Our History

The story of The Saga Museum is the history of a cultural phenomenon seen through the eyes of a single, meticulously preserved archive. It is a timeline that spans over half a century, tracing a path from the newsrooms of traditional print journalism to the hills of Skywalker Ranch, inside a transformed chicken farm in Sonoma County, and finally outward to a future state-of-the-art public institution.

The Mind of a Journalist (1945–1976)

Long before he was known as the ultimate guardian of Star Wars history, Steve Sansweet was a storyteller driven by a deep respect for documentation and the written word. Born in Philadelphia in 1945, Steve possessed the "collecting gene" from early childhood, amassing comic books, baseball cards, swizzle sticks, bread cards, and bottle caps.

His real passion, however, was journalism. At just six years old, he hand-printed a local newsletter and sold copies to neighbors for three cents. That early instinct for independent publishing led him to Temple University, where he spent his days in the trenches of the student daily, The Temple News, mastering the rigorous arts of editing, photography, fact-checking, and layout composition.

Graduating magna cum laude, Steve entered the professional world of high-stakes investigative journalism. After a stint at The Philadelphia Inquirer, he was hired by The Wall Street Journal in 1969. In 1987, Steve was named the Journal's Los Angeles Bureau Chief—a highly prestigious, demanding position where he broke major investigative stories regarding Hollywood, aerospace, banking, and international corporate infrastructure. He was part of the reporting team that won the 1977 Sigma Delta Chi Public Service Award and was a finalist for the Loeb Award in 1990.

This career choice was critical to the history of the collection. Steve’s decades as an elite journalist instilled in him a unique mental framework: he didn't just look at objects as "toys"; he viewed them as historical artifacts, cultural primary sources, and pieces of social ephemera that told a larger narrative about human creativity and fandom history. In addition, he was already an established professional with an income and a penchant for collecting space-related toys.

The Wastebasket & The Hollywood Hills (1977–1995)

In early 1977, months before a space-fantasy film named Star Wars premiered in theaters, a standard piece of movie studio marketing crossed the desks of The Wall Street Journal. A colleague of Steve’s threw the 20-page promotional brochure into his trash can. Fascinated by the pre-release artwork and concept copy, Steve reached into the wastebasket and pulled it out.

That single saved piece of marketing ephemera became Object Number One.

When the movie exploded into a global phenomenon in May 1977, Steve’s collecting gene flipped to full power. While casual moviegoers bought toys to play with, Steve’s journalistic instinct drove him to collect everything he could find. His future self would thank him.

The collection began on a single shelving unit in the den of his typical California stilt-house high in the Hollywood Hills. Within a few short years—accelerated by the release of The Empire Strikes Back in 1980—the toys completely overwhelmed the living space. In an effort to preserve a normal domestic life, Steve had a lower floor added beneath his house. When that floor filled to the ceiling, he added a second level beneath that. Surrounded by walls of international variants, Kenner action figures, cast-and-crew gifts, and rare unproduced prototypes, his home had become a private, vertical museum overlooking Los Angeles.

Following the Bliss to Lucasfilm (1996–2010)

By 1996, Steve reached a prime intersection in his life. He had spent 26 highly successful years at The Wall Street Journal, but his true calling lay in the galaxy far, far away. Making a monumental leap of faith, Steve left the newsroom to "follow his bliss," accepting an offer from Lucasfilm Ltd. to become the Director of Specialty Marketing. His title eventually evolved into Director of Content Management and Head of Fan Relations.

For the next 15 years, Steve served as the vital, beating heart between the corporate production engine of Lucasfilm and the global grassroots community of fans. He helped launch the first official Star Wars Celebration fan conventions, helped build the editorial foundations for the first iteration of StarWars.com, and personally hosted over 50 hours of specialty collectibles programming on QVC.

This professional transition supercharged the archive. Traveling to over 100 fan conventions worldwide—from Tokyo to London to Sydney—Steve was exposed to a vast, international web of collecting. He amassed rare foreign bootlegs, cast-and-crew presentation items, original production artwork, and perhaps most importantly, piece after piece of unique, fan-made folk art. Fandom history was unfolding in real-time.

The Hen Houses of Petaluma (1998–Now)

Working full-time in Northern California required a massive relocation of the collection from the Hollywood Hills. In mid-1998, Steve discovered an idyllic 2.25-acre former commercial chicken ranch nestled in the rural hills of Petaluma in Sonoma County. The property featured massive, empty industrial hen houses that once held 20,000 chickens during Petaluma’s agricultural heyday. Steve executed an extensive, climate-controlled historic barn renovation, transforming the structures into a dedicated, 9,000-square-foot archival sanctuary. He dubbed the property Rancho Obi-Wan.

