How did you get Started in Star Wars

The earliest that I can remember was... watching ANH and TESB on HBO, sometime before ROTJ was in theatres. Then I actually went to see ROTJ in a theatre.

 

My parents let me watch it on tv when i was 2 years old! We had them taped off TV, and i owned a copy of ANH. But my crazy mom taped over it, i flipped out and whined. So eventually they bought me the trilogy, ive been watching the same tapes for 16 years now. Not bad, 16 of 18 years watching Star Wars...

No im not lying, i have a photographic memory

 

From as young as I can remember, Star Wars was always around, but I waited for what seemed like an eternity to see it. When I was about four, I got given a C-3PO figure in blister - It was the only figure I ever got which had 'Star Wars', and no subtitle like 'Empire Strikes Back' or 'Return of the Jedi' on the card. Therefore it was certainly between 1977 and 1980. I remember the house in which I lived at the time - we moved there in '79, so that eliminates '77 and '78.
I then got bought an Empire Strikes Back duvet and pillow set, which I kept for ages, only reluctantly discarding when I left university aged 23, due to it being in a state of total disrepair. I must have got that no earlier than 1980(obviously), so I'm guessing it was perhaps a Christmas present. I still hadn't seen the first fillum however, and was getting impatient, because many of my friends had seen it, and I felt pretty left out. By now I had seen photos from the two fillums and had begun collecting some of the figures. Video machines were scarce at this time, and few people had them. Also the Video Rental market had not really got going as far as I know.
I therefore had to wait until ANH came on the telly. I remember that my parents and I were staying at my Grandparents' (maternal) house when it came on. My brother and sister were back at home, which was surprising looking back, because I would have been about six or so, which would have made my brother eleven. I only mention that because I kind of felt it a disappointment that he wasn't there to see the movie with me the first time.
Anyway, it was everything I had hoped it would be(except perhaps five hours shorter than I would have liked, and not enough spaceships got blown up), and I was hooked, as I had never doubted I would be, instantly.
I did not see Ep.V until much later, though I knew from photos what AT-ATs were and had already decided they were the coolest things in the vast universe(an opinion unchaged to this day), and I desperately wanted the huge toy one. I definitely had one before I'd seen the fillum - I know that because I saw Jedi first.
Saw that when it came out at the cinema, and didn't know what on Earth Han Solo was doing trapped in a slab of concrete, but the rest of the movie made perfect sense. I would have been 8 then, in 1983.
I think I saw The Empire Strikes Back when it came on the telly about a year later. That was the biggie - the one I'd looked forward to for so long, and from which I expected so much. It was awesome, so dark and bleak. Fantastic. It instantly became not only my favourite Star Wars movie, but also my favourite movie of all time by anyone, or about any subject. It still is.
To this day, it remains the only Star Wars fillum against which I will have not a word said. Though Jedi now irritates me with its teddybears, and the Phantom Menace causes my flesh to crawl with disgust on several occasions(and that's not to mention my anger at what happened to ANH and Jedi in the Special Editions), the Empire strikes Back will undoubtedly be my favourite movie forever I feel.

Gen. Veers - "Maximum firepower." Classic.

 

CLassic trilogy- My great aunt sent me ANH for my 4th birthday about a decade ago and I was hopelessly hooked immediately.
When I was eight I was at a friends house and saw the book "Ambush at Correlia" lying around on his shelf, and i borrowed it. That got me hooked on the EU and since then I have bought every single novel that is published, except for a couple of the childrens books. I have about five hundred pages of fanfiction stories printed out (i used a high speed 40 page per minute printer so it only took a couple minutes). Its all great, and I've never regretted it for one minute.

 

My best friend Holly in the second grade invited me over to her house where we watched her favorite movie, Return of the Jedi.

The rest is history.

 

Basically, I first saw all the SW movies in 1997 when there was the 20th year anniversary, and the films were being reintroduced to theaters. I saw ANH and then the rest, 'cause I got hooked, and so on and so forth. lol, but my journey was not so simple. I lost interest for a while <<i know, i know, how could I have lost interest in SW?!>> But I did, and then I got hooked again when ep1 came out, but that only lasted for a month. Once again I lost interest (how could I have done that) but then my friend, Lady_Tahiri, recruited me last winter of 2001. She introduced the NJO books to me, along with the rest of the EU and I totally got hooked on EVERYTHING. And then I found out ep2 was coming out soon, and I was wickid hooked on that too! I don't think I'll ever lose interest now, because before, the only reason I did was since there was nothing new to see (I was too young to read the novels in 1997, I was only in fourth grade!) But now, I have the EU and the movies and these forums and my fellow fans to keep me company- it's all paradise. Long live Star Wars!

*StarDust*

 

It was the Books that got me hooked.

I loved the movies but it wasn't until I read the Jedi Academy that I really got hooked.

Now I have most of the books and can't stay away from all of you lovely people

 

This is great hearing everyone's "magical moment". According to a previous post, it looks like I am both a "SE fan" and "Eu fan". I was born in 81 so was too late for anh and tesb and was too young for rotj. My brother on the other hand, who is 9 years older than I, was a huge fanatic who would sit in my room reciting the whole rotj script to irritate me. This was really annoying and result in me despizing the SW universe. I even had to sleep on the rotj hand-me-down bed sheets. It wasnt untill the SE that I was able to really appricate the SW universe. The introduction of the Jedi Acadamy trilogy is what got me hooked. I live, breath, and eat star wars now.

