star wars third edition super collectors wish book

by geoffrey t carlton

review by mark newbold

it’s rare these days that a star wars book is released without significant fanfare, and yet in the aftermath of revenge of the sith a couple of releases seem to have slipped under the radar.  as well as the excellent anticipation – the real life story of episode 1 – the phantom menace by jonathan l bowen, here we have the star wars third edition super collectors wish book by geoffrey t carlton, a true collectors compendium that is as good as any I have ever read.

and it’s bang up-to-date too, with entries including revenge of the sith merchandise.  with over 13,700 photographs, everything you could ever want to find is in here.  case in point, pages 289 to 294 concentrate exclusively on the micromachine range, and in fantastic depth with photographs.  page 352 lists the itv digital sock monkey (famous in the uk), but clad in obi-wans outfit, and on the market for $5.00.  packaging, clothing, pewter models, pepsi cans, patches, reams of trading cards, comics listings…everything you could think of.  just opening the page at random releases a wave of nostalgia and interest like no other film or hobby possibly can.

carlton has done a grade one job of compiling this tome, and should be applauded for it, even going so far as to include commentaries by various authors on bootleg items, vintage bootlegs, unproduced figures, hardcopies, using values to determine prices and kenner canada with their many exclusive figures and playsets.

collectors books produce a wide range of books based on hobbies, and encourage authors to contact them if they have in-depth knowledge of a particular subject.  thankfully, Geoffrey carlton knew about this and made the call, otherwise we would have been denied this excellent collection which would take pride of place on any star wars fans shelf.