Star Wars!

Anyone that knows me, knows that I'm a huge Star Wars geek. I, like so many others, had the toys when I was young, which were eventually sold off at a garage sale at some point. When I became an adult, and by adult I mean having a decent income, I decided to regain my lost love......but with a slight upgrade. I began purchasing the sixth scale figures produced by Sideshow Collectibles and Hot Toys, much to my wife's glaring looks.......and now my living room is filled with extremely over priced toys that allow me to feel justified in losing those toys so long ago.

But that's not the point of this blog. I was lucky enough to have a pretty awesome mom as a kid and it's with a nod to her that I begin the true reason for my post today, sort of.

One of my earliest, full memories with my love of Star Wars starts with home-made play dough. My mom used to make me, and my older sister, her own batch of play dough......and yes you could eat it; I'm sure I ate more than I was supposed to, but it was with that skill she owned and the character Jabba the Hutt which I feel solidified my childhood love for these films.

I was five years old when Return of the Jedi was released.....prime play dough age! And after seeing Jabba on film for the first time an idea came to mind when I thought about my mothers home made play dough It was from then on that I insisted she only make me large, green colored batches.

I can still picture the scene in my mind, as fresh as the beers I enjoyed earlier today with a best friend.....I would sit at our round, wooden kitchen table and sculpt Jabba out of the mass of green play dough and I'd make him laugh, intimidate and eat any of my Star Wars figures that happened to cross his path!

Then we flash forward to 1999. Yes, The Phantom Menace was a horrible movie, no one can deny that. But, I still remember sitting in the theater, the lights dimmed, the 21st Century Fox logo brightened up the room and their drums began to get my heart racing. Everyone knows what happens next, 'Baaaahhhhh' go the instruments as the giant Star Wars logo flashes on the screen in all of it's brilliant yellow............

It's here where I start to make my point of this blog. After ROTS I never thought we'd get a new Star Wars film, but we all know what happened.......Disney bought the rights for 'pocket change' and here we are, a month away from episode 7!

So, Disney. Yeah. They're amazing and I have no doubt the new film will be as amazing for me as when I sat at my kitchen table making Jabba the Hutt devour action figures! But there is one draw back for me. I have watched every Star Wars film over and over and my heart always starts to beat a bit quicker when Fox's logo appears along with those amazing, beating drums. Only this time we won't get to experience that.

I'm not a fanboy of any movie studio, not at all. But there is something iconic about Fox and Star Wars that, for me, I am just going to miss this time around. All I can think about is the Disney princess castle coming in to view as swirly stars begin to make their way around it's highest peak. But the drums won't be there. The skylights moving back and forth in awkward motions won't be there. The terribly, hand drawn '21' won't be there (I'm speaking old school, not the well polished new Fox logo). I don't know if anyone out there feels the same, or even cares for that matter, but this is how Star Wars has always begun for me and, while I welcome a new chapter with open arms, I can't help but think there's going to be something missing from the opening of an amazingly new adventure.

I suppose at the end of the day, or at the very least as soon as those yellow words flash onto the screen, I will have forgotten all about the void in my expectations, but it still won't be the same.

Or is it just possible, in some 'magical' way, that one of the largest company's on the planet will shock me? Is it at all possible that somehow Disney will surprise me and have stricken a deal with Fox to allow those drums to play as the flying stars encircle the pretty castle?!

My money is on 'no', but I can hope and dream.

And if it doesn't happen, well you know what? I will be one happy (unprepared) camper knowing that I simply get to witness what will remain a permanent memory in my head.......just like the memories I have of those awesome batches of play dough I got to kill Luke Skywalker with!!!

P.S. Minor spoiler........in The Force Awakens, Luke dies by play dough!