Come see the Force at Play.... now through September 5, 2016 at the Museum of Play in Rochester NY (Dan Curto land)! All summer long, visit the museum each weekend to see special guests and enjoy themed activities during Sci-Fi Summer. Learn about the revolutionary impact of the Star Wars franchise on play and playthings at the exclusive The Force at Play exhibit at The Strong® museum. View dozens of artifacts from The Strong’s collections, including the first 12 Kenner Star Wars action figures, an original movie poster, and early advertising for Star Wars toys. Check out an intricate diorama of Star Wars characters and vehicles depicting a battle between the Rebel Alliance and Empire. It even includes Hasbro's modern toys too! (more....) (Special thanks to JTA reader Michael O. for this news!)

Just thought you might find this interesting: the Strong National Museum of Play here in town (Rochester NY) is having an exhibit on the impact of Star Wars toys from June through September of this year. They also have an extensive figure collection that they exhibit from time to time, that they describe:

"Between 1978 (a year after the first Star Wars movie appeared) and 2013, fans of it and its five sequels purchased more than 300 million 3.75-inch-high plastic action figures based on the movies’ engaging characters. Because of the action figures’ long-lasting popularity, The Strong inducted them into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2012. This collection includes 2,400 items, which represent 85 percent of the approximately 2,300 distinct figures made in the first 35 years of the toy line. Fon Davis, a former Industrial Light and Magic model maker who worked on the earliest Star Wars movies, assembled the encyclopedic collection. Before coming to The Strong, it served to illustrate Star Wars: The Ultimate Action Figure Collection by former Lucasfilm executive Steven J. Sansweet."

I’m sure they would love donations to the collections as well from any collectors who have extras or would want to leave their collections in a will to a museum instead of the vagaries of greedy relatives. :)

http://www.museumofplay.org/exhibits/force-play

Michael Osadciw
www.michaelosadciw.com