logo Sign In

Remember when... — Page 2

Author
Time
I guess I could try and tone it down a bit.

After all this forum is sort of a haven for fans who do prefer SW pre SE's/Prequels.

I am trying to offer my point of view on things, and sometimes I can get a tad snippy about it.

I guess I have a similar reaction to everyone putting Lucas down all the time as some of you have to people who go on and on about how they like what he's doing.
Your focus determines your reality.
Author
Time
C3PX got the nail on the head Go-Mer. I respect your opinions, but not when you are shoving them down our throats. Your average posts per day are 11.3, and you have 300 some having been here less than a month. You're here constanantly, always saying basically the same thing, and it's really annoying. Yes, this community is primarily people who enjoy Star Wars pre SE's and dislike the prequels, but that doesn't mean we discourage people from voicing thier differing opinions. We just don't like it when we are getting constantly bashed over the head with them.
Watch DarthEvil's Who Framed Darth Vader? video on YouTube!

You can also access the entire Horriffic Violence Theater Series from my Channel Page.
Author
Time
Jaxxon was the name of the rabbit, and Lucas allegedly hated him.
Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

Author
Time
Okay, I do try and be diplomatic about it, but I guess every once in a while I still need to remember to reign it in a bit.

You guys have been much more tolerant of my point of view than a lot of others have been.
Your focus determines your reality.
Author
Time
I hope you take that advice to heart, Go-Mer. It's nice not to have everyone completey agree ("oh, yes, I quite agree" and "I think so, too" making for a very boring message board), but you should really take heed of the warnings that your, um, style is getting tedious and more than a bit annoying.

* * * * *

More on topic ... I remember when a bunch of models finally came out when Empire was released, and we bought all of them, built them hastily without painting them, had play battles with them, and destroyed them all within days! Such fun!
Author
Time
I remember when they had those yellow lightsabers that made the whooshing sound as you waved it through the air.
Your focus determines your reality.
Author
Time
Ah yes... the old lightsabers. Memories...

I remember building Star Wars ships out of Lego when there wasn't a Lego Star Wars brand.
Author
Time
Remember when...
...EVERYONE was is awe of Star Wars?
...no one who loved SW was considered a geek or a fanboy?
...watching SW didn't make you think of all the changes made to it?
For these, I just need to remember back to before I got an internet connection.
Author
Time
Hell yeah for Legos. I made a pretty convincing x-wing and a large and multi-colored Star Destoyer. Of course I was small, dumber and had no sense of scale at all so today they would look only kind of like either ship, but to me it was the closest I could get.

I remember when I had my own history of the trilogy in my own mind and it was and still is so much more epic, satisfying and dramatic than what actually happened.

Hey look, a bear!

Author
Time
I remember when we used to paint sticks green and beat the crap out of each other with them until they broke. Those were the good old days. I remember the Kenner swooshing lightsabers were not durable enough to withstand the abuse of dueling.

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

Author
Time
Originally posted by: Go-Mer-Tonic
I remember when all the Star Wars fans I knew were pleasant and cool to each other.

Yes, well, that's Lucas's fault.

I didn't ask you to comment on them, bottle nose....just add to them....


He has a different opinion. That's not a bad thing.

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.”

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

Author
Time
These are more "personal" I remember when moments...

I (wish I could fully) remember the first time I watched The Empire Strikes Back and being blown away even if I didn't understand it.

I remember my cousin owning an original Millenium Falcon and playing with it, the disappointment in my eyes when I had to go home, but the joy weeks later when he let me borrow it for a while.

I also remember having (and still do) the Hoth Han Solo and him being the only figure available at the time to fly my cousin's Millenium Falcon.

I remember after forgetting about Star Wars, getting the "faces" box set and falling in love with Star Wars again....and this time it stuck!

I really remember getting into the Shadows Of The Empire multi-media craze. I am probably one of the few people who actually has the Shadows Of The Empire soundtrack. I also years later bought a cheap N64 to play the video game!

I remember actually meeting one of my best friends later in life, by the desire to actually play his N64 just for the purpose of playing Shadows Of The Empire. I also remember being hooked on that game, playing it several times over to collect all the Challenge Points and to beat it on several difficulties. Definately one of the few games I had to beat everything on (I would get the similar desire with the new Lego Star Wars games).

I remember seeing a figure of Dash Rendar and kicking myself for not being able to afford it (espcially now since you can't really find it anywhere!)

