Growing Up Star Wars

January 9, 2009 2:21 PM

There is something indescribable about the Growing Up Star Wars (1977 - 1985) Flickr pool. I think it's the fact that the nostalgia for a commercial product actually is pretty moving. Okay, some are creepy, but in general I'm happy this exists. It's strange to see your childhood and realize how old it looks.
posted by one_bean (33 comments total)

Without a doubt, I must have some photos that would be appropriate for that group... cool find!
posted by blaneyphoto at 2:28 PM on January 9, 2009

I have some photos at home I have to ad to that...

I have to say, in some ways I'm convinced the prequelization was nothing more than an attempt to get a generation to grow up and get over star wars. That's a whole other mess, but the point is I certainly don't feel the same way about the world of SW that I once did.

But that's what makes these pictures all the more enjoyable. You get to see yourself when you had all that innoncence/joy/etc. [all things modern folks consider toxic (witness: dark knight, the].

Still, you can look back and see it simply for what it was: something that made you incredibly happy.
posted by Lacking Subtlety at 2:31 PM on January 9, 2009

I think it's the fact that the nostalgia for a commercial product actually is pretty moving.

I don't know about that. Maybe you could explore the subject on your blog?
posted by R. Mutt at 2:46 PM on January 9, 2009

This is pretty great. Thanks, one_bean.
posted by dersins at 2:53 PM on January 9, 2009

I have to say, in some ways I'm convinced the prequelization was nothing more than an attempt to get a generation to grow up and get over star wars. That's a whole other mess, but the point is I certainly don't feel the same way about the world of SW that I once did.

Yeah, me too. Even the Star Wars stuff I used to really like just kind of bums me out now.

Except for R2D2, of course. That little dude kicks ass.
posted by infinitywaltz at 2:54 PM on January 9, 2009

I think I favorited that Playing C3-PO photo faster than any other on Flickr. Nice find.
posted by starman at 2:58 PM on January 9, 2009

I was in high school when the original trilogy was re-released (and Han shot second). Pizza Hut joined the tie-in fray, with their pizza box covers designed with some scene from the movies. One had a storm trooper face featured fairly prominently, so my friends collected a lot of them, and cut out the faces for masks. We went to one of the first showings for A New Hope, masks and all, hours ahead of time. We were the second group in line, but the first with "costumes," so we were in pictured in the next day's news paper.

I kept my mask, and a bunch of extra lids, until last year. I came across them and was happy, but no one thought they were that interesting any more, so I recycled the lot.
posted by filthy light thief at 3:01 PM on January 9, 2009

And while I think the hyper-commercialization of everything Star Wars is a bit much now, I really like Lego Star Wars (and Lego Indiana Jones, and Lego Batman ...)
posted by filthy light thief at 3:05 PM on January 9, 2009

This was my favourite.
posted by bonobothegreat at 3:32 PM on January 9, 2009 [1 favorite]

It's strange to see your childhood and realize how old it looks.

Tell me about it.

(not my picture, but my brother and I would have been same age as these two.)
posted by marsha56 at 3:32 PM on January 9, 2009 [1 favorite]

My kids are second generation SW nerds, and my oldest (who plays Lego SW like a demon) wanted to be Princess Leia this past Halloween. Specifically, Princess Leia on Endor. We could not convince her younger sister to be an Ewok, unfortunately.
posted by padraigin at 3:40 PM on January 9, 2009 [5 favorites]

I was 11 when Star Wars came out, and geeky and creative and a little weird. A geeky, creative, kinda weird 11-year-old boy, and Star Wars comes out. Can you freaking imagine?
posted by MrMoonPie at 3:54 PM on January 9, 2009 [1 favorite]

Mr McPinto and his younger brother.
posted by Asbestos McPinto at 4:02 PM on January 9, 2009

A geeky, creative, kinda weird 11-year-old boy, and Star Wars comes out. Can you freaking imagine?

Thanks to photos like these, we don't have to.
posted by one_bean at 4:02 PM on January 9, 2009

Star Wars created two of the most pivotal moments of my life. The first, of course, was seeing the original movie, knowing with every fiber of my being that I was seeing something that had never been seen before, that George Lucas had somehow reached into our heads and taken all the goofy exuberance and wild imagination that made even the pulpiest scifi so much fun and had somehow magically thrown it up on a screen even bigger than life. SW didn't need all the geegaws that Lucas has added over the years to make it slicker and more politically correct because every scene was a new revelation of the possible.

