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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I didn’t have a teddy bear, I had an ewok.
sigh…stupid lucas.
And before anyone gets all uppity on ewoks, let me remind you that there was a reason for an battle on endor. There was absolutely no reason for that stupid wookie battle in the third movie.
Ick.
I was exactly the right age for the Ewoks, and I loved them. I thought the song was great, I thought Wicket was hilarious, and I thought their city in the trees was totally awesome.
Looking back on it now? Maybe not so much. But when I was a little kid, it didn’t bother me at all.
Ewoks?
As my childhood friend re-named it years later ‘Return of the Jedi’ to me is now ‘Care Bears In Space’.
Great photos.
Best. Find. EVAR! Favoriting a bunch on Flickr right now.
And the only power any of that stuff requires is the power of imagination.
The Death Star playset! I remember the little pieces of foam from the trash compactor getting everywhere.
I also remember my mom supergluing my X-Wing’s s-foils (shouldn’t they have been x-foils?) closed because if they opened, they fell off…
Ahhh, good times. =)
I had forgotten how sepia-toned the 70’s were. Dang, now I’m going to have to ask my mom if there are any photos of me playing with my X-Wing…
I got the new Milennium Falcon for my nephew, but as his family is in South Africa right now, I haven’t been able to get it to him– it’s too big to go in the diplomatic mail! I’m going to have to get my sister to film him opening it; if I had any place to put it, I’d be tempted to keep it for myself, because it’s pretty much the ultimate Star Wars toy.
I love your Star Wars posts. I was 14 when it came out and I went to see it in the theaters over and over. I’d go in for the matinee and stay for 2 or 3 showings. That’s when they didn’t clear out the theater between shows. I was cleaning out my grandmother’s house recently and found a whole bunch of my Star Wars Action Figures, and all of my collectors cards (2 shoe boxes full.)
A few years ago my daughter dressed as Princess Leia for Halloween. Wonder where those pictures are… 😉
I even watch the Clone Wars shows.
Thanks for the memories.
Right there with you guys! Really makes me want to go scrounge through old photos at my Dad or mom’s house.
Wil have you read any of the Extended Universe novels?
They are expansions of the original movies by great authors who, like you, grew up with Star Wars. I’ve read a good amount of them and theres a variety of authors and styles but its still 100% Star Wars. Good nerdy literature.
Wil,
I think you are a few years younger than I am, it made all the difference with regards to liking the Ewoks. I didn’t hate them, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as Empire.
Also, I thought I was looking at my old living room with the shag carpeting and wood paneling. Unfortunately, I never had a Tie Fighter, only a land speeder that someone ripped off.
It still bugs me that my mom sold my Millennium Falcon at a garage sale for $5. And not even because of the fact that a year later I saw a Falcon in a comic shop window (missing slightly more parts than mine was) selling for $80… but BECAUSE SHE SOLD MY MILLENNIUM FALCON FOR FIVE FREAKING DOLLARS!
I still have a lot of toys and drawings from that time, unfortunately, I don’t remember any photos of me playing with the toys…
At these times, movies came out here in Mexico as long as a year later than in the States, so I played for that long without knowing exactly who every action figure was… I still had a lot of fun!!
thank you very much Will!!
tomiwk from twitter
First time poster, long time reader.
Had to break my silence and thank you for putting into words and pictures the things that shaped our generation. I recently finished listening to the Happiest Days audio book and had what you described as your “wormhole” experience during just about every chapter.
From my “Red Box” D&D Basic set to the agony of having to choose just one figure at KMart to endless hours in video arcades, your words have triggered some serious nostalgia for me. More importantly, the MP3s released some distant, good memories that had long been relegated to the corners of my mind to make room for more pressing real world concerns and pressures. It was like having some sort of chemical free trip and it took hours to wipe the smile off my face!
These pictures have just had a similar impact. The kid with the Death Star playset might as well have been me and just looking at that shot has released a flood of memories and good feelings of a simpler time. Just what the doctoreordered in the midst of a typical Tuesday work day.
You are the voice of our generation Wil. Keep up the great work. I look forward to reading your future stuff.
*runs to join group as well as upload a pic or two…*
Awesome find, thanks!!
See kids, this is why it’s awesome to have a parent who is an engineer.
Or one taking graduate courses in early childhood education.
