I’m a huge Star Wars fan. I was born two years after the original released so I was lucky enough to experience all the Return of Jedi hype when I was four. My mother took me to see it and I remember snippets of that day. That’s how important Star Wars is to me.
Flash forward fifteen years to 1999 and the Force seems to be with me again. I’m a junior in college at the University of Denver and it just so happens the very first Star Wars Celebration is happening ten miles from my dorm room. May 1999 was an amazing month for me: I attended Star Wars Celebration, met Anthony Daniels, got in on toy release day, and, of course, The Phantom Menace.
May 3rd, 1999 was the first time that I waited outside of a closed Toys R’ Us so that I could be one of the first to grab a Darth Maul figure. I remember talking to everyone in line, a majority of whom were camped out like me at the movie theater to get midnight showing tickets. The line was festive and we were all excited to see these toys so that we could gain insight in what was to come. I can even remember someone bringing a huge garbage bag of popcorn for everyone to enjoy as we waited. Midnight hit and we all wandered into Toys R Us, everything was nice and decked out, Darth Maul stared at us from every direction. The grabbing commenced and I walked out with a nice little stash of prequel toys, out in Arizona my father did even better.
Flash forward another sixteen years and Force Friday is announced and my old collector self stirs. I had stopped collecting the Star Wars toys after Revenge of the Sith because Hasbro wasn’t doing too well with them, they were scrawny and the molds were rubbish. Before I decided to go to my local Wal-Mart, I looked online and took a peek at some of the toys. They didn’t look half bad, so I planned to go, come, rain or shine. I arrived at the store and I couldn’t contain my excitement and I was shaking with anticipation. I power-walked to the toy aisle and saw a few employees pulling pallets out and getting them ready for purchase. I stood there with about seven other hardcore folks and counted the minutes until I could grab.
As we patiently waited until one minute past midnight, I gazed at the goods and prioritized what I wanted to grab first. I made a note of where the Captain Phasmas, Kylo Ren, and Poe Dameron’s figures were. Those were the three figures I wanted to add to my collection the most seeing as I couldn’t afford the entire set of twelve. The minutes slowly passed by as well grew more and more anxious.
The clock hands finally passed over go time and I stretched for the figures I wanted most. I got dissed by the first Phasma I went for, but went to my second go to and snagged it. Then I sauntered over to the next pallet and grabbed my Black Series Kylo Ren, one figured alluded me, the metal Captain Phasma. My tiny Phasma and Ren in hand along with my bigger Ren I walked the rest of the toy section to see that Wal-Mart did not have the metal figures available. I was not disappointed.
I had the figures I wanted until old fart Luke, Leia and Han are released, and I captured some of that old magic that surrounded Star Wars 16 years ago. I felt that I was as giddy as my nineteen-year old self was getting Phantom Menace toys. This makes me excited to peruse the toy aisles once again, I won’t be able to amass them all like a Pokémon master, but I’m going add the coolest looking ones to my collection.