back in the late 70's and being obsessed with the toys at the time, I finally decided to sell all of my childhood figures after I stopped playing with toys, and let my once treasured collectio go for £5 to my best friend's brother ( including a VCJ :roll: ). I didn't really think much more about this until I started getting back into collecting Star Wars again, around 12 years ago, and started to feel that it was a shame that I had to start from scratch again.

I've now been part of this forum for close to 9 years and seen some amazing collections on display over the years. The one thing that I've always admired the most though is when collectors still have some of their childhood figures and play sets. I've noticed that these childhood figures are normally their most treasured items they have, which makes complete sense to me. Over the years I've often thought about my own childhood collection and as I'm still very good friends with my old mate, I mentioned this to him and he thought that there was a chance that my figures could still be somewhere in their family home.

Cut to last week and both my friend and his brother were back at their old home clearing it out for their father who's now living in a home. This has been no easy task for them as their Dad has always been a hoarder and it's taken them something like 20 skips worth to try and clear the house and get it on the market. As they are coming to the end of clearing it now, last week was the final push for them so I offered to give them a hand for the day and cleared their loft. It was whilst up in their loft clearing box after box of old Beano and 2000AD comics, as well as old cassettes and Spectrum games that we used to spend countless hours listening to and playing with through our youth, that I finally took the lid off of one of the last boxes to see my old Star Wars figures starring back at me :shock:

I couldn't believe that I'd finally found them and although they were far from being all there (no VCJ unfortunately :cry: ), I'm so happy that some survived. My friends brother has never been a Star Wars collector and is 4 years younger than me so mainly had a collection of Jedi ones. He was happy enough for me to have back my very heavily played with collection and I replaced these figures for some spare ones I had that were in much better condition ( a win win situation for both of us!).

It's amazing to think that I've now been reunited with my old collection after all of these years and even though there are a lot of battle scares to these figures, at least they're mine :D

All that's left is to show you what I picked up below and also to say a massive thank you to both my friend and his brother for keeping hold of them and letting me have them back, now that's some true friends!

Ian
 

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Palifan

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Here's the rest of them and the last few pictures of the Jedi figures with cloth capes are the only ones that I'm not definitely sure are mine as there were doubles of each figure in the box. I've taken a best guess with them although I've no idea about Squid Head as I wouldn't have played with my Jedi figures very much before selling them but maybe he did so it could be either.

The stands are also my original ones from my Palitoy Death Star and Cantina as he never had any play sets. The blasters I'm unsure about though as they could have been from some of his figures and I think the black rebel blaster is from the trench coat Han that he has although any thoughts from weapon experts would be appreciated :)

Ian
 

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Michael Sith

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Congratulations, what a great moment after all these years, to be re united with your childhood figures, fantastic stuff.

8) 8) 8) 8)
 

Palifan

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Thanks guys, I really didn't think I'd ever see them again so it really was a special moment. It's funny as I really remember the head breaking off of my Luke Bespin (as well as the arm breaking on IG-88), and in the box was the rivet that my Dad gave me to use as a lightsaber. I couldn't believe it when I saw it as I always thought it was a great substitute.

Happy days :)

Ian
 

Cazza

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That's awesome Ian!! Really, really chuffed for you. So special to get them back 8) The memories tied up in childhood toys are so precious.
 

bosk70

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What a great story Ian,

so glad your mate was happy, with a few trades, and probably a few beers if anything like my mates, to let you have them back , did you manage to offer beer etc to get the 2000ad's as well, no issue 1 or 2 I suppose :lol: it must be priceless to display and hold those damaged by you figs, my childhood figs / ships are worth more to me than any moc or boxed items . happy days really riveting
 

Palifan

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bosk70 said:
What a great story Ian,

so glad your mate was happy, with a few trades, and probably a few beers if anything like my mates, to let you have them back , did you manage to offer beer etc to get the 2000ad's as well, no issue 1 or 2 I suppose :lol: it must be priceless to display and hold those damaged by you figs, my childhood figs / ships are worth more to me than any moc or boxed items . happy days

Thanks for that and you're one of those people I was thinking of with their childhood collection, they really do hold a special place with me and there are so many memories wrapped up in them.