I recall, at age 4, being the guinea pig for my mother’s class projects. She’d have her classmates over, and they’d subject me to all sorts of weird stuff – but SOMETIMES I’d score a car/rocketship made out of a decorated box and shoulder straps.
That one totally blows my little rocket out of the sky, though!
Nostalgia just crit me for 3d20+6.
When I get home, I’m totally looking for any of my old Star Wars drawings. I don’t know if they’d be in any of the really old sketchbooks, but it’s worth a shot.
That kid had the Death Star AND an Atari? Surely, he was the most popular child in all the land, and the envy of all his peers.
(Although, I actually liked the Ewok village playset better. It had an elevator, a net, and a big rock!)
Thanks for this post… now I’m going to have to go back through photo albums and submit my own to Flickr.
I grew up in the 90s, and got introduced to Star Wars through copies my parents had taped off television in the previous decade. I, along with most of my friends, became a huge fan. Later in the decade, my dad took me to see the reissue of A New Hope in theatres. While the new version wasn’t perfect, the excitement of being at the event itself is something I will never forget.
I got vacuumed into the black hole that was this thread yesterday… Yeah, I would have killed to have had the stuff that these kids were getting back then.
BTW, great walk down memory lane too. 😉
Oh man. Thanks for this Wil. Perfect post. Star Wars 4 Life!
My best Christmas was getting the Millenium Falcon, even though I wanted the AT-AT more. My parents probably didn’t get anything for each other that year just so they could afford to get me that.
Thankfully, I still have my Millenium Falcon and it’s still in decent condition.
EPIC! This is one of the best posts ever. I’m going home tonight to bust out the old Star Wars toys and play with my 5 year old son.
Forgot to say. That halloween picture there was the best!
Great post, I’m from the Star Wars Generation as well. I was 7 when the first movie came out and it started my love affair with science fiction and fantasy. It’s amazing that this little movie made me the man I am today.
I still have my Darth Vader head and C3PO head full of original action figures.
Christmas 1978: I get not only a TIE fighter but an X-wing (albeit the small Matchbox-sized versions).
Boxing Day 1978: both are broken and thrown away. For toys made out of metal, they really were pieces of utter crap.
One of my best friends at the time had lost his father a couple years earlier, and his mom and new stepdad totally overcompensated by buying him every Star Wars toy ever made. He had one of those Darth Vader helmet cases for his action figures, and it still wasn’t big enough to hold them all. We hated him, but at the same time we loved going over to his house so we could play with all his stuff.
My best friend in high school’s dad was a professional photographer on the side, and one of her most prized possessions was the shot he had taken by hanging her Millenium Falcon model (the one that was like 2 feet in diameter) in front of a starfield made out of black construction paper with holes punched in and placed in front of a lightbox, so it looked like a still from one of the movies. I bet she still has that in a box somewhere — at least, I hope she does!!
One of my favourite childhood pictures is me in my Smurfette underoos posing next to a life size cardboard cutout of Chewbacca. I like to tell people he’s my other brother.
At 28 I still want a tree house like theirs… 😀
I always wanted the Death Star playset but never got it :sigh:. The worst part of Lucas losing his freaking mind was that I saw the original Star Wars and its sequels in the theater with my father who passed away 16 years ago. Then Lucas had the gall to re-make my childhood memories and NOT SELL THE ORIGINAL CUTS! Thanks. Way to go idiot. Thankfully he saw the error of his ways and now I can get the original movies on DVD just like I remember from the theater.
So now I get to remember Dad whenever I see Star Wars, M*A*S*H, or Star Trek. Gee, I wonder how I became such a sci-fi geek…
P.S. – Dad and I both loved Wesley Crusher when we watched Star Trek: TNG together. We were waiting in front of the TV for the premiere with bowls of popcorn, extra soda, and great big grins on our faces 😀 Thanks for those memories Wil.
I didn’t have any of the cool toys, but I did collect the cards. And also, this totally brought back memories of playing on the school playground with Tommy and Mike, who graciously allowed me to be their Princess Leia because I had long braided hair and could make the requisite buns over my ears.
Thanks for the memories!
