One, a shoot ‘em up, was adapted from a Second World War fighter game: “They only had a 50-day warranty and most broke soon after Boxed, they’re worth around pounds 2,000,” says Jason. With rarity, and the condition of their packaging, largely determining value, those toys that weren’t up to the rigours of the playground and broke easily are now much sought after. They tend to buy directly from sources like ex-Lucasfilm or Elstree employees (producer Gary Kurtz sold Jason Han Solo’s medal, awarded to the maverick spice smuggler in Star Wars joyously sentimental finale), though freak finds such as the 25,000 location photos he found in a London garage, and the 3,500 storyboards offered by an antiques dealer, surface from time to time.There are, though, a couple of thousand UK collectors and up to 40,000 in the States chasing after the more affordable and sometimes bizarre artefacts made by Kenner toys, the US company with exclusive merchandising rights to the trilogy. Major memorabilia buyers, like the theme restaurant Planet Hollywood, have the power to outbid all but the most obsessive and rich competitors at auction and Jason estimates that there are only three or four other main players in the UK (“You have to move in the right circles,” he says enigmatically). The real world is fine, but this is more fun.”The few sets and costumes not entombed at Skywalker Ranch are too pricey for most Star Wars collectors.

I was going to buy a car and put a deposit on a flat, but then R2D2 came along … What do his family and neighbours think of his obsession? “The neighbours think I’m crazy, but I have an understanding family, as well as a very un-derstanding fiancee. Yet, with his dark, trimmed beard, and dull pullover, he looks uncannily like Lucas, who is clearly his hero. Lucasfilm has tried relentlessly to prevent Jason holding Star Wars conventions, staged under the banner of the Falcon Society, and are even less enamoured of his plans to publish a book on the trilogy later this year. Its legs are stored in his spare bedroom, but the rest of his Artoo, along with much of the film prop collection, is in France, out of reach of the litigious Lucasfilm Ltd.Jason has a complex and often frustrating relationship with the company, as well as the trilogy’s distributor, 20th Century Fox. He paid a slightly more reasonable pounds 25,000 for an R2D2, the only one to have escaped from Lucas (25 were made between 1976 and 1983, employing Formula 1 technology, at a cost of pounds 100,000 each).

Darth Vader – a seven- foot, leather-clad fascist vampire, for which Jason claims to have been offered pounds 80,000. I couldn’t believe that it was in this country because I thought everything from the films was at Skywalker Ranch [Lucas's home, studio, office and archive in San Raphael, California].”In fact, much of the trilogy was shot at Elstree studios and the craftsmen and designers who worked on the films there often “ended up” with pieces of costume, sets and artwork in their lofts and sheds: they had invested too much of their time and skill in these works of art (including the light sabres, death star and droids which have gone on to become icons of the genre) to see them destroyed as the obsessively secretive Lucas demanded.One such piece stands glowering on Jason’s landing. I’d always wanted to own a Star Wars prop and someone offered me a Darth Vader mask. “But I got to the stage where I had one of every piece of Star Wars merchandise ever made from around the world, from toy robots to yoghurt pots.

Some of the money has come from his business partner, but most of the collection is funded by the numerous collectors’ fairs Jason runs up and down the country, and by the profits from Offworld, his sci-fi memorabilia shop in Romford.Jason began innocently enough buying pieces with his pocket money and swapping with school friends. “But it was only after Return of the Jedi (the third in the Lucas space trilogy which also includes The Empire Strikes Back) that I began collecting.” That was over a decade ago, he now has over 12,500 pieces representing hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of investment. Only Lucas himself has more.
“I saw Star Wars in 1977 and it totally grabbed me,” explained Jason as we sat in the front room of his parents small semi-detached house. He now has the largest collection of Star Wars memorabilia – dolls, toys, books, picture cards – and the second largest collection of props and costumes from the trilogy in the world. Jason began collecting Star Wars picture cards in 1986, as did countless children around the world The difference is, he never stopped.