Vintage Star Wars Trading Cards Get Their Own Book

It's a Star Wars collector's dream.

December 14, 2015, 6:20pm

Star Wars: The Original Topps Trading Card Series, Volume One by The Topps Company, Gary Gerani, and Robert Conte © Abrams ComicArts and Lucasfilm, LTD 2015

Before Pokémon cards, or even Magic: The Gathering, the trading card game that made and broke the kids' social status was Star Wars. Topps trading card company released 330 cards and 55 stickers from 1977-78, and now you can buy a book containing the whole collection.

Star Wars: The Original Topps Trading Card Game, Volume One documents the most collectible in merch that was released during peak obssession with Episode IV: A New Hope. We assume that having Han Solo was the cool factor equivalent of a holographic Charizard, but you couldn't really go wrong with stills from pivotal movie scenes, actor profiles, puzzle cards, and behind-the-scenes images to collect, either.

There's a real treasure trove of valuable trivia preserved inside the book's pages—for example, did you know that Chewbacca is 100 years old? With an introduction by the editor of the Star Wars Topps trading card series, Gary Gerani and an afterward by Robert V. Conte, Star Wars: The Original Topps Trading Card Game is an ideal gift your friend looking to one-up the other nerds (of which I will be one) lining up to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens on December 18.

Check out some selects from the book below.

Slightly older than his costars, Harrison Ford had popped up previously in George Lucas’s American Graffiti (as “Ain’t he neat?” speed freak Bob Falfa). Ford was also besieged by supernatural forces in an unsold TV pilot called The Possessed, which eventually aired on NBC in 1977 at the height of Star Wars Popularity.

Chewbaca from the Star Wars Wonder Bread Trading Cards (1977)

Planning an escape!

(Left): This image was perfect for stickers, but it was pressed into service for cards as well, given our extraordinary needs; (Right):

Flight of the Falcon

Specifically, this is ace rebel pilot Biggs Darklighter (Garrick Hagon), who was more than just another expressive face during the Death Star raid. In footage cut from Star Wars, Biggs was established as something of a big brother and role model for Luke Skywalker on Tatooine. That they are eventually reunited for this monumental attack on the Empire was lost on viewers back in 1977, although most of Biggs’s later footage was reinstated for the Special Edition.