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Kerry's toys collection: Jawas

A bunch of you have asked about my toy collection, so I guess, if ya wanna know, I can break it down here. I’ll start with an old fave of mine. The Jawa. Back in 1977, you would scramble to get the first 12 Star Wars action figures. And it varied from place to place and kid to kid as to which ones were the hardest to find. I was all caught up..except for one..that damned Jawa.

I searched every department store in Utah County, at least twice a week, trying to find just one. My mother, at first annoyed by my obsession, decided the sooner we find one..the boy will have all 12 and be done with this obsession. Y’see, she had NO idea (really, most of us didn’t) of the toy flood that was to come. So now she was the Watson to my Holmes in the search. After 3 months of twice weekly drives from Salem to Provo and back, we finally found a couple. Then, in the weeks to come the great irony. The pegs were so full of Jawas it became annoying. Stores were offering 2 for one sales on Jawas.

The pictured figure here is a cloth cape version, the most common. I never found the elusive plastic cape one which, even now is one of the most valuable collectibles. If you see one, don’t buy it. Its most likely a fake. A collectible company just recently scanned into a computer all of the original SW action figures from back then, and have reproduced them in all of their 1977 awfulness..bigger. So now I have an 8 inch version of that ugly Holy Grail. This figure is kind of a physical symbol and reminder of my mothers love for me. We were dirt poor, but she always was my biggest fan and made it happen. She died almost 10 years ago. Before they closed her casket, I put one of the Jawas she helped me find in with her. It just seemed right.

 

 

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