I remember when in exchange for some other movies, I borrowed the 1997 Special Editions and being excited. I watched them once and thoroughly enjoyed them.

I remember the fever pitch for The Phantom Menace. Surprisingly I don't recall the negative reactions to Jar Jar until years later. I know though that my brother used to quote Jar Jar like crazy....and still to this day actually likes Jar Jar (which I don't).

I remember being excited for my brother who was equally excited for finding a Episode I figure of Darth Maul.

I remember (to cut this short) that I found each Prequel to follow out-did the last.

I remember buying the 2004 Special Editions (along with at the time the Prequels films on DVD), enjoying them alot


Wow....sorry....that was long.
http://img416.imageshack.us/img416/7823/starwarssuppersmallerxx5.jpg
Author
Time
I remember seeing all three Special Edition films.

Opening day.

Author
Time
I remember when each new Star Wars movie meant a new piece of sexy technology for us to salivate over. The first day of school, Fall 1983, the only thing we talked about was how much we wanted speeder bikes. LOL

Sadly, the prequels ruined this tradition by introuducing new ships and tech that were either totally fugly or derivative. Nowhere in the prequels is there anything as cool as the Tanative IV, the Death Star, the Millenium Falcon, the AT-ATs, the AT-STs, the speeder bikes, etc. The best we get are castrated yellow TIE Fighters.
Author
Time
Oh, c'mon. You gotta admit those giant wheel bikes were cool. A little reminiscent of It from South Park, but hey, Lucas has always drawn from the great myths.
"It's the stoned movie you don't have to be stoned for." -- Tom Shales on Star Wars
Scruffy's gonna die the way he lived.
Author
Time
I remeber the first time I saw Star Wars in 77. I was at a drive in theater, and my brother and I were playing on the jungle gym just under the screen when I first saw that Star Destroyer fly ovrhead. I remember almost falling off the jungle gym because I kept leaning back to try and take more of it in.

I remember seeing the Holiday special when it first aired, and saying to myself: "I knew TV couldn't be as good as Star Wars."

I remember my buddy had all the big ticket toys like the Falcon and the Death Star playset.

I remeber the two of us listening to "the story of Star Wars" LP while we re-enacted stuff with the figures. That's just what Star Wars fans did before home video releases.

I remember asking my dad almost every other night to take me back to see Star Wars again, and Dad telling me to wait until it came to TV. He might as well have told me "you'll never see it again".

I remember arguing with another kid on the playground that they weren't making a sequel to Star Wars (no internet back then). All I really cared about was seeing the original Star Wars again.

I remember my parents telling me that Star Wars was coming back to theaters, so they were going to take me out of school early as a treat to see it. And then when I got there, and saw the words "Star Wars" sink into the screen, the words that followed were different from what I remembered. Then suddenly we were over a snow planet! Talk about not having any expectations for a movie what so ever. I remember just being speechless afterwards, and asking when I could see the next one. When I found out it would be another 3 years or so, I was so despondant.

I remember my whole family, cousins, grandparents, aunts uncles all getting together to see Return of the Jedi for the first time. I remember my grandma -loved- the ewoks. She wanted to have some as pets. She also wanted to ride on a speederbike.

I remember years of films coming out after ROTJ that claimed to be "the next Star Wars" and whenever I saw them, they really weren't.

I remember my parents telling me it was time to grow up and sell all my SW toys at her garage sale. I remember nodding OK. I remember placing the stuff on the table, I remember watching people walk off with it as they bought it. I HAD A MINT JAWA WITH VINYL CAPE! My mom meant well.

I bought into the Shadows of the Empire "everything but the movie" marketing campaign. I too have the album and the N64 game, the graphic novel, and the novel. I also have the Dash Rendar figure and the Outrider toy ship, and a swoop bike.
Your focus determines your reality.
Author
Time
I really wish I had memories like these. The world just isn't as fun for kids anymore, at all. Seeing a new movie isn't all that special, first person shooters are ruling the gaming world, and the thing kids like to do the most is sit around and smoke weed. Hell, my friend admitted to it on the bus today, talking about it like it was a big joke, something as natural as breathing.

I do have one, really fond memory of Star Wars though. Two summer's ago, my mom and I went to Chicago to see my Uncle recieve his P.h.D. We stayed with my other Uncle, and as much as I love my mom's side of the family, when dinner was over, they liked to just sit around and talk for a few hours. Sitting in the middle of a room with chatting adults playing my Game Boy is rather rude, so I went to my Uncle's basement where he had a huge TV and great sound system. And on top of that, a Lazy Boy reclining chair.

