![]() In Series One, for instance, Gerani made Card #1 a "title card," a feature that became the norm for Topps' movie tie-in trading cards. This card's "dialogue" was written before Gary Gerani, Topps' editor for this card series, had even heard Yoda speak. I also loved the quality of the photos provided by Lucasfilm (the "Star Wars Corporation" had been absorbed by its parent company by then), and as a reader, I enjoyed the copy Topps provided on the reverse sides. Yes, I liked the new metallic border look that the editor of Topps Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back cards, Gary Gerani, and his team designed for the cards. This time, though, I wasn't as obsessive about the cards and stickers as I had been with the Star Wars cards early series. (C) 1980 Topps Chewing Gum Company and Lucasfilm Ltd. Glut, the soundtrack album on LP, the Marvel Comics adaptation, and, of course, packs of Topps' trading cards.Ī selection of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back "Star File" cards and the title card for Topps' 1980 Red Series. (She and her husband were real estate agents and made really good money!) As a result, I bought the novelization by Donald F. By then I was collecting items that interested me or allowed me "to take the movie experience home." VHS videocassette recorders were just then becoming a hot household item, but they were still expensive - the cheapest I saw at the time cost upward of $800.00 - and I only knew one neighbor who owned one. When Topps closed the production line down in 1979, I felt no sense of loss I was too focused on getting action figures and their assorted vehicles, playsets, and carrying cases.īy the time Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back premiered in May 1980, my love for the franchise had grown exponentially. I limited myself to getting packs from all five of Topps' Star Wars Trading Cards series, but not as obsessively as I had in 1977. By then, though, I was also collecting the new action figures from Kenner, so I didn't buy too as many of the cards-and-stickers as before. As soon as I found a convenience store within walking distance where Star Wars trading cards were sold, I went there every weekend. We left the apartment and moved into our new townhouse in late February of 1978. I also remember borrowing Issues 1-3 (maybe even #4, as well) from Carlos Vega, one of the few kids my age that lived in our building.Īs I wrote in my review of Star Wars: The Original Topps Trading Cards:Įcause the home video revolution was still a few years away, fans could only "bring the movie home" in a bare handful of ways:Īnyway, sometime around November 1977 I began crossing a busy thoroughfare in Sweetwater, Florida known as Andrews Boulevard (aka SW 109th Avenue) to buy Star Wars trading cards at a nearby Safeway grocery store. I remember reading the Del Rey paperback edition of the novelization. While we were in our Sweetwater "exile," I didn't have much of a Star Wars collection. I've written elsewhere about my rather late embrace of Star Wars fandom, so I won't repeat that account here, except to point out that it was while we were living in that dark, cramped, and uncomfortable apartment in Sweetwater that I saw The Making of Star Wars special on ABC-TV, and that soon after that I saw the record-setting film itself at least three times before we moved to our new house in Eastwind Lake Village. And George Lucas's Star Wars was that magical vehicle. The only thing I looked forward to once the house was ready was having my own room again.įor these reasons - and many others, I must admit - I looked for anything that would provide any escape from the angst I was feeling. I was not used to living like that, nor did I feel any sense of joy about the move. I wasn't thrilled about living in that small apartment at the El Portal complex it was a bleak two-bedroom affair, which meant that because Mom had one room and my older half-sister Vicky had the other, I slept on a cot in the living room. Now we were stuck in that apartment till January, perhaps even February of 1978. The developers had promised my mother the house would be ready by October, but bad weather and issues with the builders caused delays. I wasn't keen on the idea, but I was 14 at the time and not in a position to question my mother's decisions. It was the fall of 1977, and we were "in between" houses Mom had sold our three bedroom, one-and-a-half bathroom home (with its huge backyard) in September and bought a townhouse in the Fountainbleau Park complex of condos, based on a couple of visits to the model home and on the floor plans provided by Trafalgar, the General Electric-owned developer that was building the new Eastwind Lake Village subdivision of Fountainbleau. (C) 2015 Abrams ComicsArt and Lucasfilm Ltd (LFL)Ī long time ago in a South Florida apartment far, far away, I started collecting Topps' Star Wars trading cards.
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