As for the 2000Ad's, a lot of them had my last name on them so I must have lent him them at some point lol! We decided on a joint ownership as I'm happy to just re-read them. They only started from prog 350 or so, so nothing earlier than that but I do have frogs 1 to 20 already so no beer needed (although I'll take them both to the pub when they are down again in a couple of months :D ).

Ian
 

bosk70

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I'm only missing 1 to 4 now but am far to tight to pay the silly prices they want for them now, nice to read those nice yellow crusty comics with your house no or name on ,far better than minty re prints , in lockdown i took the plunge and bought the jd magazine 2002 to 2016 that i stopped buying when i had a family , two huge boxes turned up :lol: I'm only a quarter the way through them but loving every second of it , anyway you only live once so why not :D stay safe

Matt
 

Palifan

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bosk70 said:
I'm only missing 1 to 4 now but am far to tight to pay the silly prices they want for them now, nice to read those nice yellow crusty comics with your house no or name on ,far better than minty re prints , in lockdown i took the plunge and bought the jd magazine 2002 to 2016 that i stopped buying when i had a family , two huge boxes turned up :lol: I'm only a quarter the way through them but loving every second of it , anyway you only live once so why not :D stay safe

Matt

I bought my early ones years ago when they weren't too expensive. I had them from prog 1 growing up and still read it now (even though I had a big period off from them). These early ones though really do have some classic stories in them and you're right about reading them with your name on the front cover, a nice extra bonus :)

Ian
 

AndyPreston

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Congratulations Ian, what a brilliant story! So great to have your childhood figures back. You have an amazing collection overall but that's something money can't buy. Really pleased for you mate.
 

spoons

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Amazing to have all your figures back after so long Ian, congratulations!

The rivet sword made me laugh. My childhood Playmobil all had rivet swords too. Must have been a staple of every 80s Dad's tool box

Took me right back :)
 

Snaketibe

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That's a wonderful story and outcome for you Ian. Congratulations on reacquiring them after all these years :)

I also love that improvised Luke saber. It's actually really effective!

Jeremy
 

Palifan

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Snaketibe said:
That's a wonderful story and outcome for you Ian. Congratulations on reacquiring them after all these years :)

I also love that improvised Luke saber. It's actually really effective!

Jeremy

Thanks Jeremy and everyone else for your comments. I also always loved that silver saber and thought it was a genius replacement (thanks Dad :))

I'm pretty sure as well that the Obi Wan was my very first figure that I received and even though he doesn't have a cape any more, I always remembered his white hair, which is why the grey version never looked quite right to me.

Now I just need to find the right place to display them (there's never enough display space is there?!).

Ian
 

theforceuk

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Amazing story, congratulations and great friends you have. Love reading these story's!
 

TheJabbaWookie

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That's awesome. Congratulations mate. The headless Luke Bespin with homemade saber is fantastic.

As for the weapons a shot of the coo and date on the following figures will help determine the rightful owners of those loose weapons:
- Han Solo
- Luke Bespin
- Imperial Commander

Jay
 

Palifan

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TheJabbaWookie said:
That's awesome. Congratulations mate. The headless Luke Bespin with homemade saber is fantastic.

As for the weapons a shot of the coo and date on the following figures will help determine the rightful owners of those loose weapons:
- Han Solo
- Luke Bespin
- Imperial Commander

Jay

Thanks Jay for your comment and I'll post some pictures up soon of the coo's you've mentioned and let you know, that would be most helpful :)

Ian
 

Palifan

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TheJabbaWookie said:
That's awesome. Congratulations mate. The headless Luke Bespin with homemade saber is fantastic.

As for the weapons a shot of the coo and date on the following figures will help determine the rightful owners of those loose weapons:
- Han Solo
- Luke Bespin
- Imperial Commander

Jay

Here you go Jay, hopefully you can figure some of them out.

Ian
 

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