Check Out This Super Fan’s Amazing Star Wars Collection That Took 30 Years To Build
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...there lived a man. Well, it actually happened fairly recently, but it was in the not too far away mystical land of Houston, Texas. There is a man so strong with the Force that he has been able to fill an entire floor of his house with Star Wars treasures. Johnnie Parker has been collecting Star Wars merchandise for roughly 35 years, and it has certainly paid off. His massive collection is pretty awesome!
From action figures to ships, from Campbell's soup to Chewbacca Chia Pets, Johnnie has it all. This has been three decades of labor of love. His wife told him that, when they built their house and retired, he could have the entire upstairs. He did. He turned his upstairs into, what he referred to as his “Museum of Star Wars,” and it really is an emporium of Star Wars collectibles, memorabilia, trinkets, and toys. Some of his items date back to the 1970s when the original Star Wars film was first released, and he has pieces from every decade up to the present time. I spot the more recent Grogu toy on his shelf.
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Parker estimates that he has somewhere between 8,000 to 10,000 Star Wars action figures. About half of them are in unopened boxes, and the other half are displayed in action figure scenes. That does not even include the spaceships. Parker has around 70 spaceships hanging from his ceiling all across his upstairs. His collection of twenty years worth of Star Wars Hallmark ornaments were arranged into a tree. “I have a little bit of everything,” Parker says, and I believe him. We have not even covered the more obscure items that no one has ever seen. There are Star Wars cereal boxes, a Star Wars foosball table, Star Wars fishing rods, and even a toilet paper roll that plays the Star Wars theme when you pull a sheet off.
Johnnie has put a lot of time and work into his collection, and it really has paid off. His Star Wars collection is truly a sight to behold. However, Star Wars is not the only fandom in his museum, although it makes up the majority of his collection. There are Elvis memorabilia, Hot Wheels cars, and some Nightmare Before Christmas items. He also has a complete collection of Todd McFarlane’s Spawn figures. As a Spawn fan, this makes me incredibly jealous. Todd McFarlane also did a series of Kiss figures, and, you guessed it, Johnnie has all of those too. His collection is jaw-dropping, to say the least, and it would make any toy collector, or just nerds in general, faint immediately.
Obviously, this is something he is incredibly passionate about, and it has taken him a long time, around 30 years, to get this far. However, Parker does not really consider owning the items the fun parts.
“I really had a good time collecting it,” he said. “But it’s not actually the buying, it’s actually the chase that’s the fun part. It’s my passion, and I just want to share it with everybody.”
I always love to see people who are excited and passionate about fandoms, and seeing someone like Parker with such a cool collection gives me secondhand happiness from his joy. It is amazing to see someone so dedicated to their collection that they devote years to it and see it pay off in such a huge way. I do not mean financially, but in the joy and delight, he gets from both “chasing” each new piece for his collection and in sharing it with world. I hope his collection keeps growing and he keeps finding joy in Star Wars.
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Source: ABC Chicago