Baltimore Star Wars Museum

After heading up to Baltimore today to do a tile bid, I decided do something I've been meaning to do since moving back the DC area. So I made an appointment to visit the Baltimore Star Wars Museum. I wasn't sure what to expect. I knew it was in a person's home. I've seen a few pictures on their website, but I had to see it for myself. I arrived at what the owners call the Meerkat Meade at around 12:30PM. About a half an hour earlier than expected. Thomas, the curator greeted me and welcomed me in. He was very nice. The museum was amazing. It needs a little organizing but I love picking though places like this. We got to school each other with our individual collecting knowledge. Thomas is a half a generation older than me so our childhood experiences with the saga are slightly different. I was 5 when the movies came out so I had to ask for everything I got from my mom. He was 14 and could buy what every he could afford. Amazingly most of the vintage toys at the museum he purchased himself from the stores when they came out. And they are in great condition. He had a Rebel Command Base Playset still sealed in the package. He said he never opened it because the base was basically the same as the Hoth Ice Planet and Land of the Jawas playsets and he already had two of them. I found it stacked underneath another toy on the floor. I told him the value of it and said it should be a center piece item. It is in great condition. He also had the Blue Snaggletooth that only came with the Sears Cantina Adventure set back in 1979. This figure also was in perfect condition. Man, I spend about four hours there and could have hung out longer but wanted to avoid DC rush hour traffic. If you're ever in Baltimore. Check it out http://www.startoysmuseum.org/ Thanks for the tour Thomas. See you soon.

I should have taken wider angle pictures to get a feel for the place but I was attracted to the little details. Below is a picture of the European Cantina Playset made by Palitoy. Very rare and super cool. He also had the Droid Factory and Death Star Playset both made by Palitoy. Amazing!

The large A-wing at the top is an original one from the 80s and the modern reproduction is in the background.

Both the Imperial Shuttle and the Tie Interceptor are very rare ships from the Return of the Jedi toy line.

I've been looking for this for a while because I'm a perv. I've never seen one in person, so I was excited to see the Sigma C-3po Tape Dispenser. Notice where you are pulling the tape from.

ROTJ Scout Walker, Speeder Bike, Jabba the Hutt Playset

I don't really collect Return of the Jedi toys but here are the few that have made it into my collection. Here you can see the ROTJ "shelf talker". And the ROTJ Darth Vader figure case. The Speeder Bike is factory sealed as is the AT-AT Driver which is sealed in the original Kenner baggie. The Scout Walker is mint and includes all the original contents. It was opened once for inspection. This is the Jabba the Hutt playset with a few other Leia in the Boushh costume figures.

Here is an example of a Jabba's Palace prototype. Not mine. I wish. Only one known to exist. I think it sold for $9K at auction last year.

This is a cool ROTJ bookshelf. I picked this one up at a thrift store in Norther VA back in 1993 for $12. It had a Washington Redskins sticker on it that I had to peel off. Other than that I displays great.

Land of the Jawas Playset

To be frank, I hated this playset when I was a kid. It was a cheap imitation of the actual Sandcrawler vehicle. But as a collector and not, for lack of a better word, a player, I love it. I love the graphics on the box. I love the little escape pod that comes with it. It's just a great display piece.

This is a modern version of the actual Sandcrawler vehicle. Way more awesome from a kid's point of view.

Action Display Stand, Scout Walker, Dagobah

In this post I've included a few different items that relate to the Empire Strikes Back movie. Fist off is actually from the original Star Wars toy line. It is the Action Display Stand. Originally, you could get this through the mail by collecting proof of purchase seals on the back of carded Star Wars figures. Then late in the run, they were packaged with to be sold in stores. By the time they hit the store shelves most kids who were interested already ordered theirs though the mail. So not many of these boxed displays sold leading to their rarity today. Also in this shot are to original Star Wars "shelf talkers" that were used to in stores to attract potential buyers. The "Galaxy" one came out first. In between them is a reproduction of a super rare shelf talker feature the last three of the original twelve figures released. The center figure in the clear tube is a Tusken Raider sealed in a Kenner Baggie. Below is not one from my collection. I've never even seen one in person. This is a very rare ESB release of the Action Display Stand featuring six ESB figures. Only a handful of them are known to exist today.This shot is of a sealed Dagobah Playset that I acquired through a trade at a store called All Time Toys in Ellicot City, MD. Its nice to see that some of these "brick & mortar" stores are still around. You can also see the large Yoda puppet boxed on the left and a Luke in the X-wing Pilot outfit is sealed in a Kenner baggie in the far left plastic tube.

Hoth toys take up a lot of room because of their quantity and because they include huge playsets and vehicles. So I've whittled collection down to a few key items. The ESB Darth Vader figure case was hard to find and fetches a good amount of $$ on Ebay. The AT-AT poster in the background is from the European toy company Palitoy. So that's pretty rare here in the States. The figures featured here are all sealed in Kenner baggies. And the Probot droid goes with the playset pictured below this one.

Sears Cloud City Playset

This post features all the vintage Cloud City or Bespin artifacts I have acquired over the years. The Sears Cloud City Playset was exclusively sold through Sears between 1980 and 1981. So as you can imagine it is a very rare find. This was actually the first one I've ever seen in person. I found it at a shop called Rebel Base Comics in Charlotte, NC. I think I paid $200 for it. It included the four figures pictured on the box loose. But after opening it to check the contents I came to realize that the box inside was sealed with another set of the figures. I am a collector of sealed Kenner bagged figures, so I jumped at the opportunity to own this set. I have since opened the box to display the Kenner bagged figures.

Here is a slight rearrangement of the toys. I included the Slave 1 box and the Twin-Pod Cloud Car box. Above the Slave 1 box is a reproduction of a very rare store display.

This is yet another arrangement of the playset. The shot includes a very rare Revenge of the Jedi pre-production prototype for the Bespin Millennium Falcon vehicle. Everybody wanted to acquire the rare Revenge of the Jedi movie poster back in the 80s and this piece blows that away in rarity. If the move name wouldn't have changed to Return of the Jedi, this piece would have been glued to a box that would be used to sell the actual toy. So any pre-production prototypes are rare but ones that have the Revenge logo on them... forget about it! This show also includes a rare ESB "shelf talker" that was used in toy store back in the early 80s. The Tusken Raider in the upper left corner is holding the new Lightsaber Chopsticks from Japan.

This shot displays most of the ESB Kenner bagged figures. When your ordered figures through the mail from JC Penny or Sears, they'd come sealed in these little baggies instead of being stamped on a cardback. These type of figures also came in some playsets as incentive to buy the playset. It's actually harder to find these than it is to find them on the regular cards. Remember, these are all from the late 70s to early 80s. The only figure I'm missing is a Luke in Bespin Gear.

This is a print that a Kenner photographer was selling a few years ago of a prototype of the Cloud City Playset. Hand signed print.