Tag: 501st legion

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Course of the Force kicks off in Santa Monica

Saturday was the first day of the inaugural Course of the Force lightsaber relay, helping to raise funds for the Make-A-Wish Foundation while celebrating geekery on its way from Santa Monica to San Diego and Comic-Con. Ready for your “Awww..” moment? Skip to 11:45 in the video above to see the last runner of the day – the king of fast, in his adorable Artoo costume!

The kick-off conival had its moments of fun, with Peter Mayhew and members of the 501st Legion and Rebel Legion helping to provide atmosphere at the Santa Monica Pier. Leading off the relay was host Chris Hardwick and a group of Make-A-Wish kids. Check out more costumed fun in the Southern California gray, thanks to Lesley Farquhar / Equinox Photography for sharing her photos.

Sunday will continue the relay from Redondo Beach to Huntington Beach, where there will be another Course of the Force conival at the HB pier (4pm to 9pm), including free performances by The Spazmatics at 6pm, and Dan Finnerty & The Dan Band at 8pm. The relay journey continues on Tuesday and Wednesday, going from Oceanside to Pacific Beach to downtown San Diego and Comic-Con!

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Revenge of the 6th: Our news overflowth

May 4th stuff was a busy Friday, Saturday wasn’t much better, and a whole bunch of stuff got lost in the shuffle. As we nurse our Avengers hangover, here it is.

MTV has wondered why Luke Skywalker got no love from the famous folks, asking our pal Bryan Young why not.

Geekmom is throwing a Star Wars week. So far, they’ve highlighted a video on the 501st and the Rebel Legion, are giving away a GPS and interviewed the Wampug.

The Hollywood Reporter looked at where the stars of Star Wars are now. You probably know that already.

There was a couple at Kotaku: A look at Masters of Teräs Käsi, which they call ‘possibly the worst Star Wars video game ever made,’ as well as great moments of Star Wars gaming. And, finally, why Battlefront III was cancelled.

Entertainment Weekly highlight ten things ‘worth celebrating,’ mostly EU stuff.

And finally, Chris Hardwick pimped Course of the Force on Today. He also revealed that they’ve build a sail barge that we’ll see at Celebration VI.

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Star Wars Miniland at Legoland California adds a few more bricks

Boba Fett and LEGO Boba FettHoping to bring in more visitors, Legoland California has made some minor updates to their Star Wars miniland area, as well as hosting a series of Star Wars Days over the past few weekends to hype up the fun over the Spring Break period. Costumed members of the 501st and Rebel Legion were on hand to help add to the festivities in the Carlsbad theme park.

While Star Wars miniland only opened a year ago with seven dioramas (one for each of the main saga movies, and one for The Clone Wars,) in the theme park industry, you’ve got to keep things fresh (or at least advertise as such) to attract visitors. So this year, the Lego builders have created several additions to the miniland area:

Continue reading “Star Wars Miniland at Legoland California adds a few more bricks”

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Star Wars art auction to raise money to help one-year-old Princess Leah

A number of Star Wars artists and fans have pitched in their talents to help raise money to defray the health care costs of little Princess Leah Esquenazi. As we reported last year, when Leah was just two-months old, she came down with a mysterious illness that kept her mostly hospitalized, and the Star Wars fan community rallied to help her parents offset the costs of her medical bills. Now Leah is over a year old, and continues to require hospitalized ventilator support with the diagnosis of a mitochondrial illness. An ebay auction started on May 25th with over 100 unique and rare Star Wars art pieces and craft items to raise money for Leah’s care. Right now, there are items donated by Matt Busch, Randy Martinez, Amanda Howard, Michael Ramirez, and Joe Corroney.

My friend Lesley, of the 501st Legion’s Southern California Garrison, has been busy organizing the auction, and has a photo album of the donated art pieces. Follow the auction news on Facebook at facebook.com/ArtForLeah. After only 24 hours, there’s already over $1,000 in bids for items. A second group of auction items will going up for bid in a few days. You can also follow Leah and her family via their blog. Check out the auction and find a piece of your own to bid on!

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Roundup: It’s Phantom Menace 3D day

The Phantom Menace is loose! Run for your lives! Or, chill out as we round up some of the press floating around about the movie. (And don’t forget that the new Her Universe stuff is now on sale!) Onward!

Reviews are in! MTV rounds up a couple from the pros. Our pal Bryan Young liked it. On the 3D, he says, “There was never a moment where I thought it was too overwhelming or too underwhelming.” Brian at Roqoo Depot is also favorable, calling it, “the single greatest post-processed 3D film that has graced the silver screen.”

Over at Entertainment Weekly, George Lucas talks about the 3D conversions came out of his efforts to get movie theaters to switch to digital, and why the format is beneficial to movies.

They also have some neat remembrances on Star Wars from Jeff Jensen, Marc Snetiker, Anthony Breznican and Stephan Lee. (Apparently EW has no lady staffers with SW memories.)

There’s also a photo gallery on their best and worst moments of the saga.

