My vintage collection 1978-2003

As a child I only ever had the first 12 figures and the landspeeder.

I found a picture of them all together, taken in 2003 about 2 years before I started collecting again:-



So since then, I obviously have acquired a draw full of loose figures. So they were all mixed up together and I thought it
would be good to put them all back together and put them in my display case of the first 21 figures.

This was the case:-



Clearly some impostors in there. That Leia looks far to mint to have been played with, and I don't remember the sticker
on my r2 being that nice.

So, could I find them all using the 2003 photo as reference?



The Luke looked good, the tip is broken and there is heavy play wear. The other 2 I have are far too nice and have repro
sabers by the looks of it.

Minty, Leia alert. Clearly an impostor. My Leia had a torn shoulder on one side so this was an easy one to find.

R2, easy to match the sticker tear on the front. The back of the sticker is missing completely!



Chewie, the paint wear pattern on the belt helped quickly swap out the impostor in this case.

C3PO - The impostor had a 1982 COO, these were all bought in 1978 and would have 1977 COO so the imposter had to go.
Only had 2 C3PO's with the right 1977 COO, and the other one had massive paint wear not seen in the photo.

Darth, had a distinctive kink in his light saber so was the correct one.



Stormtrooper has distinct paint rub on the hands, so the minty impostor had to go.

Ben has white hair, and I only have 2, the others are all grey. The other one has no paint rub on the hands so we have a match here.

Han, the original small head, the other 2 I have are the later large head, so no impostor here.



Jawa, only have 2 cloth cape jawas and the impostor has no cloth rubbing round the neck area, so the impostor had to go.

Sand people, my other 2 are cloakless so this is my original figure.

DSC, paint wear differences on the badge and belt gave away the impostor in this case.



And here they are all together again in my display case. They don't look as mint, but they are original owned
from childhood, what more could you want!

I hope you have enjoyed my Saturday afternoon detective work.



Jason

Superb, thanks for sharing 8)

First 12 to me are the cornerstone of collecting.

To have your childhood collection is IMHO the ultimate...it doesn't get any better than that 8)

Looks fantastic mate...congrats

No Ewoks?

Nice- nothing beats having original childhood figures on display 8)

Awesome Jason!

Childhood figures are priceless. I know that most on here regret letting theirs go

That's wicked man! I like to see people appreciating their own original toys, it's not all about condition and grading. Unfortunately all my figures went awol at some point in the early 90's but I do have some of my ships; Battle damage x-wing, Snowspeeder, Scout walker and Speeder bike. Also a couple of creatures and mini rigs. They are my favourite items, they mean more to me than all the mint unplayed with stuff I've collected. Good on ya

Hi Jason, wow nice childhood figures :wink:

Nice work Jason. You can't beat having your own original ones, so many memories I'm sure!
Small head Han to boot, sweet.

nice collection , sadly all my childhood figures were traded for my other passion , fishing gear

Great story Jason and lovely to see such a passion to preserve the original line-up in your original collection... All I have left is a speeder bike and scout; sits on my office desk now