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The Star Wars Vault by Stephen J. Sansweet
01/11/2007 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
pub: Simon and Schuster. 126 page illustrated boxed hardback. Price: £40.00 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-84737-106-5. Buy The Star Wars Vault in the USA - or Buy The Star Wars Vault in the UK  check out website: www.simonsays.co.uk and www.starwars.com
This book is a monster. Not just because its in a boxcover but the sheer weight of the contents. Saying it has 126 pages is also a bit of a misnomer because essentially it is a scrapbook with loads of reproduction inserts and extras, including some Letraset and tee-shirt transfers. If you have children you're going to have to watch them so they don't use them. It is not a book you will rest on your lap and you'd be very careful with any fragile coffee table.
The full title of the book is 'The Star Wars Vault: Thirty Years Of Treasures From The Lucasfilm Archives' but the first four words should be enough to find it in any bookseller search engine. The title should also be self-explanatory as to the contents.
Most of the book does focus on the original first film from 1977 and its sequels with very little on the recent three films in comparison. Odd bits and pieces gave me a smile as I've still got them. Like the Star Wars trading cards at the beginning. Here they are only in a blue overlay whereas the ones I own are in proper full colour. The Star Wars transfer here is actually on a black tee-shirt. What the book doesn't disclose was the original was rubber latex and ruined when machine-washed. The facsimiles though are in full colour and tucked into various slots through the book.
If anything, this book stirs up a lot of memories from thirty years ago. I mean when 'Star Wars' opened up over here it was already realised that it was a big film yet when I was in London at the time, a costumers at the bottom of Leicester Square had the Darth Vader costume on show in its window with nary any security to keep an eye on it. How things have changed over the years. This book documents the history of development as well as when it took off in a big way. If you're a Star Wars fan then you'll know most of this already. Here, with this book, you can see it come to life.
If anything, 'Star Wars' was the SF breakthrough film that other films followed in its path. Me the analyst would also say that if it wasn't 'Star Wars' then it would have to happen with some other SF-orientated film simply because our genre was coming of age and there were a lot of us out there who could see it being mined for the big screen. It's a testament to that fact how much is out there. It would be nice to see a lot more faithfully reproduced from the original source but that's bound to happen. It'll be interesting to see a follow-up book charting George Lucas' company Industrial Light And Magic in a similar way for the special effects provided to various films and TV series that was merchandised over the years as well.
For the moment, I suspect 'The Star Wars Vault' book is going to sell very quickly going to end up in the hands of old and new fans who can afford to get it not to mention on the wants list for those over Yuletide. I suspect the price might be a little bit of an irritation but there is so much stuff in here that would be otherwise unobtainable that the die-hards are unlikely to notice anyway. This book touches on a lot of material not only from the original Star Wars archives but material from across the world. I suspect that if it dug any deeper that it would quite easily double in size and price. You see here various stubs and merchandise from across the years as well as bits and pieces from around the world. There is also reproductive stuff from Lucas' own scripts to pieces from the films themselves. It definitely has a lot of Wow! factor about it and will take a long time to both read and re-read although I doubt you will want to lend it out once you buy it. Did I forget to mention that there is also two CDs containing interviews with George Lucas and cast together with music, large clips from the radio version and the museum displays. Your flabber will never be so gasted.
GF Willmetts
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