SW 3 3/4 inch - Collecting Stories

While I am glad that I have the hasbro 3 3/4 inch collecting monkey off my back, I had a lot of fun when collecting. I had a friend who also collected SW back in the day, and we used to drive around on days off trying to pick up stuff at obscure or remote toy stores, often with great success. What was cool was trying to get stuff for ourselves and every one else that we knew, so it wasn't uncommon to buy four or five of a figure, to share the wealth. Anyway, I remember these days fondly, and some geekier moments stand out, like finding 50+ holo R2-D2 at a toys r us for 1.98 each, or seeing two guys get into a full out fist fight that involved the cops for the first SW lego set, or stumbling out of a bar at 11:45 to wander into toys r us, buy the mynock hunt three pack, and go right back to the bar! Anybody else chase these things down?

I got into these for a while during ROTS. I had always wanted to so I gave in. Once SS announced the 12" stuff and I got my GG Vader I decided that I would go that route instead. Now, I am still kicking around getting the Cody Saga figure and Scorch Saga figures.

Yeah, I started out collecting those figures when the trilogy was rereleased... getting a figure here and there. But once Episode 1 came out I was wrapped up in the hunt for Darth Maul. Man, I remember how crazy it was to find one.. and even when you finally did... it had a 50% chance of having decent paint apps.

I stopped once I saw the movie and did not start back again until ROTS. I think the Navy was a big help in that... since I was usually too drunk and busy to collect much of anything at the time. (not too much room in a small rack on the carrier anyhow)

I got a ton of the ROTS stuff, even going to the Midnight madness at Toys R US. I bought almost the entire line before giving up... And then I found the greatness that is SSC and have since sold a lot of my old SW stuff. Keeping a few gems here and there.

I'll have to agree with jlcmsu, though... I'm also kicking around the idea of getting those two figs... Especially Scorch.

Anyway... good times with the Hasbro 3 3/4th line..

I don't even want to admit to how many 3 3/4 figures I have. I can honestly say that I've never paid more than retail prices for figures. Not once have I bought one on ebay for some ridiculous price.

The best thing I ever saw was the midnight madness for Episode 1 toys. I couldn't believe how crazy people were acting. Grown men fighting over toys! It was insane!

Even after I stopped collecting I went to the midnight madness sales just to watch. For Clones I was pleasantly surprised when I actually saw civility. People were calmly handing out figures, and one guy was cutting cases, with people yelling out orders and passing out the figures. It was really strange, but kinda nice to see people behaving like rational creatures.

The lego fight was awesome, as one guy grabbed the snowspeeder from the shelf and was walking to the register when some slimeball col-cocked him right in the jaw. The slugger grabbed the dropped toy and broke for the register, as if what he done wouldn't be noticed if he checked out before the other guy got up. The manager was great when she stopped this guy cold and informed him that he will be having to wait for the police!

I do still collect the Galactic Heroes. I've got several of those things.

The best time I had was in the early 80s buying Empire figures with my brother.

You young ones have no idea what true Star Wars mania was unless you grew up 1977-1983.

