Club Jade

The Hallmark Keepsake Dream Book ’08 is out, and their Star Wars offerings this year have a Return of the Jedi theme, with an Imperial shuttle, Luke and Vader’s final duel, and Emperor Palpatine. The miniatures set is a Star Destroyer and the incomplete Death Star. Check them all out for yourself on page 64 (page 65 has Star Trek and Indiana Jones) or via the screencap beneath the cut. (more…)

• The Death Star is one of io9′s top five high-tech lairs of evil masterminds.

• SF Site reviews Death Star.
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• Mark Hamill and Natalie Portman in Heckler Spray’s worst cinematic hairdos. Bonus appearance by Christopher Lee!

Wired is looking for geeky pumpkins… And the TOSblog found a fricking awesome Death Star one to illustrate. Want.

“Darth Vader’s tyrannical Empire struck fear into an entire galaxy. Sadly, his fleet was also behind some embarrassingly ill-planned military ventures. Reviewing early Imperial schematics, the Sith Lord himself expressed serious doubts about his soldiers’ tactical choices…”

Bonus round: Horton Hears a Death Star.

Eddie Izzard’s Death Star Canteen bit, animated with Legos. Language is NSFW.

So I picked up the new Insider today, and was going to write a short recap of the contents, but thankfully StarWars.com already excerpted the most interesting part – an interview with Rick McCallum where he talks about the live-action TV show. There’s also a nice (lengthy!) article on the 501st.

Sadly, not much else new – an interview with a couple of the Imperial actors and a look at Death Star pretty much rounds it out, as well as a bunch of stuff any remotely well-read or web-saavy fan already knows. In other words, pretty much par for the course.

There is a teaser for the next issue, which will be Luke and Leia-centric, featuring interviews with Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher.

How did the original Death Star model end up in Missouri? And thus to Seattle with super collector Gus Lopez. (via Binary Bonsai)

Be sure to check out the rest of Neoto Coolville, which is counting down to the 30th anniversary.

It’s a first look at Death Star, the story behind the galaxy’s premiere superweapon from Michael Reaves and Steve Perry.

It’s a Death Star cake! How many maintenance personal must die for our gluttony? (Thanks, Bonnie!)

They’re not just for disgruntled EU fans any more! Was the Death Star attack an inside job?

Like many citizens, I have many questions that I would like answered: was the mighty Imperial government really too incompetent to prevent a handful of untrained nerf-herders from destroying one of their most prized assets? Or are they hiding something from us? Who was really behind the attack? Why did they want the Death Star destroyed? No matter what the answers, we have a problem.