May the Fourth, and All That

Well, here we are on "May the 4th Be With You Day" and I've just about blown through all of my Star Wars content.

All but a few that is.  Granted, they're not very exciting, but they did make me a little money.

I was at sale in January and came across a bag full of children's bed linens.  I immediately saw they were vintage character-themed and dug through them.  I came up with a few original Star Wars sets.

The Empire Strikes Back set included fitted sheets, sheets and a pillow case.    

The Return of the Jedi set contained the fitted and regular sheet, but was missing the pillowcase.

I sold each set for $20 each.  Surprisingly, the Strawberry Shortcake set in the same lot sold for twice that. Who knew Strawberry Shortcake had more fervent fans than Star Wars?

I was at a private estate sale a few weeks ago and while looking around, I saw a LaserDisc player for sale.  The owner noticed my interest and told me there were disks that went with it.  I asked to look at them and she lead me to a cabinet filled with them.

I should mention, most LaserDiscs are worthless, but there are a few exceptions, so I scanned through the library.  This was the first to catch my eye.

Aside from having the classic artwork cover, I know the laserdisc (along with the VHS collection) are the only original copies of the Star Wars trilogy prior to George Lucas' "meddling".  So I figured it would be desirable.

They also had "The Empire Strikes Back" and  "Return of the Jedi".

Can you imagine watching a movie now and having to stop 5 times to flip or exchange a disc?

I never had a LaserDisc player back in the day and have always kind of wanted one just to have the experience.  Unfortunately, after testing the LaserDisk they were selling, it wouldn't read the discs and just made a sad clunking noise.  I did end up buying these along with a few other desirable titles that I could flip for a few dollars.

I picked up the disks for $1 each.  I ended up selling the Star Wars trilogy for $36 on eBay.  Not a killing, but it paid for the whole day of saling that day.

What, you want more?  Okay, one more minor Star Wars find.

I came across a bnch of 70's and 80's television and movie novelizations.

In addition to the Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back novelizations, I found this  Marvel Comics adaption of The Empire Strikes Back.  Back then, it was a licensing collaboration between Lucasfilm and Marvel Comics.  These days Disney owns everything.  They could even throw the Simpson's into the mix.

Legend has it, they were in such a rush to meet demand and beat the movie release, it was illustrated while some characters like "Yoda" were still in design, so we ended up with a skinny purple Yoda in the adaption.

I promise, that's the last of my Star Wars related items. Be thankful I have no "Revenge of the Fifth" post waiting.