In this brilliant video David Lynch brings us back to early 80s when he turned a chance to direct Return of the Jedi. Lynch gives us an interesting insight which is that Lucas doesn’t like to direct his own films. Not mentioned in this clip is that Lucas was a huge fan of Eraserhead which came out in 1977. Of course Lynch would go on to tackle science fiction with the film Dune in 1984 — and while the film had his vision was part of that film it didn’t do too well at the box office.
The two things that caught my eye about this Star Wars R2-D2 Statue is that not only includes eight attachable accessories (a periscope scanner, gripper, and a saw just to name three), but given the fact that it’s at a 1:6 scale size it looks like the perfect toy for modding! Although faint-at-heart may think twice about kitbashing this droid as the asking price is about $160 and it is a limited edition.
Yoda knows that the Force is powerful, but some situations are more about the carrot and the stick! This Leading the AT-AT Tee by Block 33 perfectly illustrates this Jedi technique: Read more…
We so often forget that the magic behind Yoda was really master puppeteer Frank Oz, and this USB Yoda with Illuminated Light Saber is so damn cute that it feels like he belongs more to the world of the Muppets rather than the more serious Star wars universe. In fact he sort of looks like a Muppet Baby rather than an old Jedi master: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 19, 2009 in Star Wars
I feel so bad for poor Garden Jawa being stuck in your backyard while his old buddies get to hang out on Tatooine cruising around in their humongous sandcrawler transports. Although you may want to think twice about placing the Jawa in your garden — it seems under those hoods they’re in fact rodent creatures, i.e. oversized rats! Although they’re damn cute: Read more…
As if living on a swamp planet wasn’t bad enough poor master Yoda must suffer the extra humiliation of having to sit by and watch as his body is used to backup excel spreadsheets and photos of the family cat. Of course for a mere $40 you can recreate this horrific scene with the Star Wars 4GB Flash Drives which are available through ThinkGeek. In addition to Yoda you can decapitate the likes of Darth Vader, Boba Fett and some poor Stermtrooper: Read more…
Shown above is the beautiful cover for Star Wars: Invasion #5 by illustrator Jo Chen which comes out today. What I really love about the folks who license Star Wars is that they allow their artists a high degree of creative freedom to work within the brand and they always seem to pull of a high level of quality. So if you didn’t know that the cover was a Star Wars anything you’d still be impressed with it; to me that says so much about how much they care about the product. Below are a few of the interior pages by Colin Wilson which also look great — there’s no bait-and-switch which you see all the time with other titles: Read more…
The Star Wars Battlefront videogame asks the big question: What’s it like to be an everyday character in the Star Wars universe? The answer is that it looks action packed! This is a teaser trailer for the latest chapter in that series which is titled Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron and is designed for the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS. Of course what you’re seeing above sadly isn’t the actual gameplay, but it shows the level of love that Lucasarts has put into this game which is due out on November 3rd. Below is a beautiful promotional illustration followed by actual screenshots from the game (which feature a nice variety of settings): Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 15, 2009 in Star Wars
This is the digital music choice of a Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy or random as an iPod shuffle; an elegant device for a more civilized age. For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of the mp3 files of Napster. Before the dark times… before the RIAA lawsuits. Young padawan I present to you the Star Wars Light Saber Kei MP3 Player.
The purist in me hates the ideas of giant frogs wandering around the planet Dagobah distracting poor Luke Skywalker as he tries to learn the ways of the Jedi from master Yoda. Yet the fact that I can imagine this silly scenario means the fanboy in me loves this! If I had this in my childhood this would be a great set for an epic Super 8mm film project where Jedi knights do battle with giant bullfrogs. If you wish to live out this cinematic fantasy yourself the Dagobah Frog Habitat is available via ThinkGeek.
Usually LucasArts does a great job with anything that they touch, but something seems a bit off on this promo for Star Wars The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition. Part of it may be the average quality of the voice acting, yet part of me also isn’t blown away by the visuals shown here. Well my hopes aren’t too high, but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt until I see more — which I suspect we will as the game is due out for Christmas season this year.
It’s gets very dry on the planet Tatooine — and that’s why this special R2-D2 unit has been converted into a handy humidifier! Frankly for a USB trinket this goodie is pretty impressive — you can store up to 8 ounces of water in the body of this droid. And best yet R2-D2 doesn’t require any batteries, you can run the device just on the power of your USB port (admit you didn’t want to waste that port on something dumb like a backup hard drive anyway!). Read more…
It was nothing less than a historic moment when director George Lucas decided to feature a trash compactor scene in Star Wars: Sure Stanley Kubrick broke ground in 2001: A Space Odyssey by showing a bathroom scene — but it look the bold vision of Lucas to take us dumpster diving into a space station the size of a planet (or small moon if you want to quibble). And that why the Franklin Mint, err Gentle Giant Products has decided to commemorate this milestone in cinematic history with the Star Wars Trash Compactor Bookends Statue. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 11, 2009 in Star Wars
This is a sneak preview of Block Wars which was created in the game Blockland. While the cinematographer in me wishes there was a bit more rendering, the fanboy in me loves this!
From 1981 (well this commercial aired in 1982, but you know what I mean) comes this spot for the Kenner’s Yoda and R2-D2 sensor-scope action figures from the Empire Strikes Back collection. As why poor Luke Skywalker and poor old Obi-Wan Kenobi don’t get a mention at the end of the advert I don’t have a clue. Although with some research I did discover that some lucky kids from this era could actually get a Dagobah action playset if they didn’t want to get dirty in the backyard: Read more…
Hello Wars has a line of stickers (which have sadly disappeared from their website) which do a wonderful job of giving Star Wars characters that Hello Kitty touch. You can follow them on twitter to see if their stickers will reappear! Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 2, 2009 in Star Wars
Over the last few hours I’ve been following rumors of a Star Wars live action television series which will be shot in Australia — well I’ve just confirmed from a source who has a friend that works at ILM that this rumor is in fact true! My understanding from what I’ve been able to gather is that the series will be high quality and tap into local talent from Australia from well know film people to science fiction writers. The series is suppose to be aimed at adults (unlike the previous cartoon series) and focus on relationships and emotional landscapes — which means that it might be in more of the “chick flick” tradition. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 7, 2009 in Star Wars
This humorous segment of one of two episodes from Sesame Street in 1980 that feature C-3PO and R2-D2 (scene 4 of episode 1396 to be exact). Other scenes featured Bob singing about the alphabet with the droids (and of course some kids to help out).
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 7, 2009 in Star Wars
From a long time ago from a galaxy far far away comes this R2-D2 beanie hat which I discovered on Etsy. The hat is designed by Babbidge Patch which makes all sorts of wonderful scarves and hats that are slightly less sci fi themed although ever so cute. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 7, 2009 in Star Wars
Who could ever forget the trash compactor scene on the Death Star? Of course R2-D2 wasn’t in that scene, but this clever t-shirt shows the “after” shot if that was the case. The t-shirt is designed by Glennz Tees and available at ThinkGeek.
It’s ironic that just as Paramount is rebooting the Star Trek franchise with some high quality content that Lucas is starting the run the Star Wars franchise into the ground. A good example of this is this teaser trailer for the videogame which will be based on the the animated cartoon Star Wars: The Clone Wars. You now have an entire game based upon a side story, granted it’s not as bad as the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special, but it’s getting closer all the time. Read more…
And why is today Star Wars day? Because some ingenious fanboys re-engineered the catch phrase “May the Force Be With You!” to “May the 4th Be With You!”. You can follow Star Wars day on Twitter…