All I had was one of those horrible T-shirts of C3PO and R2D2… why do I say horrible? Remember the fact that those transfres on the “official” Tshirt were like a type of Plastic which made a spot of HEAT which centered directly under the design, especially if you happened to grow up in the Southeastern US… not to mention that after a couple of washings the design did one of 3 things, began to split, fade, or peeled away in chunks.
I was a dozen years too old to appreciate all the Star Wars toys, but I still loved the movies. Driving along the freeway after seeing the Death Star “trench” sequence for the first time was a real trip.
And, my kids love Star Wars too, so I managed to snag quite a few of the toys for them, too, during the ’90s.
I will never forget me and my brother standing in a line that stretched all the way around the cinema. We stood for hours (literally) as each showing went through and the queue diminished. We were the last two to get in and could only get in if sat apart (I was 6 years old).
My Star Wars collection was my entire life for until about 1985. Despite the figures being piss poor representations of their on-screen counterparts, and despite every vehicle and playset being made of cheap-ass plastic (thank you Taiwan and Palitoy) they gave me hours upon hours of joy.
I will NEVER forgive George Lucas for Episodes 1 + 2 (haven’t seen Ep 3, nor will I, 1+2 were enough!)
Haha, this reminds me of when I used to hang my brother’s ewok doll from the basketball hoop on the roof from a jumprope noose…course, this is how I ultimately fell off the roof and broke my wrist, so, you know. Comeuppance.
I remember when I was maybe in 1st grade wishing upon a star to own all Star Wars toys ever produced. As if I earn enough money to even store that much stuff today…
I thought Ewoks were great when they came out too and do not remember any of my friends making fun of them. I wasn’t even aware there was a controversy surrounding them until I got into college.
I try to be forgiving of Jar Jar. I suspect he is a hit with kids who are the same age I was when I first enjoyed Star Wars. I am less forgiving of Han Solo shooting second and the walkie talkies for guns replacement in ET.
I saw Star Wars 7 times in theaters during its original release. My mom would cover my eyes during the part where Luke returned to the homestead to find Owen and Beru reduced to skeletons. That wasn’t taken out. Lucas is willing to potentially traumatize kids by showing parents figures being murdered, but isn’t willing to let the lead character take a little proactive self defense.
(disclaimer: The death of Luke’s guardians pretty much went over my 6 year old head too. I think my mom was being a little overprotective by shielding me from that.)
Thank you, Wil.
*virtual hug*
Now I have to scan the pic I drew of Darth Vader
in crayon, from back in the day.
And, since I get off work early tonight, I think
I’ll come home and watch my dvd of STAR WARS.
That’s right, NOT “A New Hope”… but, STAR WARS!
🙂
I was an adult when the movies came out, and it was just so cool that there was a good SF movie out! My son was watching them from the day he could, , and I got such a steal at a rummage sale for him that even used I bet you’ll be jealous! I found a box with the Falcon and the Ewok Village sticking out, and poked in it to see a few more things – got it for I think $5. The “other things” included a Tie fighter and an X-Wing, at least a dozen action figures, and I think one more vehicle but I can’t remember what. Oh, and a Rancor beast and a Taun-Taun. That was a great box…$5. I almost felt guilty. Almost. 🙂
I think I’ll go lie in a corner and weep for a bit now….that was a natural 20 on the “getting whacked over the head by nostalgia” table…including the furniture in those pics. Yes, we had some terrible photo wallpaper, too. Yes, we had a shag carpet in orange, and armchairs in olive green chenille, and those weird dried pampas grass things, and age 11, even Ewoks are cool…although I found Han Solo even cooler. And I had TIE fighter envy, as my bestest friend in fourth grade had TWO of them and I had none…
…and THEN I’m gonna dig out all my crappy Star Wars drawings, scan them and upload them to Flickr!
Wow… now I have this urge to start scanning my old photos into Flickr – a project I’ve avoided by telling myself that I have plenty of digital ones that my wife and I take to keep me busy.
I am certain that I (along with any true child of this era) must have:
1. At least one Halloween photo in a Star Wars costume.
2. At least one photo from that year you had the “Star Wars Christmas”.
I’m sure that the “Star Wars Birthday Party” would be a close third…
Hells yes, Han shot first. x)
This kind of makes me wish I was old enough for the Star Wars generation – grew up in the 90s, convinced parents to get VHS boxed set, was the girl geek boning up on her fluency in boy-geek. Although I do know a couple of kids who are this dorky about the classics (none of this Jar Jar crap), so it’s good to see the tradition lives on.
