Slot Car X-Wings, Bootlegs, and More in Marina del Rey

2017 has turned out to be quite an active year for CAVSWCC. With two meetings and a return to the Rancho Cucamonga Library's "Star Wars Reads" event happening earlier in the year (to see photos from the July Northern CA meetup hosted by Mark Huber, be sure to check out this great post on the Facebook Group), this past weekend's third get-together that took place in Marina del Rey was a welcome opportunity to gather again. Darren Thomas and his wonderful wife Ashlee generously hosted this round and as usual, it was a blast!

Onto some highlights...

Among many neat pieces in Darren's fantastic collection of bootlegs and other oddities, it was nice to see a Lili Ledy 12" R2-D2 and several Brazilian Model Trems in person!

Darren's impressive loose collection on display with customized color backers created by fellow Southern Californian collector and first time meeting attendee Greg Sanders.

Fitting servers at the poolside spread.

Darren had recently pieced together a complete and (mostly) fully operational "Duel at Death Star" Racing Set, which was simply awesome to see in person and to give a go. From the odd Stormtrooper Luke artwork to the incredibly lamely designed "fighter" cars, this is a thing of beauty.

Ryan Savas brought items that had a discernible "Holiday Special" theme, including a complete style guide for the animated sequence and some stellar pieces of animation art.

Darren brought out some impressive pieces of art, including "Galactic Freakshow" by Randy Martinez -- one of the standout examples from the "Vader Case Project" that were auctioned at Celebration Anaheim 2015, which was a pleasure to see up close again.

First time attendee Ro Kohli brought a really cool selection of custom figures his company War Machine Marketing creates. Above, Mark Huber (who devotedly trekked all the way down from Modesto for this meetup) inspects a Sandtrooper that was unfortunately hosting a Xenomorph.

The glorious Jedi Master's Quizbook -- the first published work of "enterprising eleven-year-old student in Florida" Rusty Miller, who had been off the grid for many years.

Of the many offbeat licensed toys from the vintage line, the Play Doh sets offer some of the oddest designs and imagery. What in the world is Darth Vader doing flying a Snowspeeder with Snowtroopers in tow?

A CAVSWCC get-together wouldn't be complete without some fun pieces changing hands. As if it were destiny, two Empire Strikes Back 48Bs that the club's expatriate New York-based founder (and self proclaimed "King of the 48Bs") Skye Paine was missing happened to be available from newcomers Ro and Pete Rosenzweig, whose name I had previously recognized from his tremendous vintage Star Wars photography blog at RatherChildish.com.

A contingent also made a visit to Big Lou's Toys and enjoyed additional fine dining at Dinah's Fried Chicken, which I am sad to have missed!

Thanks again to Darren and Ashlee for their hospitality and to all that were able to attend.

Until next time...