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.

Star Wars in the news: TMZ stalks George Lucas, gets obvious answer to stupid question

Top-notch reporting! TMZ harassed George Lucas in Los Angeles yesterday to learn what (almost) every Star Wars fan already knows: There will be no more Star Wars movies. “Never,” you can barely hear Lucas say over the ‘reporter.’ Just let the guy have a visit with his daughter, jeez.

On that note… Forbes’ Roger Friedman says that Lucas lost more than $60 million on Red Tails.

Games. For those who roll their eyes at the very mention of Kyle Katarn, stop here: Gaming media are theorizing that LucasArts may revive a certain first-person shooter. Whatever.

Tours. ‘Where Science Meets Imagination’ is still out there, and its next stop will be the Indiana State Museum in our beloved Indianapolis.

EUbits: Fate of the Jedi is ending, have you heard?

Fate of the Jedi. Apocalypse is only days away, and so there is a book trailer. (Naturally.) And a mini-excerpt. And a 50-page excerpt. And Troy Denning on a podcast. And, of course, another spoiler-free review at Star Wars Report. Will it ever end? (Well, yes. Presumably, Tuesday. And then, the arguing. Yay!)

Comics. John Jackson Miller talks about Knight Errant’s next arc, ‘Escape,’ with io9’s Cyriaque Lamar.

Upcoming. DK will be releasing The Old Republic Encyclopedia this fall, Roqoo Depot discovered.

The blogside. Roqoo Depot’s Skuldren speaks out against super-powered characters in video games and the EU. In my book, that’s a very big reason why certain streams should no be crossing… Meanwhile, io9 makes a valiant effort to connect the Star Wars timeline to Earth’s timeline – pity that the comic tale they’re using as a cornerstone is kind of, a little bit, well, actually entirely Infinities, aka a non-canon AU. Which they admit. But still.

Okay, fine. If it’s an actual EU timeline you’re looking for (sorry, no Earth,) here’s an official one from Del Rey.

Review. James gives the latest Clone Wars digest, The Enemy Within, a thumbs-up for its Dirty Dozen meets L.A. Confidential in space storyline.

LEGO extends Star Wars license for another decade

LEGO announced at Toy Fair that they have extended their license with Lucasfilm for Star Wars-themed toys, video games, etc. for another ten years. So not only will there be twenty new Star Wars LEGO building sets released in 2012, we’ll be seeing lots of LEGO Star Wars merchandise until 2022 (or probably longer).

As part of the announcement, they released some stats including that the LEGO Star Wars video game franchise has sold more than 30 million units with their four titles (and Joystiq seems to think they have a sequel in the works to their 2011 The Clone Wars video game). Also, from Toy Fair, Kotaku has some photos of some The Old Republic building sets and The Lord of the Rings sets (a new license for LEGO) and Collider’s got images of The Avengers sets. And for those who want to drool over all the revealed sets, FBTB has your full LEGO Star Wars set coverage from Toy Fair.

EUbits: New covers for Phantom Menace, Lost Tribe

Covers. Knight’s Archive found the new cover to The Phantom Menace novelization earlier this week. Shockingly, it looks just like the poster. Like the last TPM-centric rerelease, Shadow Hunter, this one contains a new James Luceno short story and may be a bit difficult to find because both editions share the same ISBN. It’s due out on the 31st.

In other cover reveals, StarWars.com has the covers for eighth Lost Tribe of the Sith installment and the paperback compilation. They look pretty much the same as all the Lost Tribe of the Sith stuff.

Fate of the Jedi. The mini-excerpts for Denning’s Apocalypse begin with – who else? – Saba.

Interviews. In a two-parter, James Luceno talks Darth Plagueis at TFN and Suvudu, while John Jackson Miller chats with CBR’s Tim O’Shea.

In the news: Phantom Menace 3D is news to Ewan

GQ breaks the news. It sure seems like Ewan McGregor will be everywhere this year, but apparently the guy’s been so busy that it seems the first he’s heard of The Phantom Menace 3D is from the folks at the magazine. “They’re actually going to rerelease it into the cinema?” he asked GQ. “Well, that’s interesting.” Yeah, can’t say we’d be wildly enthusiastic to find out that our (hypothetical) rat-tail would be in three dimensions either. In other straight-from-1999 news, the Pepsi tie-ins are back.

Hobson profiled. Chicago businesswoman and Good Morning America contributor Mellody Hobson, perhaps best known to us as George Lucas’ girlfriend, is the subject of a brief profile in Forbes. She and Lucas will be featured on the January 15th episode of Oprah’s Next Chapter.

Gaming. The Old Republic might be coming to Mac. Nice try, folks.

Lucasfilm. George Lucas has big plans for a new digital technology facility at Grady Ranch, but some folks in Marin County aren’t exactly welcoming it with open arms.

Exclusive interview with Catherine Taber on The Clone Wars and The Old Republic

For Star Wars fans, Catherine Taber is best known as the voice of Senator Padmé Amidala on The Clone Wars, though she first got her start in voice acting working on different Star Wars video games. Taber provided the voice for a new character, Vette, for the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic game, and recently was heard as a tactical droid in The Clone Wars episode ‘Shadow Warrior’. She was kind enough to answer our interview questions about her work on The Clone Wars and The Old Republic, as well as talk about her Games for Soldiers project.

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Get a beta code for The Old Republic MMO

Our friends at Del Rey have shared some beta codes with us for the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic online game, and we’re giving away 5 of them to our readers. The only catch is that the codes need to be redeemed before midnight Central time today (Friday, November 18), so if you are thinking of getting in on the beta test play for The Old Republic and don’t have a code yet, leave us a comment saying that you want in! (Be sure to use your correct email address on the comment form so we can send you the code and instructions).

Also, Del Rey is giving away lots more codes today on the Star Wars Books Facebook page.

Thanks to Del Rey Books for the hook-up!

EDIT: All out of codes!