X-Entertainment's Christmas Season & Advent Calendar, 2008.

07/21/2007: Summer Megaparty: Theater Edition Luke Skywalker!

In 1997, George Lucas sent the original Star Wars trilogy back into theaters with his “Special Edition” revamps — a topic that’s still sore for many purists who preferred their “Jabba concert scene” without dancing Rodians in orange bathing suits. The Special Editions were polarizing, but in the end, anyone who hated them now has access to the original versions, too.

That was a great year to be a Star Wars fan. We knew the prequels were coming, but we didn’t know an awful lot about them. Few thought that a gen-shaping series rated four stars by everyone on the planet could go sour, and the anticipation was palpable. The anticipation was palatineable. Plus, Hasbro revived the legendary Star Wars action figure collection with all the spirit of the Kenner originals, effectively kicking off a culture of “catering to the collectors” that took geeks like me off of the Internet trading posts and back into toy stores, where we fought little kids over four-inch Boba Fetts.

By the time the Special Edition Return of the Jedi hit theaters on March 14th, 1997, the excitement from the movies and from the toys intertwined in a more literal way. Hasbro issued thousands of theaters a supply of Luke Skywalker figures in exclusive “Theater Edition” packaging, to be given away free to theatergoers on opening night. The catch: Supplies were limited, and they were only going to give ‘em away during one of the many showings that day. I went with an old friend of mine hoping for a little luck, and fate was on my side.

The figure itself was no different from the Jedi Luke sold in every toy store in the country at the time. The only difference was a little logo on the lower left of the packaging citing it as the “Theater Edition.” Despite this, I’d been collecting toys long enough by then to realize that “Theater Edition Luke” was going to be a very hot ticket the next morning. As kids tore open the packages to get at their Luke, I very carefully slipped mine into my bag. Even had the foresight to bring along some bubblewrap.

And as an added bonus, my friend has absolutely no interest in Star Wars figures, so she gave me her Theater Edition Luke, too. We saw the movie, parted ways, and when I got home, the wheeling and dealing commenced.

While interest in this particular figure has cooled considerably since 1997, it was selling for hundreds in the weeks following its debut night. Every collector wanted it, and many of those who did their duty of going to the theater on opening night came up short. It was a total crapshoot, and since Star Wars collectors tend to be completists, it seemed that nobody could live without a Theater Edition Luke. (At the time, we all called him “Special Edition Luke,” or more concisely, “SE Luke.”)

I was in a twice-blessed position. Not only did I have two of these figures (meaning I could freely trade one out and still have one for my own collection), but one of the two I had was in gem mint condition. Theater Edition Luke figures most often came with dents and bruises in the packaging, because, well, it’s tough to avoid that when you’ve got annoyed theater workers being bombarded by 70 lunatics the second they bring out a box marked “Hasbro,” tossing the figures around like bread at a shelter. Since I was never much of a stickler for owning things in mint condition, I kept the figure with a few card dents and started taking offers on the mint one.

It was like walking through a barren desert with a canteen full of coconut milk. Everyone wanted my Luke, and people were practically offering their souls for it. I ultimately scored a trade wherein I sent some stranger my Theater Edition Luke, and in return, received 60 bucks and three gigantic boxes stuffed with packaged figures from at least 20 different lines — X-Men, Batman, Star Trek, Congo…it was endless. None of the figures I got in that trade were worth more than a few bucks singularly, but anytime you can trade one free thing for over 75 other things, you’ve done well.

I distinctly recall the feeling of being a pig in shit as I spread the contents of those three boxes across the living room floor. The person I traded with admitted that he’d made a really bad deal, but as his apartment was overstuffed with useless figures that were hurting his ability to walk from the kitchen to the bedroom without killing a six-inch Wolverine, he was just glad to have the extra space. We both left happy, but I think I was a just a wee bit happier.

I’ve since stopped collecting and totally fell off the toy wagon at large, but back when I was heavy into it, I was a master trader. It was my favorite part of the hobby. I’d been at it for close to ten years before I ever had a Internet connection, but once I got AOL 2.5 and found people with similar interests online, I was unstoppable. One time I traded a guy a couple of MegaForce and Beetlejuice toys for nearly the entire run of G1 Transformers, including a boxed Optimus Prime, all because he didn’t know anything about Transformers and didn’t want to go through the trouble of ID’ing them. I stupidly sold them all a few years later, but the thrill always seemed to be more in the “getting there” than in the “being there.”

I feel even more nerdy writing about this stuff than writing about Dunkin’ Donuts Coolatas and Ninja Turtle magazines, but I just had to reflect. If you’d like to learn more about “Theater Edition Luke,” click here.

I remember when those came out, getting big groups together to see em opening night at the same theater. Apparently there were other groups doing the same thing, because for all three movies, whenever princess leiah(sp?) came out, the same guy would yell “She’s so hot!!”

I’m having problems with a lot of the videos on the site saying they don’t exsist. Also, I’m a big defender of the Special/DVD editions of the movies but I think I’ve talked at length about this before. I didn’t get a Luke toy but I do have some other Star Wars Special Edition related promotional swag.

in 1998 i collected about three micro machines star wars vehicles. then i ran out of lunch money and that was that.

Doho: I’m talking to the server guys right now about the problem. I think somehow the file permissions (which will either let people load things or not load them) got frigged up. Should be an easy fix; the files themselves are not inactive.

As for the changes in the Special Editions, there are some I like, some I don’t mind, and some I just hate. The revised Jabba “band scene” is one I definitely hate. I also preferred the original Sarlaac, simply because the actors’ reactions to seeing it do not at all correlate with there being a giant Audrey II down below.

I didn’t get an action figure but I did go to the movies with Darth Vader, some Storm Troopers and we picked up a Darth Maul by the end of the night. My friends husband does volunteer work at childrens hospitals with the Desert Sea Garrison or something like that and they all have studio quality costumes so Lucas Arts has them do promo work here in Arizona when they have events. It is all good fun but I think I would have preferred the action figure!

Also…they had better get here soon with my Potter book or I am going to go postal on the USPS!