And second of course was the loss of innocence and outright rage I felt upon seeing Return of the Jedi, because even if Lucas wanted to forget it I had seen the horrid but informative Christmas special and I knew he had sold out the Wookies to sell plush Ewok toys. That was so spectacularly crass that I never saw the series with quite the same sense of magic again.
posted by localroger at 4:06 PM on January 9, 2009

What about Growing Up Prequels (1997-2005)? With little kids dressed up like... little kids.
posted by crossoverman at 4:08 PM on January 9, 2009

One of the fondest birthday memories was probably around 85 or so... my dear mum had made and decorated a cake shaped like an X-Wing. It was SO AWESOME - all frosted lines detailing the trim and cockpit and everything. The year or so before I had gotten what must have been a complete set of the action figures currently out, plus the toybox to go with it. Being a wee lad, I enjoyed the hell out of those until they were in banged up pieces... sometimes I wonder exactly how much those figs would be worth now in their packages. Then I realize, they're worth exactly what I got from them - a childhood full of adventures and awesome fun. And product placement. But mostly fun.
posted by FatherDagon at 4:32 PM on January 9, 2009 [1 favorite]

Okay, further to the debate about children's toys, my best friend had a StarWars Landspeeder and I thought that was just soooo cool. Her older brother had a much more extensive StarWars toy collection, which she would borrow. I didn't see any problem with this: I didn't live there, so I didn't have to deal with the fallout.
posted by woodway at 5:07 PM on January 9, 2009

Huh. I forgot that I had a picture in that pool.
posted by ColdChef at 7:42 PM on January 9, 2009

Oh. And my sixth birthday cake. Jealous? Yes, you are.
posted by ColdChef at 7:46 PM on January 9, 2009 [1 favorite]

Space Camp teeshirt and Star Wars curtains. Me again.
posted by ColdChef at 7:48 PM on January 9, 2009 [1 favorite]

My GOD you were such a nerd. You pretty much transcended the whole nerd thing and came right around to the other side to cool again; that's how much of a nerd you were.
posted by yhbc at 8:39 PM on January 9, 2009 [1 favorite]

Also, not to take away from the whole Star Wars nerd thing in general, or the ColdChef Star Wars nerd thing in particular, but I was wondering - where and how did the "Hi, I'm an admin for a group called [GROUPNAME], and we'd love to have this added to the group!" convention start? Is it perhaps a required thing on flickr? I've made fun of it myself, but every time I see it I can't believe it is still so ominpresent on the site.
posted by yhbc at 8:43 PM on January 9, 2009

My husband is a Star Wars fan type, as is our five-year-old nephew. Many of those pictures make me think of one or the other of them. In fact tonight, they sat down together and played Lego Star Wars for several hours. The two of them, side by side, fighting the dark side.
posted by SuzySmith at 8:44 PM on January 9, 2009

Hey coldchef! I went to SpaceCamp myself, two years after you?
posted by Snyder at 8:46 PM on January 9, 2009

Not a question.
posted by Snyder at 8:47 PM on January 9, 2009

Ha, I was just ordering a Star Wars figure tonight, because my not-quite four-year-old really wants, more than anything on Earth, the missing leg from some blue-pinhead R2-looking robot that's part of some '90s (?) re-re-re-release of the Star Wars action figures, with a piece of droid in each package. He got a sackful of these figures for Xmas, and loves them so much.

They're all mixed up now, on the store shelves -- cartoony deals from these Clone Wars animated things, Luke and Anakin finally fighting robots together, etc. But we've only let him see a handful of Star Wars scenes, and a bit of Attack of the Clones, which is dumb yet enjoyable for a junior jedi, as long as the parents skip over the various MASSACRES. So it doesn't really matter if, say, R2D2 from the movies and R2D2 from the cartoon are best friends. Also, the new Chewbacca figure has some weird bandage around his foot. What is that about?

I remember the Dawn of Time, when there were hardly any Star Wars toys, and my halloween costume was a kids' karate outfit and a plastic tube duct-taped to a flashlight. (THAT IS LUKE SKYWALKER.) But I will not put those pictures on Flickr.
posted by kenlayne at 10:40 PM on January 9, 2009

My halloween costume was a kids' karate outfit and a plastic tube duct-taped to a flashlight. But I will not put those pictures on Flickr.

Didn't happen.
posted by rokusan at 11:37 PM on January 9, 2009

When we played Star Wars in kindergarten in '77, none of the boys wanted to be Luke because he kissed Leia. Yuck!

Everyone, of course, wanted to be Han, because he was the coolest motherfucker of all time.
posted by gottabefunky at 1:08 AM on January 10, 2009

My wife had original Star Wars sheets as a kid, and when we were married in 1994 - she still had them. She absolutely refused to sleep on a pillow that was not covered by her SW pillowcase. About 4 years ago, it finally just fell apart into several different pieces. She was, I probably don't even have to say, very depressed.
posted by bradth27 at 5:55 AM on January 10, 2009

I must be from a pre-immersive marketing generation. Hopalong Cassidy six guns and spurs were as close as I got.
posted by jim in austin at 6:41 AM on January 10, 2009

Everyone, of course, wanted to be Han, because he was the coolest motherfucker of all time.

I was 10 and being 10 and clueless, I just luuuurved Luke and thought Han was mean and tiresome. What the fuck was wrong with me???
I redeemed myself by going to see Raiders religiously every afternoon after school for at least a month straight.
posted by CunningLinguist at 7:01 AM on January 10, 2009

Why were everybody's lips so much bigger in the 70's?
posted by ericbop at 5:22 PM on January 10, 2009 [1 favorite]