But what to watch? I found my Uncle's set of widescreen Star Wars tapes. I'd been into the prequels at that point in my life, (ROTS having come out a week earlier) and hadn't watched these in years. I popped in SW, and was instantly transported to that galaxy far, far away. Over the next few nights, I watched the whole trilogy, and even though they were the special editions, they were the best time watching Star Wars I'd ever had. I can't explain it at all, I just have really, really fond memories of that, watching the trilogy alone and being lost in the experiance. I think I loved it so much because it really was the first time I'd gotten lost in the films, and it was like watching them for the first time. Though the first time watching them had been on fullscreen rental tapes, I don't remember that at all. I have absolutely no recollection of seeing these for the first time. Maybe my parents showed me them when I was too young. I don't know. But for me, the first time I really saw these films was at my Uncle's house. The first time you see a film, in my definition, is the first time when you get lost in a film. You all have fond memories of first seeing the imperial star ship gliding over the screen and how cool it was. My jaw dropped when I saw this, and I wanted to clap when it was over watching it at my Uncle's.

So I guess that's the reason that experiance is so special to me. For all intents and purposes, it was the first time I'd seen the films, (long before I saw the OOT) and no matter how young we were, where we were, or in what venue we saw it on, we will all remember the first time we saw Star Wars until our dying days. And I consider watching them at my Uncle's house to be the first time I'd seen them, and I'm so glad I'll always have that memory, because I truly wouldn't have it any other way. For all the cool things we did in Chicago, I remember being fairly impatient to get back from checking out the city so I could see ROTJ. I cherish that vacation among my favorites, and seeing Star Wars for the "first time" is one of my favorite memories.
Watch DarthEvil's Who Framed Darth Vader? video on YouTube!

You can also access the entire Horriffic Violence Theater Series from my Channel Page.
Author
Time
Originally posted by: Go-Mer-Tonic
It isn't one way or another. There has always been a group of people who looked down on people who loved Star Wars, who would call us geeks and fanboys.
I just have to call you on this, Go-Mer. I was there too when the films originally came out. Nobody ever called Star Wars fans "fanboys" back then. In fact, the term "fanboy" wasn't even in use until much later. The earliest documented usage was in 1982, according to Wikipedia, and referred to comic book collectors--and it was obscure at that point. The term didn't even achieve common usage until much later... I'm going to say the mid to late 90s. I never heard it commonly used until then, in reference to anime and comic book geeks, and only recently has it been applied particularly to Star Wars fans.

As far as the term "Star Wars geek" is concerned, I don't buy that being used back then either. That's something I never heard people say. There were "Trekkies" back then, but there was no term for people who just liked Star Wars, because that was nearly everybody. Sure, you had generic "nerds", and "geeks" a bit later on, but whether or not they liked Star Wars was irrelevant. It wasn't until the 90s Star Wars revival that tons of people started commonly collecting anything with the Star Wars name on it, dressing in Star Wars costumes, and waiting in big lines for the movies that there started to emerge a common perception of the "Star Wars geek".

I am willing to admit that it's possible things were a little different in your particular region, but I really think you're totally retconning here (to use a fanboy/geek term) and trying to change history, kind of like Uncle George likes to do.

--SKot

Projects:
Return Of The Ewok and Other Short Films (with OCPmovie) [COMPLETED]
Preserving the…cringe…Star Wars Holiday Special [COMPLETED]
The Star Wars TV Commercials Project [DORMANT]
Felix the Cat 1919-1930 early film shorts preservation [ONGOING]
Lights Out! (lost TV anthology shows) [ONGOING]
Iznogoud (1995 animated series) English audio preservation [ONGOING]

Author
Time
The terminology may have been different, but the sentiment was the same. We were looked down upon as "Star Wars geeks" back then.

I don't know if anyone ever said it to your face, but I had it said to mine.

To tell you the truth, they had a point.

I rember the old saying that the difference between Star Wars Geeks and Star Trek Geeks was Star Wars geeks got laid.

