Thanks for all that guys.

I moved (for the last time!) in late 2005, and since then my collection has been in storage in the basement, including the Death Star and still incomplete Cloud City...there just isn't room and my wife and I agreed that when the basement eventually gets finished it will be the collection room. But until then I wanted some way to at least have the figures out. I was also secretly envious of Scott's spice-rack riser shelves, and I wanted something with that sort of depth and streamlined look.

This idea popped when I stumbled upon the plans for the Empire Strikes Back Pride Display and realized they were making dioshelves (shelfaramas?) with specifically enough space for the vintage figures from each of the movies. It struck me as the perfect display option.

My only problem was I wanted to display modern figures, and while the number of vintage figures is pretty managable the modern ones have literally no end in sight. So before I could even begin to make shelves I had to decide the size and depth of what my "ultimate" figure collection would be. I came up with a list of about 350 figures, mainly the OT but I reserved space for some PT and EU essentials. (That list has been very liberating to my collecting compulsion, as well, because it puts a purpose to the compulsion and a definite end in sight.) With that list in hand, I could break up the figures into different kinds of arrangements and see how much space I needed. And that led to my current work.

What are the chances of seeing the Moisture Vaporator reappear as a different figure's pack-in, if not in 2008 then in 2009/10? I'm thinking Owen, Beru, Lars family Power Droid, Mos Eisley citizen...I would be more than happy to buy them all if they came with another Vaporator.

Please keep this great accessory in mind when planning future Tatooine waves, as many would love to have more than one, even if we only needed one wind-swept Luke Skywalker.

Thanks all for the kind words.

I mounted the shelves the other day, and got around to placing my figures:









<--- "Death Star Class of '77"





The Imperial shelf has nearly all of the figures it was designed to hold...not many left to get there, though the EU figures will eventually be leaving for their own space. The Cantina is pretty sparse looking though...here's looking forward to all the characters left to be made there.

I assume these are made from styrene?

Actually, my preferred medium is foamcore and foamies, so these are 100% that.

Next up, I plan to start on a Hoth shelf, and see how well that goes.

I can't help but bring up that Ten Nunb thing again...these are all headswaps. One female X-Wing Pilot per set, one Snowspeeder gunner, one B-Wing pilot.

I still swear Farlander is going to wind up being a B-Wing Pilot, it's the only way it works out. Nunb can't be in X-Wing pilot gear, if they wanted to do that there are bona fide EU Sullustan X-wing pilots to name it after.

Then again, a QnA recently said there would be no vintage remakes this year, which ought to exclude a B-Wing human male pilot...unless they are going with the white outfit again, even though Ten was in the red gear in the film. Or unless they were mistaken or only counted carded figures.

Recently I decided it is time to get the full collection out of storage and display it. To this end, I began designing shelf displays to mount on the wall. They are pretty scene-specific, but I wanted to leave them neutral and generic enough for some flexibility.

The first one I tackled was a Cantina display:













I decided to do the alcoves as a second level, figuring in my mind that since they were pick-up shots in the movie it was okay for them to be removed physically in that way. The bar pieces and tables are removable from the floor, and the curved bar sections fit in there too. The band stand accomodates 5 Modal Nodes.

I originally intended for this to double as a Jabba's Palace display, with the band stand becoming Jabba's throne and the Rebo band going where the bar is, but I have since decided to build another level on the top to hold Jabba and his goons.

I learned a lot while building this one.

Dorovio Bold=female X-wing pilot from unused RotJ footage

Cesi “Doc” Eirriss=female Twilek X-wing pilot from an early Rogue Squadron comic set before ANH, in which she died

Desin Ommis=Hobbie's gunner in ESB

Wes Janson=Wedge's gunner in ESB

Ten Nunb=Sullustan B-Wing pilot

Keyan Farlander=player character from X-Wing games, he flew the Y-Wing that survived the attack on the Death Star

My guess is Keyan will actually be in B-Wing gear, since these others are all obvious headswap pairs.

Speaking of a text list of new stuff, I remember back when I first got on the internet, Hasbro had a text list of all the waves and releases that they would update monthly, and was usually well in advance of what was out at the time. That was fun.

For the year of 2006 I stayed off the internet entirely...the first time I saw the Saga2 figures was when I saw the wave at the store. I think that was the most fun I've had collecting, it reminded me most of being a kid and scoping the aisles just before ESB and ROTJ came out to get to see the new movie figures. Figures like Chief Chirpa, Endor Luke, Hem Dazon, Derlin, the Treadwell/Gonk 2-pack, and (especially) Foul Moudama will always hold a special place in my heart because the first time I saw them was when I discovered them on the shelf and bought them.

Last year, I looked at the lists of figures in January and was floored...but finding Biggs and the Vaporator were almost anticlimactic in comparison, even though they have been at the top of my most wanted list for so long. Now I'm back in the thick of it, surfing through rumors for the rest of the year and 2009, and I kind of wish I could have the surprise again.

More of a recent sighting since I did no buying...

A local Wal*Mart had quite a few Ep III Battle Arenas out for sale, as well as a lone CommTech 1999 Episode I Anakin Skywalker. Must've really given the backroom a good cleaning after Christmas.

Very nostalgic, actually, since that was the Wal*Mart I went to for Episode I's midnight madness. What is it about toys you haven't seen in a while that makes you want to buy them?