I was recently reminded of the Kraft Macaroni & Cheese commercial from a few years ago featuring a father and son exploring Dad’s room of lies…er, Star Wars collection. Here it is again:

It was pretty awesome. And for a lot of people, the gag was just that: a gag. “Ha! Look at the grown man who has an entire room given over to his nerdy obsession he won’t share with his kids.” I watch that commercial, though, and feel seen.

I watch that commercial and want to see what else is in that room. Look at the MIB Hoth Ion Cannon set from Kenner’s Micro Collection! And the box of vintage Topps trading cards? Amazing! What about the Return of the Jedi metal lunchboxes? I have those! And the cuddly plush Ewoks! I’m dying!

Clearly, this commercial really hit the sweet spot for me. So, full confession time: I used to have a Star Wars room myself. I started seriously collecting Star Wars back in the early 90s when I was in middle school and the franchise was essentially dead. This was before Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire novel and Dark Horse’s Dark Empire comic kickstarted interest and rebooted Star Wars merchandise in a huge way.

My collection soon outgrew the space available in my bedroom, and my parents gave me free reign of our attic (which was essentially a whole other level of the house). The little Type-A collector that I was soon converted the attic into my own personal Star Wars museum. I shelved books alphabetically, stacked games and boxes in orderly piles, hung carded figures in neat rows, and displayed loose action figures on a custom-built shelf with inset dowel nubs so they could stand upright. (That last one was the crowning achievement of my stint as a middle school curator.)

That attic had some wicked awesome wallpaper. I know.

After I went to college, my parents moved to a bigger house (and of course took my entire collection with them). This time, I was given an entire bedroom for my stuff, and more than a decade after that room was cleared of action figures and comic books, my parents continued to refer to that bedroom as the Star Wars Room.

My Star Wars room was constantly in a state of cataloging and reorganizing, thus the mess. Watching that Kraft commercial and looking at these old pictures, though, stirs up all kinds of nostalgia for my collection, which is now mostly stored in boxes, sold off, or in the hands of my kids.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who went all out with a home exhibition. And I’m sure more than a few of you have such a space in your homes today. So…what have you got? How much space have you given over to your collection? What do you choose to exhibit? And most important, how do you explain your insanity to the unconverted?

Please share stories, descriptions, and photos in the comments, or hit us up on the socials. Let us know what you’ve got!