This year more than any previous year, Star Wars Day (or May the 4th) has inspired numerous Star Wars licensees to put on some spectacular events, create some amazing new products, and offer many killer deals. Read on for a summary of what’s in store…
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Tags: LEGO, may the 4th, May the 4th Be With You, may the 4th deals, Rancho Obi-Wan, star wars day deals
Collecting, Events, Fans and Community, May the 4th Be With You | 
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We sometimes forget, with the saga remaining so fresh and vivid in our minds, remastered and updated in the latest formats and constantly playing around the world that while the characters of Star Wars may remain eternally young, the actors who portrayed them on-screen, like the rest of us mere mortals, age, get older, and pass away.
This year alone we have seen Stuart Freeborn and Richard LeParmentier pass on, and only last year we all mourned the loss of the great Ralph McQuarrie. A recent fascinating piece on the Official Blog by Pablo Hidalgo, “Star Wars Mysteries: Hunting for the Fake Wedge,” asked the question, “where in the world is actor Colin Higgins,” the man who played the “fake” Wedge Antilles in the briefing room scenes of A New Hope. It’s a fascinating story, a relatively minor character who grew into a fan favorite but who took three actors — Denis Lawson, David Ankrum, and Colin Higgins — to bring to life in that first film.
6 Comments » | Tags: Colin Higgins, Episode IV: A New Hope, wedge
Behind The Scenes | Permalink
The man who first showed us the effects of the awesome powers of the dark side passed away suddenly on Monday 15th April 2013 in Austin, Texas. Richard Leparmentier, better known to millions of Star Wars fans as Admiral Conan Antonio Motti left an indelible imprint on the Star Wars galaxy, helping to illustrate the fearsome powers of Lord Vader as well as the arrogance and malice of a bloated and over-confident Empire.
4 Comments » | Tags: a new hope, admiral motti, Richard Leparmentier
Behind The Scenes, News | Permalink
The year was 1983. Return of the Jedi had been released to great fanfare on 25th May, breaking opening day records worldwide and bringing the original trilogy to a conclusion with a blast, resolving — for the next 32 years, at least — the fates of Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, and the droids. As it had been for the previous six years, Star Wars was everywhere. But little did fans know, we were just a handful of years away from an era of Star Wars history known as The Dark Times.
7 Comments » | Tags: heir to the empire, Return of the Jedi, star wars, star wars in the uk, the dark times, uk star wars
Fans and Community | Permalink
As we dive into the post-Disney acquisition era of Lucasfilm and Star Wars I thought it might not be a bad time to take a few steps back into the past to see what loving Star Wars was like before the advent of Facebook and Twitter, before the Internet, before DVDs, Hasbro, Dark Horse, and even before Star Wars Insider. I’m talking about the late ’70s and being a Star Wars fan here in the UK.
5 Comments » | Tags: england, star wars in the uk, u.k.
Fans and Community | Permalink
“If there’s a bright center to the universe you’re on the planet that it’s farthest from.”
Any Star Wars fan worth his or her salt knows that Luke Skywalker was talking about his adopted home world of Tatooine, but last month, Farthest From — a retro Star Wars toy show — was right here on planet earth in the UK, in the middle of the New Forest and a small village called Fordingbridge.
For the past three years, event organizer Dave Tree (you may know him as the brains behind Celebration Europe’s massively popular 2007 Palitoy Archive exhibit, a display so incredible it reduced Dengar himself, Simon Pegg, to nostalgic tears of joy) has held events in the town. First he hosted two Fordingbridge Film and TV Festivals, the first of which saw original trilogy and Indiana Jones producer Robert Watts present the UK’s only showing that year of Raiders of the Lost Ark and then bringing Farthest From to the Town Hall in September and now December of 2012.
5 Comments » | Tags: Collecting, Conventions, farthest from, Toys
Collecting | Permalink
Photo (from left-to-right): - Mark Mulcaster (Rebel Legion), Suzi Sterling (Rebel Legion), Stephen Smith (UK Garrison), Mary Franklin (Lucasfilm), Gary Hailes (UK Garrison), Steve Buckley (UK Garrison), James Burns (Jedi News) and Oliver Steeples (R2 Builders Club)
The 30th anniversary of Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi is a landmark too big to go un-celebrated, and if there’s one thing Star Wars fans know how to do better than anyone, it’s how to celebrate and party.
But five long years have passed since the summer of 2007, which saw the dual hit of Celebration IV in May and Celebration Europe, held at the Excel in London over the weekend of July 13-15. Bringing the saga to the country where the majority of the first four movies were filmed, UK and European fans were treated to appearances by Mark Hamill, Ian McDiarmid, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and a plethora of galactic stars, as well as the premiere of Fanboys, Charles Ross and the One Man Star Wars Trilogy, the Palitoy 2007 Archive, talks, signings, parties, and much, much more. There was even the infamous Jedi versus Sith battle on the bridge!
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5 Comments » | Tags: celebration europe II
Events, Fans and Community | Permalink
