With the entire Star Wars trilogy being re-released with revamped special effects, digitally remastered sound and new scenes, Star Wars fever has hit the country’s population like Beatlemania.

With the resurgence of interest in the trilogy, there is also a renewed interest in Star Wars collectibles.

With the return of Star Wars to the big screen, fans will see the release of several new action figures and vehicles, several different comic books and a ton of related trading cards.

With prices on the original figures of 1977 to 1979 ranging from $75 to $900 in the box, $10 to $260 out of the box, and prices on the original Star Wars comic book series from Marvel all rising in value, what items should collectors focus on to establish their retirement funds?

Robert Josephson, an employee at Mayhem Collectibles, said that action figures from Kenner/Hasbro are currently the most collectible things in the market.

“There is a lot of demand for the action figures, especially the older ones,” he said. “They have become desirable and collectible. Most of the original figures are no longer in boxes and quite a few people have told me about how they owned them when they were little and broke them or their dog ate them.”

Since so many of the original figures no longer exist, they are rare and thus extremely expensive.

“The new posters for the re-releases are in high demand, but they are limited to theaters so they are difficult to get a hold of,” Josephson said. “Original posters from theaters are worth the most money, but there is still demand for reproductions.”

One reason Star Wars merchandise is in such a hot commodity is because the movie established a whole new market of collectibles.

“Star Wars was the first [movie] licensed to become a collectible. It spawned a whole new market for movie licenses and changed the way we look at collectibles,” Josephson said. “Star Wars is a phenomenon, it’s not a movie but an experience.”

“Many people buy the collectibles because they seek to recapture that experience. The attention and collectibility will be huge after the re-releases open, and we haven’t even hit the peak yet.”

Josephson has some advice for people seeking profit in collecting. “Go after things that aren’t readily available, such as movie posters, stage props or limited edition stuff. Don’t buy large quantities of one thing and don’t spend a lot of money.

“Buy what you enjoy, hold on to it and wait for a resurgence of collectibility or desire in the market. Be prepared to wait ten to twenty years for the price to drastically rise in the marketplace. It is not a short-term investment.”

Josephson also had a few tips for collectors. He said Princess Leia in her slave outfit will be hot because toy companies usually don’t produce a high abundance of women figures. He added that Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back three-dimensional cards will also be hot.

Collectors should also be aware that the Official Star Wars Fan Club is offering an exclusive offer to club members in which they can purchase Cantina band members which have never been available before. It is a one-time only offer which is almost guaranteed to rise in value.

People interested in joining the club can pick up an application in Star Wars Insider magazine.

Mayhem Collectibles also has a large variety of magazines and books available to scope out current market prices. “Magazines such as White’s Guide to Collecting, Toy Fair, Wizard, Star Wars Insider and Star Wars Galaxy all have fairly accurate prices on figures, comics, books and cards,” Josephson said.

But cards and toys aren’t the only thing Star Wars fans are spending their money on. A barrage of new Star Wars video games have been released with the Nintendo 64 version leading the way.

The game is one of the hottest releases available for Nintendo’s new machine and is focused around the character Dash Rendar, who uses six different weapons and three vehicles (a snowspeeder, an outrider and a swoop) to travel through ten different levels.

Dash has to fight through a plethora of enemies including Imperial AT-ATs, Snowtroopers, Wampas, TIE Fighters, bounty hunters Boba Fett and IG-88 and Dark Prince Xizor.

There are also appearances from such Star Wars mainstays as Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Obi-wan Kenobi and Jabba the Hutt.

Wade Wiand, a proud owner of the elusive game, has extremely positive things to say about it. “I’m not really a big fan of Star Wars but my friends said that it was their favorite game, so I bought it. The graphics are much better than anything on the market. I would definitely suggest buying it.”

Wiand said the game is like another popular game, Doom, in that there are stages where you run around and shoot things.

“There are also other stages where you get to fly around and blow spaceships up, kind of like Descent,” Wiand said.”

The game also adjusts its difficulty depending on which setting you have it on. There are five different difficulty settings ranging from easy to Jedi. As you progress, it gets harder.

Wiand said he has only beat the game on easy level, so there’s a lot left to accomplish. “You have to beat it at the harder levels in order to discover all the secrets and find out what happens next in the game,” he said.

The replay value of the game is helped out by the fact that some secrets are only exposed after you beat certain stages at higher difficulty levels.

“I’d like to see Darth Vader on the game, but since I’ve only beat it on the easiest level, I don’t know if he’s on it or not,” Wiand said. “The game is absolutely addictive. You sit down and you can’t stop playing it.”