What Piece Of Star Wars Merchandise Do You Regret Losing The Most?
Inspired by the recent Topps article by Chuck I thought it could be fun to talk about the one Star Wars toy, collectible or any other piece of Star Wars merchandise you regret losing the most. Either because you were a kid and did not know better and trashed something, or maybe because you lost interest and disposed of something as you grew older, or your parents threw away some of your stuff as you grew older… or maybe someone even stole it from you. What is the one thing you regret losing the most?
German 1978 Panini Star Wars Sticker Album
As a young kid I found a complete 1978 Panini Star Wars sticker album, which basically retold the story of A New Hope, in the trash. This was years after the album had originally been released. And I did not rummage through garbage bins or dumpsters, back then we had a thing called “trash day”, where people brought out trash you could not easily dispose of (old furniture etc) out on the street, it would then be picked up the next day, there was a regular schedule for that, every few months or so. Anyway, as a kid this was always somewhat of an event because often you would find useful stuff, old toys in more or less perfect condition or other things, and one day I found this complete 1978 Panini Star Wars album, so I took it home.
The album had 32 pages and contained a total of 256 stickers, and that book had all of them inside. But eventually I lost it, to be more precise, either I or my parents eventually disposed of it, so it did end up in the trash once again, only for good this time. Those albums are not worth all that much today, you can get complete albums for anything between 60-100 euros on ebay, but I regret losing it purely for nostalgic reasons.
Also, it is a testament to how different and maybe even quaint (from a current day point of view) it all was. The Panini sticker book also took some liberties with the story and it wasn’t always all too accurate.
Here are a few photos of the album I found on ebay, click to enlarge:
“An Adventure In The Year 3,000 – The Grand Fairytale From Space”
On the first page we get a brief resume for George Lucas, the text speaks about his previous movies THX-1138 and American Graffiti. As far as Star Wars is concerned the text is extremely liberal with its interpretation of things. Leia is described as a “lovely fairytale princess”, Luke is said to have something of a “medieval minstrel” and C-3PO and R2-D2 are compared to Stan and Ollie of all things. And it is claimed it all takes place in the year 3,000. So in the future, not long ago at all.
Also, back in those days the German translation would still translate everything. This could at times even include names. So when R2 was also written as “Artoo-Detoo” he would be “Erzwo-Dezwo” in German, which is the phonetic equivalent of the name in German.
The album is a a chronological retelling of the movie
The album would tell the complete story, so you’d get a good idea of what the movie was all about. The German text feels a little quaint these days. Darth Vader is said to have “mysterious transgalactic powers” for example. Throughout the book both 3PO and R2 are also always referred to as “robots” and not “droids”.
Concept art instead of movie stills were used for some things
The book was not always entirely accurate. Here it is said Luke is the one who picks 3PO, when in fact it was of course Owen who interacted with the Jawas and bought the droids. The book also claims 3PO was near R2 when the latter gets captured by the Jawas and that both are captured at the same time. Panini also chose to include concept art here and there instead of movie stills, as you can see with the sandcrawler. That vehicle is called an “ark” in the German translation. You do get some lore here and there, the Jawas are described as junk traders and their height of approximately 1 meter is also given. It’s interesting to note that the text claims R2 chooses not to display Leia’s message to the Jawa because R2 knows the alien would not understand it.
When the Millennium Falcon had a unique German name
Here we see the events after Han, Luke and Leia escape from the Death Star. Back then, as mentioned previously, German dubs / translations usually translated everything, that often included even names. So the “Millennium Falcon” got a German name instead, in Germany the spaceship is called “Rasender Falke / Racing Falcon”. This is no longer done today and few will people today will probably even remember that Han’s spaceship had a different German name originally. Chewbacca is referred to as an “ape” or “monkey” in the text, the German word for both is the same. The text also mentions that modern spaceships have an automatic fire suppression system, but that the old Falcon doesn’t have any of these more advanced systems, so R2 has to put out a fire manually.
The inaccuracies and made-up things continue on this page as well… the book claims Vader establishes radio contact with Tarkin and tells him the escaped ship wants to go to lightspeed, but that he will keep them busy so they can’t do that. Then the book claims it is Han who says that their escape was way too easy and that they were let go on purpose, when it was Leia of course who says these things. Some people today would label that a “sexist” reinterpration of things. Leia is also referred to as a “girl” in the book here and there, whereas Han and Luke are referred to as “young men”.
Battle in space
Once more you see that Panini used concept art in the book. While the text is mostly correct it once again gets details wrong. Porkins (yes, he had his own sticker) is referred to as “Hutch” and the text claims he lets himself shoot down on purpose in order to divert the TIE fighters from the other ships trying to destroy the Death Star.
“Goodbye!”
On the final page you get some nice promo photos of the heroes. Panini chose to include a fake interview quote for each character, as if a reporter asked them about their feelings after the huge victory. Luke is happy to have traveled to strange stars and to have met a man like Obi-Wan, then he mentions there’s Leia… little did he know… Leia says that she hopes to get her hands on Vader one day. Those fake interview quotes are really quaint. Han closes his statement with “stop your silly grunting you old ape!”.
Apparently Lucasfilm back then allowed licensees to be pretty liberal with their interpretation of Star Wars. How times have changed…
On the right hand side you do get some info about where to order missing single pictures, 0.15 DM for one picture, a maximum of 25 per person though. At retail the album itself cost 0.50 DM back then, which is about 1.40 euros or about 1.50 USD in 2024 money, dirt cheap! Bags with stickers were 0.20 DM, which amounts to 0.57 euros or 0.62 USD in 2024 money (one euro is roughly the equivalent of 2 DM). Those were the days… today Star Wars merchandise tries its best to bankrupt you. But those were intended to be bought by kids with their actual pocket money, not by adults who have too much disposable income and are eager to order $500 HasLabs online. Dwayne in the Topps thread tells me that a single Topps trading card is $7.99 these days, or even more if it is a limited edition. How times have changed.
Anyway, as mentioned I eventually lost (trashed) the album and I wish I hadn’t (or maybe it was my parents, can’t remember). It’s a quaint time capsule of German Star Wars or “Krieg der Sterne (literal translation would be War of the Stars)”.
But tell me about the one Star Wars toy, memorabilia or other piece of merchandise you regret losing! Also, if you are not from the US or from a non English speaking country how was Star Wars presented in your country?
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