How To: Arrange Your Action Figures
From Wired:
Avoiding the "domino effect" has always been a tough one for me.
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July 26, 2007
July 25, 2007
Lucas says: Han Shot First?
Lucas says: Han Shot First?
Originally uploaded by nifmus
Awesome. (You really need to see the picutre at its largest size to tell.)
July 24, 2007
R2-KT
(Image from starwars.com)
Hasbro and Lucasfilm are joining forces for a limited-edition action figure in honor of Katie Johnson, a young girl who died of brain cancer. (Her father is the founder of the 501st Legion.)
So, it's an action figure for a good cause. I love the tagline: "The pink Imperial droid with a heart of gold."
July 23, 2007
Fun Fact
This weekend, I finished1 The Making of Star Wars. Outstanding; definitely 5 stars.
A great tidbit I picked up: How long did it take James Earl Jones to complete his work as Darth Vader?
Two and a half hours.
Crazy. You pop in after lunch for a quick job, spend a couple of hours reading into a microphone, and presto, before dinner you've defined one of the great villians of all time. Not bad.
1 I certainly did not read every word, cover-to-cover. To do so at my current rate would take years. I just flipped throught the whole thing and read selected bits. Maybe someday when there is a little more quiet in our household (in like, 18 years) I will go back and soak it all in.
July 17, 2007
McQuarrie Concepts
McQuarrie Concept Duel
Originally uploaded by rdeetz
Today's scene was inspired by this iconic painting.
I think it's really cool that Hasbro has started to make figures based on the original artwork of Ralph McQuarrie. For long-time Star Wars fans, these paintings are well known (almost revered) and the figures appear to be very nicely executed.
They actually released the first "McQ" as part of the Saga collection several years ago (after it won a Fan's Choice poll, I believe) but they have really ramped up the collection in 2007:
- Luke Skywalker (Or is it really "Deak Starkiller"?)
- "Starkiller Hero" (The combined Luke/Leia character.)
- R2-D2 & C-3PO
- Han Solo (Love the cape!)
- Chewbacca
- Obi-Wan and Yoda (They picked a pretty tame Yoda version; I kinda wish they would have done the gnome/Santa Claus concept I saw once.)
- Darth Vader (With swappable heads!)
- Stormtrooper
- Snowtrooper
- Boba Fett (I'm glad the final version wasn't so white—too much like the Stormtroopers—but he looks seriously cool.)
- Rebel Trooper
Here is a nice gallery of some of the famous artwork that inspired the movies (and these figures).
The catch is, these figures are popular to a fault. I have yet to see any of the recent wave "in the wild." (Of the list above, only Stormtrooper, Boba Fett, Chewbacca, Luke, and R2/3PO have been released so far.) I got my Luke and the droids online (since they were convention exclusive); I don't plan to buy each one, but I would at least like to see them in person.
July 09, 2007
Foul Stench
I have been reading The Making of Star Wars and I really enjoy it. That's not terribly surprising, of course. The thing about the book and the story it tells that I find most interesting is how much thrashing took place on the story of Star Wars itself as the movie was being made, in addition to the more well-known budget and logistics issues.
One of my favorite moments thus far was a description of the encounter between Leia and Tarkin on the Death Star. Apparently Peter Cushing (Tarkin) was very self-concious about odor, so he always splashed on lavendar water when working. This created somewhat of a dilemma for Carrie Fisher, because she needed to utter the line, "Governor Tarkin... I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board." She commented that was it kind of hard to say, since he smelled so nice. Hee.
July 06, 2007
I've been waiting for you, Obi-Wan
(Please don't notice that I used a RotS Obi-Wan here.)