Like many of us, Steve Sansweet was enamored with Star Wars when it hit the big screen back in 1977. Almost immediately after its release he began collecting Star Wars toys. That’s not particularly unusual; lots of us owned Star Wars toys back in the late 70s. Some of us, like myself, have even hung on to those vintage toys and added to our collections. For me personally, the culmination of this collecting has been my Star Wars Room, a room in my house lined with shelves designed to display my collection of Star Wars toys and memorabilia.
For Steve Sansweet it culminated with a job with Lucasfilm, authoring (to date) 16 Star Wars-themed books, and eventually the creation of Rancho Obi-Wan — home of the largest privately-owned collection of Star Wars memorabilia in the world. From the outside, Rancho Obi-Wan looks like what it used to be: a 9,000 square-foot chicken ranch. There are hints along the walk up to the building (located in Steve’s backyard) that there might be something special inside, like shell of a landspeeder being used as a planter…
…or this working Rebel Troop Transport, sitting under a car port:
There were seven of us who attended the tour on Memorial Day: the four of us and three other fans. The tour begins with a tour of the Star Wars library, a collection of hundreds of books from dozens of countries. If you’ve read it and it said Star Wars on the cover, it’s probably in this room.
The halls outside the library are lined with various posters of significance. Of course there’s a Revenge of the Jedi poster on display (“Revenge” was changed to “Return” prior to the film’s release) but there are a few other notable pieces of artwork on the walls as well. In many cases the value is not in the item itself but of the history, which Mr. Sansweet shares with visitors along the way.
I know what you’re thinking. “This is boring! Show me toys!”
Here you go.
Steve’s Darth Vader costume has been assembled from costume pieces used in the various films. The certificate at Vader’s feet designates Steve Sansweet as the Guinness Book of World Records holder of the largest Star Wars collection. Guinness and Steve estimated at the time that he owned around 90,000 individual pieces, although now he estimates the number to be between “400,000 and 500,000, depending on how you count it.”
Either way, it’s a lot.
For the next several hours, Steve worked his way through his personal collection, showing off several pieces and explaining the significance and value of each one. In the above picture, Steve is showing a carded, non-punched, vinyl cape Jawa. That figure alone with worth somewhere between $2,000 and $2,500.
Steve’s collection knows no bounds. From a bathroom full of Star Wars shampoo bottles to a shelf full of Star Wars wine, he pretty much collects it all. Behind Steve in this picture you can see several prototypes for busts and toys.
It would literally be impossible to highlight all the rare and special toys in Steve’s collection.
Along with toys, Steve also has lots of rare and one-of-a-kind items among his collection. Many of these have appeared on television as well. So whether it’s the R2-D2 that looks like Mr. T from Late Night…
…life-size LEGO Star Wars figures…
…or a fully animated Bith Cantina Band…
…you can bet Steve probably has one. Or a complete set.
Many of the items in Steve’s collection are unique models made by friends of his, like this cutaway version of the Millennium Falcon. The detail on this model was extraordinary.
Behind glass were pieces from the original Death Star trench model.
I don’t want to give away any Rancho secrets, but with much pomp and circumstance, just when we thought the tour was winding down we entered another room with some of Steve’s larger pieces.
No, we are not actually on the Rebel Blockade Runner — we’re just in a hallway!
Some of you might remember this TIE Fighter from Cupcake Wars. It has been repurposed as an Imperial water and Little Debbie dispenser. I am sure the Emperor is pleased.
There were so many things to see at Rancho Obi-Wan. In one way I felt like we saw a lot of them; in another, I felt like we barely scratched the surface.
I took hundreds of pictures inside Rancho Obi-Wan and I don’t feel like I captured a tenth of Steve’s collection. I want to thank Mr. Sansweet and Anne Neumann for their hospitality and kindness. Seeing Steve’s collection was an awesome experience, one I will never forget. For anyone who has ever hung a Star Wars poster on their wall or reenacted a scene from Hoth using a crumpled up bedsheet and a few Snowtroopers, I highly recommend visiting Rancho Obi-Wan.
As a footnote, on the way out the door Steve gifted each of my children with a free book. Morgan got a book on making Star Wars art out of thumbprints, and Mason got one on drawing Star Wars characters. Back in the hotel that night, both of them put their gifts to use and spent time creating Star Wars pictures. And so it begins again.
Link: Rancho Obi-Wan
So cool. Thanks for sharing!
Who would have thought what it would start when you saw that first Star Wars movie?