Australian Dog Chow Sticker
People often ask Sansweet, "What's the weirdest thing Star Wars?" and Sansweet has many answers -- probably too many -- but "How about this Australian dog food?" is one of his most common answers. "It's Harper's Dog Chow, I think, and there are twelve different stickers to get inside. I'd never seen one, nobody in the U.S. had ever seen one. One finally came up on eBay, and I got it!" Sansweet says. "Somebody in Australia must have a set of these things, but most people don't know what I'm talking about.
Russian Three-Sheet Star Wars Poster
"I still find posters that I never knew existed. This is a three-sheet from Russia from 1991 that I just picked up. And it's one of the more bizarre Star Wars posters. There are three different Russian posters, and I have two of them, and this one says 'Star Wars, a Galactic Western.'" Sansweet had to double-check his Russian books to make sure that it did indeed say Star Wars, because it seemed so unlikely looking at the image of a cowboy made out of circuit boards.
Pieces of the Death Star
"These are all pieces of the Death Star from Star Wars and Return of the Jedi that I acquired over the years. Most of the surface pieces of the Death Star are just six different patterns in three different sizes, arranged in very creative ways. What really surprised me was the fact that they also used painted cardboard towers," chuckles Sansweet. He has spotted them recently in behind-the-scenes photos. "Oh, there are 'my' painted towers!"
Mos Eisley Cantina Artifacts
"These are the cantina instruments that were rebuilt for the Dorling Kindersley book, the Star Wars Visual Dictionary. The original instruments apparently no longer exist," Sansweet explains before moving on to something even more remarkable. "This is one of the original Mos Eisley Cantina doors, the one in front of which the Jawas napped. When [author] David West Reynolds went to Tunisia on an expedition, he tracked down the guy who rented the building to the production and asked him if he had any Star Wars stuff left. He spotted this door in the distance on the guy's chicken coop! It's here on loan from David."
Princess Leia's Necklace from A New Hope
"That is the same necklace that Lapponioa Jewelry OY, a jewelry company in Finland, made for Star Wars. They are still making it today. It's pretty amazing," says Sansweet.
