Does anybody remember what the times between 1985 and 1995 were like? Well, if you don't, let me tell you, there was NOTHING going in terms of Star Wars, absolutely NOTHING. Those were very hard times for fans. Now, fast forward about 20 years into the future and you land in 2007, with Star Wars being one of the hottest brands on the market. Who would have known? Nobody, not even the maker himself. Anyways, here's a short recap of what was going on in 2007, but with so much going on, I am sure I forgot to mention something ...

Wow! And what a year it was for Star Wars fans! The amount of Star Wars all around us keeps amazing me, whether it be in newpapers, on TV, fan conventions and constant new merchadise releases, the enthusiasm for Star Wars knows no boundaries.

January this year kicked off with the Grand Puba himself, George Lucas, being the Grand Marshall in the Rose Parade in Pasadena, California. The parade included 200 marching 501st Stormtroopers from more than 20 countries, and two Star Wars themed floats (Naboo/Endor). George Lucas even showed up himself to hold a brief speech to thank everybody for coming out at a 501st get-together.

The 30th Anniversary theme was felt everywhere, especially on merchandise packaging. The logo made it onto the Gentle Giant packaging, the Master Replica packaging, and of course on all the Hasbro Star Wars merchandise. Gentle Giant and Master Replicas delivered some extraordinarily nice collectibles this year which make for some nice additions to any collections.

Some of the Highlights this year:

Celebration IV
Celebration Europe
French Reunion Convention
Clone Wars Animated Trailer, with webisodes on www.starwars.com
Lots of TV Shows, incl. Robot Chicken and Family guy episodes
History Channel Documentary, The SW Saga in HD on PayPerView
Lots of cool Star Wars memorabilia
Disney's Star Wars Weekends
Great Book releases, incl. the Making of Star Wars and the Star Wars Vault
Star Wars Vault Promotion at Tokyo Train Station

There were also some local events in the Seattle area like the Emerald City Comic Con, which had Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) and Wayne Pilgrym (Governor Tarkin in Episode 3) as guests. Also, Timothy Zahn toured throughout the U.S. to promote his new book "Star Wars Allegiance", and he stopped at one of the local Barnes & Noble stores to sign books. The local collecting groups S.T.A.R.S. and SARLACC were also very active. The monthly S.T.A.R.S. meeetings at the Red Robin in Tukwila are always enjoyable, and the SARLACC groups' Christmas get-together at Gus Lopez's place this year was yet again tons of fun.

Star Wars was everywhere, throw in the mix Toy Fair and the San Diego Comic Convention with a G4 TV special with the focus on Star Wars, there was no way you could get pass it this year.

There were over 250 action figures released by Hasbro this year, incl. the basic line, Saga Legends line, Battlepacks, Multipacks, pack-ins, comic 2-packs, etc... In my opinion, this is pure overkill and if they don't scale back in the coming years this might actually hurt the hobby more than it helps. I'd like Hasbro to crank out less figures, but better sculpts in terms of movie accuracy, paint jobs, and joints.

Favorite Action Figures TOP 10

McQuarrie Boba Fett
Boba Animated Debut
Lando Smuggler
Hermie Odle
Han Torture Rack
Vintage Hoth Han Solo (brown and blue coat versions)
Vintage IG-88
3PO with Salcious Crumb
A-Wing Pilot
Spirit Anakin Skywalker (I kid you not, I love this figure!)

I also think that Hasbro's Target exclusive Hoth Battlepack was one of the best sets ever released, despite being repacks and repaints!

Besides figures, I was able to pick up a copy of each of the 4 japanese price guides for the modern figure line, and even though in japanese, these magazine/books are a fantastic visual reference.

Most favorite additions to the collection this year (besides Action Figures)

Darth Vader JB V2 helmet
MR Clone Trooper helmets
Darth Vader ROTJ Lightsaber
Han Solo Elite Edition Blaster
Gentle Giant Jabba and Jabba's band

Disappointments this year:

The most disappointing news was that Master Replicas was not going to extend the Star Wars license. This was truly shocking news, because I had just begun to change my collection focus on prop replicas. Lucasfilm has announced that there will be a new licensee, but who it is remains a mistery for now.

Gentle Giant's Rock Star Tour was a big let down. Selling exclusive busts all over the world and making it literally impossible to obtain the Clone Commander Busts at retail prices turned a lot of fans off. There was a lot of bashing and complaining on their blog from fans so that they had to shut it down. Luckily for me, a local collector helped me out with obtaining a full set after he had won all 5 in the GG raffle.

The Force Unleashed Videogame was delayed until Spring of 2008. There were lots of previews in all kinds of magazines about it, even Action Figures had been announced, and then in the last minute, the game was postponed. In the end, I think this was a good thing, as we will see a bigger effort on Lucasfilm's behalf to tie-in other areas into this release. We will see books, comics, action figures, and the game itself of course, very similar to 1996's Shadows of the Empire multi-media event.

Where was the ULTIMATE DVD box set? There were many, many rumors that 2007, the 30th Anniversary year, would be the year where the entire Star Wars saga would be released in a big DVD box set, including new, never before seen scenes. That never happened. Who knows how this rumor was started, but it's a let down none the less. I saw the new added Yoda scene in the Jedi Council for Episode I on Hyperspace earlier in the year, and because of that, it gave some credibility to the rumor and seemed very likely that we would get a final version of all the movies on DVD. But, I guess not. Maybe next year? I for one would like to see some new added scenes (Alderaan comes to mind) to ANH for example.

What's in store for 2008?

The first big Star Wars event will be the Force Unleashed Videogame sometime in Spring. Then of course we will see all new toy announcements in February at Toy Fair (some of the rumored lists out there indicate an equally big release year for Star Wars action figures, and maybe we'll even get an AT-TE!). Later in the year, we will hopefully get more news about the Live action TV show, and with a little bit of luck, the new animated TV show will premier on TV. There is also hope that Lucasfilm will announce a new company which will produce Star Wars prop replicas again. One of the local collectors, Tom Berges (www.yetimountain.com) is planning to capture collections of local collectors with a high def camcorder, edit it and release it on YouTube or post it on his blog. There will also be an official convention in Germany in Spring, with special guest Rick McCallum already confirmed.

All in all, 2007 was a very, very active year for Star Wars enthusiasts, and it's great to see Lucasfilm and Steve Sansweet, together with all the countless fans, try to keep the franchise alive. Now, if we could only get a new movie ...

Criz Bee