Sorry about the non-entry yesterday, I was geeking out with my new Vader Saber. It is sooooo nice. You see I was a fortunate soul, Star Wars and the hype with it came out when I was 10 years old. On top of that my mom took my sister and me to see it at the Galleria movie theater. We were at a new theater in the middle of the day and there was a huge crowd. I remember being slightly aware of some hype about the movie and the fact that mom had to buy the movie tickets well in advance of us going in. She had never had to do that before and boy that added to the anticipation. When we finaly went in the only thing in the lobby or entrance to the theater was a black poster with the words "...a long time ago in a galaxy far far away" and the Star Wars logo on it... ie. no pictures so I still did not know what I was in for. The movie started, the words scrolled by, the princess' ship is being fired on and then IT happened, the Vader Star Destroyer passed overhead, and it kept going and going and going... WOW! I was so slam hooked at that point! I still get a chill watching that opening sequence. At that point no 8 year old could have resisted, here was the definitive wild west movie of my young generation, it had bad guys in black and good guys in white and vice versa. It had magic, wonder, and far off fantastical places. It had the supreme struggle for good and evil and it had LIGHTSABERS!
Now just like every fad in the world eventualy it dies out. you can probably thank Lucas for the marketing engine that exists today. Toys and playing card and everything else kept the phenom going for some time for me but eventually it faded and passed. During that whole time that I "LOVED" Star Wars, what I really wanted was a lightsaber. I saw one a special effects mag not long after the movie was out. It looked real and they talked like it was real and as a 9 or 10 year old I wanted it to be real, but there was no way. It was going to take 100 or more lawn jobs to save the money for that so like every other kid in America I spent my money on X-Wings, action figures and playing cards.
Zoom ahead, I'm now 16, I can drive a car, girls have replaced the force along time ago and I am exploring the city of Houston.(it was a big deal for us Baytonians to "go to Houston") Anyway I found a comic book shop called Third Planet Comics. I stopped in one afternoon just to see what it was about. I walked in saw the comics everywhere and different kinds of playing cards and then I spotted them, old Star Wars playing cards, "you know I still have mine" I thought and wandered over and started browsing through them. I remember the rush of nostalgia I felt standing in that store. It was a very pleasant feeling, then, I spotted it. They had a real lightsaber in a case on display! OMG! I was stunned by the feeling of need and want that resurfaced. Of course now I was working and not mowing lawns for a living, but it was not for sale. I left thinking how can I possible get one, I never figured it out, until...
I recently decided to build a theater in my house. I wanted to display some movie stuff ala Planet Hollywood around the theater, so turned to the same place I turn to for everything these days, the internet. When I started trying to think of things I wanted, Luke's Lightsaber was the first thing that came to mind, along with other movie items like the T2 Head and Arm and maybe the Noisy Cricket and the Neuralizer. So I searched and you know what there were others out there who wanted these things too, and some of them actually made them! It turns out that alot of the Star Wars props were everyday off the shelf items that had been doctored up. The saber I wanted was made from an old camera flash. So I tried and tried to get that flash on ebay and elsewhere and I always got beat out. Then I found a prop builders bulletin board. There was a guy on there that was going to try to make a Luke saber from the first movie.(ANH) I signed up immediately. Four long months later the Fedex man dropped it off. It was beautiful. I still get a rush just holding it in my hand. So I guess the Star Wars thing never left me. Is that geeky? Then so be it. Some people read to get away from reality for a little while, some go to the movies, go to the casino or surf the internet. I just grab my saber and close my eyes for a few seconds and... i.am.jedi
