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My Star Wars Collection Takes Off

In a short period of time, I’ve rebuilt my Kenner Star Wars collection from its humble new beginnings. Y got me an Ikea Billy bookcase for my birthday, which I used to display most of it now. The remainder is on my desk–on display or still boxed until I assemble the models.

I was going to write that this is my fourth Star Wars collection, but on reflection, I’ve always held onto something that connected me to the saga even if the collection’s size changed over time–shrinking as small as just two Kenner action figures of Yoda and R2-D2 28 years ago and growing as large as my collection in Atlanta two years later.

I like having my collection right next to me while I do my work at home. I can glance over and feel renewed or get lost in a memory conjured by these joyful plastic artifacts–part transmedia storytelling and part nostalgia.

Below are photos of each shelf or part of my Star Wars collection:

I put Boba Fett’s Slave I and Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon on the top shelf. They are displayed in flight mode using LEGO-built stands.

On the shelf below, a complete Y-Wing with working sound and canon turret and complete bomb rises above Luke Skywalker’s Battle Damaged X-Wing also with working sound and electronic light.

Below the vehicles, one shelf is devoted to The Empire Strikes Back (1980) with the Rebel Command Center playset with its three action figures: Luke Skywalker (Hoth), AT-AT Commander, and R2-D2 with Sensorscope; Tauntaun with Open Belly and Han Solo (Hoth); the six bounty hunters: Dengar, 4-LOM, Boba Fett, Zuckuss, IG-88, and Boskk; and Dagobah Action Playset with Luke (Bespin), R2-D2 with Sensorscope, Yoda with Orange Snake, and Obiwan Kenobi.

The middle shelf is focused on the first act of Return of the Jedi (1983): an unopened Sy Snootles and the Rebo Band Action Figure Set, Boba Fett, Rancor Monster, Rancor Keeper, Han Solo in Carbonite (TVC), Boussh, R2-D2 with Pop-Up Lightsaber (Stan Solo), Yakface (Retro Collection), Amanaman (Stan Solo), Squidhead, 2x Gamorean Guard, Bib Fortuna, Jabba the Hutt Playset, Slave Leia (Stan Solo), Ree-Yees, Klaatu, Tatooine Skiff (Hasbro 2000 re-issue), Nikto, Weequay, Lando Calrissian (Skiff Guard Disguise), Chewbacca, Luke Skywalker (Jedi), and Han Solo with Big Head customized with white shirt, brown pants, and yellow Corellian bloodstripe.

The next shelf features a Mos Eisley diorama from Star Wars (1977). The background on the left is the Hasbro re-issue of Kenner’s Cantina Adventure Set. C-3PO and R2-D2’s escape pod from Kenner’s Land of the Jawas playset is on the far right behind a Sandperson. The exterior setting also features 2 x Stormtroopers, 3 x Jawas, R5-D4, Power Droid, R2-D2 (Retro Collection), C-3PO (Retro Collection), and CZ-3 (Retro Collection). On the right side is the Kenner Creature Cantina Playset, which is populated by Luke Skywalker (Retro Collection), Walrusman, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Retro Collection), Greedo, Han Solo, and Snaggletooth.

The next to bottom shelf has a lot of modern Star Wars action figures and playsets with a few Kenner and Retro Collection action figures. The Emperor’s Throne Room (TVC) is a clever playset that is a throwback to Kenner’s cardboard playsets. It unfolds to reveal the action panorama of the final duel between Luke and Vader before the Emperor meets his end with Vader’s act of redemption. It includes an Emperor action figure, but I also have the “angry” Emperor action figure. In front of it is the Kenner Emperor action figure in baggie with mail-away box. I have TVC action figures of Darth Vader from Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and The Return of the Jedi (helmet removed and Emperor’s Wrath). There are several versions of R2-D2 (I learned that the one in the back with the white dome is from this comic book set). The other loose action figures include: Vader and Luke dueling at the end of ROTJ; Retro Collection Vader and Obi-Wan from the Disney+ series; farmboy Luke holding his father’s lightsaber; TVC Han (Bespin), Leia (Hoth), 2 x C-3PO, Lando, Luke (Bespin), and Obi-Wan; and on the raised stand, Kenner C-3PO with removable limbs and Retro Collection Han (Bespin), Leia (Hoth), Lando, Death Squad Commander, and Leia (ANH).

