Tag: one born every minute

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Ridiculous merchandise: Precious metal droids

Leave it to Japan… A company over there is producing gold and silver sculptures of Artoo and Threepio – actual gold and silver – for the 35th anniversary of Star Wars. According to Highsnobiety, they go for $1,800 and $6,000 USD, limited to 35 each, and will be available in May.

So, for $6,000 you can get a life-sized Darth Malgus… Or a gold Threepio? No idea how big these things are, but clearly there are way too many overly-solvent Star Wars fans out there, and Lucasfilm (or someone…) is fully committed to parting them from that money. Bless.

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Ridiculous merchandise: Life-size Darth Malgus

Now, if you’ve paid any attention around here, you’d no I have little to no use for anything having to do with Star Wars gaming. So, needless to say, I am not particularly impressed with this $6000 life-sized statue of Old Republic Vader wannabee Darth Malgus. This goes beyond wacky, right into Frames territory. Though, honestly, if I had that much money to waste on absurdly expensive Star Wars merchandise, I’d rather have a set of Frames. Or two.

Malgus, for what it’s worth, was the star of a novel, Paul Kemp’s The Old Republic: Deceived.

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Don’t trust Amazon on book news: A cautionary tale

Or rather, a reminder. The other day Roqoo Depot discovered a listing on British Amazon for Star Wars: Big Trilogy no 1 (Hardcover) written by Alex Irvine. Today, someone took that news to the Star Wars Books Facebook (without attribution or any of RQ’s context, sigh) and posted as if it was a fact – only to be struck down in a comment from editor David Pomerico:

We’re not sure why Amazon.co.uk is listing a Star Wars trilogy from Alex, but it’s simply not the case. He does have a book coming out with us, scheduled for Fall 2012, but it’s a stand-alone adventure.

This isn’t the first time that Amazon.co.uk has been wrong about something like this: I myself took a jump on something similar (‘Star Wars 7 book series no 1′) back in December. It turned out to be the U.K. edition of Choices of One. (See the comments from Ewan for a possible explanation.)

There’s little doubt in my mind that ‘Star Wars: Big Trilogy no 1’ will turn out to be Irvine’s already-scheduled book, Mandorla.

Listings that appear on Amazon are fed from the publishers – and some are more specific than others. The Star Wars U.K. publisher, Century, is responsible for both the incidents related above. Their titles are probably meant for internal use only. (See today’s comment from Ewan for more detail. I bow to his expertise.)

We have discovered news from (U.S.) Amazon before: The first inklings of The Clone Wars novels from Karen Traviss and Karen Miller back in ’08. But such incidents are very rare – and we soon found the same listings on Random House’s own catalog, which tends to be more trustworthy.

I know the various fansites and regular news gatherers don’t need this reminder, but everyone else: Please exercise caution when dealing with early listings on Amazon, particularly the U.K. version – it’s highly unlikely to see a listing for a brand-new book appear in the U.K. before we’re clued in by the powers that be – particularly now, with folks from Del Rey in direct contact with fans.

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Do lightsabers and hoverboards really exist? A shocking percentage of British adults think so

A survey by the Birmingham Science City finds that “over a fifth of adults” surveyed believe lightsabers are real. Nearly a quarter believe that humans can be teleported, 50% believe that memory-erasing technology (ala Men in Black) exist, and more than 40% believe in hoverboards. Remember them from Back to the Future Part II? Granted, we can probably blame Robert Zemeckis himself for that one. Science fiction, what have you wrought?

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Batten down the hatches, it’s Star Wars sequel trilogy rumor time yet again

Is it ridiculous rumor time already? IESB is reporting that we could see a (sigh) sequel trilogy after the 3-D rereleases. Since IESB seems down at the moment, here’s Bryan’s report over at the Examiner.

Am I skeptical? Of course. Do I really want to hear people squeeing over how this is totally going to be [insert favorite EU thing here] on film? Hells no. Y’all should know better by now. (And IESB is also saying – per io9 – that the trilogy won’t be about Skywalkers.)

Is a sequel trilogy possible? Of course, even taking into account George Lucas’ frequently stated lack of interest in sequels or further movies. But the man has also shown an inability to let go of Star Wars in recent years: Witness his continued involvement in The Clone Wars .

But I’m a cynic, and this whole thing sounds like every single rumor and report about the live-action series thrown into a fanboy’s wet dream blender. I don’t doubt there are folks backstage at Lucasfilm pressing for more movies – who wouldn’t want that job security? – but the trick is whether they will or can convince George. We can’t be sure of until he – not the rumor mongers – comes out and says it. Don’t hold your breath.

UPDATE: Lucasfilm denies the report at Underwire:

“This is, of course, completely false,” Lucasfilm spokesman Josh Kushins told Wired.com in an e-mail Saturday about the report. “George Lucas has plenty of projects to keep him busy right now — including plenty of Star Wars projects — but there are no new Star Wars feature films planned.”

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$4000?? Oh yes, I am scoffing at Frames

Jedi News has the price-points for the glorified screenshot book Star Wars Frames, and they’re more ridiculous than I would ever have imagined. The higher (??) your edition is, the more you pay, but the cheapest edition is still $4000.

Frames pricing is as follows:

BATCH A (#1 – #250) $4,000
BATCH B (#251 – #500) $4,250
BATCH C (#501 – #750) $4,500
BATCH D (#751 – #1,000) $4,750
BATCH E (#1,001 – #1,138) $5,000

So basically, one copy of Frames is worth anywhere from 12.5 to 10 Lego Death Stars. (Which doesn’t exactly cost chimp change.) And you have to assemble the Death Star yourself.