There are certaintly some scenes that had a “why did they do even bother doing that?” problem to them. The Sarlacc as you mention comes off as an challenged attempt at best to how convincingly they could alter a scene filmed so many years ago. The Jabba/Solo scene from Star Wars is another sort of example of this, even though the original scene was cut, however I think they did a commendable enough job updating it further in the DVD edition.

I’m split on the Wampa scene. I think the original was really effective because you never got an incredible view of the creature, and things just seemed scarier that way. Then there’s the fact that I grew up watching “Making Of” specials a thousand times, and hated the fact that Lucas eliminated most of poor Dez Webb’s scenes — poor guy out in the snow in a giant gorilla costume, and he can’t even keep that as his benchmark. On the other hand, the revised scene had great effects and I think, in general, newer fans would prefer it.

Making Luke scream as he plunged in Crowd City was terrible, just terrible. He didn’t “fall.” He chose to drop to save himself from THE DARK SI-HIDE. Adding a scream made it look less like a heroic sacrifice and more like last-ditch desperation.

I also hated that the Emperor tells Vader that Luke is his son in the middle of ESB. The first half of the movie and even the opening crawl hints that Vader wants Luke for reasons other than killing him. It was just so much cooler to think that he was putting so many Imperial resources into finding the Rebels just so he could claim his son and convert him. By changing that, the movie becomes needlessly lateral.

However, I will say that the new ending to ROTJ has grown on me. (the little Coruscant clip stills gives me chills) I do miss the “Nub Nub” song, though.

Dez Webb in black underwear. I just figured out that was real guy. I kept picturing the Wampa in black laced briefs. Still keeps me laughing.

As Crazy from PowetTV says “remember to open your toys, kids!” I quite prefer him to MatrixPrime. Sure MP is meticulous, but I don’t need to know that Bumblebee’s crotch is yellow with white highlighting. Hell, Crazy brings the history of each toy with tidbits from the canon via the comics, the shows, the movie, etc. Plus he’s willing to be on camera himself and while you could argue that MP is putting the emphasis on the toys where it should be, let’s be honest, there’s a reason we only see his hands

Beta (MP’s collegue at TFWire) is even preferrable as he’s willing to get pissed (a LOT).

If someone is OCD, meticulous enough to keep their toys in their packages, I respect their wishes/inclinations, but I really do much prefer getting to play with them

My general rule when it comes to opening/not opening toys is judging which would look cooler: Toy in package, or toy out of package. Sometimes you’ll get things in a window box with a really nice environmental background built into the packaging — the kind that can’t be salvaged if you open it up.

That makes sense. I remember you mentioning that with the SW Galactic Heroes pack. I can see it even more with just straight up action figures, but with TF not being able to switch them back and forth constantly almost seems to be denying them their purpose

I went out with a Star Wars fan last night, and when I asked him if he had any collectibles, he said no. NO! Blew my mind. Not even a cookie jar shaped like Darth Vader’s head. But, the evening was still a roaring success, cheddar bay biscuits and all.

Yeah, most/all Transformers definitely deserve to be free of boxes. The packaging isn’t that stellar anyway, but they’re too cool when they’ve got freedom.

Phew! As a Transformers collector junkie-type, it’s good to wake up to a toy post with some of that good old-fashioned MIB/MISB jargon sprinkled throughout. It’s also interesting to see Matt act somewhat like a recovering alcoholic when he refers to his toy trader past!

I am so glad this figure got the X-E treatment, It is one of my beloved childhood memories, I was 12 years old when this figure came out (I can’t believe it’s been a decade!) Anyways I was an AVID POFT2 collector, I had every figure and variant carded, I was trading anything I owned to this local comic shop getting ripped off practically every other day to secure these figures. When I finally found about the release of this figure (the day after the release) I HAD to have it. Eventually after much searching found the cheapest one available for $100 and my friend and I washed neighborhood cars for close to two months to afford this figure, I can’t believe people let us get soap scum all over their cars like that, what nice neighbors

Anyways I finally did get it, where it was displayed atop my dresser along with the Empire comic and ANH micro machines. In another extremely stupid move on my part, I traded some kid at my school I complete Casey Jones and Fugitoid TMNT figures for the opening day newspaper ad saying that they were giving the figure away…god I was stupid.

Fortuantely, money isn’t as difficult to come by nowadays and the TMNT figures were easily replaced. Although with a little patience I probably could have gotten the Luke for 1/4 that price now, I’ll always remember washing cars for months fondly.

Not to threadjack, but did anyone else pre-order and receive today, the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book? 700+ pages of goodness, and I won’t be able to read it today, because I’m off to a cousin’s barbecue to celebrate the visit of a little girl from Russia they hope to adopt, who is the half-sister of a boy and girl they have already adopted.

That reminds me of my prowess as a food trader at lunch time in the second grade. I could start off with a PB&J and a few laffy taffy and end up with hostess cupcakes coming out of my butt and a burrito.

I was 9 years old when the Star Wars SE came out. All I can remember is being at Costco with my parents and begging my Dad to buy me the boxed set. He said, “Maybe for Christmas”.

I remember thinking “Fuck you Dad, it’s June!”. I’m sorry but “Wait until Christmas” is a line you can’t be using until October, late September at the earliest.

I must have gotten it that Christmas though because I do own it today. It was my first real introduction into Star Wars, aside from glimpses of the movies on TV. I don’t really take a definitive stance on the whole SE thing today, but even then, the new scenes felt a little off. Especially the Jaba dance scene, which it’s funny you mentioned.

Ahh, power of the force two, the line where everyone was on steroids and Leia looked like an apeâ€¦ good times, and the unedited versions are far superior in regards to pacingâ€¦ there, I said it.

My entire toy collection is out of box on shelves, but that’s the way I like it. I did save some of the awesome Japenese TF re-issue boxes only because they are so awesome; who cares if I can’t read them!

On another topic: what a rough night last night! I feel like I got hit by a truck, stood up and got hit again. And the dreams I had….yikes. And the weird part? No drinking, just all the Harry Potter stuff. Is that a bad sign?

Shuanfu, I suggest you spend some time prayingâ€¦ TO THE DARK SPIRITS!! MUAHAHAHA!

