Most Star Wars fans have probably seen Steve Sansweet’s name in articles and other places online over the years. I even had the chance to attend a presentation he gave at WonderCon in Oakland, Calif. in April 1996, where he showed off footage from the upcoming Star Wars Special Edition to a rapt audience. CGI movie magic is commonplace now, but that day, I heard audible “oohs” and “aahs” from the attendees as we watched computer-generated stormtroopers and Dewbacks move across the harsh Tatooine desert landscape.
In 1977, Steve was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal’s Los Angeles bureau, and he had the chance to see Star Wars 10 days ahead of its premiere at a media screening. “I was blown away,” he says, by the experience, “although I certainly didn’t realize at the time that this film — and the ones to follow — would change my life!”
He had grown up reading classic science-fiction and was already collecting toys from Star Trek, Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers and other classic franchises when Star Wars became a worldwide sensation. Steve recalls: “I started collecting Star Wars items as they trickled out as part of the overall space toy collection. Eventually everything other than Star Wars was sold to make room and have money for the saga collectibles.”
Unearthing Colin Cantwell’s contributions to Star Wars
“Colin was there for George Lucas first,” Steve recalls. “I had seen his amazing models of spaceships and the Death Star at Lucasfilm when I was doing research. It was his designs that inspired the art created by Ralph McQuarrie and I wanted to interview him. But none of the people I approached at Lucasfilm knew where Colin was living or how to contact him, and the Internet was in its infancy. I regret that to this day.”
I recently provided Steve with two of Colin’s prints, one depicting the first iteration of the opening battle sequence and another of his Star Destroyer design that became part of Star Wars canon as the Cantwell-Class Arrestor Cruiser seen in the Disney+ show Andor. They will join the multitude of other items found at Rancho Obi-Wan, where he houses his collection.
Moving north and establishing the Ranch (no, not that one)
Rancho Obi-Wan was born in 1998 when Steve relocated to northern California to take on a full-time job in Lucasfilm’s marketing department. He says: “I started looking for properties with at least some storage space. I lucked onto a former chicken ranch that had housed 20,000 hens through the early 1970s. The space was funky, but I hired a contractor to remodel the interior of the first barn to serve as a warehouse.
“Copying neighbors who had a sign next to their address (‘Easy Life Ranch’), I decided to name my 2 1/3 acres too. I had lots of visiting collectors and fans over the years. Fast forward to 2010. I knew I’d be retiring the following year and my friend Anne Neumann, then the collection manager and now the President and CEO of Rancho, suggested we consider turning the place into more of a museum-like setting, redo an adjoining barn, become a non-profit and open it to the public for tours.”
Last month, Rancho Obi-Wan held a fundraiser at The Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, where they raised $49,369.06, an amount that was doubled by a matched donation from Lisa Stevens and Vic Wertz. I contributed two more prints of Colin’s work — the same ones mentioned earlier — for the auction conducted by Steve and his team.
This page on the Rancho Obi-Wan website has more information about the event.
Star Wars still sparks joy
Of course, the historic success of Star Wars and the subsequent movies, novels, comic books, TV shows, and other works have resulted in a enormous amount of collectibles. I had to ask Steve the obvious question: Where does he draw the line these days?
He replied: “Between Rancho Obi-Wan and our offsite warehouse we have 16,000 square feet of space — and it’s all full! So, because of space and the fact that I’m no longer working for a large company and thus have limited income, my buying has become a lot less prolific. I still buy Hasbro’s Star Wars toys, and all the new LEGO sets. But anything else must really be out of the ordinary or spark joy for me to buy it. I must admit that there’s a lot of joy-sparking here in a normal week!”
I also had to ask about his favorite items in his collection, and he answered: “Top of the list would be a canvas banner that was used at several fan conventions the year before Star Wars opened. It’s about seven feet long and three feet high and in the center is a Ralph McQuarrie triangular illustration of ‘Luke Starkiller’ cut from an early cast and crew T-shirt and sewed on. The early Star Wars logo was hand-painted by Joe Johnston, then art director of ILM and later a film director himself. The banner ties me to the earliest days of fan relations at Lucasfilm, a job that I assumed in 1996.”
Plans to create the awe-inspiring Saga Museum
These days, Rancho Obi-Wan still hosts tours and events. The tours typically run 2-3 hours on Saturday mornings and can be booked in advance on the website. Docents conduct the tours and have all kinds of stories to tell.
Rancho Obi-Wan also recently announced a merger with Gus Lopez, Duncan Jenkins, and Lisa Steven and Vic Wertz, who all own large Star Wars collections too, to create the Saga Museum. Asked how it came about, Steve said: “Gus, Duncan, and Lisa are on our board of directors. None of us have children and we’re starting to face our own mortality. We all love sharing our collections with fans and would like to keep them intact as part of our legacy.
“We’ve been working for more than three years to get to the stage of our recent announcement that our intention is to merge our collections into a public-facing museum,” Steve says. “We have a two-year goal of raising $2 million for working capital, settling on a location among the eight cities on our finalists list, and setting up a pop-up traveling exhibit as a proof of concept. People can get more information, see a video that highlights all the collections, buy the first merchandise from The Saga Museum of Star Wars Memorabilia, and make a donation at the web page set up for the museum.”