The Saga Museum of Star Wars Memorabilia aims to bring together four do the world’s largest Star Wars collections into one groundbreaking, immersive experience.
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.
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.
The Design Object at 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
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.
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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!
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