In today’s article, Keith Staskiewicz takes a look at how Episode I influenced special effects. Would we have Gollum if not for Jar Jar?

If you’re intrigued by some of the details Lucas mentioned in the EW video, learn more about The Phantom Menace’s 3D conversion from movieScope.

I’ve been looking at a lot of Phantom Menace stuff this week, and my favorite thing so far? Next Movie’s Eight biopics recast with Jar Jar. Yes, it’s total clickbait, but you certainly know by now that I love me some funny.

If you’re looking for something (sort of) serious, they also have an item about why Millennials (you know, those kids people us GenXers and GenCatalanos yell at to ‘get off our lawns’) don’t hate the prequels. But it’s in the form of a one-act play, so it’s not that serious.

CNN has a more straight-faced look at Star Wars, fandom and the reaction to Episode I.  You know it’s serious because they enlisted Henry Jenkins.

The Dearborn Press and Guide highlights Steve Mitchell, a Michigan 501ster. The Great Lakes Garrison will appear at a Detroit Pistons game tonight and several Phantom Menace showings throughout the state tomorrow.

What’s TPM going up against at the box office? I don’t think it has much to worry about from The Vow, a romantic drama starring Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum… But the kid-friendly Journey 2: The Mysterious Island may also be a draw for the action-adventure crowd, not to mention the 3D big bucks.

Coming Soon is projecting The Vow to take the top spot, but has Episode I beating Journey by several million. Entertainment Weekly projects the same, but with a few more million between TPM and Journey.

And finally, for the bitterest kittens, here’s a little piece from my hometown paper: 10 reasons why not to see The Phantom Menace. (I’m rather partial to escaping to a more civilized age.) Or, swing over to see MTV’s Josh Horowitz argue TPM with Simon Pegg. Prequel-lovers, for you I have 10 reasons to love Jar Jar and MTV’s list of six underrated TPM characters.

We’ll be adding links to this post throughout the day, so check back!

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In the news: George Lucas appears at Scream Awards; Mark Hamill and Red Tails at NYCC

Surprise! George Lucas made an appearance on stage at last night’s Scream Awards, as the Spike show honored Darth Vader as the ‘Ultimate Villian’.

The awards, which also gave the ‘Ultimate Scream’ prize to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 and ‘Best Fantasy Actress’ to Natalie Portman for Black Swan, will air on Spike Tuesday, October 18.

NYCC. Mark Hamill and his evil laugh has his own panel at New York Comic-Con on Friday, and Tor.com has the report. Lucas’ new film, Red Tails, also got a panel, and has a new comic-style poster by Joe Kubert as well.

Amanda Lucas. We’re all familiar with her MMA fighting career, and in a new interview she addresses the constant and inevitable Star Wars references. “I hope to do my best on my own and prove I’m not just George’s daughter. I work just as hard as my training partners and I don’t want any special treatment. (But “Star Wars” is) going to get mentioned – it’s nothing I can hide,” she said on The MMA Hour.

Fandom. The 501st Legion’s Canadian Garrison is profiled by The Sudbury Star.

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EUbits: Zahn to talk Heir, Fry suits up

More Heir. The Star Wars Books Facebook chat will be hosting a live chat with Timothy Zahn next Wednesday, September 28th. And on that note, Suvudu has a brief interview with editor Betsy Mitchell.

Events. Author Jason Fry dresses as a stormtrooper for a baseball game and tells the tale in his Mets blog.

Trailers. There’s one for Darth Vader: A 3-D Reconstruction Log. Of course.

Theories. Anarchist William Gillis’s vision of what happens to the Star Wars galaxy after Return of the Jedi.

Photo finish. Del Rey’s collection of Star Wars books.

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Heir to the Empire annotation #14: Vader’s finest

For our final teaser annotation of September’s Heir to the Empire: 20th Anniversary Edition, Zahn talks about stormtroopers and namechecks the 501st.

After the 501st Imperial Legion fan group began, it was also established that Vader similarly liked to grab the Empire’s best stormtroopers and add them to his personal legion. I got to play with that idea a bit in later books..

We’re just two weeks and change away from the book’s September 6th release.

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In the news: Fans love the Yoda statue, ILM may establish Canadian outpost


Emily Lewis, right, and her pal Jason at the Yoda Fountain. (Photo by Emily Lewis.

A dispatch from the mainstream. The Yoda statue at the Presidio is a landmark for Star Wars fans, an Associated Press article says this week. No, really? Other key Star Wars locales, like Tunisia and Lake Como, are also mentioned.

ILM looking north? The Hollywood Reporter says that Industrial Light + Magic is looking into opening a facility in Vancouver.

Your daily dose of stormtroopers. The Illinois 501st get profiled in the Chicago Tribune.

Baseball. The San Francisco Giants are freezing pitcher Brian Wilson (not the Beach Boy) in carbonite for the Star Wars day on September 4th. Wouldn’t it make more sense to freeze the visiting team’s pitcher?

Science! Spoilers are good for you, says a study by UC San Diego. Okay then!