The real question is how did this combination happen. There’s enough of them out there, that it was deliberate and not just a one off accident. The majority of these type of miscards show up on Trilogo cards which replaced the Meccano cards later on. Did Meccano get a stock of Luke figures, but didn’t have the cards printed up for them yet? And why no accessories other than the palace blaster? Maybe because of Lukes popularity they were having trouble keeping up with demand and were just trying to get them out as quick as they could? It could also have been later on and they were simply trying to get rid of extra figures on extra cards.

This is a press photo that was used in the Seattle Times and is dated June 6th 1983. It was taken at a Toys R Us, the back mentions the child’s name and that he was 5 1/2 the time the photo was taken. He’s roughly a year older than I am. It’s fun to see all the old toys in the photo. You can even see my store display in the lower right.

This year has somehow become the year of “The Force” Lightsaber for my collection. This is one toy that somehow managed to survive my childhood that I still own. Earlier this year, I found a red one that was unused store stock, to go with my original beat up green one. I got it for a great price and was happy to have both colors now. Then, later this summer, I found an auction for the original store display. The display holds 12 Sabers and I have a vague memory of originally getting mine from one of these displays. These displays usually have fairly high Buy it Nows on ebay, but for once I found one on auction and won for a great price. It happened to also fit exactly into the spot I had hoped it would within my collection. Now, shortly after winning the display, I also found a version of the Green saber with the packaging hanger on it. These packages were created in 1984 for stores to hang on pegs rather than using the displays. I picked up a prototype of the packaging last year from a former Kenner Employee and was excited to finally find one of the sabers with the packaging as they do not come up for sale often. That’s it for now on this, but I’ve already lined up two other items to continue this focus, with one of them coming later this week.

Another item that I recently found, is the last U.S. Bagged version of Luke Jedi. I’ve been not he lookout for this for a few years now. The one I was looking for, just simply said Made in Taiwan on the bag, and can be seen, 3rd from the right, in this group photo.

The last item, for now, is the Rebel Rocket from the C-3PO’s cereal. This was the free item in the box of cereal and also included the form for 4 free micro figures. Here’s a picture of the form and the setup within my display. I still need to find the original envelope that the micro figures were mailed in.

Here’s a before and after picture to show how the setup has changed and then individual pictures of each shelf.

For anyone that would like to listen to it, I’ve chopped out the except which can be downloaded here.

And for fun, here’s the original ad for the old ride from the 80′s. I hope at some point the original footage is made available for fans.

Sunday, on a local classifieds site, I found a listing titled “Star Wars ‘Early Bird Special’” with the following description:

I have an Early Bird Special with Chewbacca, Luke Skywalker, R2D2 and Princess Leia. Original packaging from the 70′s in the original box sent in the mail! The light saber in Luke’s arm functions properly. Send an email to me if interested.

There wasn’t a picture and my first thought was that it was probably the 2005 Walmart reissue, but I figured it didn’t hurt to send a question asking for a picture. A few days passed with no response, so I figured it must have sold.

Wednesday, I received a reply that the seller didn’t have any pictures. I decided to ask some questions about the set, like figures still in bags, Double Telescoping Saber (more on that later), paperwork, etc. He answered all my questions and everything sounded correct. I arranged to meet him Thursday night to see the set and hopefully work out a deal.

I originally planned on selling the figures as they weren’t still sealed in the bags and I want to upgrade the set with those later, but in talking with the seller, I’ve changed my mind about that. He shared his memories with me in receiving the set and coming to Utah to visit family to see Star Wars for the first time. I could tell it still meant something to him and he was making sure it was going to a good home. The surprising part was he opened the figures, but never really played with them, so they are all in great condition.

There are two points that make this set special to collectors. The first is that this was the only way to receive Star Wars figures when they were first released. They were obtained from the early bird certificate package which was sold during Christmas of ’77 by mailing off a coupon. These boxed sets of figures started to arrive in February ’78 and it wasn’t until a few months later that stores started receiving figures to sell.

The other part is that earlier sets included a Luke Skywalker with a double telescoping lightsaber. The smaller tip of the lightsaber slides into the larger piece and back out. It has been said that this idea was scrapped early on because of cost. Some Darth Vader and Obi-Wan figures shipped this way to stores, but they are even harder to find. This set that I bought included one of these Lukes.

Here’s the original commercial for the Early Bird Set. Go in about 47 seconds to see it.

Here’s the set I bought.

And here’s a comparison showing the two different lightsabers. The double telescoping is the first picture with the regular one just below.

I’ve wanted one of these for a very long time and I’m glad I was able to find one locally.

I found out about the site americanframe.com. As a test I decided to price out a frame for my ad slick to see what the cost was and it was a pretty good deal. Any order over $50 includes free shipping in the U.S. which was also nice. The frame arrived today after shipping on Monday and I thought I’d document the process in case anyone was interested in trying them out.

Their website is pretty straight forward. You input the dimensions of your piece and it will automatically calculate the size of frame, mat, etc that you’ll need. You can also add a second mat and I might try that out with the Cromalin, as the samples I’ve seen have turned out quite nice. The default mat isn’t made from archival materials, so you’ll want to upgrade from that one. Once you’ve chosen your mat, your presented with options for the acrylic front. They offer two versions with UV protection, a glare, and non glare. I chose non glare for mine.

That’s pretty much it for the ordering. I ordered on a Thursday and had shipping notice on the Monday after the weekend which I thought was a pretty decent ship time.

Today, I received all the materials and here they are spread out on the table.

Looking at the instructions online it said I’d need to assemble the frame pieces with wood glue and let them set overnight, but for some reason mine was already assembled. I’m not sure if that is because of it being a smaller frame or what.

The next step I did was getting the slick ready for the mat. The mat has a 1/8 of an inch overlap so I measured that on each side and made a mark in pencil. Now the question is how do you line up your piece with the mat and get it to stay without any permanent damage. American Frame has these archival strips, but unfortunately they were out of stock, so instead I ordered these which are also archival safe and no adhesive touches the piece.

So I placed one of the strips up to the adhesive portion to the tick mark on the mat and then did the same on one of the side. I then slid the slick into place and then placed the two remaining strips. Here is the slick with everything in place.

The next step was to put all the pieces into the frame in the order of acrylic, mat w/ slick, and backing board.

Now put the spring clamps around the back of the frame into position, drill the pilot holes, and then then insert the screws.

The last part is to determine how you want to hang the piece. You have the option of one of the sawtooth clips that you hammer into the top of the frame or you can hang with wire. I chose the sawtooth for mine, but on a larger piece I’d use the wire method.

Now for the final assembled piece.

It’s great knowing that everything used was archival, UV protected and completely reversible without any damage done to the original piece. My first experience with americanframe.com was a great one and I’d recommend them to anyone wanting some cheaper framing and don’t mind a little work.

If you’ve made it this far you can go get some rest now.
:lol!: