Star Wars: Return of the Jedi: The Original Topps Trading Card Series, Volume Three

by Gary Gerani

Following the success of Star Wars (1977) and The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Topps released two brand-new sets of collectable trading cards in 1983 to coincide with Return of the Jedi , the final installment of George Lucas’s original Star Wars trilogy. Now, for the first time, all 220 cards and 55 stickers are reprinted in one deluxe volume. As with the previous books in the Topps series, this collection features the fronts and backs of each card, including character profiles and puzzles featuring all of your favorite scenes from Return of the Jedi . Also included are four bonus trading cards, rare promotional images, and an introduction and commentary by Gary Gerani, the original editor of the Star Wars Topps series.

Also available from Star The Original Topps Trading Card Series, Volume One, Star The Empire Strikes Back, The Original Topps Trading Card Series, Volume Two, and Star Wars The Original Topps Trading Card Series .

Genres: Star Wars, Reference, Science Fiction

528 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2005

About the author

Gary Gerani is a screenwriter, author, noted film and TV historian, and children's product developer.

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a major walk through nostalgia. I used to collect these cards back in the early 1980's. I never managed to get the full sets. It was so much fun to look through both sets of cards and the stickers. It brought me back to that time and the fun of opening up those packs to see if there were any new cards in it. The gum was awful, but I chewed it anyway. Silly me.

[Kris Shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nostalgia is a powerful thing. These Topps trading cards were one of the few ways to relive these movies in the days before home video and in a time when many homes (like mine) did not have cable television. I have gone over all of this in my reviews for the first two volumes in this line, so I'll skip the rest of that spiel and get to the meat of it. This series of books is a blast of nostalgia for those of us who were around to buy these cards at the time.

I managed to cobble together both sets of cards in 1983. I was surprised back then that there was only two sets while Empire had three, but it was a relief in a way since I started “officially” collecting comic books in January of 1983 and couldn't afford to split my money in two directions. Jedi was the last series of cards that I sought to complete. While I would buy packs of, say, Garbage Pail Kids and a few others afterward, I was never compelled to buy them all.

There's not much else to say. These are high resolution scans of the original cards, with the front on one page and the back side on the next page. Flipping through the book is similar to looking at a deck of the trading cards. If you love Star Wars, love trading cards, or are a younger fan who wants a chance to check out merchandise which was released at the time of the original trilogy then these books are a fun, relatively inexpensive way to relive the fun of buying these cards in 1983.

[Trey Ball · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great collection of images once again. it's very cool to have all the stickers and cards together in 1 piece. the commentary from Gary Gerani is so coolcto read too. the packaging of course, is amazing

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better production quality than volume 2 as each card front and back gets its own page rather than being shrunk to fit both back and front on the same page.

Overall though, the book is less interesting because Topps was doing such a good job on producing these sets by the time that Jedi came around, that there isn't much to talk about here. It's a beautiful reproduction of the cards, but that's about it. Still, I'm glad to have it to round out the trilogy.