I get asked this question a lot from people I know. I know the general responses “because it’s cool” or “because it’s the greatest movie…” But really, what drives you to collect vintage Star Wars? Is it for the Money? Is it for the thrill of the chase?
For me, it’s to relive some of my greatest memories as a child. As a child I lived the 80’s dream, watching GI Joe, Transformers and all the great cartoons and movies of the time but when it came time to playing, I ONLY wanted Star Wars toys and would only play with Star Wars toys. Time after time as I look back on old childhood photos and see myself ripping into those (now over $1000’s of dollar) packages, or just looking at everything in my collection room it keeps me reminded of playing with them day and night and I think to myself that was some of the best times!!
And once you’ve ask and answered yourself “Why do I collect”, ask yourself “Could I stop collecting” more than likely the answer is no. And now you’re considered a junkie!

Well I do it because it is funny, I love it, it is interesting, I some how relive the great memories from my childhood

I also love the movies, books and comics so I may say that I just love the star wars univers

I also meet many good people on this forum and get new friends

Yes I could stop, but why stop something that makes you happy

I no longer drink, so I got to find something to blow my money on. I collect cause I enjoy it, whether its comics and comic related items, bootlegs, or oddball stuff. Ive stopped collecting all those at one point in the last 3 years, but they always drag me back into it. Like bootlegs, Im starting back in those now.

Because I'm a little kid in a man's body and want to keep it that way.

JesseVader08 wrote:

Because I'm a little kid in a man's body and want to keep it that way.

What he said

I collect out of nostalgia. I have to cause I suck at socker and cant hold my beer

Initially I collected to complete my childhood collection , having an addictive personality & being a hoarder things have expanded from there. It's a hobby I enjoy & I've 'met' many great people along the journey. It does bring back childhood memories & has minimised my spending at the pub. Computer/forum time is also MY time a bit of escapism from a sometimes hectic life. I could only stop if I had a replacement hobby ( racing has slowed my spending but certainly hasn't stopped it & I think you can still have a hobby without actually spending/collecting ) While Star Wars is still fun & brings a smile to my face I can't see me doing anything else.

for me its been a part of me since i was two. its something that i ve never loss, it is something that you that takes me back. it is something that always can grow. there is something for every star wars fan wheather it is the figures or books, cards , autographs ect. its nice to know WE are not alone in our passion. I used to collect the modern stuff and attemped to be a completeist (is impressed if you achived it) the feeling i got wasnt the same with the modern; ithe feeling would fade buy the time i got home with my latest purschase. i guess for me the vintage is still magial after all these yrs

Chris_J wrote:

I no longer drink, so I got to find something to blow my money on. I collect cause I enjoy it, whether its comics and comic related items, bootlegs, or oddball stuff. Ive stopped collecting all those at one point in the last 3 years, but they always drag me back into it. Like bootlegs, Im starting back in those now.

Bootlegs are the SW equivalent of crack or meth. Seriously....you can't quit them....it starts off with a cheap $5 mexican figure or two, just for kicks ,then you start to see some cheap Polish stuff...and you give that a try, and like it. Then it escalates, pretty soon you're hooked on the Hungarian or Brazilian shit, or worse the really strong stuff from Turkey and there goes your bank account, the bill money,and all hope of escape. I say this jokingly,but it has some truth to it, as I'm on RS selling tons of items from my former licensed collection to get "the next big bootleg fix."

I'm hopelessly addicted.
Cheers
Joe

First of all the Star Wars movies are a "forever love" to me since I have seen them.

But...
I live in Hungary. It wasn't so easy to buy action figures here in those times. As a matter of fact it was almost impossible if you havent got a cousin (or so) outside the iron curtain! :/
In my childhood we could just dream about these figures. Only the luckiest ones could occupy some. But a Falcon, X-Wing and so on? Pff... Forget them! Dark times...

For me, my first ever memorabilien are those legendary Meccano ads from the french PIF comics (these comics were rare items here indeed). Those pics were love at first sight for me!
For example this one:



I saw this pic before I even could watched the movies at all!!! I didn't know who they are but I liked them.
Sad story but I got my first original Kenner fig only 4 years later.

So today I try to put together what wasn't allowed 30 years before.

And yes, it is for the thrill of the chase as well.
I always love buying vintage stuffs in great lots and digging them through to find some very nice buddy or so. Then trade them, sell them and so on...
I bought my first lots in a fleamarket in 1987-88. I bought/sold/traded cca 2-3000 (even more?) figs since then. And I couldn't quit!

Because I have lost a lot of loved ones in the last two years. This brings me comfort. It brings me back to being a child.... That's the honest truth.
-Steve

Joe, your dead on. Thats how it started for me, those pure ugly as hell Mexis. And for those who dont collect bootlegs, Joe nailed it perfect. Your bank account will never be the same once you go that route. But its all a love for those ugly things that keeps bringing you back to them. And you can keep telling yourself "Im only going after one aspect of it and thats all". Yhea right, you'll end up with all the lines.

