Gus Lopez, The Ultimate Star Wars Collector, Reveals The Secrets Of His Collection

Summary

• Lopez’s Star Wars collection spans movies, TV shows, and rare items like a Krayt dragon skeleton.
• Lopez’s extensive network of 300+ people helps him discover and acquire unique pieces for his collection.
• Lopez advises patience and time for aspiring collectors, emphasizing the long-term dedication needed.

Gus Lopez’s impressive Star Wars collection, dating back to A New Hopewill be revealed in an upcoming special Star Wars Day episode of Collector’s Calland he sat down with Screen Rant to reveal some crucial collectors’ secrets. Lopez’s collection amazingly spans Star Wars’ movies and TV shows, from some of Star Wars’ best movies to the more recent shows. In addition to decades of trading cards, action figures, and over 2,000 cereal boxes, Lopez’s collection also features show-stopping items like the bones of a Krayt dragon and panels from the Endor bunker.

Lopez’s Collectors Call episode, “Meet Gus Lopez,” will debut on MeTV on Sunday, May 5th, at 6:30 PM EST/5:30 PM CST in honor of Star Wars Day. However, in an exclusive interview with Screen Rant‘s Liz Declan, Lopez offered a sneak peek into what is to come on the show. In the interview with Screen RantGus Lopez revealed that he has been amassing this collection since the very beginning of Star Wars.

It started very early, really in 1977 when the film came out. Star Wars worked very well with collecting since the very early days. They started with trading cards and action figures, and it was always about, like, collect the whole set. So, yes, my fandom has been tied to collecting really since the very beginning, and that’s how I got started. The first year, they didn’t have much out. They just had printed items, so I focused on things like posters and comic books and trading cards, but then the toys really took off the next year. It sort of just snowballed after that.

However, curating such an incredible private collection isn’t easy, and Lopez shared some pivotal tricks of the trade he’s used over the years.

Guz Lopez’s Incredible Collection Requires All Hands On Deck

Perhaps the most impressive method by which Lopez has added to his extensive collection is via a network of more than 300 people who help him find pieces.

I have a network of literally over 300 people worldwide that look for me, so, a film comes out, I send a blast email out to all these people. Many of them have been shopping for me for 30 years, buying things in different countries because they come out now everywhere in the world, so you need to have a vast network. So, I have these friends that go look for me, and I stay in touch with them, and they might go to the grocery store and find 12 different cereal boxes, and then I’ll pay them for that, and they’ll ship it to me. That’s how I’ve been able to stay very on top of it. That’s one of the hardest things actually to do because, you know, a big film will come out, there’ll be hundreds of (cereal) boxes worldwide, and then I’m tracking them in all these countries.

While that might seem daunting, it’s certainly more than paid off. In fact, Lopez is the proud owner of the one and only 3-D Death Star model used in the original Star Wars movie, originally called just Star Wars before being changed to A New Hope later on. Thrillingly, that very model will be featured in Lopez’s episode of Collector’s Calland an exclusive clip has already given viewers a sneak peek.

As a one-of-a-kind model, this Death Star is the only version seen on-screen in A New Hope when the spherical Death Star is viewed from a distance. Shockingly, as Lopez revealed in the clip, the model was nearly thrown out. Luckily, the Death Star instead ended up in the hands of Lopez, who has since treasured it among his broad collection.

Gus Lopez Has Had Some Incredible Finds—Sometimes Right Out Of The Sand

Not all of Lopez’s tactics are as orchestrated as a network of hundreds. While identifying that collecting can be a challenge because you can’t always anticipate what will become available on the market, Lopez shared an unbelievable story regarding simply finding certain items at prior filming locations.

I’ve been all over the world seeing filming locations from Guatemala to Norway, Italy, Tunisia, the ones in the United States, etc., Bolivia, all the places they’ve filmed, and basically, I have found things going out to locations. So, if you go to Tunisia, they left a lot of stuff behind in the original filming locations out in the desert. There’s this skeleton that C-3PO walks by in the first film that’s this big Krayt dragon skeleton, and they actually left all the fiberglass bone pieces out in the desert, like the middle of the Sahara, and they have these big bone pieces. I’ve been there actually now five times, but on my first few trips, I found the bone pieces out in the desert. And then, similarly, in Tunisia, I also found a guy who had the original pieces of Luke’s house made of fiberglass, so he sold us these huge panels from Luke’s house.

Lopez added, “finding original trilogy things over two decades later in the desert I think was pretty out there.”

Collecting Isn’t Easy, But It’s Worth It

Although Gus Lopez’s collection will no doubt be the envy of all, it was neither a quick nor easy thing to build. In fact, Lopez pointed out that his collection truly does date back to the very beginningand the extent of what he’s been able to collect reflects that. Specifically, Lopez had some incredible gems of wisdom to share with aspiring collectors and rookie collectors alike.

I’d say the top piece of advice I give to people is to be patient and take your time. One of the biggest rookie mistakes I see are the people that come in, and they’re guns a-blazing, and they see all these great collections, and they’re envious, so they want to own everything really fast. It’s usually prone to all sorts of problems.

Pertaining specifically to the time it requires—and how deceptive seeing collections all at once can be—Lopez added:

I think the main thing is, when you cover a collection like mine, people see the end result of it, but I’ve been doing this for a long time really actively. Some things I’ve kept, even the trading cards I mentioned, I’ve kept those. I actually have the same set I bought in 1977. But I have really actively been doing this for over 30 years, and what people see in the show and the end result is from many, many years of doing this, and over those years, refining my tastes, expanding to new categories, building networks. So, I just don’t want people to have the impression it just happens overnight. I’ve done this a long time, and I would say my advice to people who are inspired by that kind of collecting, I find that people who put in a lot of time and energy into it, you’ll have great outcomes, too.

Lopez’s wisdom is truly invaluable, as it gets at the pitfalls new collectors may run into and provides insights into exactly how a collection like Lopez’s can come together. While Lopez’s thoughts during the interview with Screen Rant were fascinating and enlightening, more is to come in his episode of Collector’s Call. A closer look at this incredible Star Wars collection is surely worth the watch, so be sure to check out “Meet Gus Lopez” on MeTV on Sunday, May 5th, at 6:30 PM EST/5:30 PM CST.

ALL STAR WARS MOVIES AND TV SHOWS ARE AVAILABLE TO STREAM ON DISNEY+