"Brown Snake" Yoda with RotJ Cardback plus GW Acrylic Case!

                                                        

So a twofold post for today - a new figure and a review of the case I picked up for it. The figure is straightforward of course, just a variant of the familiar ESB Yoda. The main difference is the accessory, and it gives its name to the variant - "Brown Snake Yoda". This example is a very nice one, correct figure, correct accessories, complete, and with the original cardback. Score!                                            

                                                  

The cardback is actually quite nice, unpunched, intact POP, and not too badly damaged around where the bubble was torn off.

This is a 77-back RotJ card, of course. Near the end of the vintage run.

Let's have a closer look at the case, it's from GW Acrylic. This is a really cool way to display a figure with cardback. 

There's an internal "platform" that positions the loose figure right where it would be if this was a sealed MOC, and a small indentation in the stand to fit a one-inch base. It all fits together quite seamlessly and is really a great display solution. Cost is about $30USD.

Now let's look at the figures! This of course is the "usual" orange snake variant. Note the lighter green skin and light brown cane.

The brown snake variant is most often found with darker green skin and a dark brown cane, and has distinctive "pac-man eyes". According to jeditemplearchives.com these are correct for the brown snake variant, which has been found on all but ESB-32B and -41A, B, and -D cardbacks.

Here are the two together. Quite different looking aren't they! And the snakes are different in ways other than colour. The orange one is pretty stiff while the brown snake is much more rubbery and flexible.

The orange-snake Yoda is from my own childhood collection, but nowadays genuine brown-snake Yodas command a significantly higher market value than orange-snake examples. Accessories for both are also super-expensive, I've seen people asking $60USD or more for just a cane. Best to buy one complete and if you can get a cardback with it like I did, so much the better!

Display Limelight

I wanted to post a few photos of my "Star Wars Corner" where I display my stuff. I know many collectors are interested in how others display their collections (I am) and it's fun to see what ideas people have for display. In the photo above, my loose figures are displayed in a glass case from JYSK that's similar to the IKEA "Detolf" case. From top shelf to bottom, I have the last wave of POTF figures (and boxed Landspeeder); the last nine SW figures along with the ESB wave; the ROTJ wave; and on the bottom, the boxed Cloud Car with my two MOCs (Toy Fair Leia and Leia
Endor) and some variants (matte grey IG-88, Taiwan Fett, one-stripe Death Squad Commander, smiling Lando, large head Han, cloth cape Jawa) and bootlegs (Mark Poon Rocket Fett and new Stormtrooper set). On the top is the box for my Palitoy Death Star, a recent acquisition that I'm very excited about!

Between the wall and the basement stairs, I've constructed a wall of three IKEA "Besta" shelf units. The doors at the bottom of the units conceal more storage - cases of loose figures, some loose vehicles (including two AT-ATs), etc. At lower left you can see the top of my Gentle Giant Vader, a present from my wife that re-sparked my vintage collecting hobby. Both the glass case and the Bestas are lit with LED strip lighting, which I really like. It's easy on the collectibles as well.

 

Opposite that on the far wall, there's another IKEA case with ships and models displayed on top. At centre there's a French copy of Stephane Faucourt's great new book, "La French Touch", which I helped him with. On the shelves at left are my other Star Wars reference books.

 

Upstairs in my office, behind the desk at which I'm typing this, I keep my ALIEN stuff. The curio cabinet I've had forever and I keep the modern stuff from Super7 in there. Below that there's the awesome original Kenner ALIEN figure, a copy of Giger's book, and two "eggs" from Super7 that a colleague picked up for me at SDCC 2014 (thanks Victor!)

The new vintage MOCs just fit in crosswise. I also have the "clear Alien" but he stays in the shipping case as there isn't room in the cabinet. On the lower shelf there's the "Early Bird Kit" and the two "salesman samples" from SDCC 2013, as well as two egg figures from this year's Comicon. I've written a lengthy blog post on the new vintage ALIEN stuff from Super7 - you can find it here.

I just love the Big Chap; if you want to read more about him click here. Giger's art books are frightening works of genius...

Well, there's the quick tour of my collection. The Star Wars stuff is in the basement with minimal natural light incursion so I'm not overly worried about degradation. The ALIEN stuff, however, is upstairs in my office with a large south-facing window. I've addressed this issue by having UV film professionally applied to the window. It looks great (that is to say, you don't notice it at all) and does the job - blocks almost all UV as well as reducing heat considerably. I recommend that everybody look into a solution like this if you have to store stuff where natural light abounds.

I hope it's inspirational!

Move Update

I know this is a pretty pitiful update, but I wanted to post something to indicate that I am still alive and somewhat engaged in the vintage hobby... so here is something.

It's the beginning of my "vintage corner" of the basement in our new house. IKEA "Besta" units; open shelving with solid doors at the bottoms for random storage. I'm thinking I might get some glass doors for the top part, but the adjustable shelving looks pretty good I think. Only problem is that the unit isn't deep enough to house the Imperial Shuttle and there's no room for the Death Star playset either :-(

Loose figures will go in a tall glass cabinet just in front, once the figure stands arrive from The Earth's online store.