I will never forget the day when my mother waited for me in front of the school, and mentioned a film that I must watch. We went to the cinema "Red Star" and as the film had started with the yellow letters on their way up to the stars, the same way I started MY WAY to be a "starwars" fan. However I did not think I would be a Star Wars fan it was already decided then. I liked the movie, but I was not into it after the first watch. But we watched it later with classmates or buddies for a couple of times, and we all liked it more and more. I was impressed totally when Return of the Jedi was hit the movies, that was a big bang for me! I enjoyed Jabba's palace with all of those tremendous creatures, the freeing scene, and the skiff scene in the desert. These were awesome, they whirled us, it was faster, and its end ran among 3 different plots. (Endor, space battle, and the father and son duel). We started to collect pictures, and photos from the film. Maybe that was the first step of becoming a collector. I had boxes full of SW photos, but unfortunately only a few reminded in good shape for today. My first figures were Christmas gifts, a Darth Vader, and an ewok were under the tree. Their number has grown since then, I have hundreds of figures now. Recently I cannot, and don't want to collect them all, I chose to focus only my dioramas and favorites, I tried to buy only those kind of figures in my scenes, which had their role in the movie in the same scene. Sadly, but I had to sell the other figures that were not necessary in my scenes, therefore I don't really have too much vintage ones for example. I continued collecting the new ones, because my favorites are mostly from those. Since prequel trilogy has hit the movies those episodes became my preferred ones. Those showed me what I was curious about, and what I liked more. What was the Jedi like? How was Anakin transformed to Vader? What have Kenobi and Yoda done earlier? How was it before the Galactic Empire? What was the Republic like? What other planets and species are there? And many other questions, what were mainly answered in the prequel trilogy. And we got even more information! We used many unique force powers in the PC games, we had force lightning, and force absorb and deflect, but how cool was it when Yoda or Dooku used them on the movie scene! The new saber fights were MUCH faster, the old ones were like slow motion comparing them. Each film had some new saber techniques, EPI's Darth Maul had a staff, EPII's two-handed fight duel between Anakin and Dooku, (what was been modeled with me like in Jedi Academy PC game for fun), and in EPIII Anakin's aggressive style added to Kenobi's defensive, and they developed even better! Master Yoda changes his stick for a short green lightsaber, and there slipped out a red one from the Emperor's cuff... The final duel between Anakin and Obi-wan was superb! You can use the highest grade for its length, and quality, the two Jedis knew each other like himself! We could enjoy perfectly choreographed lightsaber fights in the prequel!

For me, the most personal experience was the Jedi's life, their outfit, their fights, and their horrible downfall. But I could also watch Kamino and Geonosis. I saw a podrace, and the Tusken village at Tatooine.

I saw clones, who saved the Jedi first, and terminate them later.

I am happy I could see those "fantastic vehicles", as a book's title says. I am fond of vehicles, AT-TE, Republic Gunship, Hailfire, Naboo N1, Crab droid, Caterpillar Assault Mech, Spider droid, these were all good to see. It was great to get to know R2-D2 from the very beginning, and C-3PO naked, and later in gold casing. I got an other favorite bounty hunter, Zam Wesell next to the already known "old" bounty hunters. We met Jango Fett, father of Boba Fett, and Amidala, as the mother of the twins.

                              

I surrounded myself with these characters, I mostly created these dioramas, as I liked these. It is good to see them, I have the same feeling watching them what I felt watching them in the movie. If the film has no other (new) episodes, and won't be continued, I won't be able to see my favorites otherwise just by watching the film a thousand times, or by playing Star Wars games.

                          

I made a memento for the film with my dioramas, and a memento for the game experiences with my custom figures.

Recently I like fabricating custom characters, these are even more valuable for me as made by my own hands then just a simple action figure that can be bought in the shop nearby. With this collection completed I think I made a suitable memento for the film and the game experiences that touched the soul of every single fan from all over the world, and made them tangible in my house.

 Norbert Rostas