Recommended music: Chase & Status And Blossoms – This Moment
For this #SomethingElseSunday, I’m taking another look at photos from my trip to California a couple of months ago. On that trip, I brought along a Star Wars Legacy Collection R3-A2!
Over the weekend, I took about 1,000 photos, but for the rest of this day in Petaluma, R3 stayed safe in my pocket because I had finally reached my destination: Rancho Obi-Wan!
Steve Sansweet founded this nonprofit museum, which holds the world’s largest collection of Star Wars memorabilia, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. The 9,000-square-foot building and off-site storage now hold about half a million different Star Wars items.
I forgot to get a photo of the main gate and a simple sign in the neighborhood when I arrived at Rancho, but I started taking pictures right away. Along with rare, official Star Wars merchandise, I was excited to spot random items with Star Wars themes, like R2-BQ shown here.
If seeing poultry seems strange, they actually fit right in because Rancho was originally a farm. The main building once housed chickens instead of collectibles.
There were plenty of open doors and things to see, but some areas at Rancho Obi-Wan are off limits to day guests like me. ROW is also the real-life home of Sansweet, museum President and CEO Anne Neumann, and others.
When you enter the main building, almost every space is decorated. Even the staircase is lined with Star Wars-themed license plates from all over the country.
The theming even extends to the restroom, which features dozens of household items collected over the years, including vintage Star Wars toiletries and fan-made pieces.
It looks like you can fit at least four Star Wars fans in the restroom at once to check out the memorabilia. 😄
After leaving the restroom, I passed through a smaller hallway lined with display cases of loose vintage figures, including some rare ones.
Next on the self-guided tour is the library, which has countless publications starting with this original Star Wars promotional piece. Released a year before the first film, the logo seen here with a pointy W was later redesigned before we ever saw it on the big screen.
In the library, I enjoyed browsing style guides for various Star Wars projects.
There were also many international versions of publications. Some looked familiar, but all were translated into other languages.
The library had plenty of other decorations besides books, which made it feel more like home.
Not wanting to spend all night in the library, I headed back into a hallway lined with Original Trilogy film posters before making my way to the main room. More to come…
#ActionFigurePhotography
#StarWars
#ToyPhotography
Dale's Toys 