Monday, December 11, 2006

Wars

While scooting around the internet, I stumbled across a fan site for people who build Star Wars dioramas.


star wars


It reminded me of my own youth and my collection of Star Wars action figures.


I still have my figures, despite my mother's best efforts to donate them to another generation of children; sheesh, that woman had no idea. All of the figures bear the marks of serious play. The stickers on R5D4 wore off, as did the gold paint on C3P0, leaving him an unsettling shade of nude. The Jawa got savaged by my dalmatian and lost an arm in the process. And it's hard to be scared of a stormtrooper when his body turns yellow while his limbs stay white.


the battered survivors

Worth approximately 18c on eBay.


Original Star Wars figures were made from softer, lower-quality plastics than those made today, since their creators intended them to be purchased by children with limited pocketmoney, not, as would be the case in later years, by fat bearded 30 year olds with jobs in IT and no life. As such, most of the figures' heads came off after a few months and had to be re-attached with superglue, with varying aesthetic success. As you can see, Luke Skywalker apparently developed the gout in later life.


Luke (with gout)

You kids! Get off my lawn!


You can also see the difference between the recent incarnations of these toys and the crap we were fobbed off with 25 years ago.


R2D2s old and new

New R2: How does it feel to be anatomically incorrect?
Old R2: Bite me.


Capes, guns and lightsabres were, of course, promptly lost.


Ben & Darthy

I don't know about you, Obi Wan, but I feel kinda naked.


Looking at these dioramas on the internet, I remember with a tinge of sadness that I made my own out of bits of random junk. I had my own Hoth set, made from crumbled polystyrene on a painted baseboard. I think there was also a shield generator built out of washing machine parts (or something similar). I also seem to recall having some sort of Death Star, but nowhere near as sophisticated as the Hoth set.


However my dioramas were thrown out years ago, probably by me. I really wish I'd kept them.

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