Johnston with an army of iconic Star Wars models

Over the past six months, movie fans and Star Wars nerds have had the rare opportunity to purchase on eBay the souvenirs and artwork from the personal collection of legendary special effects pioneer and film director Joe Johnston.

The designer or co-designer of iconic characters (and vehicles) such as Yoda, Ewoks, Boba Fett, the Millennium Falcon, the AT-ATs and X-Wing planes, Johnston has an incredible archive from Star Wars alone, which fans have been eager to bid on.

Over the course of 2014, Johnston has been selling not only from those films, but from his directorial efforts, which include favorites such as Honey, I Shrunk the Kids; Jumanji; The Rocketeer; October Sky; Jurassic Park III; and Captain America: The First Avenger.

Johnston, in New Zealand for pre-production on a new TNT show called Lumen, answered some questions via email about his auctions, Star Wars, his career, working with Robin Williams, and more. You can also check out his site at JoeJohnstonSketchbook.com.

So, first off, why put these items up for auction?

I recently moved out of a house I’d been in for over twelve years. I had been storing things in boxes that I had moved from house to house since the ’80s. I had no idea what was in them, just that they were film-related. When I opened up the boxes and found all this stuff that I hadn’t seen or touched, some of it for over thirty years, I thought why should this stuff be sitting in boxes if there are fans out there who would love to have it in their collection?

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A young Johnston working on a CR90 Corellian Corvette

What has been the hardest thing to part with? What won’t you part with?

I won’t part with the personal stuff. I have notes from George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, telegrams (from before the days of email) wishing me luck on the first day of photography, things like that. I have storyboards that George drew in the very early days of Star Wars that I’ll never part with, even though they’re probably the most valuable things I have.

But I’m not selling the items to make money, it’s more to get it out in the world where it will be appreciated. I’ve let my original t-shirt and poster art go, which was probably the hardest thing to part with, but I don’t hang my own art in the house and I didn’t want to put it back into storage. I’m friends with several of the serious collectors who will allow me to have high quality scans made if I want to reproduce it, but I’m very happy that fans want to own the art and protect it far better than I have over the years.

Of all the iconic elements that you designed for Star Wars, which changed the most from initial draft to final product? How did Yoda develop? How about Boba Fett?

Yoda started as rough sketches that were finalized in a clay sculpt by Stuart Freeborn who, rumor has it, modeled Yoda’s features after his own. Whenever there was a collaboration with the English craftsman the design tended to evolve a little more than the homegrown ILM designs.

Boba Fett stayed pretty true to the original design on paper, the ones that Ralph [McQuarrie] and I had done. The character was originally a “Super-Trooper,” all in white like the stormtroopers, but George decided to make him a bounty hunter so I painted the suit up as a multi-colored, beat-up outfit. Loads of fun!

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A storyboard showing Admiral Ackbar from Return of the Jedi

Have you had any involvement in the new Star Wars? Has J.J. Abrams asked you to consult on any designs?

None whatsoever, but I did notice that he’s gone back to the original twin-nacelle X-wing design, much sleeker and aeronautic than the four-engine. Smart.