This Nostalgic Life Issue #1
Star Wars Nostalgia
Welcome to the first issue of This Nostalgic Life. A brand new nostalgia-based newsletter bringing you stories of the past that are sure to stir your old memories and emotions. In this first edition, we have a few Star Wars-centric things for you to enjoy for Star Wars day. Sit back, relax, and let the memories wash over you!
It’s May the Fourth, and This is My Star Wars Story
by Eric Vardeman
May, 1980. My family and I are living in small-town, Oklahoma. I’m ten, my sister is six. By day, my mom is a homemaker, a “stay at home mom” if you will. However, several evenings a week, she works the jewelry counter at the local K-Mart. I don’t know if it was for the extra money or to get away from my sister and I for a few hours. Dad was in charge of us while mom was hocking jewelry and a couple of times a week, he would take us up to K-Mart to see mom in action. May not sound like a big deal but to us it was because these trips usually involved a stop at the snack bar (I will forever maintain that K-Mart snack bar popcorn is the best popcorn ever popped. Your argument is invalid.).
Also in May of 1980, The Empire Strikes Back was about to take theaters by storm. Like every other kid my age, I was an enormous Star Wars fan. I had a shoebox full of action figures, the X-Wing, a TIE Fighter, a stormtrooper rifle and my most prized possession, the Millennium Falcon which had been my biggest Christmas gift a few months earlier. I still have it in its original box up in my attic.
I have a vague recollection of KNOWING that Empire was coming out soon but I didn’t have an internet that allowed me to get up to the minute details about a movie or watch its trailer 241 times so I had no details. It was a trip to K-Mart that gave me all the details I would ever want. Usually, when we’d stop in to see mom, she’d take her break (unless the jewelry business was booming). Sometimes we’d walk around the store or go to the snack bar. This trip, however, she took me to the stockroom in the back of the store. That was the moment I discovered what heaven would look like.
In just a few short days, the store would be setting up the displays for the new batch of Star Wars toys that were hitting the market in advance of the movie’s premiere.
But this night, all the toys were sitting in boxes in the stockroom. I don’t know who but my mom had apparently cleared it with someone to let me have an exclusive look at all the new merchandise. Boxes of action figures (IG-88? Hoth? What was Bespin? Who the hell was Lando Calrissian? That stormtrooper in Hoth battle gear looks badass.), something called a Tauntaun (what the heck is this and why is there an opening in its belly), a Twin Pod Cloud Car (what?!). I was mesmerized. It felt like I stared at those toys for hours. In reality it was probably only fifteen minutes since that’s how long mom’s break was. As we left the stockroom, mom asked which action figures were my favorite. Of course it was Han Solo in his Hoth outfit and Luke in Bespin fatigues. I went to sleep that night dreaming of all those toys and what the new movie might be like. Well, I wouldn’t know anything about the movie for weeks, it turns out, but just a few days later mom came home from a hard day's night at K-Mart with two action figures in hand.
Han Solo in his Hoth outfit and Luke in Bespin fatigues.
Do You Remember? Droids: The Adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO
Hoping to build on the success of the immensely popular Star Wars trilogy, ABC decided to fill the void until the next film with cartoons based on the Star Wars characters. The two toon adaptations were The Ewoks, starring the furry little fellas from Return of the Jedi, and Droids: The Adventures of R2-D2 and C-3P0.
As the title suggests, Droids starred the metallic duo of the films, prim C-3P0, and sassy R2-D2. Most episodes saw the pair getting stuck in an awful “life” life-threatening situation, upon which C-3PO would admonish R2 (since it was always, “all his fault”), and eventually, the droids would find a way to save themselves and move on to their next adventure.
Some might wonder why the entire Star Wars cast wasn’t brought to the small screen in animated form, and if you are one of those people, here's your one-word answer: "overexposure." Star Wars creator George Lucas was smart enough to hold back on telling the audience too much about the other characters, enabling him more freedom in future movies. Besides, most kids got enough of Luke, Han, and Darth Vader when playing with their wildly popular action figures.
Unfortunately, Droids lacked the staying power of Lucas' film creations. The show lasted only one season, forcing the mechanical marvels into retirement until the next Star Wars film installment years later.
If you want even more Star Wars fun, you can check out Mickey and Jason from The Retro Network opening packs of Star Wars Galaxy trading cards from 1993 in dual-screen format from their always fun Wax Pack Flashback series on YouTube. We’re embedding the video below to make it easy for you to watch without having to click through several links:
In every edition of This Nostalgic Life, we like to share a curated list of nostalgia-themed articles, stories, and posts that we’ve come across recently. It gives you a chance to discover great content and remember things from your past that you may have forgotten. With that in mind, here are some things we wanted to share with you this week. (All links will open in a new tab.)
The Star Wars Characters You’d Find in the Cantina (The Retro Network)
10 Most Outlandish Star Wars Fan Theories (Listverse)
The Best Artwork From Star Wars Album Covers (Rediscover the 80s)
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi Toy Catalog From 1982 (Retro Ramblings)
65 Facts About the Star Wars Universe (Mental Floss)
Star Wars and Shakespeare Plot Parallels (Sporcle)