The bottom shelf holds the original box for the Kenner Y-Wing on the next-to-top shelf, Retro Collection boxes with some unopened figures inside, LEGO minifigures of Boba Fett, Leia (Hoth), Han (Bespin), C-3PO, and Chewbacca, and TVC Boba Fett (ROTJ and Kenner colors–carded) and 3 x Stormtroopers (ANH carded and 2 loose).

On my desk, I have a completed Bandai 1/144 Millennium Falcon and a LEGO 75375 Millennium Falcon. There’s also three boxed Bandai Millennium Falcon models in the box: 1:350 Bandai Spirits 015 ESB Millennium Falcon, 1:144 Bandai Rise of Skywalker Millennium Falcon, and 1:72 Bandai Perfect Grade ANH Millennium Falcon.

Below are close-up photos of some of my favorites in the collection.

August 25, 2026
Custom Kenner “Big Head” Han Solo After Being Freed from Carbonite in ROTJ

I wanted to build a custom action figure of Han Solo after he had been freed from carbonite in Return of the Jedi (1983), because I don’t like the “Last 17” version of Han Solo in Carbonite Chamber by Kenner (1985) and his NFL linebacker-like appearance (a complaint that I have about the evolution of Kenner’s action figure line from POTF–Barada (1985) is another not-true-to-screen-likeness–to its extreme in the POTF2 revival in 1995–consider the bulked-up Han Solo, for example).

Kenner’s original Han Solo action figure (1978) from Star Wars (1977) seemed like a good starting place for my custom action figure. Instead of butchering a vintage one, I opted for a Hasbro Retro Collection version of Han Solo with the “big head” (2019).

If you remember the ending of The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and the first act of ROTJ, Han goes into and comes out of carbon freeze wearing a white shirt, brown pants with second-class yellow Corellian bloodstripes, and boots.

To customize the original Han Solo action figure, I needed to remove his vest and blaster holster and belt, smooth over those areas, prime, paint, and varnish. The following photos and notes detail how I customized Han for the beginning of ROTJ.

This is the Hasbro Retro Collection Han Solo with big head that I started with. I forgot to take a side view shot, but he has the first class red Corellian bloodstripe (according to Star Wars lore, Solo began wearing the second class yellow bloodstripe to draw less attention to himself).

I used a hobby knife to remove as much plastic as possible before switching to files and sandpaper from heavy to fine grit sandpaper.

One regret is that I didn’t spend more time with the finer grit sandpaper. Priming and painting magnified imperfections that I couldn’t feel or see when I was working on the figure’s customized body shape.

I further smoothed some of the ridged areas on his side and back before proceeding to apply a gray primer.

I applied two coats of primer–letting each coat dry 24 hours before applying the next. Then, I moved on to painting.

For his pants, I used Earth Brown with only a dab of Black mixed in. I only had matte finish paints when I worked on this customization. If I had to do it over, I would have went with glossy paints to improve the plastic-like appearance (e.g., so the shirt’s reflectivity would match the unpainted white sleeves).

I only did one coat of brown, but I let it dry 24 hours before proceeding with painting Han’s shirt.

I had trouble with adhesion of the white to the primer–even letting a coat dry for 24 hours, I would get some white flakes to come off when I would try to lightly sand it before applying the next coat.

He ended up with three coats of white paint on his shirt.

Also, I wish that I had completely disassembled the action figure so as to avoid the bunching/tearing of paint around his arm/shoulder joints when I would move them.

The last paint applied was to create a black belt passing through belt loops. I used black paint and a very fine brush for this. Unfortunately, my hands shook a little too much and I couldn’t create good black rectangles for each belt segment appearing between brown “loops.”

The trickiest painting application was the second class yellow Corellian bloodstripe. Each pant leg should have tiny yellow rectangular bars that go along the side of the leg from top to bottom. I used a pin and Medium Yellow paint. I put a tiny dab of paint on the pin and created 2-3 lines of the bloodstripe. I repeated this until both sides were done. I was happy with how the stripes turned out.

The last step was applying a Satin Acrylic Varnish by Vallejo. Following the instructions, I kept the brush wet with water while applying the varnish. I painted two coats–giving each coat 24 hours to dry.

The finished customized Han Solo action figure is below:

August 19, 2026
LEGO-Built Display Stand for Kenner’s 1985 Tatooine Skiff or Hasbro’s 2000 Re-Issue

One of my favorite Star Wars toys was the Kenner Power of the Force Tatooine Skiff from 1985. I don’t remember the circumstance of getting it–was it a present or did I purchase it–but I remember enjoying the time that I spent taking my heroes on adventures on it.