Wow that blog entry really made me miss collecting toys! I used to be a crazy-mad Transformers collector, and had literally 500 or so of the bloody things littering my flat. Then my girlfriend left me, and I had to sell them as I moved to a smaller place (that and i wised up a littl that endless toys and nightly internet trawling do not a good relationship make).

Still have a shedload though, they are all boxed up in a stack in the corner, only my G1 Jetfire and my remaining eHobby exclusives get their own shelf space…

My further thoughts on the special editions, improving the effects that were present was great. You know, removing garbage matte, brightening lightsabers and color corrections and even adding some stuff to cloud city was cool but the other added scenesâ€¦ seeing Jabba in ANH kind of takes away from meeting him in Return of the Jedi, the added sand trooper footage makes the search scene drag on a little too long, the Emperor saying Luke is Vaderâ€™s son while speaking to Darth totally makes the â€œI am your father momentâ€ a â€œno shitâ€ moment, Luke screaming on the way down makes him look like an idiot, Jabbaâ€™s dancersâ€¦ oy, the new Sarlaccâ€¦ all of these things I hate. That and I donâ€™t like the new ending in ROTJ. So, the rebels blow up the second death star and kill the emperorâ€¦ and that frees the galaxy from an massive empire which has lost very little of its force to the rebels? And how would back water planets like Tatooine even know what had happened that quickly, or how would they even know on Coruscant? The empire would probably censor all news of any rebel victories. The expanded universe has solved this problem saying that the celebrations across the galaxy were quickly put down but if you donâ€™t read the comics or source books how would you know that? You would just assume that the empire had been destroyed somehow and that just aint logical given the size and power of the empireâ€¦ in retrospect Jabbaâ€™s dancers were an omen, a sign of the horrors yet to comeâ€¦ Jar Jarâ€¦ I really miss the old Sarlacc, something about how it was just a pit with teeth struck a chord with me. I should probably seek physiological help.

The SE Star Wars were what got me into Star Wars so I can’t hate on them too much,although once you see the originals you realize how stupid some of the changes were.Rebelscum.com says that 150,000 Lukes were released.I understand that it’s rare but its really not that limited.

It’s rarer when you consider that most were opened, and once opened, the figure was no different than what was already in stores.

How do you figure that they only lost very little of thier force and what in the special editions makes different to the original?

The only “Special Edition” movie I saw in theaters was “A New Hope”. Maybe that’s why I don’t remember ever hearing about these Theater Edition figures back in ‘97.

Matt, that is very true and I didn’t think of that. I said that because most mini busts and higher end collectables are limited to like 2000 pieces

dohopoki Well, the empire spans the entire galaxy, they lost several million personnel at both the battle of Yavin and Endor, but thatâ€™s nothing compared to a galaxy. Thatâ€™s probably not even the number of soldiers all of the countries on earth have now so if thereâ€™s thousands of worlds inhabited by humans, youâ€™ve got to figure they have billions of non-clone personnel along with all of the clones. I believe that some expanded universe sources list the entire imperial fleet as being made up of over a million vessels which makes since given the undoubtedly large populations of humans they have at their disposal and they probably need that many vessels to maintain order. The three major battles of the civil war were shown in the films, so any other rebel battles were probably just hit and run missions. Disrupting imperial shipping, stealing ships, etc. So when you take into account the massive numbers the empire needed just to maintain control and compare them with the number probably lost to the rebellion up to the end of RotJ, the empire has lost next to nothing in regards to military strength. In the expanded universe what really does the empire in is all of the high ranking imperial officers vying for power after the emperorâ€™s death. They end up not only fighting the ever growing rebellion but each other.

Click my name for a funny star wars themed parody of “cops” using Imperial Troopers

I just watched the Star Wars Trilogy in their original form on the various HBO’s not too long ago for the first time. I have yet to watch the SE, even though my brother owns them. Pretty good movies.

We were all big toy collectors once, but we all grew out of it due to $$$ and lack of space. Now all I collect now are comics.

You should do an article on the various toys that were in those boxes, if you still have them.

dohopoki You donâ€™t like any of the expanded universe? Not even shadows of the empire? The logic behind the massive imperial numbers still stands though, and none of the special edition changes the story much, some of it just makes the films a little icky at parts.

“Theater Edition Luke” sounds more like he’s going to a play. Or directing one. Eliminating the rest of the set-up, and going straight to the punchlines: Jazz-hands Vader, Understudy Boba Fett, Dueling Divas Leia and C3PO, Stage Mother Amidala, Othello Mace Windu, Hard-to-Please Critic Jabba, and of course, Special Collector’s Figure appearance as Snotty Patron: Hedonism-Bot!

“I thank you for the inclusion, but I’m already bored with this joke. On with the rest of the thread!”

Eh, I’ll admit there are A FEW instances where it can be okay but man there’s some stuff in there that I just don’t want to hear, especially conserning the Emperor.

You talking about the stupid clone emperor thing? Yeahâ€¦ I stick mostly to the old west end games RPG and some of the comics.

Like K- and others, I, too feel that Transformers should not be kept in their boxes.

I just don’t see a point with those. They transform, and if they stay in the box, it defeats their purpose.

I was a really young and naive SW fans when the Special Editions came out. I did see the original versions before the SEs but I didn’t really see much of a difference aside from the obvious added scenes. I didn’t notice any stuff like Han not shooting first, etc. I certainly notice them now.

Pretty much everything expanded universe sucked after â€™99 except for the comics and the whole clone wars thing. Apparently in a new book one of the Solo kids uses the force to go back in time. : (

I forgot about the Theater edition Luke. I remember I really wanted it though. I had the stupid “limited edition” glow in the dark Obi-One Kenobi figure. I think it was a Doritos promotion or something…

I still haven’t gotten over when Greedo shot first in the SE Star Wars Cantina scene. It really detracted from Han’s slyness.

HOLY SNIKES!! Just when Matt gets around to posting every day, powers beyond me take over my internet rendering me unable to talk to all you fine people. Go figure. Life gives me lemons and all I get is juice in my own eyes. Or whatever the hell. Anyhoo. Just droppin by to say HI! Sorry I missed you when you were in town BILL! Sounds like you had fun even in the 118 degrees!!!!

