Known to fellow fans as one of the world's foremost experts on Star Wars, Steve Sansweet began his journey a long time ago and far, far away from his current job as Lucasfilm's Director of Content Management and head of Fan Relations. Along the way, he amassed a memorabilia collection so vast and comprehensive that it belongs in a museum... so that's exactly where he put it. Join Insider on an exclusive tour of the collection that has made Steve Sansweet better known as the world's #1 Star Wars fan.
The Saga Begins
As a reporter for the Wall Street Journal in 1976, Steve Sansweet had been hearing a lot about toy collecting, so he decided to write a feature story on the topic. During his research, he tracked down many collectors for interviews. At the time, however, the prized pieces were mostly turn-of-the-century antiques.
As Sansweet was interviewing the owner of an art gallery, however, fate -- or perhaps the Force -- intervened. The man showed Sansweet what he believed to be "the next big thing" in collecting: a case of plastic and tin robots from the Hollywood Toy Shop. A lifelong fan of science fiction, Sansweet found the toys fascinating and after the interview went out to buy a bunch. Little did he know that this was his first step into a larger world -- one that was about to become a great deal larger with the release of Star Wars and the dawn of a new age of collectibles. Looking back on the past quarter-century of collecting, Sansweet explains, "Star Wars truly launched the modern licensing business."
Sansweet has been part of that transformation of science-fiction merchandising since the start, having written numerous books about Star Wars collectibles, which many collectors cite as their inspiration for getting into the hobby. His passion for Star Wars memorabilia began while he was living in Los Angeles in a single-story house in the Los Feliz hills near Hollywood. The collection grew so quickly that the house soon had to grow to two stories, then three, before he had to add storage lockers. Before long, it was nearly impossible to walk around and see the entire collection. But the Force was strong with him, and Sansweet found himself moving closer to the bright center of the Star Wars universe.
After a long career as a journalist, Sansweet became a Lucasfilm employee in 1996. In 1998 he moved to Northern California to become closer to his new office at Skywalker Ranch. Moving his now-enormous collection was no mean feat. It required two 48-foot tractor-trailers and another 24-foot truck to transport his "personal Star Wars collection" across the state. The moving company told him it was the second largest private move they had ever handled.
Sansweet and his collection finally arrived at a small, one-time chicken ranch, whose nearly 5,000 square-foot barn he refurbished over seven months. "My fantasy was to have a place where you could really see the collection and have some drama to it -- really trick it out and have a museum," he explains. "If I could be so bold."
Only he could be so bold.
