Lisa and a person who may or may not be Vic.
|
Lisa and a person who may or may not be Vic. |
Lisa Stevens and Victor K. Wertz
Vic started collecting Star Wars toys in 1978 at age 7, and purchased every action figure released during the next few years. Then, sadly, he temporarily grew out of the hobby, and packed everything away for a decade and a half.
In 1996, Lisa purchased a POTF2 Boba Fett figure as a gift for Vic. That weekend, Vic purchased a couple more figures, and a few weeks later, picked up every POTF2 figure that had been released. And the two of them were hooked. Their collecting continued for a few years almost exclusively with the Power of the Force 2 line. That changed in 1998 with a) Lisa's discovery of eBay and b) both of them joining SARLAAC, Gus Lopez's Star Wars collectors' group in Seattle.
At this point, Lisa and Vic started to expand their collection into vintage Kenner action figures, playsets, vehicles, and other related items, while also delving head first into collecting Kenner prototypes. In addition to focusing on a few characters (the bounty hunters, original Leia, General Madine, Leia Boussh. Lando Skiff), Vic and Lisa have also gathered one of the largest vintage and modern hardcopy collections in the world, with close to 80 total hardcopies. Another area in which they have specialized is Star Wars arcade and pinball games. Currently, they own at least one of every licensed Star Wars arcade and pinball machine made in the world. (They are still looking for an unlicensed Star Wars pinball machine from Spain, made in the late '80s.)
Lisa and Vic have also begun to collect screen-used movie props from Star Wars, and they have a growing collection of original Star Wars art. Work has begun on their dream house in North Bend, WA, about 30 minutes from downtown Seattle, where they plan to have an entire wing devoted to their love of Star Wars collecting.
Vic Wertz
Vic was born in Gaithersburg, MD, and briefly attended Georgia Tech and the University of Maryland before moving to Seattle in 1993. He worked at Wizards of the Coast as the Project Manager for Magic: The Gathering for several years, and then worked at Go2Net, an internet content provide. Vic retired two days before his 28th birthday - at least, until he finds something worth coming out of retirement for.
Lisa Stevens
Lisa was born in Los Angeles, but raised mostly in the state of Wisconsin. She graduated from St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN with a degree in Biology, but forsook the academic life to start her first game company in 1987. Five years later, she ended up in Seattle, WA as one of the founders of Wizards of the Coast, a large game company best known for Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons and Dragons, and Pokémon. While at Wizards, Lisa held many jobs as she helped the company to grow. Her last position was as the Brand Manager of Star Wars, where she helped Wizards with its roleplaying game, miniatures game, Star Wars Gamer magazine, and the official Star Wars Fan Club. During her tenure at Wizards, she got her MBA at the U of Washington and was voted as one of the Top Marketers of the year by Ad Age Magazine. Currently, Lisa is taking a well earned sabbatical from work to spend time with Vic working on their collection and building their house. She is occasionally freelancing for the Star Wars Insider and looking for the next step in her life.