Doing good: Princess Leah hanging in there

With coverage on Today, little Princess Leah Esquenazi is getting a lot more attention than just from Star Wars fans.

What started as word of mouth with Star Wars fans through a Facebook page and other online presences like the 501st, Artoo-Katee and even Steve Sansweet, has turned into nearly $20,000, a fundraiser raffle and lots of guesses to try and help this little baby with the mysterious illness that is affecting her muscles and breathing.

Her family is keeping everyone updated through a blog and are trying to stay positive.

If you are so inclined to help the family with a donation, there is a donation function on the web page.

The fandom minute: The Star Wars food truck and how Empire ruined everything

Since it’s a holiday weekend – at least here in the U.S! – and we all have other things going on, here’s a quick sweep through the week’s best fannish links.

9-disc Star Wars Blu-Ray set revealed!

The rush of fans wanting Blu-Ray details initially crashed the May the 4th site. When it finally got up and running, it began revealing images on the number of social media shares… An act which strikes me as rather sleazy.

Thankfully, I was finally able to procure some decent art, and you’ll see it above. I’m not all that impressed with the art of the individual sets, but I was never a fan of that style to begin with. The art for the saga set, on the other hand, is straight-up awful: It looks less like Star Wars and more like Precious Moments: The Movie.

Hopefully some retailer somewhere will be providing a better-looking exclusive.

LFL will be revealing some additional tidbits on their brand-new Facebook.

The special features list audio commentary for each movie, all involving George Lucas and various notables including Rick McCallum, Irvin Kershner, Carrie Fisher and Ben Burtt, as well as archival audio.

Each trilogy has an entire archive disc… And the ninth includes documentaries including 1977’s The Making of Star Wars and three brand new ones: Star Warriors, on the 501st Legion; A Conversation with the Masters: The Empire Strikes Back 30 Years Later with George Lucas, Irvin Kershner, Lawrence Kasdan and John Williams; And Star Wars Spoofs, containing footage from Family Guy, The Simpsons, How I Met Your Mother and Weird Al.

I’ve cut and paste the complete list under the cut. Please don’t hate me, LFL. Continue reading “9-disc Star Wars Blu-Ray set revealed!”

Star Wars Miniland opens at Legoland California

Last Thursday, Legoland California opened up their Star Wars area in Miniland with some big fanfare. The official ribbon cutting was done by Princess Leia herself, Carrie Fisher, and Carson Weiner, a young Star Wars fan representing the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Also on hand for the celebration were James Arnold Taylor and Catherine Taber of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and about 60 costumed members of the 501st Legion and Rebel Legion. Other VIPs included skateboarding legend Tony Hawk and “Wait, I was in Star Trek not Star Wars” Christian Slater and Dancing with the Stars‘ Brooke Burke.

Continue readingStar Wars Miniland opens at Legoland California”

EUbits: More Red Harvest, Pablo, comics, and Mara Jade

Read Red Harvest After releasing the first chapter of Joe Shreiber’s Death Troopers prequel a few weeks back, StarWars.com has gone on to post chapters two, three, and four. If they keep going, will there be anything left for folks to read by the time to book actually comes out?

Interview with an internet rockstar. Lucasfilm’s Pablo Hidalgo talks to Mexican fan site Datapad de Korpil about his fandom activities before LFL, his books, and the editorial process.

Comics. Dark Horse’s February solicitations include Knight Errant: Aflame #5, Darth Vader and the Lost Command #2, Legacy: War #3, and a pair of trades. Meanwhile, StarWars.com has a Knight Errant atlas extra, and Tom Taylor reveals the cover of Invasion: Rescues #6.

Namesake corner. The 501st’s costume reference for Mara Jade’s jumpsuit. Sure, many of us aren’t fans of the outfit (Doesn’t a sleeve-gun kind of necessitate sleeves? Also, this.) but we can’t blame the legion – they’re only following in Dark Horse’s footsteps.

Celebration V: It starts tomorrow!

There’s a new addition to the schedule this morning, the debut of a video
commemorating The Empire Strikes Back
featuring George Lucas, Irvin Kershner, Lawrence Kasdan, and John Williams.

Want swag? Keep an eye on the Twitter: We’ll post the where and when there.

Celebration V roundup: Prep or be prepped!

It’s the last weekend before the con. What have you done so far?

Saturday is the last day to pre-order tickets to TheForce.net’s party! You want in on this, guys: In addition to being organized by CJ’s own lovely Dajuan, they’ve added a ton of celebrity guests in the last few days. You’ll want to be there!

The fandom minute: Of parties and fan tributes

Woe be unto you, Club Jade fans.  Dunc is having a real life this week and has left me to round up the news for you.  So, sorry.  She’ll be back soon!  So let’s round up some bits and bobs in the world of Star Wars, shall we?

  • That awesome fan project, Star Wars: Uncut, is now cut.  And we have a trailer!
  • Speaking of fans, the University of Georgia paper profiles a member of the 501st Georgia Garrison.  Yes, Athens fans, there are others near you!
  • And they’ll need all the help they can get.  Star Wars Weekends is cranking up again.
  • The 501st even helped Lando, um, I mean Billy Dee Williams, arrive in style to the Sunscreen Film Festival.  I bet he’d love to have  Colt 45 can greet him, just once.
  • We’ll move from that The Empire Strikes Back actor to StarWars.com’s review of Empire cast and crew swag.  (I’ve always wanted one of those passports.)
  • And finally, from the film that inspired it all, Kurosawa Hidden Fortress action figures.  Awesome!

Dunc will be back soon.  Promise!