I was greeted by a Fed Ex worker this morning. I signed his paper and pulled a large box marked Sideshow into the house. I knew unleashing this thing would take a while and wanted some background noise to accompany me. I turned on Raiders of the Lost Ark.

As I carefully opened up layer after layer and set aside each piece, Indiana Jones lightly stepped through a temple in South America. I unwrapped it all and blew off the stray styrofoam. I admired the Mouse Droid- bigger than I'd imagined, and the details of Vader's leather-like suit. This final product is far superior to the prototype I saw at Celebration III. I'm especially pleased at the Episode IV design with the cloth robe over Vader's shoulder armor. As I attached this ¼-scale technological terror onto his base and plugged in his lightsaber Dr. Jones was describing ancient history to a pair of G-men. When the time finally came to activate the lighting system, the Ark theme came on in perfect sync with the dark lord's life support lights and saber. I've never shied from recognizing the art in these curios. This new memory was just that.