I have never counted the total number of Star Wars related items that I own and to be honest I don't think I ever want to as they are legion! What's that? I must try and give you an estimate... OK, I'd guess at around 5,000 different items, the biggest single part of which is my haul of Hasbro/Kenner 3 & 3/4" action figures which at best estimate totals around 700 figures (nice Jedi mind trick!). I started collecting seriously in 1999 when my wife's best friend Nicola bought six Episode I action figures for my birthday (this included Darth Maul) but I believe the first Star Wars item I ever owned (and therefore what technically started my collection) was the Empire Strikes Back storybook which I bought after seeing the film at the cinema in 1980 aged 7 years old. The book is no longer in my collection as I lent it to a deaf friend called Damian who never returned it!

I'm a massive fan of Admiral Ackbar, the fishy general in charge of the attack on the second Death Star so I'd love to see one of his species, the Mon Calamari (the very heart and soul of the Rebel Alliance), wearing the famous brown robes and sitting next to Yoda on the Jedi Council. My Mon Cal Jedi would be a Qui-Gon Jinn style maverick in tune with the living force and not afraid to set the little green guy right on occasion.

I have neither the skill nor the spare time to be an authentic armour builder and am slightly ashamed to admit that I bought my armour from a nice man in Stockport who needed to sell it even though his kids didn't want him to. I have made slight modifications to the suit myself and I'm sure more will be necessary as I embrace the middle age spread early. I totally admire every member of a costuming group that has made their own armour, they have way more right to wear the glorious white of Vader's foot soldiers than I do!