Author Archive



Rebelscum Japan Launched

Pete Vilmur | January 21, 2008

chew

Our friends over at rebelscum.com have just launched an all-new site dedicated to Japanese Star Wars collecting, posting an informative tutorial on the history of the hobby in the Land of the Rising Sun. Here’s a bit of the intro:

In 1978, turmoil from a galaxy far, far away finally reached the big screens in Japan. Tickets were selling by the thousands, and in every big city everyone was talking about the new Star Wars movie. The stage had been set for a new promotional era in Japan. The first company to realize this potential was Coca Cola. They had devised an ingenious marketing plan that not only boosted sales, but also began a race for toy products throughout Japan. They began advertising new bottle caps which would contain a small vinyl picture of characters and scenes from the movie. There would be 50 designs total. There were even 3 color variations which included a gold background, a silver background, and a pink strip design. It seemed the collecting and trading, among the anxious consumers was endless.

Read the entire article here. As big fans of Japanese Star Wars collectibles, this is one we’ll be watching!

Star Wars LEGO Contest Picks Up Steam

Pete Vilmur | January 8, 2008

Star Wars steampunk aficionados, crack out those old LEGO sets with helicopter propellers, domed canopies, harpoons, gears and other Victorian accoutrements – the From Bricks to Bothans Forums has announced a “Steam-Wars Contest” and is giving away some great LEGO Star Wars sets for prizes.

To get an idea of what Star Wars steampunk might look like, check out some of the photos posted at the WIRED Blog Network.

Better hurry – contest ends January 31st!

Thanks to theforce.net for the heads up!

Wrecked AT-AT Wins the Day

Pete Vilmur | December 4, 2007

wrecked_atat

Starship Modeler recently hosted a contest that asked contestants to submit their best model “wreck” — that is, any model that might be defined as“derelict, broken, abandonned, war-weary, busted, beat up, junker, hangar queen, crashed, pranged, in disrepair, poorly maintained and held-together-with-baling-wire-and-prayers”, etc.

Scratch modeler Dimitri Kaliviotis took home the first place prize with his stunning 1/32 scale AT-AT, which truly looks like something post-apocalyptic from that galaxy far, far way. Check out the rest of the entries for more Star Wars-inspired wrecks.

Astromech Speakers

Pete Vilmur | October 19, 2007

r2d2_desktop

Soon you’ll be able to hook up a pair of astromechs to your laptop or iPod to listen to your favorite music or movies – Techdigest recently sneaked a peek at this cool R2 unit duo –

Released in December by Taito Japan, two R2’s are sold together in a set in blue and orange, each standing 12cm high. You can connect to a computer or MP3 player via a standard 3.5mm stereo plug, with a flip of the head opening up the speakers for use.

Looks like they’ll only cost about $40, too. First salt and pepper shakers, now speakers. Is there anything your standard-issue Artoo unit can’t do?

Yoda Sculptor Visits London Exhibit

Pete Vilmur | October 11, 2007

Bob,Stuart&John

Star Wars legend Stuart Freeborn, sculptor/designer of Chewbacca and Yoda, among others, was recently invited to Star Wars: The Exhibition at County Hall in London. There, the 92-year-old Freeborn toured the scores of original props and costumes, accompanied by Bob Keen (who worked for Freeborn during Empire and Jedi) and Jonathan Sands of Weird & Wonderful (see image above).

Sands says he will be shooting a short documentary of Freeborn for another exhibition which will be taking place at County Hall shortly.

Jawa Sandcrawler Built to Figure Scale

Pete Vilmur | October 9, 2007

SandcrawlerImage1

Since building big seems to be a theme this week (see X-wing rocket story below), we thought we’d share what one fan from Brooklyn, New York has built to accommodate his band of Jawa action figures – a sandcrawler built to action figure scale! (you didn’t think the old Kenner version was actually to scale, did you?)

The intricately-detailed sandcrawler measures a hulking two and a half feet tall and over five feet long. Here’s an excerpt from darklord1967’s post:

About 2 months ago, I went up to my collection room and spent some time admiring my horde of TAC Jawas. I’m not entirely sure why, but I just LOVE those new little buggers! Anyhow, I decided to see what my new little scavengers would look like in a makeshift droid auction in front of their Sandcrawler. I pulled my Vintage Kenner Radio Controlled Jawa Sandcrawler down off the shelf, posed a bunch of droids and TAC Jawas around it… and my heart sank. That tiny, dinky, out-of-scale, pathetic Sandcrawler looked ridiculous next to my new Jawas! I loved this Sandcrawler as a kid, but now… it just wasn’t working for me.

Head on over to theprivateuniverse.co.uk forum to check out the pics and full description.

5,000-piece LEGO Falcon Built in Under 3 Hours

Pete Vilmur | September 28, 2007

german_falcon

For those who plan to pick up the new 5000-piece Ultimate Collectors Millennium Falcon LEGO set (which includes a 4-pound instruction manual!), check out the short time-lapse video posted by some German fans who were able to cobble the Corellian freighter together in just 2 hours and 53 minutes!

Bay Area TV Show Tours Lucasfilm at Presidio

Pete Vilmur | September 23, 2007

bayarea

The local TV show “Bay Area Backroads” recently took a tour of the Lucasfilm digs at the Presidio, and even got a peek at our very own starwars.com servers!
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Edlund Talks ILM’s Pre-digital Days

Pete Vilmur | August 31, 2007

stardestroyer

Americanheritage.com recently posted an expansive article on the era of pre-digital special effects, featuring an interview with ex-ILMer Richard Edlund. The article spans the founding of Industrial Light & Magic two years before Star Wars’ release in 1977 through the end of the decade, when Star Trek – The Motion Picture defined how not to do a special effects movie. Here’s an excerpt:

The storyboards described the movie starting with an enormous “Imperial Star Destroyer” pursuing a much smaller spacecraft into the frame right over the audience’s head, hauling them into the adventure. “We knew how important this was,” Edlund explains. “If the audience didn’t buy that shot right away, they might not buy into what follows, but the only Star Destroyer we had was barely three feet long. We’d discussed plans to build a huge model that would stretch out along the side of the building, talking endlessly about how we’d light and shoot it while we kept banging away on the easier shots, always pushing that massive opening shot off, until eventually we started running out of stuff to shoot. By then the money was getting thin, and time was pretty much up.” And so, just as they’d always done, Edlund and John Dykstra, the movie’s visual-effects supervisor, and their crew at the fledgling visual-effects house Industrial Light & Magic, tackled this latest problem with sheer inventive pluck.

Before you head over, grab a snack and a beverage – it’s a long ride, but well worth the trip!

Never Tell Me the Odds

Pete Vilmur | August 10, 2007

poker

Belgian playing card manufacturer Cartamundi, which is Latin for “cards of the world”, recently acquired a Star Wars license to produce playing cards and – you guessed it – the very first official poker chip set!

Still hot off the success of landing the contract to produce the cards and chips appearing in the latest James Bond film Casino Royale, Cartamundi will be unleashing a stellar poker set this October for Star Wars fans, complete with 200 chips, two exclusive casino-quality card decks, a chrome Death Star dealer button, and Star Wars branded case.

The stand-out feature of this set, of course, is the presentation. The 100 blue, 50 green, and 50 red 10.2-gram translucent chips are illuminated within the case by 72 LEDs shining through diffuser lenses, brilliantly illuminating the set when opened. It’s no mistake that the colors resemble lightsaber blades – just be mindful of how you wage them at the table.

Expect to ante up about $200 bucks for this baby — yes, you can buy your own chips for that — and StarWarsShop will be posting this shortly –- stay tuned….