A 'Star Wars' Collector's Diary: New Acquisitions!

-
Promotional photo of Buena Vista Home Entertainment/Lucasfilm's Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga box set, a Best Buy exclusive. © 2020 Buena Vista Home Entertainment and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)

Hi, there, Dear Reader. I hope this post finds you safe, healthy, and adjusting to the new realities of living in the "dark times" of the novel coronavirus pandemic. I know that you must be feeling frustrated and scared about the effects of social distancing, working from home, and the effects of a "lockdown" on the economy. I, too, am fretting about the same things, and I am hoping that the pandemic will reach a peak and eventually peter out as a result of prudent self-quarantining and other preventive measures.

If you know the history of how I became a Star Wars fan back in 1977, you doubtlessly understand that the franchise created nearly 45 years ago by George Lucas has helped me cope with sad and stressful situations. If you don't, all you have to know is that I became a Star Wars fan during a tumultuous period that included:

  • My first romantic breakup (at age 14)
  • The loss of my maternal grandfather, "Quique" Restrepo
  • The sale of our Westchester home (which I was fond of) and a long, protracted move
  • The start of my three-year stint (grades 7-9) at Riviera Jr. High (now Middle) School
  • Living (again) with my older half-sister in a half-baked attempt by our mom to reunite the family
Since then, the Star Wars films, books, soundtracks and my collection of action figures, spacecraft, and other accessories have served as distractions during more recent upheavals, including:
  • My mother's long (5 years) illness and death
  • My long-in-the-making estrangement from my older half-sister
  • A bitter fight over my mother's estate in Miami-Dade County probate court
  • The sale of my townhouse and an unplanned (and undesired) move to another city
So it should not be a surprise to anyone that one of the few things that are keeping me more or less sane in the times of COVID-19 is my love of Star Wars, although there are others (not being close to my half-sister is another). And since I'm one of those persons who shops-as-therapy (but not to the detriment of all else), I've been treating myself to some new Star Wars goodies. 

As you can probably guess from the illustration I placed above, the most expensive item I purchased for my Star Wars collection is the Best Buy exclusive Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga box set. This is a 27-disk Collector's Edition that is, as the promotional insert that comes with each set describes it, One Complete Set for the First Time which unites the Prequel, Original, and Sequel Trilogies in one collection.

From a young Anakin Skywalker's descent into the dark side to the rise of the Resistance and their struggle to restore peace in the galaxy, the story that electrified a generation comes to a striking conclusion. The saga will end. The story lives forever. - Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga publicity insert.

The box set, which weighs in at four pounds and holds the 27 disks (nine 4K UHD Blu-rays, nine "regular" Blu-rays with the nine Episodes of the Skywalker Saga, and a bonus features Blu-ray for each Star Wars film), consists of a DigiBook disk-holder, which itself is contained in a Death Star outer box. 

Also included in this Collector's Edition box set of Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is a reproduction of a letter by Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), which is exclusive to this release. 

I have a 4K UHD TV and a compatible UHD Blu-ray player, but I can't use them till my Significant Other sets them up in the master bedroom, so it'll be a while till I break out the 4K disks, But at least I have them on hand! 


Best Buy Exclusive Limited Edition Steelbook 4K UHD/Blu-ray set of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. © 2020 Buena Vista Home Entertainment and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)


Because The Walt Disney Company and Amazon are still at odds over the online retailer's pricing policies, I had to buy both of my Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Blu-ray sets (the Multi-Screen Edition and the Limited Edition Steelbook, which is exclusive to Best Buy) online at www.bestbuy.com. I ordered my discs before the COVID-19 social distancing began and way before I decided to buy the Skywalker Saga set, so they weren't part of the shopping-as-therapy Star Wars splurge.

