Friday, August 17, 2012

Top 5 Friday! My Top 5 Favorite Non-Toy Pieces of Vintage Star Wars Merchandise!

We all know that I love me some vintage Star Wars action figures, vehicles and playsets. But there was (and still is) such a vast world of non-toy merch that celebrates one of the greatest movies ever made. As a kid, I imagine that my parents had a pretty easy time picking things out for me. He needs a winter hat? Here's one with Star Wars on it. He needs a pencil case? Here's one with Star Wars on it. Yeah, I had Star Wars everything. And a few of those pieces of swag stand out in my memory even to this day.

So let's take a look at my Top 5 Favorite Non-Toy Pieces of Vintage Star Wars Merchandise!



1. My First Star Wars Iron-on T-shirt

I would go on to own an absurd amount of Star Wars t-shirts over the years. In fact, I probably have at least 12 in my closet right now. But none of them would be as awesome as the first one I had. It was a mall kiosk iron-on of the design shown to the left, on a banana yellow t-shirt, given to me by my babysitter Lisa Klocki when I was 5. And I loved her with all my heart for that. I wore that shirt until is was practically threads, and I've been buying other Star Wars shirts just like ever since to fill its shoes.
2. My Star Wars Bed Sheets

Kids don't get too excited about sheets, as a rule, unless they are covered in images of X-wing Fighters, Wookies and Death Stars. The best thing about this set of sheets was the pillow case, because that would go with you on backyard camp-outs and sleepovers, thus declaring to your fellow sleep-over-ists that you are a man of good taste, with a penchant for space adventure.
3. My Star Wars Drinking Glasses

I can't remember how many of these I had. They were the sort of thing that you picked up whenever you got the chance. Most often found at Burger King (if I remember correctly), these fragile beauties were a blast to collect and somehow made a glass of cherry-red Kool-Aid all that much sweeter.
4. My Star Wars Trading Cards

Do I really need to go into how and why these are on the list? Yeah, I didn't think so.
5. My Star Wars Lunch Box

My very first lunch box was a Peanuts one, which I believe may have been a hand-me-down from my brother. But by Christmas of 1st grade, I was the proud owner of my first (of an eventual three) Star Wars lunch box. To this day I have a hard time seeing the whole "you don't need to see his identification" scene without catching a phantasmal whiff of peanut-butter and jelly.





Tune in next Friday for another Top 5 list!