A Childhood Star Wars Misconception

The "Second" Book?

Remember back in late 1977 when Star Wars was all the buzz and George Lucas first said that Star Wars was part of a NINE-CHAPTER epic, and going to the bookstore and thinking this Alan Dean Foster book "Splinter Of The Mind's Eye" was the second book in the series? And that "Han Solo At Star's End" MUST be the "third" book? OK maybe was it just me and my classmates who believed it.

The "Third" Book?

To be fair, we were only 6th graders at the time and had no idea that Star Wars was originally a standalone movie before its success made them re-title it as "Chapter IV: A New Hope" and that this "Nine-Chapter" thing was something Lucas made up off the top of his head and there WEREN'T any actual "books" to be found!

 I remember thinking the original Star Wars novelization was the first, Splinter Of The Mind'e Eye being the second, the Han Solo Books as the third and fourth books, and then asking my fellow classmate "where are the other five books?" to which he slowly told me the truth about my wild goose chase.

Back then, every kid had this book

Still, whenever I see images of Splinter Of The Mind's Eye, it still invokes that rush of Star Wars excitement and I can remember when it seemed like the whole universe of the Star Wars legend was all out there to discover!

Force Awakens Sparks Renewed Interest in Childhood Treasure

Back in the early Star Wars Craze Years (1978 or so) me and my brothers had a handful of those Kenner Action Figures (Han Solo, Darth Vader, R2D2, Chewbacca and a Stormtrooper) but my friend from across the street had something even BETTER; besides having the figures of Han and Chewie, C3PO, Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, he had the LAND SPEEDER, one of the very first Star Wars vehicles I'd even seen! Years later my brother would get himself the X-WING for Christmas, but at the time, this Landspeeder was the COOLEST thing on the block! 
  He'd bring it over to our house and we'd all get together and play Star Wars... One memory that sticks out is once when my friend was running through the bedroom with the landspeeder in his hand, he slipped on the shag rug and fell on his back, the landspeeder and its occupants flying through the air! 
   My sister happened to be in the room at the time, and for years afterwards, any time someone brought up Star Wars, she'd say, "Hey remember that time Jas was running through the room with his Star Wars toy and slipped on the rug?"LOL
 In any case, we were kids playing with the Star Wars toys and never thought to take care of them, and eventually most of them ended up where all childhood toys go: broken and tossed or given away to younger cousins. For years this was fine, but when we got to college age, my friend began lamenting the loss of his treasured Star Wars collectibles, and so it was no surprise that he eventually re-purchased ALL of the Action Figures we has as kids on ebay... and just this past week, he came over the my house to show me his LATEST re-acquisition: That good ol' reliable Land Speeder!
Aw man, gotta say, holding it in my hands, the memories all came back! The feel of it, and especially that weird reddish-brown colored molded plastic...the color of it really took me back!
 I managed to save a few action figures from our childhood, and have even bought a few of the figures form the newer series (Princess Amidala, Ewan McGregor Obi Wan and Qui-gon...and even the latest of Rey!) and man, seeing this Landspeeder agian makes me want to get ahold of the X-WING we had growing up! Ah, Nostalgia...!