Page 74 - Star Wars Insider #177

WORLDWIDE

WORLDWIDE

CELEBR A TING THE S A G A
Compile d b y K ri stin Ba v er

INSIDE THE

VADER VAULT

Bill McBride takes us inside his
impressive shrine to the Dark Lord...

or over 25 years, Bill McBride has accepted
the mission of amassing over 63,000 items
Fmade in the image of the Sith.
He’s been enamored with Luke’s father since
he first glimpsed the menacing black-armored

figure striding into A New Hope when Bill was six
years old. “Star Wars was something everyone
was talking about, even my teachers and parents,
and I begged my father to take me to see it.”
The collection started soon after with a pair
of now vintage 4-inch and 15-inch Vader action
figures that he received as gifts. But it wasn’t

until adulthood that he began seriously acquiring
and displaying memorabilia, including carded
toys, props and storyboards, and some of the
strangest Vader merchandise around. Among
the oddest items: a vintage-era handmade Darth

Vader action-figure case, carved entirely from
solid oak. “Someone spent a lot of time and
effort making that piece,” McBride says. “And it’s
absolutely amazing.”
A cataloguing of the collection in 2015 led to
him being crowned the Guinness World Record
holder for the largest Vader treasure trove. In fact,

McBride is so confident about his claim to fame
and wealth of Vader memorabilia knowledge that
he often challenges guests to name an item that
Vader hasn’t been featured on.
McBride is a connoisseur of both the mass-
produced and the one-of-a-kind. “I’ve spent

well into fi ve-figures for a few prop items,” he
says. “Playing with the toys, acting out scenes,
the range of items that made us feel like we
owned part of the movie. Prop collecting is the
actualization of that idea.”
Some of his most treasured pieces are

artifacts from film history, like a concept drawing
sketched by Ralph McQuarrie and one of Vader’s
helmets from A New Hope. “Those pieces never
fail to give me goosebumps,” he says.

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