Book Review: Steve Sansweet’s 1,000 Collectibles

1,000 Collectibles: Memorabilia and Stories from a Galaxy Far, Far Away by Stephen J. Sansweet and Anne NeumannAdmit it.  You’ve always wanted to see Steve Sansweet’s collection.  I mean he has the World’s Largest Star Wars Collection.  (I’m sure that has to be trademarked, by now.  But it’s true.)

We’ve gotten to enjoy a video tour in the past, but that doesn’t allow you to really look at all the cool stuff close up.  The new book “1,000 Collectibles:  Memorabilia and Stories from a Galaxy Far, Far Away” lets you do that without trying to win a charity auction or do something really drastic.

The book is divided into sections based on the type of collectibles.  Sections like “Wear It” and “Eat It” are particularly amusing.

The photography by his curator and co-author, Anne Neumann, really allows you to see the detail in each of the selected pieces.  This is particularly useful for some of the more insane collectibles that just have to be seen to be believed.

For me, though, the best part of the book are the stories.  You can find out how he started.  He tries to answer all the usual questions he gets when he’s giving a tour.  But the captions for each of the items are the most entertaining.  They’re often a large paragraph long and include fun stories about how they were created and the odd ways in which some of them came into his collection.

This is like getting to take a tour of Rancho Obi-Wan without having to go there.  And even though you don’t get to be washed over with the full show, the sheer volume of the book will help make up for it.

If you’re looking to add this to your holiday wish list, tell your loved ones that they can find it in the collectibles section of the bookstore.

Lucasfilm seeing bank on Verizon’s Droid?

See anything familiar in there? Okay, it can be hard to spot on Youtube, but Twitter has been buzzing about the fine print on Verizon’s latest run at the iPhone: “DROID is a trademark of Lucasfilm Ltd. and its related companies. Used under license.”

Lucasfilm isn’t exactly a stranger to cell phone companies, but I wouldn’t expect much involvement besides what we see here… At least not yet.

Media watch: Star Wars: In Concert storms the west

As Star Wars: In Concert rolls along (Los Angeles and San Jose last week,) the press has caught wind and treated us to a few articles and the traditional oh-so-inspired headline choices. So far, the biggest treatment is out of Denver, which uses the concert tour as a hinge to play the dueling franchise game. With infographics! It’s familiar territory but one can’t help but appreciate the enthusiasm.

You can expect the expected (twice) from the San Jose Mercury News, while the Sacramento Press plays it safe. Next up is the northwest, where the Seattle Times and The Oregonian both offer interviews with Anthony Daniels. (The San Francisco Chronicle also nabbed him – on their baby blog? ) Don’t expect much from the east coast or midwest yet (it’s football season,) but Toledo and Cleveland have nods.

Of course CNN, being CNN, got George.