I was around for the last part of that. 1981 here baby

Greetings!
I was a serious collector of the line, starting in '95 with the POTF2 line. Right off the bat I was drawn to collecting the errors and variations coming out of the factory. I surmised that ALOT of folks would be after these figures, and to make my collection stand out (and have some real intrinsic value) I went after these hard to find oddities. I spent an incalculable amount of time running around town, scouring the toy store shelves looking through thousands of toys. In the end, I amassed a fairly complete collection spanning 10 years. With all the errors and variations, I would sometimes wind up with 10+ of the same character. I finally was able to get the cream of the crop graded by a well known company (AFA) @ last years SD comic con. I spent over a thousand bucks just to get the 40 or so figs graded. At that same convention, I first discovered Side Show. The first things I bought were the Sauron and Witch King helms. I also started collecting signed movie posters. Something had to give, and it seemed silly to continue to buy the 3 3/4 stuff, as most of it was sitting in storage. With a new baby on the way (James JR., born 9/16/05) I figured that if I was ever going to sell and try to recoup any of the dough I put into collecting them, the time was right. ROTS was just released, the market was hot, and I had some prime graded errors and variations. I also wanted to shift my collecting focus to the more expensive posters I mentioned, as well as the high quality Side Show items I saw at the con. I did pretty well with the graded stuff, one figure in particular, AFA graded 90 POTF2 transition tray Luke, went for 700+ dollars. All in all, I think I made around 5K, far less than I invested. I have kept a few of my favorites, not necessarily the most valuable ones (that would be the Luke mentioned earlier) and some of the 12 inch two packs.
It was kind of sad to see all that go, and I may regret it in the future, but am very happy with my current collection.
My Side Show focus is LOTR and, of course, Star Wars. I have the helms I referred to, the Morgul Lord, King of the Dead, Sauron and Battle Troll of Mordor polystones (hope to have the Witch King o' Angmar someday). Have Vader PF exclusive (my personal fave!), with Obi exclusive and Greivous on the way! As a long time comic book fan, also like the Marvel VS stuff as well. Have the exclusive X-Men VS Sentinel and Wolverine VS Sabertooth exclusive, with Hulk Vs Spidey ordered as well (not grey, unfortunately...) Looking forward to much more quality Side Show product!
Best,
James W Barron
[email protected]

snowtrooper1966 said:

...All in all, I think I made around 5K, far less than I invested...

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Is it just me, or does it always seem like the prices are highest while we are collecting, and then drop if we decide to sell?

Batty said:

The best thing I ever saw was the midnight madness for Episode 1 toys.

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I was there too. The frenzy for a new Star Wars trilogy was amazing. That was the beginning of the end though for my collecting 3 3/4" figs. I got most of Ep.1 stuff, then backed off on AOTC...and got 2 figures from ROTS (deluxe Vader/Anakin and Grievous). After serious collecting from 1990 to 2000, I had finally reached my limit...and my storage space.

I've got way too much POTF stuff (doubles of everything; one to open, one to store, plus variants)...if there's ever a resurgence of interest in 3 3/4 figs I'll probably sell it all.

P.S. Remember hunting down the elusive Royal Guard? And then by Christmas there were like hundreds of them at TRU tossed in those wire bins. Oh, the madness...

lcummins said:

Is it just me, or does it always seem like the prices are highest while we are collecting, and then drop if we decide to sell?

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Buy low and sell high....
Throw passion and mania into the equation and that seems to reverse. If we did this for the money, we would all be broke. Truth be told, I do not regret the dough and time spent, and do not think I came out of it that bad. I too attended the "midnight madness" @ Toys R Us on Morena in SD for the Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. In fact, I was first in line for EP1, and even got on the news (official Jedi dork status achieved!) and was fortunate enough to score a "blue visor" Jango Fett at the 'Clones midnight madness sale. I thought it was a unique paint error, but after reporting it to a few collecting fansites, others started to surface. A week later, I "discovered" what I called the "grey armor" Jango @ a Target. I reported this as well, so gained a bit of notoriety in the collecting world as a variation/error hunter (official Jedi dork status cemented!) and was quite pleased overall with my 3 3/4 collecting experience, early wakeups and adults hording/fighting over toys notwithstanding.....
I am not missing my collection now, and love the way the PF format Vader commands attention. Same theme, just more easily appreciated by the collectingly challenged...

You are so right Gruson. Unless you were there from 1977 to 1983, you cannot possibly imagine the frenzy that was Star Wars. I was 14 when Star Wars came out. I wanted to see it so bad I was begging my dad to take me.
When we got to the theater the line was around the block. We stood in line and when we got close to the door they announced that showing was sold out. Well my dad did not want to hang around another two hours (tired from work) so he took me to see Island of Dr. Moreau with Burt Lancaster. Good movie but, no Star Wars. He must have known I was bummed out, cause the next day we saw Star Wars and my life was changed. For the next six years that story was everywhere!

I remember going hunting in the Toys R us stores with a friend who was of driving age. Those were the days, finding shelves filled with the 12 inch figures, vehicles, posters etc....

Don't get me wrong, I love the prequels. But they and nothing else will ever have the magic the originals held over us from 77 to 83.