Of course I can't corroborate that theory.
Your focus determines your reality.
Author
Time
I dunno, I think a kid wearing a Star Wars shirt to school was about a billion times more likely to get his ass kicked in 2002 than in 1982.
Author
Time
Generally speaking, a kid in 2002 is more likely to be shot in school regardless of their attire than in 1982.
Your focus determines your reality.
Author
Time
Originally posted by: Go-Mer-Tonic
The terminology may have been different, but the sentiment was the same. We were looked down upon as "Star Wars geeks" back then. I was 7 when Star Wars came out. EVERYONE in my school was into it then. By some time after Empire came out, mainstream enthusiasm began to fade, people moved on to other things, and it came down to the fanatics. I was one of the last fanatics left, and I did get crap for it. But it wasn't so much a "you're a Star Wars geek" type of treatment as it was an attitude of "Star Wars isn't cool anymore; we're into Dukes Of Hazzard now" or whatever. To my eternal shame, I do remember finally telling people I didn't care about Star Wars anymore just so they'd quit bugging me about it. In truth, I still did care about Star Wars--I just didn't care to talk about it anymore. Certain point of view, you know.

I don't know if anyone ever said it to your face, but I had it said to mine.
By the time I was in junior high/high school, I was well and truly a "stealth fan". I loved it as much as ever, but I didn't have anyone to talk about it with anymore. So nobody knew I was a Star Wars fan. I suppose if I wore it on my sleeve every day, I'd have been called a geek for it. As it was, I got called a geek and a nerd for other things.

To tell you the truth, they had a point.

I rember the old saying that the difference between Star Wars Geeks and Star Trek Geeks was Star Wars geeks got laid.

Of course I can't corroborate that theory.
There may actually be some truth to that. Since nearly everyone liked Star Wars at least a little at one point, girls were more likely to say "Oh, you like Star Wars? Yeah, those movies were a lot of fun!" Hence more likely to lead to action in the bedroom at some point. But with Star Trek it would be more like "You're into Star Trek?! LEPER!!!"

--SKot

Projects:
Return Of The Ewok and Other Short Films (with OCPmovie) [COMPLETED]
Preserving the…cringe…Star Wars Holiday Special [COMPLETED]
The Star Wars TV Commercials Project [DORMANT]
Felix the Cat 1919-1930 early film shorts preservation [ONGOING]
Lights Out! (lost TV anthology shows) [ONGOING]
Iznogoud (1995 animated series) English audio preservation [ONGOING]

Author
Time
Sadly, the prequels ruined this tradition by introuducing new ships and tech that were either totally fugly or derivative. Nowhere in the prequels is there anything as cool as the Tanative IV, the Death Star, the Millenium Falcon, the AT-ATs, the AT-STs, the speeder bikes, etc. The best we get are castrated yellow TIE Fighters.


I have to well disagree and agree. I personally can't say that I was all that visually impressed with alot of the technology used in Episodes I & II as the story tended really not to rely on the use of new spaceships every movie (although again I personally never took too much notice).

However the trend you say was ruined, I think actually was reborn with Revenge Of The Sith. I don't know if it's because it was the next chapter before the Original Trilogy but it was nice to actually see the Clones using X-Wing like fighters, and while I can't say I got all that into the Jedi Starfighters in Episode II, I thought they were excellently done in Episode III. I knew that if I was a kid I would have wanted to get my hands on the new Jedi Starfighter atleast. I also liked the "Invisible Hand" ships as well, they looked pretty sweet, so did the newly revamped Star Destroyers (pre Empire of course).

I also have to say that I did like the Transports used on the Battle Of Geonosis, I thought those were neat but I was more interest in that point seeing those things dropping off the clone troopers for ground battle.
http://img416.imageshack.us/img416/7823/starwarssuppersmallerxx5.jpg
Author
Time
I remember every thanksgiving, scifi channel would show Empire and Jedi letterboxed. I think the last year they did it was '96. Looking back on it now, it was really a big part of what made thanksgiving so great for me.
Author
Time
Wait. Why would they show the sequels and not Star Wars itself?

There is no lingerie in space…

C3PX said: Gaffer is like that hot girl in high school that you think you have a chance with even though she is way out of your league because she is sweet and not a stuck up bitch who pretends you don’t exist… then one day you spot her making out with some skinny twerp, only on second glance you realize it is the goth girl who always sits in the back of class; at that moment it dawns on you why she is never seen hanging off the arm of any of the jocks… and you realize, damn, she really is unobtainable after all. Not that that is going to stop you from dreaming… Only in this case, Gaffer is actually a guy.