Apparently in a new book one of the Solo kids uses the force to go back in time.
Hahahahaha Oh god, what’s next “Star Wars: in Space!”

eBay says you made the right choice, Matt. I’m seein’ those babies go for a buck and up.

I had the regular version of that figure, and it was my favorite of the POTF2 line. As for theater giveaways, I got a set of three “micro” Micro Machines, including the Millennium Falcon, the Slave I, and the second Death Star when I went to see Episode IV. I probably still have the Death Star one somewhere, but the other two are long gone, sadly. They were no bigger than a dime, after all.

The one thing that I remember from this time period is that I won the spelling bee on “empire.” It was funny because about five kids got out on the word, and when I got it, I was like “Duh, guys! What’s at the movies right now?”

I was never much into the toy-collecting thing. I WAS into Transformers back during the G1 days, had the entirety of Monstructor… I sold my old collection in order to set up my home LAN, and then the collection I’d built up since then for good money. I did try the whole buy/sell thing on eBay back when it was still something everyone did, sold some M.U.S.C.L.Es…

I just picked up an original April O’Neil MOC while I was at Zern’s today and I’m a little torn between displaying her in the delightfully kitschy artwork, or ripping it open and violating her extensively.

Good haul at the market today. Got some Trading Card Treats, a couple My Pretty Mermaids, some cute little Nickelodeon novelties (stickers, eraser, pencil pack), a tiny figure of Waldo, a Disney Robin Hood beanie, the worst candy ever made, and my buddies even gave me a free Transformers poster from eBay Live. My fingers are still gritty from digging through old Happy Meal toys.

Matt, doesn’t the exsistance of the prequels already make the “I am your father!” bit a “no-shit moment”? It is still significant as this is when LUKE learns the truth. In fact, because it is made clear in the prequels that Vader believes his child(ren) to be dead, it is kind of nice to have an on-screen explaination of how Vader comes to learn this. Before we had to assume he either just guessed or interrogated some rebels or something. The latter explanation making it seem especially stupid that Obi-Wan and the Lars’ still called him Skywalker!

I can’t believe somebody actually brought up Monstructor!! Right near the top of my favorite combiners/gestalts. Computron is probably the only one that out ranks him, for me. Leave it to Grimlock to win the combiner award. In fact, combiners is the only area in which I feel Decepticons have ever won outright. Monstructor, Predaking, and Piranacon are just ACE.

I really hope you really meant Monstructor and didn’t mix it up with Menasor, Doc. Monstructor was quite possibly the smallest combiner and was made up of Pretenders figures.

that’s really weird rainbowfeet, because I remember a lot of spelling bees from that time period too.

Wow, this articled just reminded me that I have boxes of those POTF Star Wars figures from 1997. I never opened any of them. They probably are worth next-to-nothing as I think everyone was stockpiling them. I also have a few of the vehicles as well. Hmmm, I have an X-Wing Fighter, a Snowspeeder, and maybe a TIE Fighter.

The next time I head to my parent’s house I should go find them. I think they are in storage somewhere in their (finished) basement. If I had to guess I’d say there are probably 40-50 figures. I had totally forgotten about them.

When it comes to collecting stuff like this I definitely go through hot and cold spells. Every once in a great while I’ll become motivated and collect them like a fiend for a few months, then take a few years off. I think the SW figures in ‘97 were the last time I really was addicted. Since then I think I have only bought three or four Transformers, two of which were just this week.

Usually I am pretty happy with myself when I resist the temptation and pass on collecting them. The only toys I regret not buying were the Road Warrior action figures that were released a few years ago.

Oh, and I also regret not buying the Statler and Waldorf Muppet figures as well. I had grand plans of building them a little balcony and placing them on one of the shelves on my desk at work. I could then have pretended they were mocking me and joking about my poor work performance all day long.

Speaking of spelling bees… I nearly won my school’s annual bee when I was in 4th or 5th grade. It was pretty cool. The entire school took spelling tests and those with the highest scores were allowed to compete on stage. I was one of the final three contestants and I got knocked out on the word FINALLY.

As soon as I said the letter I knew I’d screwed it up. I’m still bitter about that.

I always enjoy seeing old figures in the package. Mostly because I like seeing old packaging.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is on VH1 tonight. I don’t have cable. But it’s been awhile since I have seen it and I think I am going to go rent it. I went bonkers at Target today and too broke to go out. So, if this is the beginning of the SNT, Happy Saturday!

I hope they stick the OT in theaters one more time, as I missed the ‘97 re-release. Minus Hayden Christensen. I don’t care about the Sarlacc having Audrey from “Little Shop of Horrors”’s mouth, but Ani’s grinning nerdy face is reeeeally out of place in the final scenes.

I briefly worked on the EP1 toy line back then. I was employed by a division of Hasbro, and the annointed ones actually went to his Ranch for product development meetings. He made a mint squeezing them for high percentage of royalties. I was told it was the first time the royalties reached over 3% (He asked for and got 10%). Working from memory here, but I believe when Godzilla came calling for high royalties and got it, we knew it was the beginning of the end.

My first time seeing Star Wars was the Special Edition so certain things (Jabba in ANH, the Hoth monster) seem natural to me, but I hate the more egregious changes as much as any old schooler.
So anybody else finish Deathly Hallows yet? I’m pretty sad to think it’s all over, but it’s a happy sad. I can’t wait for whatever JKR does next.
Happy SNT everybody!

hey Mars, I’m not sure if it’s true or accurate but I think I heard that they were releasing all 6 movies back into digital theaters one by one starting some not too distant year and in large format like IMAX.

dohopoki- Yeah, we had like one a week that year in preparation for the big one. It got so old so fast.

Magic Toy/Toe- Congratulations on your almost-win. I made it to the area bee in 8th grade, and lost on “benign.” Which wasn’t bad considering I didn’t read the book in preparation and had not heard it before. Third place was pretty okay. The problem (I tell this story a lot) was that some fifth-grader won and her parents were mouthing the letters for her. Plus, the people running the bee got to one on the list and we could all hear them say “let’s not give her that one.” I don’t know why none of us ever contested it. (Maybe because none uf us wanted to go to another bee.)Bitter? Me? No way!