88th division said:

You are so right Gruson. Unless you were there from 1977 to 1983, you cannot possibly imagine the frenzy that was Star Wars. I was 14 when Star Wars came out. I wanted to see it so bad I was begging my dad to take me.
When we got to the theater the line was around the block. We stood in line and when we got close to the door they announced that showing was sold out. Well my dad did not want to hang around another two hours (tired from work) so he took me to see Island of Dr. Moreau with Burt Lancaster. Good movie but, no Star Wars. He must have known I was bummed out, cause the next day we saw Star Wars and my life was changed. For the next six years that story was everywhere!

I remember going hunting in the Toys R us stores with a friend who was of driving age. Those were the days, finding shelves filled with the 12 inch figures, vehicles, posters etc....

Don't get me wrong, I love the prequels. But they and nothing else will ever have the magic the originals held over us from 77 to 83.

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Amen, brother.

I was 7 when ANH came out and instantly fell in love the Kenner 3 3/4" figures and ships and the 12" figs. I still have about 100 of my 3 3/4 figs in pretty decent condition and all their guns/accessories. I also still have my 12" Luke and Han and my brother's Chewie and bowcaster (thought I don't have the bandolier).

When I was probably 8 or 9 I stole a whole bunch of dimes from my mom's coin jar, rode my bike into town to a local drug store and purchased Greedo-- no lie. Pretty pathetic but that was the desperation of a 8-year-old addicted to Star Wars. 1977-1983 really was the "Golden Age" for young, impressionable Star Wars fans.

In '99 I forever left the 3 3/4 world behind and went head over heels 1/6 in everthing from WWII, to modern, to historical periods, and of course, Star Wars. This SSC 12" Star Wars series combines two of my favorite hobbies-- SW and 1/6.

After having the vintage figures as a kid I got back into Star Wars when the Special Editions came out in 1997 and collected mostly 3 3/4" Hasbro stuff from then until June/July of last year. Largely due to the huge disappointment of the PT films I had been losing intrest for some time and as storage space was becoming more of an issue and the majority of "new" figures were just reissues and Clone variants I called it a day and over the next few months proceeded to sell my collection on ebay. Not wanting to quit Star Wars collecting altogether I continued collecting Kubricks which don't take up much space and I would have been happy just getting those along with the occasional GG mini bust. Collecting 12" figures had never been something I considered as I thought Hasbro's were mostly awful and aside from a couple of their better offerings (all droids) that I got on clearance the only other 12" figure I owned was the Marmit Boba Fett. However when I saw that Sideshow were going to be doing 12" Star Wars figures I was intrested to see how they would turn out as I had thought the few James Bond figures I'd seen in a local comic shop were amazing quality compared to Hasbro. The first pics of Luke did not disappoint and I knew at that moment what I'd be spending most of my collecting budget on. So far I've ordered 4 of the 7 SW figures and the T-800 Terminator as well. I don't have a single regret about quitting Hasbro collecting as the Sideshow figures have rekindled my intrest in a hobby that had become a chore and I feel that to start collecting Hasbro products again would be a step down.

jlcmsu said:

I was around for the last part of that. 1981 here baby

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1981 in the house!! Yeah, we were a little late to the mania... but at least still in the mix!

I still remember seeing Jedi when it was rereleased... I think it was 86-87 or somewhere around there... It was the first movie my parents let me watch alone. They said that I watched ROTJ 2 times in a row while they were shopping in the mall, and they even had to come in there and stop me from trying to see it the third time! They knew right then that I was never going to stop loving Star Wars.

I once killed a man in Reno just to watch him die....oh wrong thread...

kingdarkness03 said:

I once killed a man in Reno just to watch him die....oh wrong thread...

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That was you?

BTW one of my favorite Kids in the Hall jokes was... "I once killed a man just to watch him die. Then I got distracted and missed it."

Yup that was me......

Hey, I just got a Galactic Hunt Grievous w/ silver Boba Fett hologram figure and a Galactic Hunt Scorch w/ silver Han Solo hologram figure -- case fresh and still with that unmistakable Hong Kong sweat-shop smell...

I got them to flip on eBay to pay for the Cody and the pair of his clones that I got at the same time but... I never saw a Scorch before and he looks SWEET! What to do... what to do...