growing up star wars

I'm from the Star Wars generation. I was the perfect age when the original movie came out, and Star Wars toys and merchandise absolutely defined my childhood.

I'll never forgive George Lucas for taking one of the most important parts of my childhood and forcing me to watch while he took a giant Jar Jar sized shit all over it, but all the Midichlorians in the world can't take away the joyous memories I have of playing with my Star Wars figures, sleeping on my Star Wars sheets, and wearing my Darth Vader Underoos T-shirt everywhere I went.

I spent way too much time in the Growing Up Star Wars group at Flickr yesterday. It is just filled with photos, drawings, and other artifacts of my generation's youth. I couldn't stop watching the slideshow because each new picture showed a kid with a toy that I wanted so much, a kid wearing a costume that I had, or something else that was so familiar, it was like looking into my own memory.

Unless you have an hour or more, I wouldn't recommend viewing the group's slideshow, but here are a few highlights:


Jackpot – originally uploaded by eyebrow antics.
I am so retroactively jealous of this kid, 9 year-old me wants to punch him in the face. It's bad enough that he got the Imperial Shuttle that I always wanted, but the Tie Interceptor, too? And just to rub salt in the wounds, look at all those GI Joe toys!


Headphones – originally uploaded by fidgikiwi.
This could have been me. Everyone knows that the Star Wars soundtrack sounds better when you listen to it through giant can headphones with the long extension cord while you sit on the floor.


luke skywalker, age 6 – originally uploaded by olrebbie.
See kids, this is why it's awesome to have a parent who is an engineer.


Star Wars Halloween sometime in the '80s – originally uploaded by corelliancaptain.
See if you can spot the kid who has costume remorse.


Christmas Morning 1978 – originally uploaded by secretfunspot
The gold shag carpet, the wood paneling on the wall, the heavy curtains, and the Death Star playset that he didn't need to trade for the landspeeder because he already had it … how many other kids had precisely this Christmas morning in 1978? (Take a look at Christmas 1981 if you really want to envy this kid.)


TK 421 – originally uploaded by Two Twumbo Twetzels.
You really have to see the largest version of this picture to fully appreciate it. That awesome helmet is paper maché, and anyone who was once a little boy will tell you that the costume isn't complete without a gun … even if it's a six shooter.


Star-Wars_1979 – originally uploaded by DarickR.
This was drawn by Darick Robertson. Yes, that Darrick Darick Robertson. You can almost see some Spider Jerusalem in Han Solo, if you squint.

I could easily go on and on all day like this, but I think you get the point. Even though I know the world wasn't sepia toned, and wasn't viewed in three inch squares, it's how I remember my childhood. This is how I grew up, this is why Star Wars is so important to me. This is why Han will always shoot first, and I'll always wonder what exactly I should get a Wookie for Christmas if he already owns a comb.

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90 thoughts on “growing up star wars”

  1. Wil, thanks for sharing these photos. It sure does bring back memories…of my SW sheets, SW curtains, SW T*I*E fighter electronic game, C-3PO action figure case, assorted action figures, stuffed Chewbacca, stuffed Ewoks, doll-sized versions of Luke/Leia/Vader/Fett/Chewie, trading cards…
    I was almost 10 years old when I first saw SW and I really loved Chewie. I saw Empire when I was almost 13 years old and developed a mad crush on Han. Cried as the final scene of Jedi rolled across the screen.
    I thank Lucas for creating the universe I loved…but I’d like to throw him into the sarlaac pit for screwing it up.

  2. I didn’t have any vehicles. I only had handful of figures. And all of my cards (yellow borders-because these things matter!) were dog-eared and more than a bit pathetic. My best friend, always Han to my Luke (yes, I’m a girl, and I was Leia when I was very young-but I wanted the lightsaber, man!), had many more figures than me. He had a Jabba’s throneroom playset, too. We both had Return of the Jedi on 45s, and we listened to it over and over and over at his house while we spent our under-ten years playing Star Wars.
    But only I had another record. He tried and tried and tried to get me to trade for it. It was never on the table.
    THIS IS THE STORY OF THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. YOU CAN READ ALONG WITH ME IN YOUR BOOK. YOU WILL KNOW IT IS TIME TO TURN THE PAGE WHEN YOU HEAR R2-D2 BEEP LIKE THIS.

