If you’re looking for an imposing evil figure to guard your shelf space or desk, look no further! Hot Toys has put up pre-orders for their latest Star Wars figure, the dark lord himself, Darth Vader. It’s based off of the costume used in A New Hope down to the last detail, also features a voice box with breathing sound effects, and tops it all off with LEDs that light up on his belt and lightsaber. Imagine seeing that in the dark! It’ll also come with multiple hands, a stand, and an Interrogator Droid. Vader will run you $299.99, and will release in September later this year. He’s over 13 inches tall! Check out more details and the pre-order page here.
Revoltech, Japanese maker of all things figures, have started a new Star Wars line. At least, I’m pretty sure they are, given that their first figure, Darth Vader, is labeled “#001.” That probably means there’s more to come. Revoltech has done a great job in the past of creating pose-able figures that also look great. Vader, thankfully, is no exception. He’s got lots of great poses, and about the only nitpick I have is the cape: it looks great in the default position, but when bent along the hinges, it creates some gaps. Nothing terrible, but I suppose that’s the price you pay for a cool sculpted cape instead of a cloth one. You can pre-order Vader here — he comes out in December. Read more…
Slow down there, and make sure you read that whole headline, because when I was told this news, I thought Disney was going to bring Darth Vader back to life in Star Wars Episode VII. But thankfully, that’s not the case. Apparently Adam Driver, who appears on HBO’s Girls, is currently the top choice to play a Vader-like antagonist in the next Star Wars film. It’s not clear yet if this means his character will ape Vader’s “human being kept alive with technology” angle, or if it means his rank and powers, or if it is referring to his iconic nature and importance to the story — or maybe a bit of all of these. If he’s meant to be this important, perhaps he’ll appear in other Star Wars films too. But for now, we’ll have to wait to see if he is even confirmed in the role, due to his schedule on Girls. I don’t watch Girls (and I have to imagine many Star Wars fans don’t either), so I can’t comment on his acting. I’m having a little time imagining him in Star Wars due to his hair style, beard, and clothes, so this might be the sort of thing where I wait for a trailer to see him in action. Read more…
People will do crazy things for Guinness World Records, even when you can make up a record for almost anything these days. Case in point: Jonathan Rice decided to run in Death Valley, the hottest place on Earth, dressed up as Darth Vader. He’s the creator of the Darth Valley Challenge, which requires participants to run a mile through Death Valley dressed as their favorite Star Wars character. Rice has been running the past three years, with his fourth run occurring a few days ago on June 30. This year, Rice was joined by supporters dressed up as other Star Wars characters, as well as a support driver dressed as Chewbacca.
So how did Rice do? Not only did he manage to finish his mile in 6 minutes and 36 seconds, he did it at 4PM, during which the National Weather Service recorded a temperature of 129 degrees, the hottest day ever recorded in June. Even for that short time, that’s a pretty incredible feat, considering how fast you need to run for a time like that. (For reference, as a member of my high school track team, my fastest time was a rather average 5 minutes and 15 seconds, on a regulation flat track, wearing extremely light clothing in very temperate weather.) Here’s hoping he didn’t have to spend time in a bacta tank afterwards!
People have been getting pretty creative with these GoPro cameras, strapping them to every shoulder, animal, helmet, or other appendage they can find. The Stunt People on YouTube have used a GoPro camera to make their latest video, and drop you inside a lightsaber battle between a Jedi and Darth Vader. It’s pretty cool to watch as is, but I think you might have even better results if you push your face up real close to the screen. Just kidding, please don’t actually do that. Click through for the video. Read more…
With Star Wars becoming such a phenomenon over the years and possessing such a rabid fanbase, it’s really fun to see how things might have turned out if, say, the casting had gone differently. At one point, Lucas had offered the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi to Toshiro Mifune, well-known for his roles in Akira Kurosawa’s films like Seven Samurai and Yojimbo. Star Wars itself was heavily influenced by Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress (among other films), so it’s not surprising. But apparently, Lucas may have offered Mifune an additional role: Darth Vader. Read more…
It’s easily assumed that Darth Vader’s helmet has some sort of hearing aid to help him hear inside that claustrophobic helmet. But what if he didn’t? What if he had no idea what anyone around him was saying? That’s the premise of this edited video. Read more…
I’ve been mostly optimistic about Disney taking control of Star Wars. It’s not like they could screw it up worse than the prequels, right? Those movies focused on expanding Darth Vader’s life in a way that didn’t need to be explained. The concept of a fallen, yet still honorable knight that finally finds redemption is a powerful one that doesn’t require pointless insight into how he fell. So with Darth Vader dead and Force-ghost-ed, we should be in the clear for Disney and Toy Story 3 writer Michael Arndt to tell new stories, right? Or not. Read more…
If you polled kids and asked them about their favorite fictional characters, I’m gonna guess Darth Vader and Batman would be pretty high up on the list. Now if you combine the two? You get the Darth Knight, an amazingly detailed custom action figure by John Harmon at Mint Condition Customs. This model stands 6 inches tall and would probably eat your other action figures for breakfast. If you were wanting to get your hands on this figure, though, you’re out of luck, as he’s already been sold. Better get cracking on making your own! Read more…
