For years Steve Sansweet was the voice of Star Wars for the fans as the Director of Content Management and Head of Fan Relations for Lucasfilm. Any true Star Wars fan knows his name and has most likely had a moment to speak with him at a convention as easily one of the nicest and most approachable person to be officially attached to the galaxy far, far away that we all love. Over the years he has published numerous books with the majority of them focusing on Star Wars in one fashion or another and I was fortunate to sit down to talk with him.
Bobby: Over the years you became the face for fans for Lucasfilm and a hero to all collectors for your insanely awesome collection at Rancho Obi-Wan. Can you tell us a little about how you came to be involved with Lucasfilm?
Stephen: I knew a lot of folks at Lucasfilm. I had interviewed George Lucas in 1987 for a column in The Wall Street Journal about the 10th Anniversary of Star Wars. I later started writing Star Wars books and appearing on QVC Star Wars Collectibles shows as the “outside expert.” I loved my job as Los Angeles Bureau Chief at the Journal, but I had held that position for nine years and it was time to move on.
One day in 1995 I got a call from Lucasfilm’s head of Public Relations, Lynne Hale. They were looking for someone to go to conventions the following year and let fans in on some of the secrets behind the Star Wars Special Editions. Did I know of anyone who might be interested, even though the job didn’t pay much and it was definitely only for one year. Yes, I said. I might know someone! I took a leap of faith and never looked back. After I left Lucasfilm fulltime in 2011, I became Fan Relations Adviser and continue to do work for the company.
Bobby: As a collector you have amassed an amazing collection. When did you first get the collecting bug and how did the formation of Rancho Obi-Wan come about?
Stephen: I’ve been a collector of “stuff” all my life. It started with baseball cards, comic books, bottle caps…you name it! I think I probably inherited the collecting gene from my dad, who had 20 years’ worth of LIFE magazines filling the garage! I started collecting Star Wars right before the movie came out. The more space I devoted to the collection, the more space it demanded. When I moved from Los Angeles to northern California to work for Lucasfilm, I found a property with a couple of acres and some large, former chicken houses. Those barn-like buildings became the basis of Rancho Obi-Wan in 1998. Then in 2011 we completed a remodeling and expansion and set ourselves on the road to becoming a not-for-profit corporation, which we are today.
Bobby: While we all know about your Star Wars collection, is there anything else that you collect?
Stephen: I had a huge second collection of vintage space toys going back to Japanese battery-operated tin robots from the 1950s. That collection has slowly been sold off on eBay over the last decade to help fund my Star Wars acquisitions. It’s nearly all gone.
Bobby: You’ve done numerous books over the years with your latest being The Ultimate Action Figure Collection. How do you approach putting this sort of book together and how long does something like this take?
Stephen: After doing 15 previous Star Wars books, I should have learned my lesson by now: They are never easy! The action figure book took seven solid months of work, and by solid I mean there were weeks that I was working on it every day and sometimes for 12 hours or more. It was a huge undertaking just to come up with an accurate list, and then source and identify photos of some 2,300 figures—and find something to write about them all. I brought in two action figure experts to help—Dan Curto and Paul Harrison—along with Anne Neumann, who is a good friend and general manager of the museum.
Bobby: With the ever growing Star Wars Universe, we all know the figures will continue to grow as well. Do you have a set time frame before you decide to work on an updated volume?
Stephen: That’s really not up to me. It’s up to one of the many publishers that work with Lucasfilm such as Chronicle Books and is willing to invest the effort and money it takes to do a book like this. Now that we’ve established a protocol, it would be somewhat easier to update and tweak, but I wouldn’t count on an update in the near term. The original Action Figure Archive book came out in 1999, so it took 13 years to go from 280 figures to around 2,300.
Bobby: As someone who was on the inside of Lucasfilm for so long, what are your thoughts about the Disney purchase and future of the Star Wars Universe?
Stephen: I am very excited about the two major things that George Lucas did to insure that the Star Wars saga continues for us and future generations. First, he convinced one of the top film producers in the world, Kathleen Kennedy, to run the company and make more Star Wars movies. Then he decided that the best possible future for Lucasfilm would be as part of the Walt Disney Co., which has film distribution; lots of broadcast, cable, and online outlets; a worldwide consumer products operation second to none; and, of course, theme parks.
Bobby: I know you are currently trying to get the promotion on this book done. Is there anything coming up that you would like to promote or future projects you’replanning?
Stephen: Well, the book work is really done now. The big job for 2013 is to take Rancho Obi-Wan up to the next level by increasing our online presence and getting the word out to a broader audience about the Rancho Obi-Wan Experience. That’s a personally guided two-to-three hour tour by me of what is now a 9,000-square- foot facility that houses the world’s largest private collection of Star Wars memorabilia. It’s not just about the stuff, but also thebehind-the-scenes stories and anecdotes that give an insight into how Star Wars became such a major part of worldwide popular culture. Meeting fellow fans from around the world and getting a chance to interact with them is by far my favorite part of the job. People can find out how to take part in the Experience at www.ranchoobiwan.org. And they can see lots of updates about what’s going on at www.facebook.com/RanchoObiWan and www.twitter.com/RanchoObiWan.
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