Welcome to the third installment of our regular segment, where a vintage collector is given 10 short questions to answer. The same questions will be given to the next collector appearing on the segment.

Next up, is my Belgian friend Dennis Vleugels, known on the forums by his real name but also by his screen name ‘Stargeezer’. Anyone on the forums know Dennis to be an extremely modest, friendly and helpful collector. He was actually a bit embarassed when I invited him on the blog but to my mind, he is the kind of collector who merits some positive attention. He is always one of the first to help out a newbie and has been very active in efforts to resolve various scams (i.e. Debergate).

Dennis is 32 years old, works in IT (MBR Editor) for a pharmaceutical company and is very happily married to his wife who sadly does not really understand his passion for collecting. They have a two year old son, a second baby on the way (expected mid-September) and live in a house they built themselves in Rijkevorsel, Belgium.

Funnily enough, when Dennis was a kid, he actually missed out on the Star Wars toy phenomenon and  grew up playing with He-Man, Gi Joes and other toy lines. He was though a fan of the films and does remember seeing SW toys in comics but unfortunately they had already disappeared from the stores by the time he was into them.

Before we get to the questions, has everyone heard of the new phenomenon, Ross’n, sweeping the SW Facebook groups?

1. How long have you been collecting?

Around 13 years ago, I don’t remember how or why, I went online looking for those old Star Wars figures from my memories and so the journey began, that day I bought my first loose figures which is where my collection began…

2. What do you collect?

I started off collecting loose figures (I used the figure list on Rebelscum for reference) and slowly I built up a complete loose collection with all the major variants listed on Rebelscum (minus the DT figures off course). I then moved onto the more expensive variants, before finally selling off some of my loose collection to fund my newly acquired MOC habit. These days I have downsized my MOC collection to 12 backs but I also collect other various items, such as Belgian movie posters.

VSWC: Dennis’ previous  limelight is here: http://forum.rebelscum.com/t1072671/ (you can see his crowded display case where he displayed both loose figures and MOCs). Also check out the photos below, the first is of Dennis’ current collection of 12 backs and the others are of his past collection.

3. What’s your grail?

My grail hasn’t really changed over the years but I don’t think I will ever be able to get hold of it. It is the 1979 Sears Canada 12-Pack Set which can be seen here: http://web.ncf.ca/cn333/swfigs.htm and if i ever can get it, I hope I can also get the 1979 Sears Canada 9-Pack Set. The cool thing about these sets is that all 21 figures came carded on Canadian 20-back cards – including Boba Fett.

4. What collectors inspire you?

I have seen many collections over the years and there are too many people to mention. I like  focus collectors, but also people who collect foreign runs. Then some have amazing loose collections whilst other have amazing carded collections. If you collect loose, carded, coins, foreign items, prototypes, proof cards, bootlegs, crew items, oddball stuff, have a focus on a certain figure or just a mixed collections with something of everything, it doesn’t really matter, just by limelighting your stuff, you are already inspiring me. 

5. What is your most embarrassing moment as a collector?

I cannot recall having an embarrassing moment in the hobby, I might have asked dumb questions when I was new, but that’s something many of us go through, so that’s not so embarrassing. I have always tried to be straightforward in the hobby, I’ve never ripped someone off or lied, rather I’ve helped others where possible and just enjoyed the hobby we share.

6. What is your favourite Star Wars film?

Empire Strikes Back, followed closely by A New Hope.

7. What would you change about the collecting community?

I would like collectors to take more time to research the SW collectibles they plan to buy.

8. Forums or Facebook groups?

I grew to love both now, I used to be a forums only guy, but Facebook has much more traffic and there are some great collecting groups on there (of course many bad ones as well, but if there is too much drama in a group I just unsubscribe from it). However I  do consider the forums my information database for collectibles.

9. What Star Wars character do you most resemble?

According to Richard, who runs “the Detention centre” on SWFUK, I have a Star Wars likeness match with Ki-Adi-Mundi???

VSWC: Okay I had to google this guy. Ummmmmmmmmm. 

10. Is there one thing that collectors may not know about you?

Another hobby which I really enjoy is Kobudo, an Japanese martial art which is basically the armed variation of Karate. We practice with many different weapons like the Bo, Tonfas, Kamass, Sais, etc…

Well thanks Dennis for coming on the blog and it was a pleasure to learn a bit more about you. See you around the groups and forums!