How was it to be a Star Wars Fan, when there was no internet?

Hello all,


I am 44, and i went to the cinema to see Star Wars when i was 11. Since i first saw the trailer in the TV, something happened to me. Back then, in Spain, we did not get many Star Wars items, and the ones that came here, were expensive. When i was in the shool, a friend of mine went to London, and brought me a couple of the small figures..... that was all that i had for many years. Years after i got my first XWing kit.... and many years later, today, i have 7 lifesize characters, and many many many things...


Today, because we have internet, communication is so easy and fast... and thanks to ebay, things that i could not ever dream off before are now in my reach.

Sorry for this long introduction , but i think that it was useful.


But the question is... how did fans got the things ...let´s say 20 years ago? or maybe in 1977? I mean in the US and outside....




Thanks

Alfredo

I

It was a place called K-mart.

Only? ha ha ha ha


no way.....

For me , it was mostly a store called Roses.

And I remember my Mom arranging to have a cousin pick up a Death Star set from the next state at KMart. Family Dollar was around back then I think, too. I may have picked up a few from a store called Graham Cash as well.

Catalogs.


1978 Montgomery Ward catalog;

1979 Sears Catalog ;

1980 Sears catalog;


1981 Montgomery Ward catalog;

1982 Sears catalog;



1983 Sears catalog

That is awesome. I remember ordering things out of the Sears catalog and then waiting until they called us to go down there and pick it up.

So....Snowtroopers putting Captain Solo into the cargo hold, huh?

Oh my god, those Sears catalogs!!!!

Now those bring back some cool memories. I used to love looking through those. The only time I ever got anything was either from Santa Claus (who happened to apparently also have the Sears catalog), and the occasional trip to our local Toys R Us. Funny thing now that I think about it, is that same Toys R Us is where I did my first event dressed as a Stormtrooper with Lewis (aka SlaveFive). Crazy. I can still remember looking at the boxes that showed all the other characters, and I also specifically remember the Vader Helmet figure box for some reason. I think the coolest one I ever got was the Jabba with Salacious Crumb.

Oh yeah, one more thing I got was from my Mom. I wanted a Vader helmet so bad but we couldn't really get it back then so she made me one out of paper mache. I wish I had a picture, but it was one of the coolest things ever to me back then.

I got the Droid Factory, X-wing, landspeeder, and the Han Solo blaster over those years. Not to mention tons of figures and the bootleg Lightsaber ripoff in 1977. All have been long gone.
I have an original Slave 1 in the Star Wars room , it's piloted by a vintage Boba Fett of course.

Originally Posted by slave1pilot

I have an original Slave 1 in the Star Wars room , it's piloted by a vintage Boba Fett of course.

Hell yeah. Somewhere in my parent's backyard there are some buried figures that Luke took care of at the waterfall (aka garden hose). Good times.

As far as props go, back in the day before we had internet, but I was still a fledgling propoholic, I ordered a biker scout helmet from Universal Armorer, who assured me it looked "just like the real thing." I had to send a money order (no Paypal), it took something like 9 months to come, phone calls only achieved excuses for the delays, and then when it arrived, it looked like a cut up plastic lunchbox attached to a detergent bottle with some hot glue.

There weren't many sources for props back then.

Now as a kid, my friend made a slightly oversized Vader helmet out of papermache. She actually did an excellent job on it, and I think she was something like 13 at the time. Pop rivet tusks and black panty hose stretched tight inside for the eyes.

She and I used to make lightsabers out of flashlights and reinforced cardboard tubing.

And the first Don Post helmet I saw was maybe $50 and looked just like the real thing!!! Ah, ignorance is such bliss.

Gosh does that bring back memories lol I had about 60% of that stuff. My favorite was the blow up light sabers that were hooked to a flashlight, and of course my chewy dall that I had till i was 12. All my star wars stuff was given or taken by my nephews and nieces by my mom, she didn't know they would be worth money and she let them destroy what I didn't, but I still have the original Millennium Falcon and the Darth Vader figure case lol. The good old days

i wasnt around before 1989, so i went to walmart and toys-r-us to get my star wars toys and legos

Originally Posted by Fett4reaL

i wasnt around before 1989, so i went to walmart and toys-r-us to get my star wars toys and legos

I turned 21 in 1989.

Wow, I remember those ads in the Sears catalogs! Especially the groups of 3 figures.
I can't remember where I got most of my vintage figures (I still have 76 of them on display) but I'm sure a lot of them came from Sears.
I also recall ordering an "all metal" Han Solo blaster from an ad in Starlog magazine. I was really hyped to get it and I had to save up quite a bit of my allowance for it. When it arrived, it didn't look very good at all and I was pretty disappointed. I had to have been around 13 or 14 at the time and my dad told me to write a letter to whatever company it was asking for a refund. I did, and they refunded my money after I sent it back. So I guess technically that was my first Star Wars prop. . . even though I only had it for a couple of days!