And I love that Darrick Robertson’s Chewy says “GRONNK”. Best onomatopoeia of life.
I have to say I hate that first kid. If I’d had a Christmas like that, I would have died from excitement/exhaustion.
…flashback…cant control…flashback…memory hazy.
I just went looking through pictures and found at least 4 pictures where you can see star wars stuff in them..even the darth plastic costume of the shelf.
..and anyone that had a full size falcon should die a horrible death at the hands of a hundred rabid jar jar’s *mutter*
“Nostalgia just crit me for 3d20+6.”
*choke*
…best dnd line ever.
I didn’t get a SW Christmas until 1983 with the RotJ loot. And I got the full size Falcon! Neener neener error42!
And yeah… I also had the urge to wipe that smug smile off the top kid’s face.
These are terrific photos! Unfortunately, I don’t have any glorious Christmas morning pictures filled with Star Wars merchandise, but I do have a great memory related to it…
In 1984, I received a Crayola Caddy for Christmas, complete with poster paints, crayons, etc. It was the best. My older sister and I spent an hour painting the leftover cardboard tubes from the wrapping paper as lightsabers, using up most of the poster paints in the process. After the paint dried, we had an epic battle all over the house. My parents just looked at the huge pile of neglected Christmas toys, then at their two daughters duking it out with cardboard tubes, and shook their heads. Thems were the days!
From the heart of hell…I stab at thee.
Hey Wil, that’s “Darick”– with one ‘R’.
Great group. I had to go and post up my Christmas 1980 photo where I got the Star Wars Jawa playset, the Star Wars Imperial Hoth base, and the Star Wars Front End Loader. Ok, maybe the last one wasn’t Star Wars, but trust me, the rebels had to do some construction when we were outside.
And my Halloween 1982 photo where I was Yoda.
Awesome stuff in there.
sigh. Here we go again. I understand that Jar Jar is an annoying character. I don’t want to insult or offend anybody, but what I don’t understand is the hatred for the prequels. I was 10-11 when Star Wars first appeared on the big screen, and I enjoy the prequels just as much as the originals.
People keep bitching about how Lucas is “shitting all over their childhoods” but not ONE person has ever gone into any detail about it.
C’mon, folks. Give clear reasons and justification for your prequel dislike.
RE: Christmas 1978- OMG I did a triple double take. That shirt, that house, kid kinda looks like me at that age – looks like a Christmas morning photo my dad took. I thought it really was me for a second or two, but our shag was green.
Bill, I think what p*sses me off most about the prequels is that it doesn’t seem as though Lucas even paid much attention to Episodes 4-6 while he was writing Episodes 1-3. There were inconsistencies that to me were unforgivable coming from someone as skilled at his craft as Lucas.
1. Ben talks about the Force being an energy field (in SW)…then Ben talks about midichlorians in the blood when discussing the Force (Episode 1). I would think he would’ve told Luke about midichlorians in SW when explaining the Force.
2. Leia says (in Jedi) her mother died when she was young but that her mother seemed sad. Umm, Padme died a few moments after Leia was born. How would Leia remember her mother?
3. Yoda disappeared after he died (in Jedi). Qui Gon did not. Both were Jedi Masters.
Those are just the three things I can think of at the moment – it’s been a while since I saw the first three pieces of crap (that would be Episodes 1-3, for those of you keeping score).
I’m also p*ssed off at Lucas for screwing with Episodes 4-6. As Wil has said before…HAN SHOOTS FIRST, DAMMIT! Put back the original Ewok song, put back the original Sy Snootles song, get rid of the damned halo effect when the Death Star blows up. Some of Lucas’ additions were fine – fleshing out Mos Eisley with womprats and dewbacks was cool – but overall, I’m not happy with him at all. While I realize he’s released the original Episodes 4-6 to DVD, I’m torn about buying them because I’m ticked off and really don’t want Lucas to have even more of my money than he’s already gotten.
In an episode of “The Big Bang Theory,” Leonard asks Sheldon if he’s going to watch the TV series of the Clone Wars. Sheldon says, “I’m not going to watch The Clone Wars TV series until I’v seen The Clone Wars movie. I prefer to let George Lucas disappoint me in the order he intended.”
Amen.