Basically because it brings back sweet memories + I am avid toy collector. Stated by collecting vintage VW Beetles, then vintage action Man/joe and finally switch to Star Wars when I opened up my childhood star war box with already about 80 different figures in it.
I just love to collect!

The vintage Star Wars toys have a magic appeal to me since the moment I first saw the Clipper 12-backs here in the Netherlands when I was a 7 year old kid . I loved to play with the toys, and when I got a bit older (12-13) I stopped playing but instead made dioramas of figures and minirigs on my shelves.

Thereafter the figures were put in a box at my parent's attic. The Magic was still there however, waiting for a suitable moment to revive in its full extent, a moment many years later.....

Iit was June 2009, when I entered a small comics shop in The Hague, and came across a vintage TIE Fighter pilot figure. As a kid it was my biggest wish to add this cool black figure to my modest collection of Star Wars figures and mini-rigs. Unfortunately the figure was virtually absent from the dutch toyshops which I used to visit at that time. Till one day, I entered a shop and saw the One Card in the front row of a rack at the back of the shop. I slowly walked towards the card, a moment of complete joy which appeared to last a life time,…..only to see it taken away by another kid, just seconds before I could get my hands on it….Taken away from me….My precious…..

In the upcoming years after this traumatic event , I still managed to finish school and university somehow. I even got a job, a girlfriend, a car, a house, and a cat, so everything seemed pretty normal….But was it?

Deep inside me there remained this little boy, still in sorrow. Sometimes, while trying to sleep, I could hear him cry in the dark emptiness of the night. I could even sense his grief during the day, in the cinema when watching Episode I (although that could be the adult me) or in the toy shop fully piled with testosteronic Luke and Darth Vader action figures back in the 90s.
You understand, while standing there in this shop in The Hague, 27 years after that traumatic event, I HAD no choice but to stop this little boy from suffering any longer. And that’s exactly what I did. I bought TIE Fighter Pilot, to bring back balance to the Inner Force.

The little boy recovered and was happy again. Simultaneously an unstoppable chain of events was unleashed. I started searching on www for more Star Wars stuff to complete the little boy’s vintage collection. Meanwhile, half of the attic is now occupied with vintage Star Wars, even started collecting SW toys from Mexico I had never heard off before, and we are still happily collecting….

I blame it all to this TIE Fighter pilot figure.

(and off course I wrote down this little history a bit more dramatic than it was in real life )

Thank you Marco, I really like these "star wars related" kind childhood stories!

I wasn't actually alive when Kenner were making figures but I love to collect the older Star Wars toys... They just seem so much better, in my opinion, to the new stuff. There's just something really unique and kinda charming about vintage action figures.

I wish I could pinpoint something that brought me to collecting but it's just something fun for me. I've always loved SW since I was 4yrs old. When my son found my figures and started playing it just sort of reignited my love for the figures. Once I saw the global side of the hobby, I was hooked!

I find this a very hard question to try and answer, but its not just Star Wars that I have a problem with when I buy a book if its part of a set I have to have a full matching set (cant stand to have odd covers) used to be the same with records and CD's, Ive always collected something as a child (when I played with Star wars) I would collect card from PG tips ( Tea bags for our US friends ) and my grandad gave me a load of tobacco cards and stuff, maybe its a kind of OCD? I know my Dad is a bad hoarder so maybe the collecting just runs in the family?, who knows? The Star wars side of my collecting has always been there one of my most vivid memory's as a child was going out with my Dad and him buying me a ESB Stormtrooper, was talking to him about it the other week and he was shocked that I could remember what town we was in when I got it as I was only five at the time, and like many others on here they now remind me of a time of childhood where I had none of the adult world problems that are there now.

I think anyone who collect's has a certain degree of O.C.D in them, and I've always been a collector/hoarder, whether it be Records, DVDs, CDs, anything Zippo lighters, comics, I'm a get one, want them all kinda guy I guess.
With Star Wars, I was born in '79 so I missed the start but still grew up at a time when Star Wars was very much every where and having an older brother and a Star Wars obsessed Dad, we collected Star Wars toys, and our combined collection was huge, most of the figures including many doubles and most of the vehicles.
Unfortunately for most people my age, the winding down of 'toy playing' was very much at the same time as the winding up of car boot sales here in England, so most folks stuff ended up at them. (back when you could have bought a whole collection for a fiver!!!!)

Mine how ever ended up in a family friends second hand shop, and the ones that weren't sold (about 50 very beaten up figures) where returned.
One day, very bored I made a very short film using these beaten up figures, which lead to me and a mate making a slightly longer film using them, which ultimately lead to a proposed full feature length trilogy. This however was difficult with only 50 characters and half of the main cast missing, so it was shelved up until I was offerd a modern Star Wars collection in 1998. The possibility of the trilogy then became very real so I continued this collection, buying everything that came out.
About a year after I began collecting modern stuff, a little shop opened in my town just selling Star wars stuff, mostly vintage. This was the first time I had seen vintage carded figures since I was a kid and it was great. In this shop he sold loads of beat up figures for a quid a pop, so I decided that along side my modern collection I was going to try and piece together a beat up complete vintage collection. Buying the vintage stuff again, even in a poor state brought a nostalgic sensation with it that the modern stuff didn't and I buzzed every time I bought one regardless of it's condition.
One day I went into the shop and on the shelf were a blonde hair and a brown hair Bespin Luke complete and immaculate, I couldn't resist, and that day began my 'modern' vintage collection and also my Bespin Luke focus I guess.
I've long since stopped collecting modern stuff and the trilogy never got made! That day in my bedroom with a video camera and fuck all to do ended up costing me thousands and thousands of pounds........ But many happy times!!

