Mmm, the title sounds a bit dramatic, doesn’t it? But there is literally a war or two inside the house of one collector, Mr Gus Lopez in Seattle. His passion for collecting things from a galaxy far, far away has consumed him, and pretty much all of his house. Star Wars has led him on something of a crusade, basically to become the World’s Number 1 SW Collector. And by gum, he’s done it.
Gus Lopez is a classic example of someone who sees something, really likes it, likes it a bit more, leans in… and it grabs him. Stars Wars is Gus’ life. Every room in his house is filled with Star Wars things. And we’re not talking just the odd shelf of C3PO toys here, the occasional Ewok mask there. We’re talking walls full of official gold and platinum movie awards, original Star Wars artwork, actual prototypes used to make the films’ props. Yes, there’re all the usual movies and figurines, but Gus’ obsession has gone way beyond that. He has moulds of Stormtrooper guns, an R2D2 water-cooler, a Star Wars pinball machine, and even some of Yoda’s fingernails, for crying out loud. It’s the Mona Lisa of Star Wars collections. It’s breathtaking (the Mona Lisa as well).
Gus’ website is (thankfully) photo-rich and laid out very simply. He’s just ordered it by rooms in his house. You can see Chewbacca’s hair samples in the dining room, Japanese bottle caps featuring Star Wars in the master bedroom, or check out the AT-AT snowglobe in the office. (AT-AT’s, if I remember correctly, are those cool 4-legged monster-machines hunting down the Rebels on the surface of Planet Hoth). Many of the items are so rare – maybe just a few or even one exist – that you don’t see catalogue numbers popping up. That’s not the point. Just seeing room after room of anything remotely related to Star Wars shows you what it’s like when your switch gets flicked, and hard.
It would take a special person, I guess, to marry someone with the singlemindedness Gus shows in his collecting streak. According to the site, Gus’ wife Pam is down with that. Comfortably nestled in among the X-wings and Vaders are a few thousand Stitch and anime toys. Just to keep, you know, a kind of balance.
Perfect.
Kollectamaniac 