The way Yoda aged through the movies was wrong, he aged WAY too much over a short time if you consider how much he changed over, say 25 years.

The only prequel I thought was awesome was Episode III. I like it way more than A New Hope.

I hate hate hate CGI Jabba in A New Hope. Not only does it look stupid but I liked the idea of some sinister gangster tracking Han down from the shadows…

Ep. V and VI are great thanks to Lando and Ackbar, but otherwise II and III are where it’s at, for me. Phantom Menace does indeed suck, but having Anakin ask Padme if she’s an angel is just too fucking awesome, and him leaving his mom makes me blubber something awful. So, I can’t hate it hate it.

“Empire” is my favorite, but I pretty much enjoy parts of all of them; yes, even “Phantom Menace.”

Funny you should post this. One of the things I did quite a bit of on my vacation was shopping. We stopped in several stores and malls, including one fair-sized Toys ‘R Us in Albany. While my best friend eyed the new Transformers and TMNT figures, I pored through the Star Wars stuff. Some of the figures that came packaged with comics were really tempting, but in the end I reminded myself I had limited space to carry everything home.

And yes, I remember when the Special Editions came out. I was in my last year of high school. I saw all three of them in the theater, “New Hope” twice. I saw “Empire” with a pair of my best friends. We talked and chatted and ate popcorn, maybe a little too loudly, as someone actually told us to hush.

I didn’t see “Return of the Jedi” until well after its March release, by which time “Theater Edition Lukes” were long gone. I never even heard of that promotion until I read Matt’s blog. I saw it with my family; I bet my brother would have gotten the figure, anyway.

Are the high royalties why the figures are so expensive? I mean,they may not be the MOST expensive figures in the store,but if it’s 7 bucks for a tiny 3.75 inch G.I. Joe-esque Luke,that looks nothing at all like Luke,or a total badass looking 6 inch tall Mattel figure of Batman or Bane for 3 bucks more,then the Star Wars guys are a ripoff. Hell,for the price of a Star Wars figure,you could get one of the smaller Transformers,that actually transforms from vehicle to robot!

Kid Nicky Iâ€™m pretty sure that you just answered your own question. The reason that Star Wars toys are so expensive is because of the royalties. Hasbro has to pay Lucasfilm such a large amount so they can have the rights to make the toys, so thatâ€™s money out the window for them. The only way for them to make a sizeable profit is to increase the price. And as long as fruits like me keep buying â€˜em, Hasbro will keep it that way.

Royalty payments had a great deal to do with the design of this line. In addition, you contractual agreement on returns and damaged goods that figure in to it (who bears the cost) and net vs. gross roytalty payments. I remember how deflated the R&D team was having to stripout the products of the features because Hasbro wasn’t going to make the kind of money off EPI that they enjoyed from the previous franchise. You can imagine.

Toy lore: Not sure if this is true or not, but someone from Kenner told me that when the first toys came out, the production run wasn’t able to keep up with Christmas demand, so Kenner shipped empty packages to the stores with a certificate to mail in to retrieve your action figure. With the height of Barbie collectible mania in the middle 90s, the 1995 Christmas Barbie ended up doing something similar.

Sorry - I forgot that I used a name in my first post. I posted the above as anonymous.

lol anyway I saw something that reminded me of you heh. In the fondest way though. I saw in a parking lot a bunch of people doing car washes they had a sign that said ’special olympics’ on it. I thought hey Bill would stop for a car wash there even if his car was spic and span. I immediately blurted out right after “hey Bill on Matt’s blog! I have to tell him about that!”

I am very fasinated about trading star wars figures now. Just because of this blog post. I wish I could do that. It reminds me of that guy that traded the red paperclip up he wanted to trade eventually to a house. He’s almost there or there now I dunno.

I went garage saling today and I saw a christmas grimace cookie jar it was so random and great i have been thinking about it all day sigh probably was 10 bucks that’s a lot to spend on one thing at a yard sale just because it ‘looks cool’ I bought for 75 cents a little stuffed gorilla for my mom the ones you see around valentines day and a book I remember one of my teachers read to us Number the stars by Lois Lowry. Lots of other things I could of bought but I really don’t have the room and it wasn’t that special.

To: kingklash
From: Jedoc
Re: Random inclusion of Hedonism-Bot in a Star Wars gag

Oh, and welcome back to the Megaparty, citygirl. Pull up a groove and get fabulous. (kingklash started it. i know my rights.)

Invader, too bad I heard she was nice to everyone she met. Random fact about me, Tammy Faye and I both had the same b-day! March 7th. When I found that out I was like ‘oh, crap’ and I looked up my best friends b-day and he shares among other people with kevin bacon. I was upset. Everyone should look up their b-day and what celebrities they share it with.

Right, so I promised details of getting HP in yesterday’s Post (I just finsihed it about 2 hours ago, by the way).

I went to Barnes and Noble about 11:30 and knew before I walked in the door that I was screwed. Their parking lot was full. The Circuit City next door’s parking lot was full. The Linens and things Parking lot next to that was full. I parked WAY over in a lot next to that (and got one of the last spaces).

I walked in and was surrounded by people. Now, I’m not anti-people or anything, but I can’t stand crowds like that. Seriously, if you’re not going to be having my kids or at least making out with me, I don’t want you touching me. The people were packed so tightly that no one could move. I’m quite positive they were breaking the fire code.

I looked around and figured out how they were going to be distributing books, realized that it would require me to listen for a stupid announcement, and then pulled a Jake Blues and said “Fuck this noise” and left.

I went to Walmart and got there about 11:45. Found my way back to where people were lining up. They were distributing wrist bands (4 colors for four houses). I was in the Yellow Hufflepuff Line (the third one..Syltherin was last, of course). They had some poor employees in terrible costumes parading the lines.

Anyway, it was all very well organized and once they started distributing books, it went real fast. Had my copy by 12:35. Got home, read until 3AM, then slept until 9. Got breakfast, read until noon, the paused to shower. Then I read until it was done, which was about 8pm.

