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S02E31: Manically Remembering Early Star Wars with Steve Groos, Part Two
35 Plays3 months ago
This week, Bob and Steve move into newer Star Wars, diving into the prequels and the sequels with some good collecting stories along the way. Listen as two old men try to remember stuff; it's kinda funny.
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Transcript
Star Wars Memories: An Overview
00:00:01
Speaker
We got two old men remembering the prequels, the sequels, and everything in between, and they're doing it real quick. Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?
00:00:15
Speaker
Welcome back to short for a storm trooper of 15 minutes Star Wars podcast plus or minus a couple minutes. You know, I was thinking we were 15 minutes kind of the same way that Han made the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs.
Childhood Collectibles and Memories
00:00:30
Speaker
No convoluted backstory around. It's actually, you know, unit of distance and time. And, you know, he did the short route. like No, come on. It's like, okay, it's about 15 minutes.
00:00:42
Speaker
Anyway, I say that because we're going to go a little bit long today. ah Reuniting with my friend Steve Gross. Last week we talked about what we remembered from those heady days back in the late 70s and early eighty s And now we're going to fast forward into the, a little bit closer to the present. It feels like just now, but really it was still a long time ago. We're going to start with our action figures and then talk about the prequels and the sequels and all sorts of good stuff. So here is me and Steve.
00:01:12
Speaker
Did you say, did you buy action figures? I did. i don't have any of my original ones, which is kind of heartbreaking. yeah um Yeah. Cause we were kind of right on the edge of a little too old to play with the action
Prequel Stories and Mishaps
00:01:25
Speaker
figures.
00:01:25
Speaker
ah Yeah. We, so I didn't get, I didn't have a lot of them and I didn't have any of the good ones. So I didn't, whatever I got rid of, i don't yeah feel bad about It's not like, Oh, you know, getting rid of like a, you know, Mickey Mantle rookie card or something. I, so, but I did have a few. And again, that was, we would,
00:01:44
Speaker
is The neighborhood group would get together and and we would collect all of our Legos together and make, you know, Lego spaceships and then combine those up with the figures.
00:01:57
Speaker
um and But I didn't have a lot. but But, you know, between the group of us, we could cobble together a pretty good um group of figures and mock up some little scenes and have some fun with it. But, um yeah, that was...
00:02:14
Speaker
ah But we were way into the cards. I mean, we all had tons of the cards and, you know, they were, I mean, relatively cheap. You could go buy a few packs. And i so we, that that's, that's one of my big memories and it is, it, yeah, i'm I'm glad. Thank you for correcting the memory.
00:02:33
Speaker
I might just keep, I might just keep my lie alive because I yeah like it so much. I'll back you up. Don't worry about it Yeah, that's great. So how about the prequels? Cause we were completely out of touch.
00:02:45
Speaker
We, we, we, I don't know. When was the last time we talked before the reunion? It was probably a long time ago, 20th reunion. So at least like 20 years. Yes. Yes. And, and lot happened in between then and now. So yeah my, I'm like you, I love everything. Star Wars. I don't, I'm not a critic. and I'm not a hater. I,
00:03:08
Speaker
have famously, I have a Jar Jar Binks t-shirt, which my kids, you know, to this day, you know, make fun of it. ah But, you know, I don't care. I mean, it's, he's not George's greatest character in the world, but you know, so what?
The Cup Topper Adventure
00:03:22
Speaker
Never had a problem with him. yeah It's a, it's a great shirt and and I still wear it. So um the, my favorite memory of when the prequels came out, because I saw all three of the prequels on opening night at McClurg court in downtown Chicago.
00:03:39
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And, um we've got a ah couple funny stories about the, uh, force awakens. Um, I'm sorry.
00:03:50
Speaker
Uh, the animenus Phantom Menace, Phantom Menace. I'm getting my, my trilogies mixed up. Uh, Phantom Menace. Yeah. Yeah. yeah yeah yeah So, okay. We're in Steve lock it in.
00:04:02
Speaker
um So we go to McClure Court and we're standing in line and we're in a huge line. And one of the the guys in front of us has been, he's a little bit younger than us.
00:04:15
Speaker
He's been consuming some adult beverages. And um his friend had like a Jedi cape on and they were all in. Well, back then they didn't pre-sell tickets. So you just got in line. And, yeah you know, as soon as you got to the,
00:04:34
Speaker
you know, the ticket taker, you paid your ticket and you got in and you grabbed whatever seat you could grab and, So the the usher ah comes out and says, all right, here's the cutoff for the 930 show.
00:04:47
Speaker
Because they just had like four screens going with rolling shows. yeah And they cut the line right at the spot where these two ah very happily liquored up Star Wars fans were.
00:05:02
Speaker
And they went bananas. They're like, we're going to be first to the next show. This is awesome. Right. And know, maybe they even had a flask under their Jedi cape. I'm not sure. But ah sounds it seems it seems like they got even drunker as we waited the 30 minutes to get into our theater to see our showing.
00:05:20
Speaker
So we look down. And course, we you know we get right in the middle of the theater, like in the in ah in a good row, middle seats. We look down, we see them. And the guy who had been really super obnoxious is kind of hunched over.
00:05:34
Speaker
And my friend Dave turns to me and I'm with my, I'm with Winnie and we're all with our girlfriends. And so we're, you know, and we're fairly respectable adults at this point. My friend Dave turns me and says, I'm a little concerned about this.
00:05:47
Speaker
Well, as as he should have been, because the guy proceeded to get sick all over the floor of the theater. Obviously, it had way too much to drink. And his his great opportunity of being the first guy in the theater on opening night is is blown to bits. But what's really funny is he was there with you know his buddy. His buddy completely stayed put. and the you know The ushers like dragged me dragged the guy out and his buddy's like, sorry, dude. I'm staying to watch the film. You're on your own.
00:06:19
Speaker
so that's great they They quickly cleaned everything up and and we moved on and and enjoyed the movie ah very much. but yeah that was Those were fun times. i mean One of the other things that I knew i had met the right woman to marry when they had a a promotional. In fact, I did a little bit of research. it was It was called Defeat the Dark Side.
00:06:46
Speaker
And this was a from this was a a promotional with ah Kentucky Fried Chicken. Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. Yeah. Okay. They made these, they called them cup toppers.
00:06:59
Speaker
Right. So it was like a 32 ounce cup, really nice sturdy cup. Yeah. And on top of it was this molded plastic character. There were 12 characters from episode one, all super cool.
00:07:14
Speaker
and And they were big. And then you could jam a straw through the back of this cup topper. remember. You could go online and you can look up star Wars cup toppers episode one, and you'll see pictures of these things. You can even buy them on, on eBay. I had a bunch of them.
00:07:27
Speaker
They just didn't survive the move to LA. Well, sadly, I've only got a few left myself, but cause they did, they were big and they took up a lot of space, but I was, I'm very much ah a collector. When I start to get something, I want to get a full set. I want a complete set. So yeah,
00:07:45
Speaker
I don't know what the first one that I bought, I stumbled into a Taco Bell to get lunch or something. I saw this thing and I'm like, oh my gosh, this this is great. I'm going to buy this. It was probably Watto or something.
00:07:58
Speaker
got the Got it home and then realized that this is a ah big promotion and said, well, I got to get all these. I need a full set. And there's 12 different, it was Yoda,
00:08:11
Speaker
R2, Mace Windu, Darth Maul, Queen Amidala, Jar Jar, Boss Nas, Newt Gunray, Watto, a young Anakin in the pod racing yeah helmet, Sebulba, and General Tarpals.
00:08:27
Speaker
So those were the, so imagine those, those i mean, those, and they're all, with the exception of of Yoda, R2, and, I mean, you could argue young Anakin, but he was really a new character because he was young Anakin, right? Yeah.
00:08:40
Speaker
They're all new, completely new characters that you know were, in some cases, new species that we hadn't even learned
Love and Star Wars Memorabilia
00:08:47
Speaker
about. And the the actual tops of these cups were were so intricate and detailed that, again, it was kind of like what we talked about with the novelization for Empire.
00:08:58
Speaker
It gave you a preview of what you were going to see in the film. So I went a little crazy, and we drove... all over the suburbs of Chicago, going to Taco Bell stores, going to KFC's, Pizza Hut's to get the full set. And it took it took a couple of months.
00:09:20
Speaker
Because you would go into a Taco Bell and, you know you know, it's no shade on Taco Bell employees, but they don't really care what... case. They don't care if they're good. Yeah, I think we got some Wattos back here. What's a Saboba, man?
00:09:34
Speaker
Exactly. Did you want crunchy or soft? General who? General Tarples. Sometimes it was that comical, but you know you I would go in and say, hey, do you have the young Anakin? I don't think we're getting any more. What we have is just Sebulba.
00:09:55
Speaker
It took a long time. i We actually ended up having to go into um Northwest Indiana and Michigan to some... I remember specifically going to a pizza hut in Michigan.
00:10:07
Speaker
R2-D2 was the final cup that I had to get to complete my set And it was kind of cool because they actually had his legs dropping down the side. yeah. I remember that. All of the all of the characters had articulating arms.
00:10:26
Speaker
So it wasn't just like the the the head. yeah they you know There were little arms. And Anakin had the pod racer handles and his little arms. and But the R2 cup had his legs dropping down.
00:10:41
Speaker
So it looked like... but you know, a real R2 when you put put the whole thing together. I remember specifically that was the last one. ah That memory I'm convinced ah is 100% accurate.
00:10:55
Speaker
um I'm sure. um A little little more recently too. and And my wife could back it up as well. but But she was on this quest with me. And that was the the point where I realized, okay, i'm I'm marrying this woman because if she'll put if she'll put up with this craziness,
00:11:11
Speaker
of you know going around to these fast food stores and collecting Star Wars cup toppers. She'll she'll put up with anything.
The Sequel Experience with Family
00:11:18
Speaker
Yeah. Because we should say, i mean, it's an interesting story. We went to high school with your wife, with Winnie.
00:11:24
Speaker
Yes. And went to the... i saw I remember seeing you at our 10th year reunion, and you guys were not a couple at that point. We were not. That that was Two years before we started dating.
00:11:36
Speaker
Yeah. And then it came back here. twentieth anniversary, the 20th anniversary, the 20th reunion. And you guys were married. I was like, what? Yeah. That's crazy. Which is great. Yeah. I still think that's a great story.
00:11:47
Speaker
Yeah. yeah So maybe some other podcasts, we can tell the story about how you guys met, but how about, we we just got a couple minutes left. How about the sequels? So episode seven, eight, nine, what was your experience with that?
00:11:59
Speaker
Did you bring kids to them? Yeah, I did. So my son, I've got a ah son and two daughters and my, my son and my oldest daughter are, are big star Wars fans. They, they grew up watching the ah tapes and then the DVDs of all the,
00:12:14
Speaker
original six movies. And so we did go together, the three of us. um My younger daughter just kind of opted out. I don't, she, but it was, it's interesting because just the other day she said, dad, I need to, I need to see Star Wars. I'm like, what are you talking about?
00:12:30
Speaker
And she said, I've never really seen Star Wars. She said, I've seen it, but I was really little and I don't remember it. I said, okay, well, we are going to correct that. but But I did see 7, 8, and 9 with my other two children. And um again, i was... I think it's... My analysis is very similar to what most people say, is that you... I feel the disjointed flow of the story yeah from J.J. to Ryan back to J.J. And um and I'm a big Rian Johnson fan, so I...
00:13:05
Speaker
i I like all three movies for different reasons, um but it's the it's the arc. It's the flow of the story that just bothers me. I really need to go back and watch them again because um there's there's a lot of good stuff there, but you have to kind of look past the...
Rogue One, Solo, and Droid Admiration
00:13:29
Speaker
Yeah. There's a lot of woulda, coulda, shouldas, right? like Exactly. you know there There should have been more of a plan, in my opinion. I will say this. First, on two two of the other movies, I'm a huge Rogue One fan, and we could talk about Andor for like four more episodes. Yeah.
00:13:45
Speaker
on your on your comment Based on your commentary and in the podcast, I went back recently and watched Solo yeah and really, really enjoyed it. and but then The one thing that I had forgotten is um the droid.
00:14:02
Speaker
ah yeah L3. L3, yes. and How she gets basically plugged into the Falcon. I've always said because i've always said I think that Disney should make a movie about the Millennium Falcon.
00:14:21
Speaker
It could, be it could be, Oh yeah, that'd be interesting. Yeah. It could, it could be like uh, you know, a backstory movie or it could be something, ah but it, the you know, the Falcon is a character all its own, right? Yeah.
00:14:34
Speaker
I mean, it's almost a living, breathing thing. And then enterprise in Star Trek. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And, and I think, um, So when I rewatched Solo, that that reminded me. Plus, it's it's just a you know when she's liberating the other droids it's ah floody from the from the refinement camp. it's That's just fantastic. and yeah and is such a I'm a big fan.
Closing Thoughts and Listener Engagement
00:14:58
Speaker
I mean, K2 is one of my all-time favorite.
00:15:00
Speaker
Oh. characters and just a great some of the best lines in road one um so yeah i think b2 and b2 i think that uh and or cassian andor has the best st droids you know what it's it's hard to argue with that yeah b2 when i i've restarted and or again and and B2 is the closest thing to like a golden retriever that you're going to get with a droid, which is great. I mean, it really it really works.
00:15:33
Speaker
Yeah. And yeah, so I love that. There you go. It was great to reminisce with an old friend and get reconnected and talk about all things Star Wars. Hope you enjoyed it. Next week, we're going to have some reminiscences of a new friend about the same age, and we're going to talk about his experience with Star Wars. So come back for that.
00:15:53
Speaker
Should be a lot of fun. In the meantime, please hit like, hit subscribe, write me a review. All of that really helps st drive this up the algorithm so more people find our show and we can keep doing this more and more. Hopefully that's something you want as much as I do.
00:16:06
Speaker
May the Force be with you. We'll see you next week. Bye-bye. Aren't you a little short? Aren't you little short? Aren't you a little short for a scorn trooper?
00:16:17
Speaker
Aren't you a little short for scorn trooper?