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“Last week Jedi Temple Archives featured an article on the 10th anniversary of the Midnight Madness sales that accompanied the release of Revenge of the Sith back in 2005. And after reading a second post from Jesse Tschopp, I began thinking about this big day in Star Wars collecting history too.”

“For my family this was really the first Star Wars related event that we actually did as a family. Of course I was the catalyst for this outing but my then 7 year old son was also beginning to amass a pretty decent amount of action figures (yes he wanted them, I wasn’t forcing him!).   My then 10 year old daughter who up until then wasn’t much into Star Wars, was excited about the hunt and of course my number one Rebel Spy, my wife, was always up for some cross-border shopping in Michigan so we headed through the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel on a cold, rainy Saturday morning on our hunt for action figure bounty.”Mitch ROTS Theatre

“Our first stop was Toys r Us in Madison Heights.  Wow! I hope when The Force Awakens hits in December that we see this sort of merchandising again! There was a giant display at the front of the store with more Star Wars figures than I’d ever seen before.  A giant banner with the Darth Vader/Flame design was overtop the shelves and around the shelves were large wire baskets that were bursting as they tried to hold the excess stock that wouldn’t fit on the shelf.  There was a decent sized crowd in the section and I recall being overwhelmed.  Since 2005 was still early in the whole internet/Star Wars thing (for me anyway) I had no idea what I wanted to buy.  I noticed a couple figures had “Sneak Preview” labels on them so I thought that was a good place to start. I picked up all 4 of this series and they became the reason I would start collecting carded as well as loose figures. I did have a small set of POTF2 carded figures in a box back then too; I think the belief was that these first modern releases would be worth as much as their vintage counterparts someday but the majority of my collection was (and is) loose.”

Shelby ROTS Jedi“After picking up the Sneak Preview set I overheard a couple of guys discussing how rare the blue-garbed Royal Guard (Senate Security) was going to be and picked up one of those as well. I’ve since opened or sold all but one of these figures; I kept Tion Medon on the card as I attempt to have one carded example from each line.”

“After spending a small fortune at Toys r Us we ended up down the road at a Wal-Mart in Troy.  This Wal-Mart had a large tent set up in the parking lot.  We entered the dark tent, a creepy carnival vibe in the back of my mind, and saw a few tables of Revenge of the Sith merchandise.  I don’t recall buying anything in the tent or in the store itself but I believe there were stickers and activity books that were handed out to my kids.  I remember thinking after our little bounty huntEp 3 Ticket Stub w Family just how cool it was to involve my family in my passion beyond just watching the movies over and over.  As I mentioned, my son was already collecting figures but the media push for Revenge of the Sith was the first one he remembers since at the time he was about to turn seven.  This was the movie that really made him a fan and I have fond memories of the four of us seeing Revenge of the Sith together (after my wife and I went the night before to see if it would still be kid friendly with it’s PG-13 rating).”

“The kids loved it and I remember as the theatre lights came up and we walked down the steps I asked my son, who was dressed as a Jedi Knight, what he thought of the movie.  He thought about it for a minute and said, “it was sad.”  He knew the fate of Anakin Skywalker going into the film but it didn’t make it easier for him to see his hero fall like he did.”

“I’m sure he recovered quickly from his sadness though.  When I look at a checklist of figures that came out for Revenge of the Sith it’s astounding to think of the amount of variety that there was.  And my son and I bought a ton of them.”

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Mike MacDonald is a contributor to From4-LOMtoZuckuss.com and Star Wars blogger at Looking Away To The Horizon found at MikeTarkin.com.

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