The Saga Museum Archives

March 17, 2025March 17, 2025

This is an Item Fans of Vintage Star Wars Kenner Action Figures will Recognize!

This is an item that fans of vintage Star Wars Kenner action figures will immediately recognize: it’s the original art for the Star Wars Collector’s Action Stand (or Action Collector’s Stand, or Action Display Stand, depending on where you saw it). It was painted by an unknown artist, probably in the last quarter of 1977 or the early weeks of 1978.

When we acquired the painting in 2001, it had been stored away in darkness for a few decades, so the colors remained vivid, and the board that it’s painted on remained dry and flat. Unfortunately, when it was created, it was almost certainly thought of as an ephemeral object, intended to be photographed and then likely forgotten, so the materials and techniques that were used to craft it would have been selected for efficiency rather than longevity. As a result, some of the paint in one area—the Death Star—was literally falling off in flakes. We needed to act quickly to stabilize it. We called the Seattle Art Museum for advice, and they connected us with a professional art conservation expert who we then contracted to restore the painting and help us preserve it for the future.

This is a page from the conservator’s report showing the state of the painting shortly after we acquired it.

The art conservator determined that the paint that was flaking was most likely formulated for painting plastic models rather than art board, and the board hadn’t been primed to accept that type of paint. Over the course of several weeks, he spent many hours painstakingly gluing down each and every flake of paint that was lifting, as well as replacing a bag full of tiny flakes that had already fallen away, using a needle to apply a tiny droplet of archival adhesive under each one. Next, he carefully filled in the missing areas and blended away the cracks, and finally he applied a coating intended to prevent further paint shedding.

This is a closeup of the restored painting. (The image is presented upside-down to match the image in the conservator’s report above.)

It’s easy to think of a collection as a window into the past, but collectors also think a lot about the future, spending time, money, and effort to ensure that the items in our collections will be around well after we ourselves have passed. We ended up spending as much on the restoration work as we did on the painting itself, but we’re glad that we did. We hope that one day you can enjoy it in person in The Saga Museum of Star Wars Memorabilia.

March 10, 2025March 12, 2025

Mardi Gras and Star Wars

Mardi Gras is probably not something that comes to mind when you think about Star Wars. In fact, I don’t know of any official Star Wars products created for the parade that takes place on the holiday to celebrate the last day before Lent. But that hasn’t stopped the making of some interesting unofficial items.

Each year Krewes, clubs that create a float for the Mardi Gras parades held all over the world (most notably in New Orleans), pick a theme and create trinkets like beads and doubloons to throw to the parade spectators. Some of these themes have centered around motion pictures or Science Fiction which have Star Wars elements and some have been completely Star Wars-centric. Yoda, R2-D2, and X-Wings have featured prominently in these themes as seen by the doubloons pictured from the 1980’s. These are just a sampling of fun Star Wars-related items celebrating “Fat Tuesday.”

Another interesting item with Star Wars iconography is the drinking glass for Movie Night at the 40th Annual Ball of the Mystic Stipers Society (not to be confused with the Mystic Strippers) for Mardi Gras in 1979. In addition to the X-Wing and King Kong, seen in the photo, the glass also depicts Steamboat Willie and Elvis.

So, if you ever have the chance to attend a Mardi Gras parade, be sure to check out the items being dispersed by the Krewes. You never know when you might end up with a unique Star Wars collectible.

February 21, 2025February 21, 2025

Got Blue Milk?

For May the 4th in 2024, the Dairy Farmers of America brands did a nationwide milk promotion in the US. The most prominent item offered was “Blue Milk” under the TruMoo brand which was sold across most of the country, like the blue milk seen in the original Star Wars in 1977. For the completist collector, there is nothing more nerve-wracking than a regional promotion. It’s hard enough to track down international items, but finding variations within a country are a whole other level of madness.

The promotion went far beyond one national brand with Star Wars-themed 1% lowfat, 2% reduced fat, fat free, and whole milk across 22 regional brands with labels featuring Chewbacca, Yoda, Leia, and Luke, respectively. There were also some size variations, the blue milk appeared on some regional brands, and there was even a nuanced 1.5% Fat Milk for those milk connoisseurs who need that precise balance between lowfat and reduced fat milk! Some of these brands were in only available in one or two states such as Alta Dena in California, Cass Clay in North Dakota, Country Fresh in Illinois and Michigan, Creamland in New Mexico, Gandy’s in Texas, Hygenia, in Texas, Oak Farms in Louisiana and Texas, Oakhurst in Maine and New Hampshire, Price’s in New Mexico and Texas, and Tuscan in New Jersey and New York.

We documented 97 different milk containers across this promotion. Because it was so daunting to assemble a complete set, I only went after them opportunistically where I knew friends who might be able to find them for me, since it was impossible to find them all on my own. This photo shows 44 of the known 97 milk containers from the promotion, and since taking the photo I have increased my count to 49 different milk jugs, which is just over half of the set. Also, two of these pictured here (the Turner’s blue Bantha milk containers in the bottom right) are from a promotion in Pennsylvania from a couple years ago.

February 7, 2025February 7, 2025

The X-wing fighter Design Object at Imperial Archives

In museum design, there is a concept known as the Design Object. This is the largest object in your collection that cannot readily be broken down into smaller objects. Since you need to be able to move your Design Object into and through your building, its dimensions drive things like the width of dock roll-up doors, the capacity of freight elevators, hallway sizing (widths and turn radiuses) and gallery entrance dimensions. This 6-foot-long, 6-foot wide X-wing fighter—roughly one-sixth scale—is the Design Object at the Imperial Archives.