  3. I’m in my mid-thirties and I still have yet to own any version of the Millenium Falcon. Although I have the Enterprise-E, X-Wing and Y-Wing sitting on my desk at work. To me, the Falcon is the Holy Grail – mostly because I never owned one and everyone else did.

  4. I recall my first Star Wars figures as old hand me downs from my older brother . One of them being an R5-unit I insisted on calling R2 because I was 4 or 5 and nobdy told me any better , and there was also a Gonk droid , hmmm and a 3PO and a Vader , and I think there were pieces of an X-wing too . they came out sometimes when I’d play wil my Ghostbusters or Ninja Turltes toys . They were just so cool looking I couldn’t bear to get rid of them . Later when i discovered the oringinal trilogy , (HAN SHOOTS FIRST DAMMIT!) I gained a new respect for those old used figures I played with as a kid . But as a grew I found that Star Trek was my deal , and now i collect the figures and ships for that .
    Anyone who’d like to see my figures and ships visit my page and look in the album marked “Figures Etc”
    http://www.myspace.com/wayne_zachary

  5. Hey Wil – As one of the founding fathers of the GUSW blog, thanks for the plug! We started out small searching for vintage SW photos and kid drawings on flickr, but now with your help and all the other Star Wars kids out there, we’re really taking off!

  7. Star Wars, yada yada yada. I want to know what that piece of electronic equipment is on the dresser in the “Headphones” picture. And which album with a gatefold sleeve is on the wall behind that kid.
    There’s more than one type of geek in this world!

  8. I had some Star Wars figures, mugs, lunchboxes and t-shirts as a kid and, um… didn’t even see the movies until I was about 27. I know, how lame right! Better late than never. I’ve started my little one off right and he’s seen all the movies – he’s 4. Oh, and I STILL have my Atari in perfect working order with about 50 games. =) Good times.

  9. Godd*mn it feels great to be a geek right now! Oh the memories indeed. From the cereal bowls to the Death Star Station Playset, not a birthday or Christmas went by from 1978-1983 that I didn’t receive some piece of Star Wars merchandise or memorabilia. What a great idea for a Flickr group. Amazingly this is the first I’ve heard of this photo group.
    The Star Wars fanboy inside me had lain dormant until about a half dozen or so years ago when a co-worker of mine (a few years younger) started sharing stories about our Star Wars love. Little did I realize what a catalyst that would be. Next chance I got, I raided the garage at my parents’ old house and grabbed up as much Star Wars-specific loot as I could salvage. Much of it had seen better days but that was simply because we actually PLAYED with this stuff when we were younger, dammit! We didn’t buy it in the store and squirrel it away in the attic or basement, or climate-controlled room waiting for the value to appreciate. Those toys were there to be cherished and treasured and crashed into a million pieces in the backyard because, hey, the evil Empire had to be stopped. Us rebels couldn’t let their sinister schemes of galactic conquest subjugate whole innocent solar systems, now could we!!
    I kept what I wanted from the haul and passed the remaining items off to my pal at work. And, yes, the legs on my AT-ST still worked after all these years…as soon as I remembered how to unlock the stupid thing with that switch in the back. The sounds may not work on any of the toys anymore, and the decals may have long since faded to yellow, or completely fallen off, but the memories created with those strangely molded shapes of plastic will play on in my head for (hopefully) years to come. The power generated by a little kid possessing and playing with something of totemic importance which represents a thing he or she loves more than life itself can resonate and ripple through a life for decades to come.
    Anyone who was not at an appropriate age to be swept up in Star Wars mania back in the late 1970s and earliest ’80s, I don’t think, can fully understand or appreciate the effect it had on those of us who were. Star Wars is in my freaking DNA. As Wil said, each photo in that Flickr group I come across makes me smile even more broadly. I was not alone in my reverie. Many others had similar Star Wars-inspired experiences. That makes me so happy. We shared something. Something important got passed on to us. Culture happened. That may sound slightly maudlin and trite, or smack of saccharine-sweet sentimentality but I can’t help it. It was more than just some movies to me, and to so many others as well it would seem. If you don’t get it, you couldn’t have been there back then.
    More than anything else now, after scanning through the scores of old photos on offer from that Flickr group, I can finally think back on the old Stormtrooper Halloween costume my mom made me in ’79 or so (really just a white jumpsuit with some black stripes running down the sides and a plastic mask from K-Mart with the horrible thin rubber band that always got twisted up in your hair!) and not feel the cringing sense of fail that I used to :). I can’t believe how cool some of those kids’ costumes were. Did you see the Tusken Raider and Jawa duo?!!
    Star Wars is indeed forever. May the Force be with every boy or girl, now grown to adulthood, who remembers how hard it used to be to find that damn Snaggletooth figure. Digging through the endless rows of figures only to finally see that little bastard hanging there on the peg, buried behind a crateload of other, less desirable, figures is a moment of triumph that I have not felt since….
    Thanks to Wil for facilitating this nostalgic trip for me and major thanks to the many fellow Force freaks who shared their past glories with all of us on the Flickr page. Time for me to police up some pictures of my own and see if I can retrieve some incriminating photographic evidence of my shameless geek love for Star Wars.
    We don’t need George Lucas anymore. All we need is each other to form one giant fan community and keep the memories and the passion alive. Ooops! Look! We’ve already done that. We all win.