Initially, the Rancho was kept as a private resource for friends, scholars, and visiting Lucasfilm colleagues. However, following the release of the Prequel trilogy, the launch of The Clone Wars, and Steve’s formal retirement as a full-time Lucasfilm executive in April 2011, the sheer scale of the trove demanded a grander purpose.

In October 2011, Rancho Obi-Wan, Inc. was officially established as a California 501(c)(3) nonprofit public benefit corporation. Its mission shifted from a private passion to a public charity dedicated to collection, conservation, and education. By 2014, the Guinness Book of World Records officially certified Rancho Obi-Wan as housing the single largest collection of Star Wars memorabilia in the known universe—auditing over 93,260 items to secure the record, with estimates of the uncatalogued backlog soaring past 500,000 unique pieces.

For 15 years (and counting), Rancho Obi-Wan has operated as a legendary, intimate pilgrimage site, offering docent-led, deep-dive educational tours to fans, historians, and charitable causes worldwide.

The Council of Guardians (The Parallel Paths)

While Rancho Obi-Wan was flourishing in Northern California, four other titanic forces in the Star Wars community were spending decades curating their own peerless archives. Each brought a distinct, highly specialized focus to the table:

Gus Lopez & The Bobacabana: In Seattle, Gus Lopez was building a monumental archive focused on rare, one-of-a-kind production artifacts, original cinematic art, cast-and-crew items, pre-production toy prototypes, and… cereal boxes. Gus’s 3,500-square-foot archive, known as the Bobacabana, is home to legendary pieces of cinematic history—most famously including the actual original screen-used Death Star model from 1977's A New Hope. Beyond his physical archive, Gus is a founding father of digital Star Wars archiving, having created The Star Wars Collectors Archive —the internet's very first dedicated Star Wars collecting website—and pioneering the official Collecting Track at Star Wars Celebration.
Duncan Jenkins & The Sithsonian: Based in Kansas City, Duncan Jenkins approached collecting with a rigorous, encyclopedic discipline. His massive archive, The Sithsonian, became the world’s definitive repository for international variants, foreign bootlegs, and ephemeral marketing premiums, such as vintage food and cereal packaging. Recognizing a massive gap in documented collecting history, Duncan paired his analytical expertise with Gus Lopez to co-author four definitive, bible-like reference books on the hobby, including Gus and Duncan’s Comprehensive Guide to Star Wars Collectibles.
Lisa Stevens, Vic Wertz & The Imperial Archives: In the Pacific Northwest, Lisa Stevens and Vic Wertz were building a jaw-dropping, 14,000-square-foot archive known as the Imperial Archives. Lisa and Vic are royalty in the gaming and fandom industries; Lisa was an early employee at Wizards of the Coast, helped launch Pokémon in the West, and went on to found Paizo Publishing (Pathfinder). Vic, a profound collector, partnered with Lisa to run the Official Star Wars Fan Club and serve as Associate Editor for Star Wars Insider magazine in the early 2000s. Their massive collection is unmatched in its depth of modern, three-dimensional high-end collectibles, limited-edition studio scales, and extensive historical production pieces.

The Unification & Birth of The Saga Museum

By 2021, the five curators realized a profound truth: their independent collections were fragments of a singular, massive story. Separated, they were world-class private troves; unified, they formed an unassailable, comprehensive monument to modern cinematic folklore.

In a historic move, Rancho Obi-Wan, the Sithsonian, the Bobacabana, and the Imperial Archives officially announced their intention to merge. This unprecedented union instantly combined the four largest independent Star Wars archives in existence under a single nonprofit banner: The Saga Museum of Star Wars Memorabilia.

The vision for The Saga Museum represents a massive leap into the future:

The Scale: Transitioning from separate residential spaces and rural hen houses to a planned, world-class physical public museum and permanent facility.
The Collection: Housing an unfathomable collection of an estimated 1.5 million artifacts across the combined archives—ranging from screen-used film props and historical industrial documents to high-end collectibles and global fan folk art.
The Mission: Using the universal storytelling power and technical wizardry of Star Wars to inspire future generations of innovators, artists, and builders.

To pull back the curtain and share this grand transition with the world, the museum launched its digital storytelling initiative, including the The Saga Vault video series—inviting global fans to watch the journey unfold in real-time as the team lays the physical and digital bricks for this landmark cultural space.

What began with a single investigative journalist saving a promotional flyer from a newsroom wastebasket has evolved into a multi-million-object public legacy. Built for the community, by the community, The Saga Museum stands as a testament to the power of imagination, the rigorous preservation of modern folklore, and an unyielding commitment to the fans who helped build a galaxy.