I won’t say anything about it because I don’t want to spoil it for anyone…

mk
Yes, that is true about the very first Star Wars toys. It was an empty box that you could mail away for four figures (Luke, R2d2, leia, and someone else…Ben? can’t remember) that you would get in 6-8 weeks. It worked, too. Tons of people bought it.

I had a theatre Luke, his bubble actually just recently fell off his backing card with no provocation, rendering him worthless. Just like the rest of the 90’s Star Wars line.

There were major crowd issues at the Borders where I got my book. I showed up at 9:30 to check things out and it was total chaos but you could still move around and even get some personal space if you went down the aisles. I hung out for an hour and checked out the costumes and then went next door to grab some dinner. By the time I got back they were lining people up and it turned into a total cattle drive. Nobody knew where to go, and they were calling for way too many people to line up at once. I’m not hugely claustaphobic but being jammed in with so many people got to me and I felt like I was going to faint and I had to get out of the crowd. I honestly thought I was going to have to leave without the book, but as soon as I got some air I was fine and was able to get back in line. Eventually after they started selling the books it got better and I made it out of there by 1. 15 hours and a half a box of tissues later…

In the end, having gotten spoiled didn’t detract from my enjoyment at all, but that’s because I’m just too cool to be affected by that kind of meanspirited dickery (to borrow Jon Stewart’s phrase for it).

Is it threadjacking to discuss HP? It is the SNT after all, so maybe we’re clear.

I learned after Book 5 that showing up to the big parties at the major bookstores was just not worth it. I fought the costumed fanatics for breathing room and had to wade through a lot of fanfare just to get my book. I got Book 6 at Target, where I waited a mere 20 minutes, and Book 7 at FYE, where I got there an hour early and was out by 12:15.

I loved the book and thought it was a great read and a fitting end to the story, but I wasn’t crazy about the epilogue. Then again, I generally hate epilogues.

You know, I actually had this toy. My dad, brother, and I all saw it in theaters but only got one and they let me have it. Being the foolish ten-year-old I was, I immediately ripped it open when I got home and even trashed the cape since I thought it messed with his movement. In all fairness, I was only ten.

Oops, forgot to turn off the italics. It was supposed to stop after the word “had.” That’s the first and last time I post without previewing.

I’ve researched this several times…The only famous person I share my bday with is Chaka Kahn.

And with Tammy Faye…despite the married-to-Jim-Bakker-ness and Mascara, she seemed like a nce person. That Surreal Life season that she was in with Ron Jeremy was surprisingly good. They became friends of all things.

Ooh, toy collecting. I love talking about this kinda crap with people who know nothing about it. Like, I’m not that into it anymore, but I still understand the principles. Like I’ve got this friend who says, in regards to his colelction of 400+ rather damaged collection of records, “Tell me this isn’t worth a million dollars” Me:”……its not worth a million dollars”. Having a decent condition, played, Led Zeppelin I doesn’t guarantee $10000 in your bank account.

Anyways, same thing goes for toys and collectibles. Though I’d say you could probably write the stuff off as assets, since it doesn’t really depreciate.

As for the whole display thing, my favourite displayed in box prodycts are my cereal bobbleheads from Funko. Got about 10. Most of my mint stuffs in boxes though- not much room to display, and a lot of it I only bought for saving.

Knegative, Invader NorbertTransformers are definately cooler looking out of box, and they may arguably be the best-looking toys to have on display, IMO. I’ve got a BW Depthcharge, Trypticon and mini-Optimus on my shelf, and I’ll probably add more if I get more room.

Hello everyone, congratulations to Manimal regarding his new baby! Sorry I haven’t been on in a couple of days. My back pain got worse and I had to go back to the doctor. Now I’m taking pain killers and am feeling better. Anyway, nice post. This is exactly the kind of toy I would’ve wanted when I was a kid, in fact I think I remember seeing it and wanting it, although not the “theater edition.” After seeing this post and following some links, I was impressed with the devotion to the old toy line expressed by collectors and fans. It struck me as intetesting that some of the 1990’s SW toys were based off of the old molds from the original line.

Count me in as one who waited for Potter! I just went to Wal-Mart last night and waited about an hour. After working at Books-A-Million for the previous two books and being in a mass of chaos and costumes, I needed something slower. And I got out of the store within five minutes with my precious book!

Hey, It’s me, just checking in. I guess this isn’t the SNT for me. I’m not a huge Star Wars fan and I gave up midway through the 5th Harry Potter book. It was all too angsty.

Oh, but I looked it up… I share a birthday with Raphael. The painter, not the turtle. Also Butch Cassidy and Harry Houdini.

I’m so glad Matt has rocked a Star wars forum out of no where. I also love that City Girl came back to us. Jeff mack, you too.

Oooh K. Me need sleep… now. I’ve spent the last twenty minutes watching Little Miss Sunshine and I am sorely tempted to keep going. This of course follows up stumbling upon (Firefox FTW!) an mp3 of the last 30 or 40 minutes before the Jonestown mass suicide. Well, I shouldn’t say that the contents of the recording take place “before” the suicides as it is clear that they are taking place during, at least, the latter third of the recording.

Surely was some pretty haunting stuff. I knew the story pretty well, but it still is very sad to hear.

On that note I am off to bed. I am sure I’ll have some dynamite dreams with those disturbing things rattling around in my sleep-deprived head.

Hurrah, looks like my birthday’s got Roy Rogers, Joel McCrea, and Vivian Leigh. Looks like we can work up a pretty decent Western from a cast like that.

Woo Hoo! Todd Bridges! And Kissinger! And Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes! I guess Vincent Price is kinda cool. The rest are pretty much whatever. But a ton of people in my family have my birthday so that’s awesome.

Hey Everyone- I have been a hermit due to Harry Potter. I was WORKING at my huge Chapters bookstore (equivalent of Borders or something in the US) the night of the HP release. I was dressed as Prof. Trelawney and was one of the 6 people chosen to work the CASH as midnight hit…

What an incredible night! People in costume, HP soundtracks playing all night, games and contests and trivia…our Starbucks was turned into the Three Broomsticks and served Butterbeer and Pumpkin Juice…

The store did a New Years-ish countdown as midnight hit, the boxes were riped open behind me, books stacked up by my arm and I was assaulted by people. My first customer was sweating and shaking. He handed me his money, ripped the book from my hands, and turned to the last page and read the ending!!

