Welcome guys to our new segment titled ‘Collector Limelight’. Every month we will present a focus limelight; following the Kenner list of produced figures. We start off with my favourite figure – Luke Skywalker (known by many as ‘Luke Farmboy’). It might get tough once we arrive at the less popular figures but I’m sure someone in some corner of world will rise up and meet the limelight challenge!
While there are some unbelievable foci out there, we will not always choose the largest and most complete collections. Rather we will be looking to mix up it up between veteran collectors and newer members to the SW vintage universe. The key parameters for being chosen are that you have a mix of MOCs and loose figures.
This month I’m happy to present Aaron Jones, a 29 year old Aircraft Technician from Plymouth, England, as our first limelight. A lot of you may know Aaron from the forums, where he has bought loads of pieces and has previously shared photos of his wonderful focus.
Aaron is quite younger than the average collector, which is great news for the growing hobby. It’s easy to see that he holds a lot respect for those who have come before him and is eager to learn. I like the way he has put his collection together – a great mix of MOCs, interesting loose variants and some very hard to find bootlegs. He even recently included an Engineering Pilot to his collection.
I spoke briefly with Aaron and he let me know a bit about how he got into collecting.
He always had a keen interest in vintage toys and when he finally got his first place, he decided it would be a great opportunity to pick up some of his favourite toys that he had owned as a child, including He-Man, Thundercats, TMNT, Ghostbusters and Star Wars. After a few months it was clear to him and his suffering girlfriend that it was Star Wars that he had really got the collecting bug for. That happened about 20 months ago and he has not looked back since.
Aaron couldn’t explain why he loves the Luke Farmboy figure so much, he was simply drawn to him more than any other figure and when he discovered the world of variants that was it – he was hooked!The sheer amount of variants for this particular figure amazed him and fed his growing SW obsession. After putting together a large loose collection of Lukes, MOCs started calling him and it wasn’t long until he decided to take the plunge.
Aaron admits that he’s more interested in quantity over quality. He wishes this wasn’t the case but it’s important to him (and his wallet) that he put variants together with the desire to at a later date, upgrade.
Aaron hopes to continue building his collection and to add some special pieces. For him the hunt, as for a lot of us, is as fun as the collecting itself and he is happy to sit and wait patiently for his ‘holy grails.’ He’s in it for the long haul! Well check out the fantastic collection he has managed to put together in 20 months.
Aaron’s Luke Farmboy Limelight
Top row – SW 12-B, 12-D and 21-B
Second row – ESB 21-A, 41-E and 47 Back
Third row – Palitoy 45-C Brown Hair, 45-C Blonde, 65-C and Kenner 65-B (both 45-C’s are Toy Tonis)
Fourth row – ROTJ 77-A, Tri-logo brown hair, brown hair with Bespin Saber and blonde hair
Bottom row – Baggies – SW-A, SW-B, ESB-C / POPY (blonde/brown), ESB-H, ROTJ-A, ROTJ-I
Loose figures – In no particular order – DT Luke 2 line HK large, dark brown hair 2 line HK small © hair and leg variants.
3 Line high 1977, black and brown eye variants, Taiwan variants, No COO 3 Line low 1977 – black, brown and red eye variants.
China High 1977, China Low 1977, Glasslite, Poch, Meccano Orange Hair and Engineering Pilot.
Hungarian, Model Trem and Polish bootlegs.
Well thanks for joining us Aaron. We hope to see your collection grow and grow.
Look out guys! You could be the next limelight contestant!