I no longer have that Tatooine Skiff and it’s virtually impossible for me to spend how much it would cost to replace it (complete, loose versions are trending in the $1000 range as of writing this). Thankfully, Hasbro’s 2000 reissue cost me only $50 plus shipping on ebay. The reissue is virtually identical to the original–same controls for the rudders, plank, figure launcher, and landing gear–but it has updated paint and detailing and the foot pegs are smaller for the POTF2 line of action figures (instead of the larger pegs needed for vintage Star Wars action figures).

I wanted to display the desert skiff with landing gear up as it if were skimming along in the air above the dune sea. LEGO seemed like my best option with what I had on-hand. Below are photos of building the display stand and how it looks with the desert skiff on the stand.

The rear clear brick columns each have one clear cheese wedge to hug the curvature of the undercarriage of the skiff.

The front clear brick columns are topped with 1×2 transclear tiles that hold up the flat plank area under the skiff.

Did you notice the Han Solo with white shirt and brown pants in the completed diorama? I’ll write about how I customized that action figure tomorrow.

August 18, 2026
LEGO-Built Alcove in Jabba’s Palace to Display Hasbro’s Han Solo in Carbonite and Kenner’s Boushh (Princess Leia)

I wanted to display Han Solo in Carbonite more prominently on my Return of the Jedi/Jabba’s Palace shelf of my Star Wars collection. There is Hasbro’s set that includes Han, and there are some third-party creations on eBay, Etsy, and other websites. However, I have a lot of LEGO, so I figured that I would see what I could do with what I have on-hand before spending money on a solution. After several iterations, I finalized the MOC shown in the pictures on this post.

August 11, 2026
Unboxing Two MRE Cases: MRE Case A (10/27 Inspection Date) and MRE Halal Case (6/27)
I decided to dig into these two MRE cases that I bought last year: an MRE Case A (Menus 1-12) with an inspection date of 10/27 and an MRE Halal Meals case with an inspection date of 6/27.

Both temperature reaction stickers were in good condition with no center shading.

As shown below, I was surprised to see that the cases were not sized the same. The Halal Meals case was about 16 5/8″ long, but the standard MRE case A was about an inch shorter at 15 5/8″. The compression of the standard MRE meals explains the smaller box size, but as I’ll explain below, this spoiled some meal components in the standard case.

MRE Case A (10/27)

I was disappointed by this case for two reasons. First, there was one substitution from Case B menu options as listed below instead of my favorite: Menu 6: Beef Taco. Second, compacting some MRE menus to save space caused those menu’s jelly packs to explode and spoil those individual meal components–thankfully, there the contamination was limited to just those items and not the entree.

This Case A had these menus and substitutions:
- Menu 1: Chili with Beans
- Menu 2: Chicken Stir Fry
- Menu 3: Chicken Egg Noodles and Vegetables in Sauce
- Menu 4: Spaghetti with Beef and Sauce
- Menu 5: Chicken Chunks, White, Cooked
- Menu 7: Beef Strips in a Savory Tomato Sauce
- Menu 8: Meatballs in Marinara Sauce
- Menu 9: Beef Stew
- Menu 10: Chili and Macaroni
- Menu 11: Pizza Slice, Cheese
- Menu 12: Elbow Macaroni in Tomato Sauce
- Menu 22: Beef Goulash
As shown below, this was my first case with combination brown plastic with clear plastic backing. Perhaps this helps with inspections?

I’ve already eaten the Beef Goulash, Chicken Chunks, Beef Strips in Tomato Sauce, Chicken Egg Noodles, and Meatballs in Marinara Sauce. All were tasty, but I did add extra tomato sauce to the Beef Strips and Meatballs, both of which I ate as a soup with bread.

MRE Halal Meals (6/27)

Each menu in the MRE Halal case was in a clear plastic bag. These are the menus included:
- Halal Chicken Stew
- Halal Chicken and Vegetables
- Halal Beef Stew
- Halal Saag Chole with Lamb
- Halal Lentil Stew with Lamb
- Halal Cherry Rolled Oats with Almond Flavor
- Halal Vegetable Barley Stew with Lamb
- Halal Lentils and Masala Sauce
- Halal Saag Chole
- Halal Jalfrazi with Lamb
- Halal Beef Goulash
- Halal Vegetable Barley Stew
I’ve already eaten the Saag Chole (with Italian Breadsticks from a standard MRE case menu) and the Cheery Rolled Oats with Almond Flavor. I enjoyed both very much!

I’m looking forward to trying the other Halal menus as the reputation of these having good, strong flavors is warranted.
August 10, 2026