15 minutes later, the madness was over and I went home around 2 AM, reading my copy until now, being rudely interrupted by having to work 8 hours yesterday. (I managed to read 40 pages at work when noone was looking)

I had a bad habit in the last two books of flipping forward and reading ahead, so I was deteermined not to do that this time. And I didn’t, and it was worth it. Oh, so worth it.

I just checked, I share a birthday with Wink Martindale! (among others that don’t even matter.) Wink was the host of Tic Tac Dough and the first game show I ever watched.

However, I was elated to learn that famed Architech Sir Christopher Wren died on my Birthday. That’s cool.

According to Wikipedia my birthday is the same as that of Edie Falco, Bill Watterson and Huey Lewis. People who died on my birthday include Ted Williams, Kenneth Lay and Mrs. Miller.

Lucky for me nothing much happened on that day - Venezuela declaring its independence is the most notable event.

I could tell you about cool stuff like Reno being founded on my birthday and sharing it with Pope Pius III, Guigsy from Oasis, and Billy Joel, but forget that:

I share a birthday with Emo Phillips and Charles Dickens. Ashton Kutcher was also born on the same day and year. Neat.

I wouldn’t brag about sharing a birthday with Ashton Kutcher, but that’s just me

I share my birthday, June 23, with artificial intelligence pioneer Alan Turing, as well as June Carter Cash and Stu Sutcliffe, first bassist of the Beatles.

…On a sadder note, this date, in 1942, was also the date of the first selections for gassings at Auschwitz.

OOOh! I also share a birthday with rocker(?) KT Tunstall! I knew there was a reason I loved her music.

I was born on the same day as Corey Haim. Is that good or bad? I remember reading Matt’s article where he sold his teeth. It was sad and funny at the same time.

Corey Haim’s Tooth is like the greatest band name in the history of the world.

Doesn’t just pasting a URL for the date of your birth deprive us of your opinions of what birthday co-celebrants you consider most significant?

I share a b-day with Judy Garland, which I’ve always thought was neat. It’s not that I’m a huge fan of her work (I’ve really only ever seen Wizard of Oz, which she’s great in), but her personal history is interesting.
Hey Magic Toy, what did you think of Children of Men? Did you ever watch it?
If anybody wants to discuss Harry Potter, click my name. I really want to know what you guys thought, but of course we can’t really get too detailed here because we don’t want to ruin it for anybody (please don’t click if you’re trying to avoid spoilers!).

Oh so that was what you guys were talking about a few days ago. I knew something got deleted, but I didn’t know what. Thanks for that Squee, I’m going to hold all that over the Colonel’s head now

I share my birthday with Jenny McCarthy and Matt Chapman. As some of the long-timers here know, it’s also shared with Samhain, Day of the Dead, and All-Saints Day.

I haven’t even read Half-Blood Prince yet, so I have some catching up to do. The whole HP saga is pretty good, not as traumatic as, say, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, but just as good for the long haul, if you dedicate yourself to the entire ride. I had hoped it might hinge on the unexpected use of Muggle artifacts, and/or their Mundane technolgy, a la Bakshi’s Wizards or Robert Asprin’s Little Myth Marker, but I know whatever the end, I’ll enjoy nonetheless.

Kneg I said Monstructor, and I meant Monstructor. Menasor was off the shelves by the time I was into Transformers. Heck, my first Transformer was Powermaster Optimus Prime.

Bill Oh well FINALLY someone appreciates and acknowledges me!! I love you too you are cool yourself. I really enjoy your articles when you went to the special olympics, when you went to the metallica concert, and the calvin and hobbies article too. They are well written and they capture the moment. Also I know when I find something from my childhood online I know how great that feels so I try to do the same for others when I can. A webpage, a video, something. I don’t do it that often but when I think it’s fairly easy I do so.

Yeah, I was around. I just kept finding so many interesting things to do. Why is it that everything is more fun after midnight?

I share it with: Jeff Foxworthy, CeCe Peniston and Rosie Perez. Well that sucks.

Oh, I also share it with Chicago Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee. Finally, at least one person I respect.

Nice, Doc, nice. Powermaster Optimus had the honor of being my favorite version of Prime until I got the movie version.

I finished ‘Deathly Hallows’ this morning. I really enjoyed it, it was worth the wait. I was in total media black-out mode since Thursday, so I had had a lot of X-E Blog reading to do this afternoon.

And my birthday is pretty boring. Antonio Banderas is really the only person of note.

Taking my HP break (1/2 done; not as quick as most are), so figured I’d chime in. But haven’t we done this before?

‘Famous’ typed born same day as me (Jan. 18):
Danny Kaye, Cary Grant, and Kevin Costner - all actors at some point

Jesse Martin - another actor of RENT and Law & Order fame
Dave Attell
Johnathan Davis from Korn
Frank Quietely, a well-known comicbook artist
Curtis Cregan- ya know, Curtis from Hi-5
Ray Dolby - the guy who invented Dolby noise reduction

this is a catchy video/tune of the cabbage patch kids (really, not the garbage pail kids) a still motion song off of a video “hang loose”

Woah, I just read the wiki article on CeCe Peniston and it reminded me what her one hit was. It was the song “Finally” in 1991.

Considering what word knocked me out of my 4th grade spelling bee, which I had just recapped yesterday, I find this rather interesting.

I haven’t seen him online since really early Saturday, and he hadn’t attended and release “parties.” He’s either been reading or working. Probably both.

I wish SNT stood for Sunday night thread. I hate Sundays and about this time I start the dreaded “get ready for the week” routine. I wish we could start a good thread to make it more palatable.

-William Kidd (Famous Pirate)
-Chaka Kahn (already said)
-Joan Crawford
-Kerri Russel
-Ric Ocasek
and my favorite match: John Pinnette. Comedian, one of my favorites

Just finished watching the Simpsons marathon. Awesomeness. Can’t wait for the movie. Surprised it too so long for a Simpsons movie, really.