  11. Wow, what a find. Thanks so much for posting this, Wil. My only problem is these pictures represent all my friends from that era. I was denied ALL Star Wars toys when I was that age, especially the Kenner figures, because my mom said there were too many pieces, and that they were just … altogether now … “cheap, plastic junk.” She capitulated with a Colecovision a few years later, but the scars were already set.

  14. Thank you, Topaz. That’s all I wanted. REASONS why people don’t like the prequels. Reasons with more substance than “that idiot Jar Jar.” I can’t say I agree with everything you’ve said, but they’re your opinions, and I can respect that.
    That said, I may be in the vast minority, but I’m willing to overlook these things. I like the prequels almost as much as the originals.

  15. You suck, Wheaton.
    I didn’t even have a “Star Wars” set. No action figures, no t-shirts, none of it. We were too poor.
    All I had was some knock-off Sears space battle set. It had some neat die-cast figures, and plastic spaceships and a cardboard screen with a spaceship interior printed on it. It was clearly to Star Wars what Toughskins were to real jeans.
    Although I did get the actual “Battlestar Galactica” board game. Which sucked, really.

  16. What is up with the kid in the first picture? Why is he wearing scrubs? He gets EVERY f*^&ing toy he wants, and he’s a heart surgeon? And what’s that thing behind him? Does he own a pet peacock or is his mom Gypsy Rose Lee?
    Life’s not fair.

  18. Re: the prequels
    Our little neighbor kid was 5 when ep1 came out. He loved it. He is always running around the yard, pretending to be young obi wan fighting maul.
    think aobut it – did lucas change or did you?

  19. I still say the best thing about Episode 1 that made the whole movie worthwhile was Darth Maul and the 2 bladed lightsaber.
    THAT THING KICKED SERIOUS ASS!!!! …until Darth Maul got sliced in two.
    BUT STILL!

  21. Some friends and I took third place in a SW trivia contest in 1983, just after Episode 6 came out. Best question: “Who was Leia’s father?” – looking for Bail Organa. Best answer to that question: “Darth Vader, duh.” – given by ALL FOUR finalist teams. Heh. The prize was a huge box of SW stuff – figures, toothbrushes, masks … sadly, the only thing that I’m sure I still have is the Wookie mask.

  23. Did anyone else get their picture taken on Darth Vader’s lap at Sears, a la Santa Claus? I have to scan mine in one of these days; the backdrop is a giant pencil drawing of a TIE fighter that some teen employee probably did by hand. Awesome.