What happens when a Korean cell phone company needs to advertise their new WARP feature? They use Darth Vader, of course! And a perfect allegory for data flowing through the intertubes is… Stormtroopers waiting in line for the restroom. Ok, we’ll go with it. Sure, maybe Vader should have his own personal restroom, but then we wouldn’t get to see his little “I need to use the bathroom” dance. Which is, frankly, the only reason you’re watching this anyway, am I right? Read more…
You may remember me mentioning an awesome Skeletor/Darth Vader mask a while back. It was part of HalloweenCostumes.com’s Vader Helmet Art Contest, and guess what? Now you have a chance to own it, or one of many other fantastic Vader helmets that are going up for auction. 24 artists were selected to create a custom Darth Vader helmet, and on February 7th, they’ll go up for auction on HalloweenCostume’s site. All proceeds will be going to the Midwest Art Catalyst and The Miracle League of North Mankato. Click through for a gallery of some of the helmets! Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 4, 2012 in Star Wars
The French fast food chain Quick is about to introduce a line of Star Wars themed burgers in the first quarter of 2012. For one month three different burgers will be offered: The Dark Burger (red), the Jedi Burger (green) and my favorite the Darth Vader Burger which features a black bun. Read more…
It’s funny I always remember my sense of disappointment as a kid when looking at the amazing realistic cover art on videogames of that era and seeing what I perceived as the terrible lack of quality as to the 8-bit images that I’d see on the screen: So it’s a bit of a joy to reverse that in my later years and embrace the ugly pixels of days past. This 8-bit t-shirt collection does a nice job of taking Star Wars characters and converting them down from 70mm to good old fashioned 8-bit: Read more…
Feast your eyes on this extremely limited edition “Musha” Darth Vader. Yoshitoku, a long-standing Japanese art and craft house, has decided to design this exclusive figure to commemorate their 300th year in business. At just over a food and a half tall, this aluminum and resin sculpt How limited, exactly? They’ll only be producing 30 pieces total and each figure will sell for around 136,500 yen — that’s nearly $1,675. They’re incredibly detailed but I can’t imagine wanting to pay that much for one. Assuming you can afford it, and know enough Japanese to surf Yoshitoku’s official website, pre-orders are open through June 10th.
Hallmark’s official Star Wars Darth Vader pinata is quite possibly the coolest pinata money can buy. It’s not quite the Deathstar, but you’d have to make one yourself. This bad boy measures 10.5 inches in width and hight while being nearly a foot deep — plenty of room for candy. If, on the other hand, you want to pull a fast one on your friend, you might be able to hide his picture behind the mask to freak him out when he knocks it open just to freak him out a little. Worked for Yoda, didn’t it? The pinata should run you about $22 on Amazon and comes packed with safety strings in case you’re not fond of swinging a lightsaber around. Read more…
When he’s not busy lording over the Imperial fleet, or choking incompetent admirals who fail him for the last time, Darth Vader apparently spends his time hanging out in the Land of the Rising Sun. What’s he do exactly? Market cell-phones, what else. It would seem that he’s at the center of NTT Docomo’s latest ad campaign for Samsung’s Galaxy S smartphone. In case you’re wondering, it’s comparable to the Samsung Fascinate and Captivate in the US, featuring the Android operating system. Even though it’s obvious that he’s just hanging out, I’m still wondering what Darth Vader is up to — maybe someone told him that these were the droids he was looking for. Read more…
Etsy artist Doc Martin was self trained in art from an early age but took his talent to the next level at a respectable SoCal art school. This colorful series of Star Wars inspired posters draws inspiration from the likes of Andy Warhol and LeRoy Neiman. Featured in this vivid set of prints are Boba Fett, Darth Vader, a Stormtrooper and a TIE fighter. Read more…
Commissioned over 100 years ago in 1903 the paintings by C. M. Coolidge which are collectively now known as Dogs Playing Poker is a cornerstone of pure(bred) Americana. But as good as those doggies were, I belive that an America of the 21st Century needs a more modern for of kitsch — and thus I nominate this Ultimate Boston Terrier Star Wars Dog Art Set for the honor. Lavishly illustrated by Brian Rubenacker this set of prints captures the canine side of Darth, Boba, Princess, Obi-Wan and Yoda. Read more…
Posted by Tim Sheehy on May 5, 2010 in Star Wars, Tech
Have you ever wanted your GPS to sound like a Sith Lord, or James Earl Jones? Perhaps you’ve just imagined yourself as a hapless Admiral, in charge of piloting your own Star Destroyer, while fearing for your very life. Well, now you’re one step closer, thanks in part to TomTom’s custom Star Wars brand voice samples for their GPS devices. For around $13 you can have Darth Vader mock your failure to turn at the last light. Over the course of the next three months, additional Star Wars voice packs will go on sale for C-3PO, Yoda, and Han Solo respectively. Pretty awesome, right? Check out the official site for more information. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 26, 2010 in Star Wars
Docomo has a new viral ad campaign out that features Darth Vader. The ad campaign which was done with permission from Lucasfilm seems to encourage users to send out messages surrounding the theme of Who Is My Boss? The campaign is being supported through billboards and here are some more screenshots of the website: Read more…
