On Collecting

I stopped collecting Star Wars toys twice. Once around 1985 when I thought I was getting "too old" to play with toys, and then again around 2002 after a 7-year resurgence of collecting. The toys from my childhood are pretty much all gone, but I still have a ridiculous amount of items from the second coming of my Star Wars fandom. Being an adult collector meant that I had disposable income and the power to spend it frivolously. I won't lie, they were good times. Dropping by Target, Wal-Mart and Toys R Us on a daily basis and scanning collecting news sites like Yakface's Realm and Sir Steve's Guide religiously. I always told myself that selective toy purchases would be a great investment, but the thrill of the hunt was addictive and I have duplicates of common peghangers to prove it!



However, it was through my early-Internet toy-bartering site called "The Tusken Trader" that I met another fan named Tom Fisk who happened to have a full-size TIE Fighter pilot costume among his collectibles. I asked where he got it, he gave me some contact information, and that's how I began my tenure with the Fighting 501st Legion. I put a stop to collecting the toys and pooled my finite resources toward costuming. Sure, costumes are individually more expensive, but they take up less storage space, help you develop skills like vacuforming, sewing, mold-making, and painting, and---most importantly---they are not static items like an action figure or statuette. Costumes encourage you to put them on and go out into the world and interact with others to celebrate your fandom, to promote the art of costumes and props, and to contribute to your community through charity and volunteerism. Now that's a good investment.

P.S. I still have a ton of Star Wars collectibles from around 1995-2002, so drop me an e-mail if you're looking for something from that era. It's all for sale!