Man, the bookstore has been CRAZY- literally every second person walking in the door is there for HP 7. We are going to run out of copies by mid-afternoon tomorrow- thank God it’s my day off- I don’t wanna deal with THAT! I am in awe at how good it was.

Alright, Ryane. It’s your turn to help me out. How do you make the stamps in Frannie’s room work? I’m doing everything humanly possible on the touch screen and ain’t nothin’ happenin’

Whoa … You traded your Megaforce stuff away? I didn’t even know they made any! I’m somewhat surprised anyone besides myself even remembers that movie. I gotta find some pics of those toys to see what i missed out on …

1)Only new episodes, but even there I could’ve watched them again
2) Was out of the house for a meeting toinight

I just went over to the family’s house and was loaned HP 1-3. I shyed away from these books because I get so into fiction series that I will keep on reading until I can read no longer and then I get anxious over a to be released book. But they are all out now. In a couple weeks when I am ready for the final book I can read it when I want to. I am that way about Stephanie Plum books, which are probably on a whole different level of literature than HP. There’s gotta be a XE girl out there that reads those though who know where I am coming from.

You’re not the only one, TP. I guess that’s where everyone is tonight…not many people on the other sites I frequent either.

A Coupld of weeks? I garuntee you that you can have the whole series read in a week and a half, tops. It will go by fast. You can probably read the first two books on one day; they are short.

Annette - I was sick on saturday, went to store when it opened, read book all day - took me about 11hrs… so what’s everyone else’s excuse!!

I do have one question which didn’t make sense but that’s maybe because I forgot something, but I won’t ask incase anyone gets upset

TP, do you mean a question about the book? If so, click my name and ask me on my journal and I’ll try to answer.
Lucky break, Muppet Baby

Happy reading, kb! You’re in for some great stories, I’m kind of envious.

Never took Matt for a big HP fan. Wouldn’t guess he’s reading. He’s more the type to scour the internet for spoilers so at least he KNOWS what happens.

The Mrs. has been reading it a few hours a day since Saturday. I don’t get a turn ’til she’s done. And she won’t tell me what’s happening (like when she GASPS every once in a while).

Guess I just don’t want to know what happens before I read it. Damn you Potter!! Why must you torment me so….. ?

Cool beans, TP! Apologies for the insanely long answer, I was a bit confused about that as well so I really went all out. But then what’s a Sunday night without a random, somewhat unnecessary project to stave off the inevitable workday to follow?

Oh, XE-ers I am so happy, after 4 months of being shoved around in paperwork I was FINALLY accepted to the program in the school I want to go to. It’s no Harvard, but now i get a dollar off at the movies with my student ID card, among other things like being able to learn.

kb: Congratulations! Especially on the dollar off the movies bit. My college town refused to give college students any sort of discount, even when we ran up a petition and made them look like ogres in the local newspaper. I suppose they knew that there was really no other form of entertainment in Abilene. Unfortunately for them, they underestimated the ability of college students to be highly amused by Capture the Flag and miniature golf.

I’m still waiting for the actual letter from my grad program (the drones at the GRE office should be dragged out in the street and hanged by the neck until they are sorry) but I did receive a very promising e-mail from the admissions office. Educations for everyone!

Jedoc, I feel your pain about the GRE madness! It’s always such a pathetic laugh anyway, especially since you’ll be tested on all these things that are SO applicable to your every day academic life as well, right? *rolls eyes*

I went through the same hassles a while ago..and it was worse up here in Canada. Here, most of the academic institutions demand it for NO real reason other than “weeellll, we kinda used to focus on those, but we don’t now anyway…and I know that they haven’t been shown to correlate at ALL with success, …and as a single professor/academician, I don’t have any faith in them….but just take em, eh?”

Ahhhhh….. I can’t seem to finish HP7. Too much going on. My life has officially become a Lifetime special.

Finally catching up on X-E. I was on media blackout due to impending HP arrival. Book, received, book read, I can interact with other humans again!

This was a great throw back for me, because this was when I really got into Star Wars and collecting.

My brother and I each got this figure, and my brother, being 7 at the time, ripped his open despite my plea’s, and threw away the package, mine however, got stored away. After going off to college and having my mom move my storage bins of star wars figures to the hot attic, I came home one weekend and quickly moved them back into my old room. It didn’t seem like anything major at the time, but about a year or two ago, my brother and I were looking through my figures, when I literally picked up the theater editions luke and said “this is probably the most rare one in my collection”. As I picked it up, the entire bubble slide off of the card, I guess due to the glue breaking down and never re-sealing properly in the heat of the attic. My brother burst out laughing because of all the crap I gave him about playing with his when he was 7. Even though this really sucked, it is my favorite memory of collecting, I still have the figure and the card, I guess some super glue will work for my display purposes, but come on, what luck is that?

Whenever I spend the weekend away from the computer, I’m always overwhelmed to show up on Monday and catch up on everything. I was actually relieved to see no entry for yesterday.

Despite the long list of people Wikipedia gives as sharing my birthday, the names are pretty unimpressive. The most significant person is probably Forest Whitaker, though I was most pleased about Joe Satriani (and I always thought Scott Foley was adorable, so I didn’t mind that one.) Other awe-inspiring July 15th babies:
Brian Austin Green
Linda Ronstadt
Alex Karras (the dad from Webster, though I probably didn’t need to clarify that here.)
Jan-Michael Vincent
Brigitte Nielsen
Kim Alexis

Holy cow! This reads like the cast list from a modern-day episode of The Love Boat.

squee - finally read your response and replied accordingly - glad I gave you a mission for your sunday

Only just got to it - was in hospital today but have good excuse now to sit online for a while recouping.

Just checked on my Star Wars collection in the storage unit last week. I was lucky to get one of these SE Lukes. I picked it out of the box and the clear bubble fell right off. I’m sobbing here people. Dude, I absolutely love your site by the way. Me and you would be terror in the thrift stores together. Peace.

G Wolf: When I was doing some refresher research before posting this entry, I read a LOT of stories about how tons of SE Luke card bubbles have lost their gluey powers. You are not alone.

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