Nice background story, General!!

Pity the project has been canceled, I would have loved to see your stop-motion Trilogy one day.
Maybe you can do just a short movie scene once.

Bescause it's just something that I do naturally like breathing. I don't know what my life would be like not collecting, I don't ever want to find out. It's just what I do, I dont know anything else. I just LOVE it! In my life I managed to quit smoking, drinking and chewing, but I could NEVER quit collecting...EVER!

Cheers Doc, liked your's too, that Tie Fighter Pilot did the same for your wallet as my ten minutes of bordom by the sound of it!

Quote :

Pity the project has been canceled, I would have loved to see your stop-motion Trilogy one day.
Maybe you can do just a short movie scene once.

Yeah shame really, we had kept the basic story and just altered it slightly so it was more of a piss take, seeing all the dioramas you guys have made is ruly inspiring as well, because thats what we where going to do for it, when I finally get moved house I intend on working on a display finally, and I'm going to make some diorama's and I may just get the video camera out as well

Quote :

Bescause it's just something that I do

That's right Johnny, can't get that Sepultura song 'what I do' out my head after reading that now fits quite well in metal kinda way!

I haven't responded to this thread yet. Because I didn't want to give the typical short sweet "Because it's cool" answer. I also didn't want to give the stock "Because it was a big/the biggest part of my childhood playtime." But I guess I'm not really that deep.

I collect SW and toys and general, partly because it's a connection to my childhood, and partly becasue I just love toys. I find toys relaxing and they make me smile. How can piles of little plastic men a women not make you laugh.

Here's an example of the "make you smile" part of collecting for me. I can be a real bear to be around most days. I fully admit to being a crabby ass prick most days. I'm not the most social guy and hate being out around people most days. As I like to jokeingly say "Friendly won't be chissled on my tombstone." Anyway my wife recently mentioned how much more relaxed I've been lately,not as crabby, since I got back into reading comics again. I think it has something to do with the escapest aspect of collecting. Yesterday I rearranged the collection case and was really loving looking at everything. So I guess I collect partly because it helps lower my stress level.

Man, that's a great question. I read the title of this thread this morning, thought about it all day, and I still don't have a solid answer. I think there is definitely a sense of connecting to your childhood, especially with vintage collecting. But I just started collecting vintage relatively recently. I've collected modern since 1995 when POTF2 hit shelves.

So why do I collect that? I was in high school when I bought my first figures and hung them on my wall. So I think the connection to childhood argument for me isn't there. But maybe it's a connection to my childhood feelings about the figures themselves. I only saw ROTJ in the theatre when I was a kid, because I wasn't born or too young for the first two films. But everyone I knew loved Star Wars. I knew more about the story before I ever saw any of the movies, because everyone in my neighborhood would meet up and pretend to be Darth Vader, or Luke, or Han Solo. So maybe it's a connection to that enthusiasm from when I was a kid for the story itself, and not any specific toy or line.

But then I wonder why I collect so much. I've always had a problem with wanting to have anything and everything Star Wars. I honestly think that dates back to the first time I read an article about Steve Sansweet. I remember seeing a picture of his collection in some magazine, and was just blown away that people collected this much stuff, and have such dedication to do so. And I also agree with Paul about how therapeutic it can be to take care, organize, and enjoy your collection. It's like my own space where I can thoroughly enjoy just admiring what I have. Sometimes I catch myself going into my Star Wars room to put something away, and end up stopping and admiring a nuance to an item I had never noticed before. Or start rearranging things or dusting.

So I guess that's the answer for me. There is a connection for me to the movies, and not only the toys from my childhood. And there is also a very enjoyable aspect to having a collection itself. Being the curator of my own mini Star Wars Museum is wonderful!

Lastly, I also will say that collecting Star Wars items has become exponentially more enjoyable over the last couple of years, as I have finally reached out and joined the collecting community. None of my local friends collect Star Wars, so it is awesome for me to be able to chat with you all and share stories, finds, failures, and every other aspect of collecting. There are only a couple of forums that I actively participate on, and I have made great friends on them!

Besides, what's the point of collecting if you have no one to share it with?

I agree with Tad. After I wrote my answer above and went back to work I had a DOH!!! moment, over having forgotten what I consider the most important part of this great adventure. All the friends and enablers I've had the pleasure to share a chat board with over the last year. I consider you all among my best friends, more so than alot of people I know in "real life". Something will happen in my everyday life and I can't wait to meet up with my pals here to share what's happened. I know I beat this topic to death alot but it's a big part of the hobby for me.