Yakface has posted a look at the new Black Series Mara Jade figure in their Toyguide. I’m afraid the 80’s hair isn’t much better in these pics.
There’s a hefty gallery that gives you a good look at the figure… We’ve already gone over our disappointment over the catsuit, but how does the new figure compare to the previous ones, in your eyes? They provided a picture to compare and everything:
The previous figure are from 1998, left, and 2007, center. Thanks to Yakface for permission to run a few of the pictures – head over to their gallery for many, many more.
Celebration Europe doesn’t officially begin until Friday (which, for those of us in the states, means really early Friday) so the big event of the day in Germany today was the press conference. But StarWars.com did drop a nice video featuring Ashley Eckstein talking about fan groups.
From the fans, we have some pictures from the floor. Bleeding Cool has a couple pages of pics and no clue about Her Universe, while Jedi News gave us our first look at Hasbro’s Darth Plagueis figure.
And speaking of, we’ve been sadly neglectful of Caravan of the Force, in which several fans have been documentimng their travel from London to Essen.
Oh, and here’s a preview from James, even as he warns us that the wifi situation is lacking:
.@HerUniverse hints that a second run of the #SWEU shirts (like Jaina and Mara) might happen… then moving onto new images!
Newswatch! Can we expect any major news out of the con for Friday? The big-ticket panels are Attack of the Clones 3D at 12:30 p.m. CEST (6:00 a.m. EDT,) Ben Burtt at 1:30 p.m. CEST (7:30 a.m. EDT,) Doug Chiang and Iain McCaig at 2:00 CEST (8:00 a.m. EDT) and Secrets of The Clone Wars at 3:00 p.m. CEST (9:00 a.m. EDT.) Anthony Daniels is on at 4:00 p.m. CEST (10 a.m. EDT,) The Clone Wars screening at 5:00 p.m. CEST (11 a.m. EDT) and Ian McDiarmid is on at 6:00 p.m. CEST (noon EDT.) The night’s capper is an outdoor Return of the Jedi screening at 7:30 p.m. CEST (1:30 p.m. EDT.)
We have reports that a The Clone Wars DVD/Blu-Ray announcement is coming tomorrow, and everyone hope really hard that Chiang and McCaig show something, anything, that they’ve been working on for Episode VII. I wouldn’t expect any casting news until Kathleen Kennedy on Saturday, but stranger things have happened!
(Confused by the timezones? So am I. All praise World Time Buddy.)
Their booth isn’t the only thing that got a new look for SDCC! The Her Universe website also unveiled a redesign today. And the limited-availability Jaina Solo and Mara Jade shirts are now online.
Press. LucasBooks and the Expanded Universe was highlighted in an article that appeared on the front page of Friday’s Wall Street Journal. (That’s the print version above.) It’s situated behind a paywall online, but there are ways around that. Writer Alexandra Alter appeared on NPR to talk further about it on Tuesday.
The Star Wars. J.W. Rinzler talks about the upcoming comic with CBR, while artist Mike Mayhew chats with Bleeding Cool.
Namesake corner. Mara again? Here’s a new piece of art from the new card game, by Anthony Foti. She also made the cover of the latest expansion, and you can see she’s on at least one more card there, too.
This Mara figure – Hasbro’s third – started as the 2011 Fan’s Choice – as Mara Jade Skywalker, actually. (Curious, but not particularly so.) The sculpt was revealed at Celebration VI and moved to the Black Series earlier this year. It should be available… Well, I’ve heard the fall, but who knows. I’ll keep an eye out.
Sure, she’s in the catsuit, because of course she is, but it’s still pretty neat. This sketch, by Shunya Yamashita, was posted on the Kotobukiya Facebook today. (Thanks to @ASMzine for bringing it to our attention!)
Kotobukiya will be part of the Star Wars: Collectibles Update panel Friday at SDCC. Mara will be their second EU figure – Jaina Solo was the first.
UPDATE 7/19: According to reports from SDCC, the Mara statue will be out February 2014, and the Jaina one will be re-released.
Ashley Eckstein’s Her Universe is bringing the expanded universe to SDCC! They’ll be debuting a new Mara Jade tee using Daryl Mandryk’s art from the Choices of One paperback cover, and a Jaina Solo tee using John VanFleet’s art from the Sword of the Jedi teaser image. Only 100 of each will be offered at the con, however, and they’ll only be online “for a limited time only.” They’ll be online during SDCC.
It also sounds like they’ve revamped their booth, which is promising.
Fan art. Lucasfilm may not have revealed what (most) of the Rebels character design will look like yet, ENGELHA5T on DeviantArt has created several OT-era characters in the style of The Clone Wars. Of particular interest to us would be Mara Jade, but there’s also Han and Chewie, Thrawn and Pellaeon, a teen Leia and even a Luke, may of them with cardbacks as well. You can check out his full gallery, but be warned it does contain some more adult works, though they do seem to be hidden if you’re not logged in to DA.
Del Rey. We actually heard about it way back at Celebration, but now Del Rey has officially announced their Star Wars Action Team. It’s not quite up and running yet, but the general gist is that you “spread the word” and get points. Please don’t break down any doors. On that note, here’s some of the swag they’ll have at SDCC.
Our Tumblr passed 300 followers not too long ago, and while posting has slowed at times, there’s still plenty of stuff that doesn’t make it all the way here. So if you’re on Tumblr, follow us!
On that note… What is my favorite official Mara Jade art? It’s not a big surprise because it’s been chilling in the masthead fora while now, but here’s the full scan.
Crafts. A Star Wars felt crib mobile that will automatically make your child 20% cooler. And let’s not forget the shoes: The Sith ones have spikes – the Artoo ones have Artoo, and I’m way more chill with them now that I see that the action figure isn’t actually standing in for the heel.
If you were wondering why The Clone Wars’ Ashley Eckstein was chatting on the Star Wars Books Facebook today, well here’s your answer: She announced that Her Universe has acquired the rights to make Expanded Universe products! (As you may recall, the Mara Jade shirt for Celebration VI was a one-off and limited availability due to not having the EU rights.) Here’s what Ashley had to say about what’s to come:
We are designing Several NEW Star Wars designs this year. Everything will be debuting in May. We are making shirts, dresses, jewelry…We have Rogue Sqaudron designs AND I am SO excited to announce that Lucasfilm has given us the rights to design shirts for the women in the EU, so expect more Mara Jade and Jaina Solo designs!
She later asked fans to be sure to speak up about what EU stuff you’d like to see.
Later, a (male) fan asked “Why do girls pretend to like Star Wars?” (Really people? Really?) Ashley handled that pretty well:
Girls definitely do not pretend to like Star Wars. It’s a fact that close to half of all Star Wars fans are girls. There may be some girls and boys that pretend to know more about Star Wars than they really do, but I would encourage you to talk about Star Wars with them and teach them more. Sometimes people may pretend to know more than they really do because they want to fit in. But even if there is a seed of interest in Star Wars, it’s our job as fans to welcome NEW fans into this Universe. Especially during this exciting time! We are about to get more movies!
Of course there was plenty asked about The Clone Wars:
I honestly don’t know Ahsoka’s eventual fate. I encourage you to watch the Season 5 finale on Saturday because there are some surprises. You will get some answers and then you will also probably have a lot more questions…You must tune in and bring some tissues…
Fan art. Lucasfilm may not have revealed what (
If you were wondering why The Clone Wars’ Ashley Eckstein was