While spinning round and round on a tire swing with an old childhood pal one summer in his grandmother’s backyard, I inadvertently ruined Christmas in July.
My friend Jake collected Star Wars action figures by the dozen and had carrying cases that looked like the torsos of the film’s biggest stars: C-3PO, Darth Vader and R2-D2 all opened up to reveal rows and rows of carefully positioned plastic miniatures of Chewbacca, Han Solo and any other character you could possibly think of from the original three films.
He had duplicates and triplicates of many of them - too many Stormtroopers to count, really. And I think I remember Princess Lea appearing in each case at least once sporting a new look and costume, including one in a bikini from Return of the Jedi that Jake was especially fond of.
