My Most Wanted POTF2 Items (3 Of 3):  Theater Edition Luke Skywalker

I talk about the Theater Edition Luke a lot on here (most recently HERE). If you've been following this series, you probably saw this one coming. The day this figure came out is probably my fondest memory in the hobby. Back in 1997, my most valuable news source was an e-mail newsletter from Adam Pawlus. Yes, THAT Adam Pawlus. It was how I learned that my favorite character of all time was getting a special carded release to commemorate the Special Edition release of my favorite Star Wars movie of all time. I went form excitement to panic in a matter of minutes. You see, in the nineties, scalping actually was a thing, and I mean true scalping. Before the prevalence of online shopping, shady dealers were able to corner the local market. Stalking 24 hour Walmarts, bribing employees and managers, and stashing were all tools in the scalpers tool bag at the time.

The figure was to be given away to the first 50 or 25 customers, depending on theater size, for the 7 o'clock premier of the Special Edition of Return of the Jedi at participating theaters. Collectors were making "WTB" (willing to buy) posts offering triple digit ransoms for the figure prior to the premiere. With that type of financial incentive, and an active scalper corps, I was worried that the figures would magically disappear prior to the intended give-away time courtesy of a c-note tucked into an extended palm. It's a long story, but the night of eventually found us at a theater in a somewhat dangerous neighborhood with almost no one in attendance. The manager let us buy multiple tickets. I ended up with a handful of Theater Edition Lukes, but, like so much of my early acquisitions, they all went to new homes when I sold the bulk of my collection in the mid-2000's.

The figure itself is not rare by any stretch of the imagination. It is identical to the main line release of Jedi Luke. The only thing that makes the Theater Edition Luke special is the card, but even that commemorative card was not initially rare. According to Mr. Curto, 150,000 were produced. That's a staggering amount, but due to the manner of its release, many of them did not end up in the hands of collectors. As a result, there are far fewer than that in decent carded shape. This is further exacerbated by the fact that this is the first figure in the line that suffered from bubble failure. On many samples, the bubble has simply fallen off the card. Finding one in decent shape with the bubble intact is doable, but it can take a little patience. The problem is that, if you do, you do so knowing that it might be a ticking clock until the bubble quits the card.

I mentioned in the front page lead-in to this article that this final entry in the series comes with a twist. This is actually no longer on my "wanted" item list. I managed to acquire one last week in very good shape with a securely attached bubble. Now the challenge comes in keeping it that way.

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