If you don’t mind lots of sand, high temperatures and well… that’s about it, then you might be excited to hear about the idea that a planet like Tatooine could possibly exist in reality. Io9.com reports about Ryosuke Kita of Northwestern University, who recently presented at the Astrobiology Science Conference 2008 about the likelihood of a Tatooine-type planet in a nearby solar system.
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Nothing excites me more than seeing crafty fans get out cardboard, socks and foil to make their own DIY Star Wars sets, costumes and props. I can’t get enough of this ‘Sweded’ version of The Empire Strikes Back — complete with a homemade costumes, a comical puppets including one of a comical Wampa, lightsaber effects, ringtone soundtrack and a backyard Dagobah jungle!
VIDEO: Empire Strikes Back in 60 seconds
Be sure to also watch Cardboard Star Wars too!
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SOURCE: ClubJade.net
5 Comments » | Tags: Costumes, Fan Films, Kids, Videos
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Long before first-person shooters, Wii and arcade games, there was a little coin-eating game called pinball. For those of us who fancied ourselves as the next pinball wizard a new documentary about its decline in popularity (and sales) is an interesting look at a lost segment of gaming.
IGN reviews TILT: The Battle to Save Pinball which chronicles America’s largest manufacturer of pinball games — Williams — and its last ditch attempt to save the company with “Pinball 2000.” As the tale unfolds, TILT makes a mention of the role the Star Wars franchise played during the last moments of pinball.
Insider interviews with some of Williams’ designers give insight into the design process and technology behind “Pinball 2000″ as well as the classic models of the past several decades. The most interesting part comes during the final section, discussing Williams’ deal with Lucasfilm to distribute Star Wars: Episode 1 themed Pinball 2000 cabinets and how executive and creative interfere affected the quality of the final product and quite possibly the fate of the company in general.
Read the full review here:
TILT: The Battle to Save Pinball DVD Review (IGN.com)
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For all your General Grievous Wheel Bike blogging needs, there’s the Monocycles Blog on Buzzfeed.com. This blog has news and reviews of monocycles in production right now. They might not be as advanced as Grievous’ sweet ride, but they sure do look cool!
2 Comments » | Tags: Gadgets
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Nothing shows off our fans’ excellent sense of humor more than every site trying to pull a fast one on April 1. While Starwars.com didn’t have a chance to jump in on the fun like we have in the past — April 1, 1979 — we were thrilled to see loads of Star Wars fans — and various sci-fi kids — get in on the act.
Here’s a list of our faves so far…
9 Comments » | Tags: BoingBoing, Humor
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Here’s an oldie but goodie from the archives of Star Wars online fandom.
Check out this Telnet server that broadcasts Star Wars Episode IV to your command line as animated text. From any command line, type: telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl and watch A New Hope unfold in ASCII style!
Be sure to also watch Star Wars Asciimation here.
SOURCES: Lifehacker, The Register
3 Comments » | Tags: Fan Films, Videos
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Star Wars was indeed “long ago,” but perhaps not so much in “a galaxy far, far away.” Check out this Old Timey Grievous Cycle found in an old issue of Modern Mechanics magazine from 1928. Though that little boy may not be as dangerous-looking as Grievous, he sure has a similar ride — a Little General version.
SOURCES: Geekdad, Modernmechanix.com
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So, Frantic is on Universal HD right now. Great flick. You know, the one where Harrison Ford’s wife is in danger. No, the other one. No, the other other one.
Anyway, looking at the imdb entry for the film, I noticed the photography of Ford on the back of the DVD package, and noted a striking similarity to a recently profiled Japanese cover on starwars.com. Check it out, it’s Hero’s Trial, from Japan, with a rather frantic looking Han on it.
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Grant McCune, the Chief Modelmaker who received a Visual Effects Oscar for Star Wars and was nominated for Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), chats with Popular Mechanics about the secrets of good modelmaking and how to perfect your work like the pros.
1 Comment » | Tags: ILM
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It seems that director Michel Gondry’s film Be Kind Rewind has been inspiring fans everywhere to make “Sweded” versions of their favorite movies which include everything from classics like Star Wars to this creative tribute to the 1982 sci-fi film TRON!
The level of detail in the costumes and cardboard vehicles is quite impressive. We want more! What movie would you like to see get “Sweded” next?
Check out the video here:
VIDEO: TRON Sweded
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