(It is not the Design Object for The Saga Museum—that’s a 15-foot by 8-foot painting at Rancho Obi-Wan. We’re also not counting the two large permanent installations at the Archives—the theater designed by Doug Chiang and the nearly full-size replica of the cantina from A New Hope that many of you saw while it was installed at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim in 2015.)

This X-wing was formerly on display at FAO Schwarz in Orlando, Florida. (That location had an even larger model up for a while; if you remember a huge X-wing hanging upside down above you, that was the other one.)

We added this to our collection after FAO closed the Orlando store in 2004, and for the next 15 years, it waited patiently in a crate that took up an entire bay of our garage. In 2019, when we opened a 10,000-square-foot addition to the Imperial Archives, we were finally able to hang the X-wing in a place of honor, greeting visitors as they come through the door. It’s not a static model: the S-foils open and close, and the rear engines light up. (Sorry for the backlighting in the photo—it looks more dramatic in real life!)

Imperial Archives is the collection of Vic Wertz and Lisa Stevens, and is part of The Saga Museum Initiative

January 6, 2025January 6, 2025

Lucas Company Holiday Cards from 1977 to Present

As the 2024-2025 Holiday Season comes to a close, we’d like to share images of the Lucas Company holiday cards from 1977 to present. Although this is not a complete set, it’s really close. These cards were sent by employees of Lucasfilm, Lucas Arts, Lucas Digital, ILM, Lucas Learning, Lucas Licensing, JAK, Skywalker Ranch, and other companies to friends and colleagues. They are unbelievably hard to track down, but collectors have made it their mission to hunt these down over the years. Not all of them are Star Wars themed, but many are.

If you have any of the few Lucas company holiday cards not pictured here, we’d love to hear from you! Just use the contact form to submit your photos and info!

December 26, 2024December 26, 2024

2024 proved to be a historic year for Rancho Obi-Wan

2024 proved to be a historic year for Rancho Obi-Wan, marked by our announcement in October of our plans to launch The Saga Museum® of Star Wars Memorabilia.

Over the next two years we need to raise $2 million to begin the formal stages of bringing The Saga Museum from a grand idea into the galaxy’s most innovative museum for Star Wars fans like you.

As we bring 2024 to a close, we’re inviting you to join us in making these bold dreams come true. A gift to support The Saga Museum today at any amount meaningful to you will make a tremendous impact towards reaching our goal.

To learn more about our exciting plans, please watch the heartfelt video below with the official announcement of The Saga Museum of Star Wars Memorabilia:

Messages of thanks from The Saga Museum Group:

I want to thank Star Wars fans and collectors worldwide for their enthusiastic response to our October announcement of our intention to merge three other collections with mine at Rancho Obi-Wan to create The Saga Museum of Star Wars Memorabilia. We have a lot of work ahead of us and we continue to run weekly tours of Rancho in the meantime. We truly appreciate your continuing support. – Steve Sansweet

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for your support of Rancho Obi-Wan and for joining us on the voyage to make The Saga Museum a reality. I wish you the happiest of holidays, with good food, time with family and friends, and much laughter. – Melissa Hillman

As we come to the end of 2024, I want to say thanks to all of you who have supported Rancho Obi-Wan. Many of you have been members for years and some of you are supporting us for the first time. I really appreciate all of you and want you to know we could not do what we do without you! The coming years look to be even more exciting with the progress on The Saga Museum project and we’re glad you have chosen to join us on this adventure. Have a great new year! – Duncan Jenkins

Thank you for supporting Rancho Obi-Wan as we take our first steps into a larger world with The Saga Museum. The new year is going to be very exciting! – Vic Wertz

I would like to express my sincere thanks to all ROW members, donors, and volunteers for your continued support. It has been an amazing year for all of us, and we have some exciting and ambitious goals ahead for ROW and Saga. We could not do it without all of you, and it takes a community of enthusiastic and supportive people like you to make this possible. We look forward to continuing to share how your contributions are helping to deliver on our audacious goals! – Gus Lopez

A Happy Holidays to the Rancho Obi-Wan community! You helped us make 2024 amazing with the launch of The Saga Museum project and I can’t wait to share the coming years with you as we chart a path to our new public museum! – Lisa Stevens

Dear friends, every single day the love you feel for Star Wars, Rancho Obi-Wan, and the future Saga Museum fuels the world with enthusiasm, smiles, and good energy. As Stew says in the video, “it turns the light on”. I hope the new year brings this light to your heart. We’re super excited to build something grand just for you – stay tuned! – Anne Neumann

A galaxy-sized thank you to our Rancho Obi-Wan community! Your passion, support, and generosity have made 2024 a remarkable year as we launched The Saga Museum initiative. This is just the beginning of something extraordinary, and we couldn’t do it without you. Together, we’re ensuring the magic of Star Wars—and its legacy—shines bright for generations to come. May the Force be with you all this holiday season and beyond! – Michael J. Wistock

To our incredible community, I want to express my deepest gratitude for your support of Rancho Obi-Wan and The Saga Museum initiative. As I reflect on the amazing year we had and think about the exciting path ahead, I realize that inspiration is a funny thing. Our mission may be to inspire others by preserving and sharing the rich history of Star Wars, but it is your passion for the Star Wars universe, your enthusiasm, and your belief in our work that truly inspires us.
Thank you for being a part of our journey. May the new year bring you hope and light. – Rich Smolen