The entrance to the Sansweet Collection is sure to astonish any Star Wars fan. John Williams' classic theme music blares from speakers as a life-sized, lightsaber-wielding Darth Vader breathes heavily through his ventilator and fog spews out around a carbonite-clad Han Solo. Nearby stands the smuggler's captor, a life-sized Don Post replica of Boba Fett.
"This is the prototype that Don brought to the Ranch to get approval," explains Sansweet before turning to the even more impressive figure draped in black. "The Vader is mostly original from The Empire Strikes Back," says Sansweet. He acquired the helmet first and then gathered the rest of the outfit from a variety of sources, including auctions. The boots and gloves are imitations.
Other jaw-dropping pieces adorn the first few steps of the museum, including models from the classic films: a speeder bike, a snowspeeder, and much more. Sansweet notes that all of the models and props were acquired from private collections before he joined Lucasfilm.
The models are only the start of a wide variety of movie artifacts, including pieces of the krayt dragon skeleton and Mos Eisley Cantina creature masks made from the original molds. In one display case rest a set of C-3PO's head and hands.
Other original movie pieces include the helmet of a biker scout and a Han Solo stunt pistol, which is as close to Harrison Ford as most people are going to get. "The 'hero' pistol used for close-up shots is a tricked-out German mauser. It weighed about five or six pounds," says Sansweet, wielding his lightweight blaster like a true scoundrel. "This one feels good in a holster because it doesn't weigh anything."
The collection also boasts a mock-up head of the four-foot tall model of the AT-AT and a starspeeder from the film of the Disney Star Tours ride. Sansweet's collection consists of whatever he could lay hands on, and each one comes with its own story. Since there are so many items, however, sometimes he can't remember exactly which path led to a particular object. For example, he shrugs, "I don't know how I have 4-LOM's crotch."
