How old are you? - Age appropriateness levels

[stillakid]

It's late 2008. Many of the original regular visitors to this site are gone. The Star Wars films are history. We have the animated Clone Wars on TV and toys in the stores, but the majority of Star Wars fans have scattered to the winds.

Who's left here really? And how old are you? I ask because on occasion, there are things to share that aren't necessarily "age appropriate" for the under-18 crowd. Is there really anyone here who is under 18? If so, how did you find SirSteve's Guide?

And who are we fooling anyway? Kids today have such access to porn and "non adult" material that we older "kids" never got to enjoy. Would the occasional "adult" link or "bad word" kill the occasional naive kid who happens across SSG? And what government agency is policing this anyway? The internet isn't governed under any rules. Why does SSG limit the content that can be shared, particularly because MOST of the Star Wars fans ARE older than 18?

Anyway, who IS here anyway? Who is left? Who is new? Who are you?

[jediguy]

I was born in the month of September of the year 1965

my father took me to see Star Wars on my 12th birthday, which was 4 months after the movie first came out
my family had moved to a bigger house that summer, and I did not catch Star Wars fever because of all the moving

my mom gave me my very first action figure of Darth Vader
I remember looking at the back of the card and seeing there were 12 figures total
I saved my allowance and got a new figure once a month
my Obi Wan Kenobi was different than the other figures because his lightsaber could be pulled out even longer than the others

I didn't have enough money to buy Princess Leia when I first found her at K Mart, so I hid the package on one of the supports for the clothing racks
when I had the money, I went and retrieved her
luckily, she was still there

the last figure I got was the Jawa
I looked everywhere I could for the vinyl cape, but I never found one
I got a second Jawa, and took his cloth cape off and pretended I had 3 Jawas
the next year was when some of the store exclusives started coming out
I bought the Sears Cantina in the hopes of getting a tall blue Snaggletooth, but I got the red one instead
I wrote a letter to Kenner telling them I got the red one even tho the blue one was on the box, and they sent me a form letter telling me that different areas got the different figures because the blue one wasn't supposed to be made
I never got the remote control Land Speeder, and my Death Star came from a garage sale

oops, I just remembered this thread was about age

I am 43

[bobafrett]

I was born in the month of May of the year 1965

I have no clue how long I have been posting here, don't remember but faintly finding this place, but being clueless as to what forums were. Can't remember what my first Star Wars toy was, but I do remember my eyes widening when the Stormtroopers blasted there way onto the Tantive IV, and was hopelessly hooked from there.

I, like Jediguy before me, am 43.

I collect Star Wars toyus, dress up in Stormtrooper armor, I am married, and have 1 son, and three stepchildren.

[stillakid]

I guess I should answer!


I'm 39, but aging every day. Two kids, one teen and the other getting close...

I have no idea how I found SSG, but I'm sure it was by accident as the site name doesn't have anything remotely to do with Star Wars. I enjoy the original films and "blame" them for contributing to the career I currently enjoy and the life I pursue. I also collect the Hasbro toys and the occasional "other" collectible that catches my eye.

My own kids are more interested in Harry Potter and Hannah Montana than anything. Star Wars is only a part of their consciousness because I bring it up. I do see the occasional kid in the toy aisle, but I have a hard time believing that those younglings have the werewithall to find SSG where they could be contaminated by the occasional "bad" link or word.

It seems to me that Star Wars is mostly followed by old guys like us. Is there anyone out there who is younger than 18?

[sith_killer_99]

I was born in May 1974.

My parents took me to see Star Wars for my birthday. It is my earliest childhood memory. When it was over I sat quietly in my seat while the credits rolled. My parents thought something was wrong with me. When the lights came up I cried, because I didn't want it to end!

I am 34 years old, I have been a regular on SSG since 1999! I was 25 when I first found SSG. Since then I have met my wife, fallen in love, gotten married, had a daughter, and we are working on our second.

I have seen a lot of regulars come and go, I have taken a couple of extended breaks due to moves, military schools, and deployment to Afghanistan. But still I remain.

When the last SW movie came out, my daughter was the same age as I was when the first SW film was released. She is a huge fan!

[Kidhuman]

I am 35 years old.


Just to toss it out there, just because somoene doesnt post, it doesnt mean they are over 18. We could have alot of kids who visit the website as lurkers who come for the news and such, but dontpost because they dont want to or their parents dont allow it. They could look at the pics and such, so to anwer your question stillakid, a bad link could drive traffic away from the site.

[El Chuxter]

I'm old enough to know better than to waste money on action figures, but too young to care.

[LTBasker]

I am 21 and was born December 6th, 1986.

I was introduced to Star Wars at a very early age by my Mother (who is also to blame for my introduction to Star Trek, Batman and Superman) by her sitting me down, and telling me there are some movies I might be interested in. I would say it was probably about '89 or '90 when this happened.

I found SSG long, long ago when it was simply a black background, red text and thermal detonators for icons beside page links. I was a frequenter of the chat room under the name Jedigreedo with it's incredibly blinding format similar to the site; black background and red text. I frequented the chat room until the end of it's hosting on the EchoStation IRC chatserver, but still visited the site every so often for news and such. I don't know when the forums were first introduced, however, as I only found out about them in 2000. Eventually I joined just before they moved the board to this version - vbulletin - to partake in the Micro-Machines section as my fandom of the Star Trek Micro-Machines had become sparked again. Of course, with my collecting of the Star Wars figure line since the 1995 debut, I eventually ventured into other sections of the forum until I started to regularly post.

Recently, though, my drive behind Star Wars collecting has been whaning in the last couple of years, and due to this I've posted much less than I used to.

So, at the very least there were people under the age of 18 posting here, but we've grown up. Well, grown up physically, at least. I swear psychologically I'm still 12.

[Mad Slanted Powers]

I was born in the June of 1970, which makes me 38 (that's my master's degree in math coming in handy). I'm not sure how I first found this site. It might have been a link from theforce.net, or just me searching for Star Wars sites. At first I was just using the online checklist to keep track of my figures, but didn't join the forums and start posting until after AOTC in May 2002. I didn't post much the first year. I didn't start posting a lot until after the return from exile to swcollecting.com. At that point I only had about 500 posts.

[Mr. JabbaJohnL]

I'm 18 right now, but I'll be 19 tomorrow.

I was introduced to Star Wars when my parents took me and my sisters to see the special editions in the theater, as seeing Star Wars was their first date back in 1977. I had a friend who had been a fan before that, and some of my earliest SW-related memories involve going to his house and talking about it and whatnot.

My first figure was a Chewbacca in Bounty Hunter Disguise I got at a now-closed Kmart after I saw ESB but before ROTJ (fitting with the SOTE timeline, coincidentally). But I think the first SW product I ever got was a Taco Bell Cloud City toy; I LOVED the line of premiums they had in 1997 and of course still have them.

As I said a few days ago, I'm pretty sure (but not 100%) that I came here around this time ten years ago while looking for Star Wars figure info online. I got on the forums a while later and was here well before the November 2001 sign-up date in my profile (that was when I came to the new boards), so I was probably nine or ten when I started posting and/or reading the forums. And we always get several of kids and new posters whenever there's a big new launch, as seen recently with The Clone Wars.