Star Wars Lollipops by Galerie

If you try to apply non-collector logic, it would seem pretty silly to document food items whose lifespan can be measured in short years instead of multiple decades, even with unwarranted care given for preservation. These marshmallow lollipops have a best by date of mid 2012. That means that by the time the next general merchandise identification guide is published, they will likely be molded, melted bags of unhealthy, inedible goo.

(Note to the lovely people at Galerie... the suckers won't actually make it to the decomposing condition stated above, since now that they're properly documented, we intend to eat them while they're still fresh and delicious!)

The value of an item is determined by desirability. Most of the time that desire comes from either personal memories or else from fleeting fancies of could-have-beens when an item is presented. When not documented, an associated value can be determined by comparing items to similar objects which already have an accurate appraisal assigned to them. The best explanation though can be that an identification guide is a printed history of what has come before and once documented, can always be referred back to.

In July we found the Yoda and Captain Rex Star Wars marshmallow lollipops with 'flag labels' in the candy section at Toys R Us. Sunday while hunting the Halloween section of Walmart, the Clone Wars wrapped lollipops were found inserted into $1.00 trays. Believing it important that if we're going to document Star Wars collectibles in real time, we could leave no packaging variations behind in our research.

Star Wars is 34 years old and possibly even more popular now than at it's height when the fandom foundation was established in 1978. In another 50 years, most of us will have passed into dust and only our records will remain to attest to the zany things we all endured in the name of promoting the galaxy we all love.

So, having climbed upon our high horse, or established ourselves on the high ground as Obi-Wan once did, we also proudly present three hard candy Darth Vader lollipops from the Walmart 2011 Halloween aisle. The flavors are black cherry, grape, and strawberry. Like the marshmallow lollipops, the hard candy pops were inserted stick-first into $1.00 sale trays.