  24. I remember meeting Darth Vader at the mall and getting an “autographed” – as in signed, “Darth Vader” – 8×10 picture on really flimsy paper.

  27. You’re welcome, Bill. I totally respect the enjoyment you gain from the prequels, even if I don’t happen to share your view.
    I think if those were stand-alone movies – if Episodes 4-6 had never been made – I wouldn’t have as much problem with them.
    What bugs me is that Lucas crafted a particular universe in Episodes 4-6 and then seemed to completely disregard its mythology, if you will, when he made 1-3. He HAD to have known how discriminating his fanbase was, how passionate it felt about the original three movies, and it seems like he didn’t care to reward that passion and loyalty with a decent follow-up product. It was like, “Hey, let’s just throw some stuff up there with cool CGs so I can make more money.”
    Maybe that isn’t the case at all, but that’s the way it seemed to me.
    And for the record, *I* didn’t hate Jar Jar. :>) I found him mildly amusing. And I found it interesting that Jar Jar was actually pretty much responsible for the creation of the Empire – if I’m remembering correctly, he stood in for Padme at a meeting and either brought up or seconded the motion to create the clone army.

  29. I so wish my parents took photos when I was younger. I was born in ’79 but that didn’t stop me from being a HUGE Star Wars fan. I broke my mother’s jaw by bouncing on her lap with shear excitement watching it the first time.
    My hair had to be grown long so it could be done up in buns. I told my 6ft tall father’s co workers that I was Princess Leia Alice and he was Dr Vader!
    My first cloth doll was called Baby Leia, and I had an Ewok, which I still have some where, somewhat faded. I also had the 11-12″ inch Leia, Luke, Han and Obi Wan dolls, that had a 2 room house made for them which I called… The Little House in the Big Swamp!
    I also had the LPs of Star Wars and Empire…
    Alas, I was unsuccessful this year in convincing my husband that our 8 month old girl really needed a Millennium Falcon

  30. Okay, Wheaton! You owe me $85! You stoked the fires of my inner SW fan love so high with this post that I went out and bought myself a copy of the Complete Encyclopedia. It’s a beautiful thing to behold no doubt but I’m tainted by the knowledge that I’ve lined Lucas’s pockets yet again with more filthy lucre. At least now I should be able to kick my friends’ asses up and down the table in SW Trivial Pursuit. I think I’ve got just enough cash left to cover your new collector’s edition of The Happiest Days Of Our Lives. Hopefully I can get a handle on my purchasing impulses by the time I read your “Blue Light Special” story or I may find myself smashed upon the rocks of financial ruin :).
    I am a sucker. I am geek.

  34. Gizmo rules. Did you put a bandana and a paperclip bow on yours? I still have that 😛 …excuse me while I go be sad over there.

  39. Being LMC (father was a drunk) I didn’t have a christmas like that. My friend who was UMC (father was a lawyer) got all the Star Wars stuff. So at least I was able to play with it. I even remember when R2D2 was forgotten in the grass and his father ran it over with a lawn mower. 😀
    There’s still some figures around, and some droid factory, but mostly it’s all memories.
    Thanks for the revisit.

  40. I remember my father taking me to Star Wars when I was like 6 or 7 years old and I was blown away. From that moment on I was addicted to anything Star Wars. I had the Millenium Falcon and would play with it everyday for hours. My favorite character was always Han Solo and yes in my mind he ALWAYS shoots first. I wasn’t as offended by the new movies as most people are, but Jar Jar was a fucking joke. After watching all the new movies, I think Revenge of the Sith is actually pretty decent. It’s too bad that the other two were soap opera trash filled with Jar Jar and bad acting by Hayden.
    I hated the Ewoks. I thought it was stupid and corny. It was like being on a planet full of Teddy Bears. I never got into that part of the movie, but the rest of the movie was so fucking awesome I could easily over look those little shits. I was glad that a few of them were killed in the battles, that made me smile a little bit.
    Michael

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