Author Archive



“What a Piece of Junk!”

Pete Vilmur | August 31, 2009

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Few Star Wars fans may realize that, in 1985, the Millennium Falcon underwent a few “special modifications” to fly once again in a low-budget thriller called Evils of the Night. Well, not really — it actually just appeared on the poster for the B-movie schmaltzfest, sporting a second cockpit along with a cast of strangely recognizable names: Tina Louise (that’s Ginger from Gilligan’s Island), John Carradine, and Julie Newmar (Catwoman!).

There must have been some behind the scenes jitters when it came to marketing the movie on video, since the poster artwork was changed to make the Falcon much less recognizable:

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This is the second time we’ve seen the Falcon used on a B-movie poster — remember this one from our feature a couple years ago?

Thanks to Dean Plantamura for the heads up!

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Happy 15th TheSWCA.com!

Pete Vilmur | August 28, 2009

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Last weekend, one of the internet’s very first fan collecting sites — The Star Wars Collectors Archive — celebrated its 15th year online as a premiere destination for collectors looking to explore the vast expanse of merchandise produced over the last 30 years. Gus Lopez and Duncan Jenkins, creator and editor of the site respectively, currently maintain separate columns on starwars.com and have published a comprehensive book documenting the thousands of Star Wars collectibles produced around the world since 1976.

If you haven’t checked out theswca.com, head on over — get comfortable, though — you may want to stay awhile.

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Now I Am the Math-ter

Pete Vilmur | August 24, 2009

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Ah, the pre-501st days of Star Wars costuming. Back in the ’70s and ’80s, fans with a bent for donning the duds of their favorite Star Wars denizen often scrounged the local Army surplus and thrift stores to cobble together a complete costume. This guy, captured in a ’70s-era photo we recently found on eBay, gets our vote for coolest Star Wars costume to incorporate an electrical appliance — yep, that’s a ’70s-era 10-key calculator strapped around his chest, along with some strangely metallic shinguards and one “massive jock” (in the words of Lucas Online’s Craig Drake) codpiece.

Dark Lord of the galaxy? Not so much. But if you need to figure out how long it will take a TIE fighter and asteroid travelling toward eachother at 565 and 2,655 miles per hour respectively from a starting distance of 26,254 miles to collide, this Sith’s your man.

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Panel Report: Star Wars Collectibles

Pete Vilmur | July 24, 2009

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The Star Wars Collectibles panel just wrapped at Comic-Con and the main site has just updated with a video from Gentle Giant and slideshow presentations from eFX and Sideshow Collectibles. Head on over now to check them out!

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Panel Report: Hasbro

Pete Vilmur | July 24, 2009

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The much anticipated Hasbro panel just concluded at Comic-Con, and we’ve got the entire presentation available on the main site in a slideshow format — click here to go to the story…

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Comic-Con First Pics: Rise of the Star Wars Pavilion

Pete Vilmur | July 21, 2009

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Lucasfilm Senior Events Lead Mary Franklin sends the first photos from this year’s San Diego Comic-Con of the Lucasfilm Pavilion under construction on the Exhibit Hall floor. The round center stage is coming together, and will be the location of several planned Star Wars photo-ops scheduled during the event. Also, crates containing booth materials from Official Pix and Hasbro await placement next to the LFL Pavilion under the round Clone Wars signage overhead.

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Stay tuned for further updates as the Star Wars Pavilion comes together for Wednesday’s sneak preview launch! Keep an eye on the set-up in this Flickr set of the pre-show build-up.

Update: You may have seen some imagery on MTV‘s website, but the Pavilion will also incorporate some never-before-seen images from Season Two of Clone Wars. Backed with blood red backdrops is a motley assortment of bounty hunters — some familiar, and some not so.

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Star Wars Collector’s Lofty Ambitions

Pete Vilmur | June 12, 2009

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Flickr blogger eyeSPIVE recently posted a fantastic image series of his Star Wars collection, which is effectively displayed in a loft. We like this series because it shows what clever collectors can do with limited space (even the ceiling is covered!) and that several of the pieces appear to be from the UK (where we suspect this blogger lives).

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VC Jawa Figure Makes Comic Appearance

Pete Vilmur | June 8, 2009

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Comics.com updated yesterday with a few panels from their “Get Fuzzy” strip that should make every vintage Star Wars collector cringe a little — especially those familiar with the ever-elusive vinyl cape Jawa action figure from 1978. Check out the full comic here (thanks to Bill Cable for the heads-up!).

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Star Wars Fan Site Receives Webby Award

Pete Vilmur | June 8, 2009

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Joshua Budich, whose “My Star Wars Collection” website hosts 564 images from his personal Star Wars action figure collection, has been awarded both a Webby Award and the People’s Voice Winner in the category of “Personal Web Site” for the 13th Annual Webby Awards!

The Webbies have been recognizing “excellence on the Internet” since 1996, and is comprised of a 550-member body of “leading Web experts, business figures, luminaries, visionaries and creative celebrities,” according to the official website.

Here’s a little more information on the awards themselves:

The Webby Awards presents two honors in every category — The Webby Award and The People’s Voice Award — in each of its four entry types: Websites, Interactive Advertising, Online Film & Video and Mobile. Members of The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences select the nominees for both awards in each category, as well as the winners of the Webby Awards. However, you, the online community, determine the winners of The People’s Voice by voting for the nominated work that you believe to be the best in each category. Each year, the People’s Voice Awards garners hundreds of thousands of votes from the Web community all over the world.

Head on over to the Webby Awards site for a full list of this year’s winners, and also make sure to stop by Joshua’s website to check out the 500-plus figures posted, all accessible from the homepage via a staggering array of tiny 8-bit sprite thumbnails.

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Found on eBay: $1,000 Star Wars Lunchbox

Pete Vilmur | June 4, 2009

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Well, not just any Star Wars lunchbox, mind you, but the super rare prototype R2-D2 lunchbox made by Thermos back in the late ’70s. This rare collectible, which just sold for $1,036 on eBay, is just one of a few examples known to exist and was briefly featured in our “Star Wars for Lunch Turns 30″ story from a couple years ago. We wrote:

Emerging from the merchandising maelstrom of 1978 was an elusive prototype R2-D2 vinyl lunch kit produced by KST, and the few salesman samples that survive have become holy grail collectibles for more than a few Star Wars and lunchbox aficionados. Sporting a zipper closure, strap handle, and plastic dome top with soft vinyl body in the form of R2-D2, the reason for its stalled production is vague, but was probably due to the fragile vinyl hinge created when the kit’s dome was folded back. It was an ambitious design for KST, and speaks to the staying power of the Star Wars brand even a year after its release.

You can check out the original auction here and also get a brief history of Star Wars lunchboxes in our story here.

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