I had 80 % off that , and have absolutely none of it now

Originally Posted by slave1pilot

Catalogs.
1979 Sears Catalog ;

Hey, I got that cantina playset when I was a kid, from that exact catalog. I ended up getting that early blue Snaggletooth doll... I mean action figure.

Over here in germany I never realized a catalog just for the starwars things. Fortunately we had several toys shops that had enough of all these figures and starships ... wasn´t it Kenner who manufactured them?

Man, all the memories when looking at the above pictures! :-)

A friend and me we had almost all of the Kenner things: The AT-AT, AT-ST, Snowspeeder, Tie-Fighter in white, Vader Tie-Fighter, Millennium Falcon, several smaller ships and vehicles and off course tons of figures! *hehe*

But as the story goes, when you are young, most of those cool things is long gone or lost until you´re an adult ...

In my eyes it was the best time in my life ... being around 12 - 15 and playing with star wars toys. :-)

Slave1pilot, those catalog images bring back alot of memories! I couldn't wait to get the newest Sears catalog with all the images of new toys... I could only dream then of army building and getting a whole Star Wars room theme... Years later... I have army built figures and at least my kids rooms are all Star Wars themed!

Man I remember looking at those Monkey Ward, and Sears catalogs every time around Christmas picking out the stuff that I wanted from Santa. Luckily I still have most of it, my parents were nice enough to save it and store it and now most of it sit in plastic tubs up in the rafters. I would have to say out of those catalog pics I have about 85% of it put I would have to say that my favorites are the Star Wars Micro Collection, Original Millennium Falcon, Slave 1 which my son now plays with, and the Tauntaun that has the slit in the belly so you can stuff your Luke figure inside. Grant it the toys back then did not have the detail that they have now but they sure were fun to play with!!!!

Still have my brother's Di-cast Y-wing and Imperial Cruiser (Still has Tantive IV in the docking bay) from back in '79 since I was 1yr old then. Also have an original ESB movie poster stored away in the cedar chest which was given to me by a cousin some years back. I loved getting the Sears "Wish Book" every christmas to see what new Star Wars and Gi Joe stuff I could ask for.

I try not to think of those darker days....

yep! Sears catalog, JC Penny. We had a Toy World here and also KMART too. I got all my Topps trading cards from a neighborhood store down the street from my house and Andromeda book store downtown, where I got all my SW comics, Starlog issues with SW coverage ect. Those were the days!!

Since we're talking memories of days gone by...
Remember when the Clones weren't all based on Jango... that there were 212 Mandalorians TOTAL sent in to the Clone Wars on the Emperor's side (and only 3 survived - one being Boba)... and retconning was pretty much an unheard of thing or unfathomable in the Star Wars world given George's typical attention to detail???

Along with Sears, Montgomery Wards, JC Penny's, we also had a store called TG&Y in California. I vividly remember walking in and making an immediate right to the toy section. I had all the 12" ACTION FIGURES that were release with of course Boba being my Favorite. I can't even tell you how many SW 3 3/4" figures I blew up, shot up, or burned up as they fought along side my GI Joe's. Ah, the memories. I also remember seeing Star Wars at the Mann Chinese Theater when it first came out......that feels like along time ago, in a galaxy far far away.

Originally Posted by slave1pilot

I turned 21 in 1989.

**** glad I am not alone in oldsville.lololol..sounds like we are the same age bro!!

Originally Posted by wickedbeard

**** glad I am not alone in oldsville.lololol..sounds like we are the same age bro!!

Which would be...ancient?

Hey Nate, i'll take a Cantina set for $7.88! Nice.

I remember catalogues like that, but not for Star Wars items, but then I was only 5 years new. I remember the figures alright, and the inflateable lightsaber on the end of the torch (sorry, flashlight) and the 'sellotape' punture repairs , but I remember my full collection of the Blue set of bubble gum cards with most affection.

I wish I was born back then...

Wow! Those ads bring back some memories. I could say still have 85% of that stuff. Man, the Christmas catalogs were like crack. ***! I don't remember myself but I remember my grandmother telling me I would call all the toy story in town to see if they had certain figures in stock and what the price was. Down here at the *** end of Texas it was Sears, Wards, Ardan's, TG&Y, Woolco, FEDMart, Krogers, MAC's Toys and Circus World and one on place had everything. It was like you gotta go here to get this then over here to get that. Now it just a few keystrokes on the internet and a few days later, back account emptier, toys in hand.