October 2015
It’s ok Threepio, I did not see this coming either.
A combination on a good price for material and an installer who is suddenly freed up means that we’re about to redo the flooring in our downstairs. The Star Wars Room is down there so this means I have to pack up the collection until the new flooring is put in which could take a couple weeks.
My wife and I are also going to look at what can be done to hopefully create more space for another bookshelf. Although this is going to be a ton of work I wasn’t expecting (seriously, could this not have come up during my 3-month layoff this year?) I’m looking forward to yanking everything out and literally starting over.
For the first time in twenty years I’m going to be starting the Star Wars Room over from the beginning. When I first started setting up in this spare room downstairs there was maybe one bookshelf of Star Wars stuff. Over the past fifteen years I’ve added shelving as I acquired it, wedging it into place. It’s kind of a pain to suddenly have to take down what I’ve spent months organizing (and writing about) but I’m choosing to look at the bright side of this and the possibilities it could mean.
First of all we’re going to paint the room. It hasn’t been updated in about fifteen years so while the carpeting and furniture is removed we’ll paint the walls–I’m hoping for a Death Star grey, maybe a dark blue for the ceiling to simulate outer space. We’re going to completely empty the room of all bookshelves, tables and furniture so that we can start from scratch. I keep saying, ‘we’ as my wife has a good eye of keeping things symmetrical while making sure I can expand things so as to have a place for new Star Wars movie merchandise. (Yeah right, six movies in the works and I have maybe half a bookshelf to dedicate to this!)
Yesterday and today were spent emptying the action figures on each shelf into separate plastic bags so they are at least sorted. That way when I want to start a new shelf, the figures I need are ready to go. It’s funny though, as I was doing this I would notice how many different sculpts of R2-D2 I had on various shelves and began to wonder which were the best and should be included and which one’s could maybe instead sit in the droid sockets of the various ships hanging from the ceiling. A little bit of panic set in too, as I began to wonder how I could improve the displays yet again.
My intentions are to take my time for many of my favourite displays as I would like to incorporate more background images and photos as backdrops.
There are two main priorities with this big project, action figure-wise:
1. My favourite diorama is my Rebel Base but I’ve always had to separate it into two different tables. If we’ve measured things correctly, I should be able to combine these into one large display. I won’t know until I start bringing the shelving back into the room but I’m really excited about this. My biggest focus in the room is my collection of Rebel characters and fighters and if I can make it fit it’s going to look amazing!
2. I need to revisit every bit of merchandise that was on display from action figures, to toy lightsabers, to posters, to miscellaneous items. If something hasn’t seen light of day in years (I’m looking at you Phantom Menace pop cans!), it will be time to say goodbye to it. The walls in the room were starting to get a little crowded and I would really like to make things flow a little better from wall to wall. Other themes I need to revisit include:
•simplifying my Vader corner shelf which is a mix of large pieces and 3.75″ 501st troopers. The scale just looks dumb.
•reduce the Prequels shelf by maybe pulling figures for actual Prequel dioramas, something I don’t have a lot of at the moment. I’m hoping I can make room for a Geonosis arena scene. At the very least I can toss Sebulba into my Jabba’s Palace display a la the Special Editions.
•my Star Tours shelf is busting at the seams so I’m hoping to expand it to two shelves (assuming I can get an extra bookshelf into the room). We’re going to Walt Disney World in early 2016 and I’m sure being there just six weeks after The Force Awakens hits theatres and visiting Watto’s Grotto I’ll need the extra room for sure.
Ideally in this situation it would be nice to do a lot of “special modifications” like LEDs or spotlights for the shelves, even replacing the mismatched bookshelves with identical ones but since this basement renovation sort of surprised us I’m going to have to make due with what I have for the time being as I don’t have the storage space to keep things boxed up while I dream about the perfect collection.
This isn’t a bad thing though. This is how a 47-year old guy gets to keep on playing with his toys. See you after the paint dries!
Mike Tarkin.com 