A belt buckle is merely the tip of the iceberg in StarWars.com’s Ten Unauthorized C-3PO Collectibles.
Wacky merchandise of the day
Cat tormentors Lightsaber laser pointers, in either Vader or Maul flavors.
In the news: Monday morning reading list
- Cloverfield smashes January box office records, including the one held by the ANH Special Edition.
- Lightsaber named top movie weapon in 20th Century Fox poll. (Huh.) The Death Star and Indiana Jones’ whip also made the list, and Luke Skywalker and Indiana Jones are among the favorite weapon-wielding heroes.
- Skywalker Sound up for BAFTA for There Will Be Blood.
- AICN has a report from the cancer-free Fanboys.
- Ewan McGregor claiming Trainspotting had more influence than Star Wars prequels. On his career, perhaps.
TOSsing Off: A complete coincidence
- Vagueness time! Hyperspace in 2008 will bring us… stuff! And things! (Wait a minute, did that say original fiction? Tease!)
- Humor: Jawas, so uncivilized.
- Video: Star Wars Merch Circa 1979.
- Buy stuff! One StarWarsShop exclusive, and another (Shadow Trooper?) to come today?
- Bantha Tracks: Interview with the winner of CIV’s Lawrence Noble bust; Youngling fans.
- Source Archive: More Dark Empire with The Full Power of the Dark Side, Lost For Over 300 Years, and For a Thousand Generations. The latest two, Festival Public Executions Canceled and ISO Announces Mid-Rim Tour, hail from the Adventure Journal’s Galaxywide NewsNets olumn.
A Field Guide to Imperial Bucket-heads
IGN.com reviews the fashions of the clonetroopers and stormtroopers in their article, The Many Looks of the Imperial Stormtrooper, starting from Kamino clone baby to color-coded elite trooper to Ewok drum set.
The fandom minute
- Interview: Lightsabre talks to special effects maven Dennis Muren. (The first part is here.)
- Expanded Universe: Rule of Two author Drew Karpyshyn talks to two fan sites – Jedi-Masters.co.uk and Fan Force Portugal.
- Music: Over at Ask Metafilter, a RPGer is looking for “a set of tracks that soundaren’t.“ Lots of neat suggestions!
You realize you’re all just encouraging him
io9 discovers Supershadow, the internet’s most laughable Star Wars site. (Unless you happen to be certain type of Wookieepedian, in which case he is the fannish equivalent of Osama bin Laden. They get so adorably worked up over the little nutter.)
If the antics of Mickey and friends are a little too out there for you, io9 has also charted the prevalence of the Hero’s Journey in science fiction.
Hasbro and eFX share high-end prop market
Press release time! Hasbro is taking on the production of “collectible electronic lightsabers,” keeping the Force FX name, while newcomer eFX will handle the prop, vehicle and and helmet replicas. (Which will “…encompass the entire Star Wars universe.” Perhaps that means we might see some EU items? Master Replicas had made at least one step in that direction.)
Hasbro’s sabers will be out in the spring, while eFX will debut their products at SDCC.
Remember Nikko’s Artoo projector?
Looks like the Nikko Electronics R2-D2 projection robot may finally be rolling into collector homes this spring. The European release date is next month.
Get TOSsed: Soul Caliber IV, DVD exclusive
The internets are going apeshit over the news that Vader and Yoda will appear in Namco Bandai ‘s Soul Calibur IV. (Vader will appear on the Playstation 3 version, while Yoda graces the Xbox 360s.) The official site has the press release, and 1up has screen shots and a trailer.
- Star Wars Tech on DVD is only available at StarWarsShop.
- Video: Meet Jason, The Clone Wars supervising editor.
- Hyperspace: The Source Archive is on a Dark Empire kick, featuring A Time of Darkness, The Power of the Dark Side and The Alliance is Finished.