In a galaxy far, far away...

As a kid, among my most prized possessions were my Star Wars action figures. The first set of four figures were made available through the Star Wars Early Bird Special Christmas Cardboard Envelope Thingy. Kenner Toys hadn't thought to cash in on the success of the movie by merchandising toys for the holidays. In a last minute effort to not miss out on what would be millions, they came up with the idea of selling cardboard envelopes with a gift certificate inside to send away for toys that hadn't been made yet. Then they would send you one figure a month: Artoo, Leia, Chewie, and Luke. This was at a time before everything was merchandised to death. In fact, Star Wars started the whole shebang of merchandising everything to death.

Needless to say I was nuts over Star Wars. That two hours and twenty minutes of film still influence every brush mark I make. So I begged and begged and begged to get a cardboard envelope for Christmas. And I did! And my envelope didn't have a gift certificate in it. Which sucked. And who at the local Toys-R-Us is going to believe you that the certificate was conveniently left out? So no Star Wars for me. I had to wait months and months (which in kid time is, like, forever) for the figures to arrive in stores so I could take them home to take on my Micronauts.

I played the hell out of these things. Along with my best friend Mike, epic stories were concocted and played out in the sand box in his back yard. I even lugged them with me on a family trip to California where they got a little melty in the ninety degree heat. Han Solo would never stand quite right again.

At some point, probably years later while I was working or at school, my mother cleaned the basement and gave all my Star Wars action figures (along with the Micronauts) to little Roy down the street. I guess I was okay with it at the time. I'd already painted Chewbacca white because I wanted to see what an albino wookiee looked like, so I was pretty much done with them. I hope he got as much out of them as I did.