Club Jade

Rebelscum has a couple of galleries from Toy Fair… Not much EUish from Diamond Select. (Though their Jedi Luke looks nice.) The real gems, as usual, come from Hasbro and their comic packs. There’s a bunch of Clone Wars stuff I can’t even begin to catagorize… And a Marvel-era Luke and Lumiya! (Removable head? How apt!)

Heading into a more modern comic era, Legacy’s Darth Krayt and an Imperial Knight who I believe is Sigil Dare, plus Kyle Katarn and Beefy the Vong (probably not his real name,) above. (Based on a late Tales storyline?)

Here’s the Hasbro press release and official images. And here is their Star Wars presentation, shedding a little more light on their offerings… Including a Wal-Mart exclusive Corran Horn figure!

UPDATE: A report on the Turbo Tank and more photos from StarWars.com.

News out of New York Comic Con! Dark Horse is launching a new ongoing series based in the New Jedi Order era, Invasion… It follows the Yuuzhan Vong and will feature main characters like Luke and Jacen. It’s scripted by Tom Taylor with art by Colin Wilson, and will launch with a web-only preview issue on StarWars.com in May. (via)

UPDATE: Dark Horse is not adding a another book; Rebellion is getting the ax and Invasion is replacing it. Check out a full report from NYCC’s Dark Horse panel at Newsarama.

Also coming up, Fixer. Um, okay. And a webcomic tie-in with The Old Republic.

EUC nabbed Lucasfilm Licensing editor Sue Rostoni to talk about Legacy of the Force, Fate of the Jedi, and other EU works past, present, and future.

When asked for his take on the Expanded Universe’s use of the themes he introduced in Traitor, this is what he had to say.

…due to my privileged position as a Star Wars novelist, my opinion would be given more weight by the fans than it actually deserves — it would tend to tip the perceptions of, at least, my particular fans, and even others would be tempted to end arguments with “Well, Matt Stover says . . .” I’ve decided I just have to keep it to myself.

Yes, some fans will angst at not having that clarification/ammunition, but hats off to you, Mr. Stover.

Inspired by the success of The Dark Knight’s Joker, io9 has some thoughts on keeping your villains villainy – what makes them great, how they go wrong, and how not to ruin their effectiveness. Darth Vader is used as an example in the last – and I can’t say I disagree. (more…)

• Lightsabre has part three of their talk with Lorne Peterson.

• The Fantasy Book Critic interviews Gregory Keyes, touching briefly on his Star Wars work.
• Toon Zone picks the brain of voice actor Bob Bergen, who’s talked Luke Skywalker for video games and the occasional Robot Chicken.

StarWars.com gets into the meat of the Japanese books covers with the New Jedi Order. These covers have developed quite a following among EU fans for their depiction of the large cast, many of whom have (or had) few reference images before this. (Above: Force Heretic I: Remnant.)

Hopefully there’s a part III, but you can see the Dark Nest covers here for now.

• Fandom: Connecticut fans Ryan Kitchel and Deb Fix have a Star Wars wedding.

• Video: A mashup of Star Wars and Coming to America. it’s funny… for about a minute.
• Toys: Mousedroid gets Hasbro to confirm that there is a Vong figure in development.
• Fansites: International fansites form S.W.O.R.A.; Rebelscum annexes Japan.
• A Good Question: Art of Star Wars calender lacks artist credits?

I spotted The Star Wars Vault at Barnes & Noble today, though the TOS is listing it for October 30th release. Interesting.

Drew Karpyshyn talks about the recent EA buyout of Bioware, the Rule of Two manuscript and an event that happened… last Saturday. Whoops.

R.A. Salvatore talks a bit about his Star Wars novel experience about halfway through his interview with Fantasy Book Critic. The SW bits handily start just about where you see the Vector Prime book cover.

The Enjayoh Is Seriously Underappreciated. The great irony of this thread, no matter how one feels about the NJO, is that in a few years there will be one just like it regarding the much-maligned Ellohteeff. Today’s ‘turd’ is tomorrow’s trophy; Thus goes the circle of fandom. (Except perhaps in regard to The Crystal Star.)