As you approach the former chicken farm in Petaluma, California, there’s no indication it’s home to the world’s largest Star War memorabilia collection. 
The Promised Land for Star Wars fans, run by 70-year-old Steve Sansweet, lies just an hour’s drive north of San Francisco.
There’s no sign at the entrance to Rancho Obi-Wan, but fans know immediately they’re in the right place: the metal gates at the entrance are adorned with the face of Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Sansweet — who greets his fans wearing a T-shirt with the word “Trööpermeister” written on it, a combination of Stormtrooper and the German schnapps brand Jägermeister — cheerfully admits that he’s completely obsessed with Star Wars.
The Guinness Book of Records backed that up in 2013. With more than 90,000 catalogued items of memorabilia, Sansweet has the largest collection on this planet, they certified.
But that’s a huge underestimation protests Sansweet, who reckons he’s got around 350,000 objects on his shelves: action figurines, props, posters, costumes and toys from all around the world, made by fans or the George Lucas empire, fished out of rubbish bins or acquired at collectors’ auctions for eye-watering sums. 
The Force is with the master collector when he takes small fan groups on three- to four-hour-long tours of his not-for-profit museum.
He tells anecdotes and insider stories and recounts facts without pausing for breath.
Stopping at one glass display case, he points out something “extremely rare.”
“Here is a piece of the actual Millennium Falcon from the set of The Empire Strikes Back,” he says, adding that there’s only ten bits left of the legendary starship.
A Jawa action figure dating to 1978 bought back then for 45 dollars is now worth thousands of dollars.
There are also Star Wars school bags sporting the words “Made in Germany,” an R2D2 fridge from Japan, Jar Jar Binks lollipops, Darth Vader costumes, light sabres and Yoda porcelain dolls.
The tour continues through a bathroom with Star Wars toothbrushes, and “Storm Pooper” toilet paper and a library with thousands of books in 34 languages including Mongolian and the braille alphabet. Sansweet himself has written 17 of the Star Wars books.
The next door leads into an enormous storeroom with groaning shelves. Then there’s a Treasure Room and a hall with artworks and props.
And all of it housed in a gigantic former hen-house.
It was 1977 and Sansweet was 31 when he was first gripped by Star Wars fever.
“It’s not just a movie. It has a special meaning. It’s a major part of popular culture. You can criticise the movies and you can criticise the acting and the dialogues, but obviously it has something that has resonated with millions and millions of men and women,” he says.
His first collectors’ item was an advertising flier for the film, which he picked out of a rubbish bin at the Los Angeles office of the Wall Street Journal.
Sansweet worked for the newspaper for years before making his hobby his profession.
In 1996 he moved to north California and was hired as marketing director and head of fan relations for Lucasfilm, working closely for 15 years with Star Wars creator George Lucas. 
And naturally he already has a piece of memorabilia from the latest addition to the Star Wars franchise, The Force Awakens — a peaked cap from the set signed by director J J Abrams and actors Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill.
The seventh film in the series broke all kinds of records on its release, including becoming the fastest movie to rake in 1 billion dollars — in just 12 days.
Connor Brooks, 11, has come to see the museum with his parents — it’s “totally cool,” he says, adding that he first got into the films when he was just 3 years old.
His favourite character is Darth Vader and he has already decided to name his next dog Vader.
“It’s amazing, there are so many hardcore fans,” says Sansweet. “It’s the first movie that they saw or remember seeing in the theatres with their parents.”
“That sense of community is vital. They look forward to waiting in line with others and to sharing their experience with the next generation.”
He believes the films have an almost mythical attraction for most fans. “It’s about the characters, the good versus evil, the conflict between father and son, the humour and the visual effects,” he adds.
And there’s no end in sight to “the Force” and the films’ legions of fans, who flood to Sansweet’s museum.
His private tours, two a month on average, get booked out quickly, though he’s still waiting for one particular special guest.
“George [Lucas] has been invited. He will come one day.” —DPA