Vader's Little Princess

When I was a kid, like every other boy my age, I was a Star Wars fanatic.  I collected everything I could get my hands on, including Dixie cups, trading cards, and as many action figures as I could get my hands on.  I even asked the hair dresser to cut my hair like Luke Skywalker's.  The thing I never got, but always coveted when I saw it at a friend's house, was the Millenium Falcon, which had a secret compartment to hide a couple of your action figures in while the Empire searched for them in vain.  While I never got the Falcon, I did have one of my best Christmases ever, when I received a hand crafted Ice Planet Hoth playset that my Dad had made. 

I wish I had pictures, as I remember it being mammoth sized, and having a little cave, a battle station, a ramp...it was from Styrofoam mostly, and there were little pegs in strategic points to place the figures in.  Of course, the stories I made up with them were a little more like soap operas than I imagine the average kid's were, but I had a blast with those toys, and would play my Empire Strikes Back soundtrack as I played so I could have a soundtrack to work with.

As I got older, other fascinations took over, but I still am delighted when I see certain Star Wars collectibles and books, such as the one I found today, Vader's Little Princess.

 

It imagines what things might have been like if Darth Vader had had an active role in raising Leia.  It's a follow-up of course, to Jeffrey Brown's first book Darth Vader and Son.  And I just love how whimsical and humorous it is, and how big hearted it is.  Anyway, both books made me chuckle and gave me a fresh way to look at the Star Wars trilogy.