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The Lightsabre Interview Dave Tree
Welcome to
Lightsabre. This week our guest is the
brains behind the popular and nostalgic Palitoy Archive 2007, the exhibit
that brought back so many great childhood memories at Celebration Q – Dave, welcome to
Lightsabre. A - Hey Mark, nice to be back. How’s it going? Q – The Palitoy 2007
Archive was a highlight of Celebration A – The
idea originated right back when Celebration Europe was first announced. I am
good friends with the Event Director, Barry Eldridge, and right from the word
go I said I wanted to make a contribution to make the event stand out. After
4 Stateside Celebrations, CE had a hard act to follow and in order to seal
it’s success for future shows, I was reluctant to let it be perceived as a
‘poor mans’ version of the US based events after one show. I wanted to create
something that was an attraction and unique for the event and give regular
Celebration visitors the chance to see something they hadn’t seen covered at
previous events. Q – Stephen Sansweet
was “As excited by that exhibit as anything he’d ever seen.” How does that make you feel? A - That’s
great and coming from someone like Steve is a real complement.
I think it was a
real surprise to most people, although many collectors were aware of what I
was doing within the collecting community, I don’t think many understood the
vision of what I was looking to achieve for the exhibit as nothing like it
had ever been done as such within the UK, whilst some, I think, had it pegged
as just a display of someone’s collection on a table. I think the branding
identity that was created helped gel it all together, giving a real sense of
purpose from the crew T-Shirts & Caps to the watermarking on the display
panels to the slideshows. As a result, I don’t think that most visitors realised
it was actually a fan organised exhibit. There was a report that a Frenchman
actually broke down in tears at seeing the exhibit and it was also an honour
for Simon Pegg to drop by too.
Q – Organising the
exhibit must have taken a lot of time and effort. When did the planning start, and who else
is on the team? A - It was a huuuuuuuge
amount of time and effort, which nearly killed me more than once. The bulk of
the time was spent researching by myself, looking up as much company history
as I could track down. Beyond that though, a massive amount of time was spent
working out how/ what to display. It was really difficult at first as I could
not get confirmation on what size area I would have access to, so I needed to
create something that would be flexible as a result (which was beneficial as
we actually ended up in a room that was half of intended size, except we
would not learn that until we arrived to set up). The display mechanism
started as grid walls, then changed to printed foamex
panels before finally settling for felt shell scheme and printed paper due to
budgetary constraints.
For the stars of
the exhibits, the original toys, several collectors were approached, which
altogether with a few of my own pieces would possibly allow a full collection
to be displayed. This took a fair amount of convincing and incentives as some
of these items are few and far between. Some collectors wanted to remain
anonymous, but notable mentions have to go out to Gary Smith, Jason Smith (no
relation) and Darren Simpson, Gus Lopez and the Collectors Panel team, all
whose contributions made the exhibit so special and achievable. The print was handled by Livewire Intelligent Media, who
managed to print twenty 1x2.2 meter panels, signage and handle t-shirt
and cap production without completely bankrupting me. Logistics, collection
of materials, set up and breakdown of the exhibits and displays were handled
by ACP Exhibitions. For the event itself it required a team of known and
trusted collectors to safeguard and protect the exhibits. Mark Alders, Mike
Lennon, Mark Cox and Jamie Priestly all did a
sterling job assisting Gary, Chloe and myself over the three days. However, the biggest thanks has to go to Chloe, who had to
put up with my tinkering for over a year, get dragged into the design, help
set up, stand there for 3 days and then pack it all away way after everyone
had left. Q – What started your
interest in Star Wars? A –
Originally, from what I
remember it was seeing The Empire Strikes Back in
Q – We remember you
from your Ultimart days. What happened between then and when we next
bumped into you – literally – at Celebration A –
Yeah, man that was weird
and what made the event so great. Following the untimely demise of Ultimart in 2001 I walked into the desert and came back
with a toy exhibit. Q – The exhibit has
clearly been a success, but what next for the Archive? A – Ahhhhhhhhh, well that would be telling. If there is another event, you’ll see it bigger and better (and with funding this time I hope). There are some great leads that were born out of the first one and some great ideas on how to improve and add that extra level and experience. I would love to take the exhibit overseas, but who knows? A lot of people are asking when a book is going to be born out of all this too. Q – You are trying to
seek out former Palitoy employees in order to learn more about the Coalville
days. How is that progressing? A – Slow, but it’s expected, it’s easy to find the employees as it employed a lot of people in the region, it’s just not easy to find the right ones for Star Wars. That said, each one does have a lot of fond memories and if you are a toy collector in general, some of the stories are fascinating. Q – What do think of
the current Hasbro product compared to the classics of the 1970’s and 80’s? A – I went off the Hasbro product after TPM,
however they have really upped their game in the last 2 years with some
stunning figures featuring incredible detail and paint jobs. I still buy the
odd figure that I like the look of, but on the whole let most of it pass. The Hasbro product I think is the freshest though has to be Galactic Heroes, which have edged out from pre-school toys into a popular mainstream collectable. The vintage line will always be where my heart is but Kubricks are a vintage collectors dream, as it respectfully nods at the vintage line with Vinyl Caped Jawas, Blue Snaggletooths and retro carded figures whilst being different and unique in their own way. Problem is, at times they are just as expensive as vintage toys ;o)
Q – Tell us something of your other interests outside of Star
Wars? A –
Huh?
Just joking, I love
toys in general and the design of good products. Chloe and I share a passion
for Japanese animation, we’ve just finished Oban
Star Racers, if you’ve not seen it, go out and buy the two volumes off Amazon,
it’s incredible, think Ulysses 31 meets Dungeons
& Dragons meets Pod Racing. Great mix of storyline, adventure, action and
character development. Watch it! Q – All the Cool Stuff is really taking off. What’s next for the site? A – Getting
it up and running ;o) Around the convention show circuit in the Q - What lies ahead
for you in the future? A –
Two books and a DVD,
although will probably get dragged kicking and screaming into other things
too. The first book is something I've threatened to inflict on everyone for a
while, a guide to Bend Ems. Although ridiculed, these guys are fascinating
and cover a period of time that is not counted as Vintage or Modern, yet
without them the Modern line may never have come about. There is a phenomenal
number of variations out there too along with tie in with Topps
and a unproduced toys that looked to have been cast
off the vintage toys too. Once that is done, work will begin on a Palitoy
book, although there is so much research that still goes on.
Q – A quick question
about our site, Lightsabre. Any
comments? A –
You still dishing out
those cool awards?
;o) I personally would like to see more Q - It's been a great interview, and thanks for being our
guest on Lightsabre. Just one final question. You have a simple choice of
what you want from any past Star Wars collection, but the choice comes down
to the final three. Vinyl caped Jawa, Blue long-legged Snaggletooth or
pristine Palitoy Cardboard Death Star. Which one would you plum for?
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