 

Ha ha. Not that your brother's scarred you for life or anything.

 

I got into Star Wars just after ROTJ came out, and collected a load of the vintage toys and comics. By 1987 though, I'd lost interest and sold off most of my stuff, and that was it until 1995. In 1995, I started buying back some of the vintage toys to replace my old collection, but it wasn't until I saw the new UK SW magazine in a newsagents one day that I really got back into SW again, with the impending release of the SEs, and after that, the prequels.

 

I saw it back in '77 when I was 4 years old at a Drive-In movie theater in Carlsbad,NM.(My parents had to watch it beforehand to make sure I could handle it) The only thing I can remember is that it was raining the whole time and the scene where Vader was choking Capt Antilles. After that,came the toys and the other movies, and more toys,and books....

 

We got a Jawa Trader catalog in the mail for some reason and I liked all the cool looking characters and my Aunt and Uncle who are casual fans rented them and I loved them all and the rest would be history.

 

I saw it when my dad rented ANH back in 89, but I pretty much forgot about it all until the special editions came and I saw ANH with my youth group. I still wished I saw the other two in the theater but my parents wouldn't let me go with anyone but them (they were a tad bit overprotective) so I really didn't get back into SW until TPM.

 

I saw A New Hope in '77 when I was 5 years old. Had to sit on my mothers lap cause I couldn't see the screen...

Hooked ever since....

 

I had a vague memory of ROTJ. I've watched TPM but not too enthusiastic about SW,to be honest, I never understood what TPM is all about before. Its only after AOTC I became SW fan. And just recently watched ANH (shame on me!) alas! I never get to see ESB yet, will do next week though.

 

I was a huge Planet of the Apes fan when the Star Wars publicity campaign started rolling before May 1977. I must have seen a picture of Chewie somewhere because I was convinced that Star Wars was going to be a huge POTA rip-off. Of course, when I saw it opening weekend (I was 10) I realized that it had nothing to do with POTA and I've been hooked ever since. It's kind of pathetic, but when I look back, I kind of define my childhood as pre and post Star Wars. It changed my life and my outlook that much.

What a thrill it is to be still watching new Star Wars films 25 years later and still feeling ten years old inside while waiting for..."A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" to show up onscreen.

 

I got hooked after playing Star Wars: Obi-Wan for X-Box and I wanted to know when Episode 2 is gonna come out so "Star Wars: Anakin " will come out. (now I know it isn't) I read a few spoilers and little by little I got into loving star wars.

 

I've gotta say my obsession started when I was 8, and saw ROTJ in the theater. Then, I would watch the other movies whenever they were on cable.

I got re-obsessed when I heard that GL was making the prequels, and I found TF.N. I got into the books, and my obsession hasn't quit since.

 

I had just turned four (born May 10 1973).My father took me to the movies. I don't remember what it was that I wanted to see, but I do remember throwing a tantrum because I wanted to see another movie and we were going to see STAR WARS, and I didn't want to.
Thank God my father didn't let me win that arguement.We did see STAR WARS that day. In fact, we saw it twice! Between that day up until ESB came out we saw it a total of seven times. I don't know if anyone remembers when it came to cable, but the first week it ran, every movie channel had it and you could go from station to station and watch it all day, all week. I'm now 29 years old. I quit counting how many times I've seen ANH when I reached 500;I've worn out four VHS tapes of the movie; and now own four different versions of the original trilogy! May the Force Be With Us All because our wallets left us a long time ago for a galaxy far far away!

 

1977
7 years old
My father takes me to the cinema
Hooked since then

 

1980, Got my first star wars toys...

 

Been a fan since I was 9, with several obsessive stages LOL. First SW film I saw was ESB (which is still my fav now), and it was on TV ( I was born the year it was released, so seeing it in the theatre would not have been possible.) The open ending just had me hooked, I wanted more ever since. Well plus that crush on Luke I had .... shhhhhhhhh! Big secret

 

My first expierience was seeing Star Wars in 1977 in a drive-in theater when I was 4. My earliest memory is remembering Luke & Leia swinging across the scaffolding.

 

My brother and my dad have always liked star wars, but I use to hate it because I did'nt understand what was going on...Anyways, One day when I was about 11, they were watching it and I heard C-3PO say "Goodness, gracious me". I heard it from the other room and it cracked me up, so I went to go see what they were watching.............

I have been hooked ever since.

 

I can't remember the exact age, but it must've been around 7 or so. The first one I saw was ESB. My first memory of the entire SW saga is the scene where Luke is lying on the snow after escaping from the Wampa cave and seeing Ben's ghost. Yep, that's the first line I remember hearing: "Ben...Ben..." Of course, having not seen ANH, I had no idea who the heck Ben was. Soon, my brother and I developed an interest in Star Wars when we discovered our friends down the road were in to it. After that, I must have seen ROTJ a hundred times (it was my best friend's favorite, and he always watched it when I went over there). I had seen parts of ANH on TV, but I actually never saw all of it until later. So you could the say the order of the movies in which I saw them is ESB, ROTJ, ANH. Weird, eh? I'm surprised that all of us were into Star Wars as much as we were, considering this was during the "big wait", long after ROTJ came out, but still before the Special Edition trilogy was announced. I must credit some of my fanaticsm with the action figure series that came out in the mid '90s, seeing as how I was too young to read any of the longer EU novels. So I was happy when the special editions came out because it was my first time seeing them in the theaters, and I could better understand the plots as well. And the rest is pretty much history. TPM, AOTC, and soon to be...Episode III.