The "regular" Multi-Screen Edition, which contains just the Blu-ray and the Movies Anywhere digital copy code. © 2020 Buena Vista Home Entertainment and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)
Other Star Wars books and collectibles that have been delivered recently include:

© 2020 Del Rey Books (Penguin-Random House) and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)
  • Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - Expanded Edition, by Rae Carson. (See my review in A Certain Point of View, Too, my new WordPress blog.)
  • Star Wars: The Vintage Collection: Imperial Troop Transporter (from The Mandalorian)
  • The Art of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, by Phil Szostak
This is a canonical vehicle that first appeared in Star Wars Rebels, but I had the original 1979 toy by Kenner; I sold it to a friend back in 1980 because it wasn't in any official Star Wars movie at the time. © Hasbro, Inc, and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)


I have a few other things on order from Amazon, but those won't be shipped out for a few more weeks. 

Well, Constant Reader, this wraps up another post in A Certain Point of View: I already wrote another post for A Certain Point of View, Too, so I'm ready to get up from my desk and go watch something on our TV in the "common room." So, until next time, stay safe, stay healthy, and I'll catch you on the sunny side of things. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How many movies have been made based on Stephen King's 'It'?

-
Image
How many movies have been made based on Stephen King's It ? It  has been adapted twice for filmed audio-visual media. The first filmed version of  It was a TV limited series; the second was a duology of theatrically-released movies.  The first adaptation of Stephen King’s 1986 doorstop of a novel was a 1990 adaptation made as a two-part ABC miniseries for television. Among the cast members: Tim Reid, Harry Anderson, Annette O’Toole, John Ritter, and Richard Thomas. The miniseries also featured Tim Curry as the evil Pennywise the Clown. Adapted for television by director Tommy Lee Wallace and Lawrence D. Cohen (who also adapted King’s  Carrie  for director Brian De Palma in 1976),  It  was okay but a watered-down take on the scary novel about a group of friends who must face off against a monstrous entity known as “It” twice. Once as kids in 1960, then again as adults in 1990. (Like  11,22.63,  the TV version of It avoids the year 1958, which is where parts of  11/22/63 
Read more

Talking About Tom Clancy's 'Ryanverse': Was Jack Ryan a Republican or a Democrat?

-
Image
Harrison Ford starred in two Jack Ryan films. © 1992 Paramount Pictures On Quora, member Maya Lachman asks: Was Jack Ryan a Republican or a Democrat? My reply: If you’re talking about Tom Clancy’s iconic character John Patrick Ryan, Sr., he is depicted in the novels as being Republican, especially in most of the books that follow 1991’s  The Sum of All Fears. In the early Jack Ryan novels ( The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, The Cardinal of the Cardinal, Clear and Present Danger,  and  The Sum of All Fears ), Ryan works his way up the ranks in the Central Intelligence Agency, starting out as a recently-recruited analyst and rising all the way to Deputy Director (Intelligence), or DDI. During his time at CIA, Ryan doesn’t have much to say about politics (except in the context of U.S.-Soviet relations, in which case he is obviously a Cold War Republican), but his pre-CIA resume includes a stint as a Marine Corps lieutenant, a successful stockbroker who, despite
Read more

Movie Review: 'PT-109'

-
Image
In June of 1963, five months before the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Warner Bros. released director Leslie Martinson’s  PT-109 , an adaptation of Robert J. Donovan’s non-fiction book  PT-109: John F. Kennedy in World War II.   Starring Cliff Robertson ( Charly, Spider-Man ) as Navy Lieutenant (junior grade) John F. Kennedy and co-starring Ty Hardin, James Gregory, Robert Culp, Robert Blake, Norman Fell and even an uncredited George Takei (Hikaru Sulu of  Star Trek: The Original Series ), the film is a fairly accurate depiction of JFK’s naval service in the South Pacific as the commander of a motor torpedo boat given the Navy pennant number PT-109 (the PT standing for the Navy ship designator “Patrol Torpedo”).  Although Hollywood had made movies in which former Presidents (either living or dead) were depicted, producer Bryan Foy, under the direct guidance of Warner Bros.' head of production Jack Warner (who, in turn, was influenced by Joseph P. Kennedy, a f
Read more