You see, it was about Luke and the droids searching a jungle planet for a lost Jedi temple. I’ve drawn on that inspiration for years: Before Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Lucasfilm asked me to write Star Wars: The Weapon of a Jedi, and I found myself grinning when my editor walked me through the basic plot he wanted. That gets me thinking about costumes and influences and about characters and their arcs, and soon I’m on my way again. If I get stuck, I let my eyes linger on the Range Trooper from Solo, a buffalo hunter reimagined as an Imperial soldier or study the contrast between stolid Baze Malbus and agile Chirrut Îmwe from Rogue One or ponder the way Kylo Ren’s black outfit from The Last Jedi evokes both Vader and Luke. That delivers a bit of nostalgia, but it also offers my storytelling muscles a workout.Īnd as in 1978, action figures help energize my own storytelling. (I don’t have enough shelves for all 11 movies, so I switch around - right now I’m showcasing the original and sequel trilogies, Solo: A Star Wars Story and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.) Looking at a movie’s shelf reminds me of its story. Meanwhile, my huge modern collection fills stacks of storage containers, with a selection of favorites displayed on shelves in my home office.Įach Star Wars movie gets a shelf, on which I arrange the major characters in appearance order. I sold most of my classic figures years ago (to a fellow collector I knew would cherish them), but I still have the original Kenner 12, displayed alongside their modern incarnations and their equivalents in the 6-inch Black Series line. I was thrilled when Hasbro made figures they’d skipped when I was a kid, such as Grand Moff Tarkin and a rebel fleet trooper, and even happier when they started making figures that looked like miniature replicas of the characters, with articulation I’d never dreamed of in 1978 and screen-accurate costumes and accessories. When Hasbro created a new line of Star Wars figures in 1995, I was in my twenties but had to have them. And on I went from there, until there were three Star Wars movies and I had amassed an army of figures, vehicles, playsets, and accessories. Next I got a stormtrooper, finally giving my stories an antagonist. So my new trio spent lots of time exploring planets made of LEGO and couch cushions in search of Jedi secrets. Luke’s arrival opened up new possibilities, but I didn’t have any villains. So I followed Lucas’ lead and bought C-3PO and R2-D2, who spent a few weeks wandering and bickering until I’d saved up enough money to get Luke. The obvious answer was Luke and Vader, but some precocious instinct told me that those two characters meeting was the climax of a good story, not its beginning. I turned to my action figures to invent the new stories I craved, but I had to start small: I only had enough allowance money to buy two. I’d fallen in love with George Lucas’ movie the previous summer, but back then the saga only consisted of one film and a monthly Marvel comic book. It also super-charged my impulse to not only collect but also be a completist: These days I collect not just action figures but also baseball cards, music, and books.īut collecting figures also super-charged my interest in Star Wars and storytelling. That decision was how I learned about sales tax (the price tag at the toy store said $1.99 but you needed $2.13 at the register) and to budget. This was 1978, and Kenner had only made 12 figures - Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, Obi-Wan, C-3PO, R2-D2, Darth Vader, Stormtrooper, Death Squad Commander, Tusken Raider, and Jawa.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |