The Tees Have It: Final Edition (Star Wars!)

I expect this will be my final blog of the year, as Spacefreighters Lounge traditionally goes dark for the last couple of weeks in December so we can all focus on the holidays. Those of us who aren't already on break will post the last of our 2018 blogs later this week.

In case you missed my two prior t-shirt installments, here they are again:

The Tees Have It: Wearable Statements of Sci-Fi Fandom

The Tees Have It: Take Two (including Star Trek!)

I did a pop surprise t-shirt award on each of the last two blogs, and my winners of the "I'm Running Away to See the Universe" t-shirts were Donna and Lea, as the only commenters on each of those blogs. Congrats, guys!

(Apologies, but I won't be offering a prize this time. Sorry if you missed out.)

Here's the final edition (for now) of my sci-fi t-shirt collection, featuring the rest of my Star Wars tees.

The first is my stealth Star Wars tee. Anyone seeing it may not even realize it's a product of the franchise, unless they take the time to actually read the words in fancy bold font, namely "Mos Eisley Cantina" and in smaller letters below, a variation of the line made famous by Luke's Uglies Unlimited attackers:

"Where our friends don't like you
& we don't like you either"

After all, what Star Wars collection would be complete without a tee of the iconic space port populated by "a wretched hive of scum and villainy," according to Obi Wan Kenobi.

And he should know. Tattoine has been his home for at least a couple of decades.



It's my tribute to Luke Skywalker's roots, and the alliance between Luke and Ben Kenobi that started the whole crazy sequence of events that led to Luke becoming a Jedi master. Besides, Mos Eisley Cantina is undoubtedly the most famous dusty little watering hole in sci-fi lore.

Tee two is one I get a lot of comments on, because what starship is more beloved than the Millenium Falcon? (Well, other than possibly, the Enterpirse, as per my commentary on last week's blog.)

This tshirt was produced before we actually learned the details of the infamous Kessel run, which the Falcon completed in under fourteen parsecs. (Insert Han's disgruntled correction here: "Twelve!")

Since it makes reference to the 35th anniversary, my guess is this design was probably created around 2012 or thereabouts, so before the debut of The Force Awakens by about three years.

The Star Wars franchise prequel Solo depicted the actual Kessel run (and I'm sorry to say that, for this fan anyway, it didn't really live up to the prior three decades of legendary hype).

All that aside, this is still one of my fave--and probably most worn--t-shirts because I love the image of the Falcon so much. The most beloved hunk of junk in the galaxy, indeed!

Tee #3 is one of my absolute faves.

I don't wear it often--would rather frame it, to be honest--but our last joint outing was for a baseball game to watch our local pro ball team, the Isotopes (yes, named for the team in The Simpsons)(and sadly, they lost) for their annual Star Wars Night. I felt right at home among the local Star Wars lookalikes of Luke, Leia, Han, stormtroopers, Jedi masters and such.

I love me the colors and design on this one, and how if you just glance at it, might think it's just another college jersey.

I actually had an internal debate between wearing this one and my final tee (below) to Star Wars Night, but decided to tote the Jedi University instead of broadcasting how many long yearrrrrrrs I'd been a fan.

Here is the other referenced tee and my most recent addition.

It uses the Star Wars style box to deliver the message:

"Still in love
After all these years"

And the content:

"May 25th 1977
40 YEARS
May 25th 2017"

Yep. True.

I was in attendance at the original Star Wars movie that took the whole world by storm. In fact, I was there on opening weekend. Star Wars was a summer sleeper and nobody saw its tremendous success coming--not even George Lucas or the now mega-famous cast.

No one, that is, except the sci-fi fans.

Although the film had a tiny advertising budget, all it took was a few glimpses of a blaster battles, ominous white-clad stormtroopers and starships zooming around in space to dazzle us and send us dashing off to buy tickets.

Those commercials were actually completely cheesy by today's standards...but we'd never seen anything like them before. Want a look back? Here's a fan video of a collection of some of those original spots (even a few that touted a "romance" between Luke and Leia. *cough, cough*)

And the rest, as we now know, is history. More than four decades of it.

I'm very proud of the fact I was a Star Wars fan from the beginning. Even before the beginning, since the commercials themselves completely hooked me. I gobbled up the original trilogy, even driving 40 miles to see The Empire Strikes Back in Flint, Michigan when all of the local theaters made the monumental mistake of not offering it on opening weekend.

I saw all the prequels, too, though I was much less impressed. I was a youngster then. I had to wait until just a few months before my retirement to see the first of what would finally be the last trilogy. Something that George Lucas had originally intended to wrap before the year 2000. Before things went astray...

The debut of The Force Awakens captured a bit of the same magic of the original, and this time, I was in line on opening night to catch the return of my lifelong love.

I think this tee sums this all up in just a few words.

I won't say Star Wars was the reason I became a SFR author but it certainly clicked on the hyperdrive of my imagination. Even so, it would be 38 years after viewing the original Star Wars (and yes, it was simply called "Star Wars" back then; it didn't gain the episode title "A New Hope" for many years) before I published my first space opera novel, in 2015.

And here we are in December 2018, and now I'm looking forward with great expectation to the final film of the last trilogy of Star Wars. What a tall order of expectations this next one is going to have to deliver!

I'll do an update blog later this winter with a few new additions to my tee collection that I'm in the process of acquiring. (Seems writing these blogs got me inspired again, and I've found a few more way cool tee designs.)

So, signing off 'til January. I wish you a wonderful holiday season with lots of fun, laughter, surprises, feasts and festivities. May all your holiday dreams come true.

And may the force be with you, always.

Have a great few weeks!