My DUNE Collection

The beginning is a very delicate time...

I've always been a fan of the 1984 film Dune, although I never got around to reading the novel until AFTER Frank Herbert appeared at the World Science Fiction Convention held here in Melbourne in 1985 - ironically I actually finished the novel the day he passed away. When I first saw the film I didn't "get it", so I watched it again after reading the book where everything suddenly made sense and was instantly hooked.

During this period in time I left high school and entered the workforce which meant I was blessed with a disposable income - the worst thing for any guy in his late teens to have. So with money in my pocket I started spending up on science fiction soundtrack albums, Star Wars posters and in 1989 my Batman collection started. But next to these was my Dune collection, which unlike my other interests, operated mostly in the background as there was so little of it about.

As I was interested more in media than literature, my aim was not to buy every edition of the novels that were released, but instead I looked for items relating specifically to the film. Fortunately from a financial perspective there was very little around, still I did what I could do to keep on top of it. As was the problem I faced at the time with so many collections on the go, the Dune collection really had nowhere to be displayed so it was placed in various forms of storage for a couple of decades. Eventually in July 2009 I was able to allocate some space in my home where the collection finally saw the light of day. Amusingly when I opened the boxes I was surprised to see just how little of it there really was.

We have thousands of such caches and only a few of us know them all...

The interesting thing about collecting Dune merchandise is that no one really cared about it, and neither did I at the time as here in Australia we just didn't have anything to buy. But all that changed dramatically when a friend of mine discovered a US science fiction mail order company called Intergalactic Trading. Sure enough it was on that fateful day in the mid-late 1980s when we got to see a catalogue from IGT and were utterly gobsmacked by all the items on offer - things we had NEVER seen before from all our favourite TV shows and movies (remembering this was 15+ years before eBay). In amongst all the various sections in the catalogue was a page devoted solely to Dune, I looked at the items on the page and without hesitation said "yep I'll have all of it!". Ironically the selection of Dune items is STILL available on the IGT website today.

Once the big box arrived from the US with my Dune treasure trove, I immediately began a search for collectables and other Dune related material and even had an Atreides uniform made to attend science fiction fan events. Alas being located in Australia and without the Internet being invented yet, finding items was a pretty difficult task.

Of particular joy was being able to find all the toys for the film. Unlike Star Wars which had thousands of action figures and vehicles created, Dune only had:

Six action figures
Three small vehicles
One large spice harvester
A worm toy
Two guns (which were a prize find!)

And that was all! As for other items, I also have the the following items in my collection:

An assortment of kids activity books
Some badges
Computer games
A calendar
A music book
A couple of board games
Three model kits
A pop up book
An unofficial encyclopedia
A couple of "Frank Herbert" reads Dune LPs
Ahe usual movie posters, lobby cards and soundtrack CDs
A couple of specialised programme books and press kits
The ever common trading cards and stickers

When it came down to it, Dune really wasn't exactly a marketing goldmine as it failed dismally at the box office. For this reason it didn't take long for the merchandise to taper off as the film was forgotten by the world at large, fortunately there are collectors out there who still keep the Dune spirit alive - as can be seen at this quite impressive collection web site.

I'll miss the sea, but a person needs new experiences...

Interest in Dune changed somewhat in 2000 with the release of a new Dune Mini Series followed by Children of Dune and then the release of the Prelude to Dune novels in 2002. Although I watched both mini series with great interest, my first love has always been the 1984 film and as such the focus of my collecting has remained devoted to that.

So aside from a brief moment of excitement with the DVD releases of the Alan Smithee version of Dune (there's a great story regarding that I could tell you) and the 20th anniversary metal cover version, my Dune collecting effectively came to a close quite a while ago.

Is the collection worth anything?

As is often the case with collectables, value is judged by the demand and there isn't a lot of demand for Dune merchandise. Still I have heard that the Encyclopaedia is quite rare and I'd like to think that some of the toys have increased in value, but overall I wouldn't think any of it is worth much.

Still I'm pleased that I could put it on display and that to me is enough. Amusingly the very last item to be added to the collection does not appear in the photo as I only included it as an after thought, it's a Post-It sticky pad with the Sandworms of Dune artwork on it that Kevin J Anderson gave to me.