Sansweet's leaving Lucasfilm....

I say good riddance.  It would be nice to know the real reason why he is leaving, but that'll never happen.  Too bad it's not in protest over the GOUT!

http://www.starwars.com/fans/media/sansweet/index.html

Indeed.  If the guy had any integrity, he would have left long ago.  Suckling on the Star Wars teat is just too tempting, and he got fat.  I wonder if he will continue defending/apologizing for George after he leaves.

Interesting. Have to say, didn't see this one coming. I'm genuinely curious what the real story is. Maybe he wants to devote more time to collecting 30 year old cereal boxes.

As to whether his towing the party line was just because Lucasfilm was paying him big bucks--from what I can gather, he'll probably be lurking the TFN prequel forums. No one who truely had any dignity would wear an adult-sized ewok costume. It reminds me of that Simpsons episode where Smithers dresses up as Burns' teddy bear Bobo. Yeah. Sansweet is the Mr. Smithers to George Lucas' Mr. Burns.

I'm sorry. Can someone briefly tell me who this dude is and why it's exciting he left Lucasfilm?

Maybe LFL realized there's no reason to keep paying this guy when there's already a bunch of guys out there on the internet who will shill the products and preach the approved gospel and do it for free.

Yeah no kiddin'.  As long as there are people like Philip Wise who keeps his nose up LFL and Hasbro's asses in exchange for toys and money, there is no need for Sansweet.

Heilemann said:

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Steve+Sansweet

 Gotcha. He's a paid Lucas promoter. Is he somehow of any importance beyond that? I'm genuinly confused as to why this matters.

I am trying to think of something to say that wouldn't come across as mean....

Um, Sansweet is heralded as the original Star Wars collector, with a collection only matched by the Lucasfilm Archives itself.  He was a mega fan, and a great resource for fans the world over.  Then, he started to get paid for it and became part of George's campaign to quash the GOUT.

It matters because, if he has an inkling of a soul left, he will speak out against George now that he's off the payroll.

It is highly unlikely, though.

How long have you been a fan?

Oh yeah, and there's also the fact that I tried to contact him about the GOUT via postal and electronic mail for three years with no reply.

TheBoost said:

 Gotcha. He's a paid Lucas promoter. Is he somehow of any importance beyond that? I'm genuinly confused as to why this matters.

I guess the only reason it means anything in the context of this forum, is that he was out there in 2006, the official voice of Lucasfilm, saying how great the original version dvds were going to be and how lucky we were that LFL had graciously deigned to bless us with their release.

The significance of this is that Sansweet is the middle man between the public and Lucasfilm. So to get to Lucasfilm and its higher ups you often have to go through him. He's also been involved with many Lucasfilm projects, from DVDs and the new BD and has written numerous books. He's pretty much a mainstay of the convention circuit as well.

So, it's not exactly huge that he's leaving but it will change fan relation dynamics. He was, after all, the "fan ambassador."

Thanks for the posts, guys.  I was having a "senior moment" and couldn't quantify what I was trying to say.  :)

OK, so homeboy was a paid Lucas schill, and he quit, and it's important (to us) because he's a big Lucas schill and he quit.

Gotcha.

I just figured there was something else I was missing.

JediTray said:

How long have you been a fan?

Since 1980. I normally don't keep dossiers on Lucasfilm employess in noncreative rolls.

You are probably thinking of Lucasfilm former-VP Jim Ward.

Who also left a year or two ago.

JediTray said:

I say good riddance.  It would be nice to know the real reason why he is leaving, but that'll never happen.  Too bad it's not in protest over the GOUT!

http://www.starwars.com/fans/media/sansweet/index.html

 

The only thing he did that I rate highly is the book Star Wars: From Concept to Screen to Collectible in 1992.

I remember when I heard he joined LFL thinking "good luck to him - his dream come true" - but in retrospect as someone so obsessed with Star Wars, is it any surprise he was just a star struck "yes" man.