Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace...

Before:  This is going to be the best movie ever!
After: *sigh*  At least the last 25 minutes were good.



1999.  The end of my junior year in high school.  I was and still am a huge Star Wars fan and was eagerly anticipating the return of the film franchise to the big screen.  A few weeks prior to release, the promos began airing on MTV for the trailer/music video of "Duel of the Fates" and guest stars from the movie appearing on TRL (anyone remember that show?).  They also started highlighting the merchandise about to launch and introduced the figures.  A couple days later, the stores started receiving the action figures, and the hype machine was in full gear for what would certainly be the best movie ever...

At least the music video was awesome.  The movie... you all pretty much know how that went...  The sad thing is it still didn't stop me from seeing it about four or five times while it was in theaters.  Saw it again in 3D back in February for the pod race and final battle alone.

Back to 1999, I figured I would get a jump on stockpiling these figures with dreams of striking it rich 20 years later like collectors before me.  I spent most of my summer searching stores like Wal-Mart, Target, KB Toys, etc. to try and complete an entire set.  I even was checking the serial numbers at the bottom for the .0000 mark showing its a first edition.  Here is the fruit of my 17 year old labor.

Let's break this down a little bit so you have a better idea of whats really here.  Although I was unable to complete every figure, I did get pretty close.  First off is wave 1, the first collection of figures released right before the movie released.  I also included the preview STAP Battle Droid figure.

Row 1: Jar Jar, Qui Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan, Battle Droids
Row 2: Anakin, Darth Maul, Padme, Queen Amidala, and Battle Droid

STAP w/ Battle Droid, and Jar Jar with Kaadu

Then throughout the year, they continued to release wave after wave so here is what I have organized by release.

Holographic Qui Gon and Darth Maul

Senator Palpatine,C-3PO, Watto, Darth Sidious, Ric Olie

Boss Nass, Gasgano, Mace Windu, Ki-Adi Mundi, Chancellor Valorum

Captain Tarpals, Odi Mandrell, OOM-9

R2-D2, Yoda, Nute Gunray, Rune Haako, Destroyer Droid

Qui Gon, Darth Maul, Obi-Wan

Captain Panaka, Adi Gallia, Anakin, and Naboo Royal Security

Darth Maul, Holographic Sidious, Anakin, and Qui Gon

Now here are the best parts of my collection.  At a Dallas Sci-Fi convention (yes, I am a nerd), I was able to meet a couple of the actors from Phantom Menace and got them to sign figures for their respective characters.  Pictured below are two Ki-Adi Mundi and Nute Gunray, signed by Silas Carson, and Rune Haako, signed by Jerome Blake.

Well, its only 13 years later... and these figures are worth next to nothing.  But fingers crossed.

Now Making Their Way to the Ring...

So I guess I should start this article with why I decided to make a blog that features my old toys.  Nostalgia.  I was at my mother's house digging through old boxes and found all these action figures, cars, cards, and things I found important as a kid and had lots of memories come back to me.  Some things had not aged well, or had years of dust, but I decided to clean them up as best I could and share what small amount of collectibles I had with anyone that cared to read this random blog on the internet.

I guess I should start from the very beginning of my search through my childhood belongings.  First up,  a mix of WCW and WWF action figures.



A mix of WWF (that's right, not E) and WCW wrestlers from the early 1990's.



  After I opened box number one, I came across a shoebox that was full of these guys and started remembering the golden era of wrestling.  My wife laughed at me as I remembered all the names of the wrestlers and started acting a fool using my best WWF ring announcer voice (think of Howard Finkle) to name them all.  At one point I even had the WWF ring to go with them, but I am afraid that thing has been lost in the shuffle.  I still had most of the championship belts still strapped around the waists of my then champions.  Once I finally had them all stood up on the table to take this picture, I realized that many of these wrestlers are no longer living, which really is a shame.

Since the picture is kind of low quality, here is a list of the figures starting from left to right:
Ultimate Warrior (WWF), Barry Windham (WCW), Jake the Snake Roberts (WWF), Rick Steiner (WCW), Macho Man Randy Savage (WWF), Scott Steiner (WCW), Big Bossman (WWF), Flyin Brian Pillman (WCW), Sid Vicious (WCW), Ron Simmons (WCW), Z-Man (WCW), Undertaker (WWF), Lex Luger (WCW), Ricky the Dragon Steamboat (WWF), Akeem (WWF), Brutus the Barber Beefcake (WWF), Sting (WCW), and Ax (WWF).

Seeing that list, the world has lost Pillman, Savage, and Bossman, and others are shells of their original selves like Luger, Roberts, and Sid.  Hard to believe that Scott Steiner, Sting, and Undertaker are still going.

I figured this would be a good starting point with Wrestlemania this Sunday to relive some of these memories.  I plan to update more as I find more hidden gems at the house or just show off some of my more recent collections.  Please leave me any feedback you have or drop a line about your collections.