It’s 1979 and I’m nine years old. Star Wars had taken the world by storm two and a half years ago and it was the center of my nine year old universe. For two straight Christmases, all I asked for, gift-wise, were Star Wars related toys (a fact that carried over to birthdays, as well). By Christmas of 1977, Star Wars had been out for a little over six months and the related toy line was the hottest thing in the kid universe. By Christmastime, I had already collected the first twelve action figures and when it came time to make a gift list I asked for every Star Wars related vehicle shown in the catalogs because, lets face it, my action figures needed modes of transportation. And in my world, no vehicle was more coveted than the Millennium Falcon, Han Solo’s ship that had helped save the day at the end of the movie. That Christmas, I received Luke’s X-wing fighter and the Imperial TIE Fighter. Great gifts but, sadly, not the Falcon.
Christmas, 1978. Once again, I filled my Christmas list with Star Wars items, The Millennium Falcon being at the top of the list. Skunked again. Under the tree, I found Luke’s landspeeder, the Death Star playset (the multi-tiered version not that cardboard joke), and a handful of new action figures…but no Falcon.
In August of 1979, Star Wars was re-released to the theaters for three short weeks to build up interest in the sequel that was coming out in the summer of 1980, The Empire Strikes Back. Attached to the movie was a preview of Empire that was full of shots featuring the Falcon herself. My Millennium Falcon-mania was at an all time high after seeing that. I told my parents if I only got one gift that year it had to be the Falcon!
Christmas day, 1979. My dream finally became reality as the last gift I opened was, in fact, my Millennium Falcon. I can tell you, for a fact, that I did not care about any of my other gifts. I can’t even remember what they were. All I cared about what that ship. I wish my parents had pictures of Christmases when I was a kid. Sadly, all I have is this:
This is the day AFTER Christmas. For some reason, my parents thought to take a picture then and not Christmas morning. I’m allowing my sister and my cousin to WATCH me play with my prized possession. I had spent a good amount of time assembling and carefully applying stickers and I didn’t want anything or anyone to mess anything up. It came with two action figures included (Han Solo and Chewbacca) which I already had so I allowed them to play with those and my other action figures but nobody touched the Falcon but me!
I still have that ship, in it’s original box, stored away in my attic to this day.
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