Today, June 20, at 6:30 p.m. British time (which is to say less than hour after this is posted) Wilsons Auctions will begin a huge online auction of Star Trek, Star Wars and other toys, plus costumes worn by actors in various Trek series.

The items were seized by police from a criminal couple who used some of their loot to build their collection. The wife pleaded guilty last December to stealing £2.3m from her employer, and the husband pleaded guilty to laundering £924,000 of the stolen cash. In addition to sf memorabilia, they bought a £500,000 house, a Mercedes for each of them at £86,000 per, and spent almost £194,000 on vacations.

Wilsons Auctions is offering their collection of “over 1,000 repossessed items” with no reserve.

The auction catalog [PDF file] is an eye-opening revelation about the variety of toys and specialty items created for the Star Wars toy marketplace.

Some are rather amusing. There’s the Star Wars Plush Talking Chewbacca which “speaks Chewie’s trademark Wookie growl when his tummy is pressed.” And the even more loquacious Star Wars Plush Talking Yoda, programmed to utter such wisdom as — “When 900 years you reach, look as good you will not?,” “For 800 years have I trained Jedi,” “Do, or do not There is no try,” “Concentrate, feel the force flow, yes,” and “Judge me by my size do you size matters not!”

I couldn’t discover what noise the Star Wars Plastic Stormtrooper Helmet with Sound Effects makes. If there’s dialog, perhaps a quote like, “These aren’t the droids we’re looking for. Move along.”

Also up for auction is a Star Wars “Darth Tater” which seems to be a Mr. Potato Head who has turned to the dark side. (Or maybe just been too long in the roaster.)

There are weird and silly toys from other series – like the Star Trek Cloved Toe Klingon Boots, and two styles of Doctor Who Remote Control Dalek.

The several actor-worn costumes are likely to be the most expensive items going under the hammer. These include:

• Star Trek Whoopi Goldberg’s Purple Guinan Outfit
• Star Trek Geordi La Forge’s Starfleet Uniform
• Female Klingon Warrior’s Costume
• Star Trek Q’s Starfleet Uniform
• Star Trek Scotty’s Uniform Jacket.
• Star Trek Keith Carradine’s Flight Suit from “First Flight” in Star Trek: Enterprise

The couple bid US$27,000 for these costumes when auctioned by Christie’s in New York a few years ago.

Here is a video of the toys available in tonight’s auction. There are so many duplicates that watching the preview is like walking through a convention’s dealers room.

[Thanks to Michael J. Walsh for the story.]