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Stargate Best-Lock toys imminent

Club Jader Michelle gives a heads up about incoming toys for the Stargate franchise.

First spotted on the Sears Canadian website, GateWorld has confirmed with the company, Best-Lock, that they will be releasing four sets to Canada and the US late fall 2012, just in time for your holiday wish list.

Compatible with Lego brand toys, these sets will allow you to build scenes from Abydos and pretty much any other world you’d care to pretend for what appears to be a far lower price point.

It also appears that this company is pursuing licenses with other franchises, so your building fun might not be limited to just Stargate. More announcements are expected at the Dallas Toy Fair in October.

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Mystery solved! What are the ‘Essential’ Star Wars novels?

Knights Archive also spotted 2 sets of (presumably eBook) bundles on the Random House online catalog: The Essential Novels: Star Wars 10-Book Bundle and The Essential Novels: Star Wars Reads Day Special Edition: 4-Book Bundle. Could this why Del Rey’s Darth Internous was asking about EU books for newbies last month?

UPDATED! Well, it didn’t take long for us to find out! Del Rey has revealed the contents of the bundles, and they’re all over the map.

The Old Republic: Deceived
Republic Commando: Hard Contact
Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader
Death Troopers
Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor
X-Wing: Rogue Squadron
Heir to the Empire
New Jedi Order: Vector Prime
Legacy of the Force: Betrayal
Crosscurrent

That’s quite the sampler plate. I definitely agree with the inclusion of Heir to the Empire, Rogue Squadron and Shadows of Mindor, but some of these are just puzzling.

Here’s the 4-book bundle:

X-Wing: Rogue Squadron
Heir to the Empire
New Jedi Order: Vector Prime
Legacy of the Force: Betrayal

For instance, I wouldn’t wish Vector Prime on my worst enemy. Yes, the New Jedi Order is a gigantic chunk of the backlist, and there are worse Star Wars books, (though not that many,) but it’s definitely the series starter that flopped the worst for me. (And no, I’m not talking about the Chewbacca thing, stand down: I just find it horribly written.) Legacy of the Force may not be everyone’s favorite, but Betrayal is at least a solid book.

With absolutely nothing to go on aside from the titles, I’m a little intrigued at what they’ll consider ‘Essential,’ aside from the Thrawn trilogy. If you could only pick 10 Star Wars books what would make your cut? And what about the 4-book bundle?

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EUbits: Is July 16th the Crucible release date?

Street dates. Knights Archive spotted this release date for Troy Denning’s Crucible on the Random House Smart Archive. As it is put there by the publisher this could be the real release date… At the moment, anyway. The farther we are out from a release date, the more the things move around, but it might be worth penciling in.

Meet the new folks. Rebels authors Martha Wells and Kevin Hearne both spoke out publicly for the first time after the announcement of their new Star Wars project.

Star Wars Reads. Start planning for October 6th now, as StarWars.com has posted a location map for events through the U.S. A few authors have posted where they’ll be appearing already: Troy Denning, Dan Wallace and John Jackson Miller will be in Roseville, MN, while Pablo Hidalgo and Haden Blackman will appear in Corte Madera, CA, along with Aaron Allston, Drew Karpyshyn and Alexander Freed in Austin, TX. I suspect we’ll be hearing about more of these as the date approaches!

Comics. Skuldren from Roqoo Depot taped the ‘One Writer’s Approach to Star Wars’ panel at Celebration.

Detectiving! In all the hussle and bussle of live-tweeting Celebration, there’s not always time go back and find your sources. Thankfully, Pete did a little digging to find Paul Kemp’s tweet about his mystery duology.

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Celebration VI: Shea Standefer’s Jaina Solo costumes

Those of us who were at the Del Rey panel at Celebration will certainly remember Shea Standefer‘s Jaina costume – she was one of the first up at the Q&A and quite popular with photographers afterwards. Well, she sent us in a couple of pictures of the two Jainas she wore, taken with the backdrops at the con. Check them out below the cut.

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Celebration VI: Interview with PIGGY

I had some time to catch up with PIGGY, the well-traveled Gamorrean Guard, at Star Wars Celebration VI. Thanks to PIGGY’s handler, Jon Leopold, for his assistance. It’s amazing how much PIGGY likes the same things I do in Star Wars.

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Celebration VI photos: Cupcakes, sparkles and more

I had planned to upload my pictures at the con, but due to some key issues like forgotten passwords and awful hotel wifi, it was not to be. Still, I a) took more pictures than I did at CV and b) uploaded them less than a week after getting home. Let’s call that progress and be done with it.

Yes, some of them are iPhone photos, but most are from my trusty Lumix. EU fans, you’ll find most of the Essential Reader’s Companion art shown at the Essential panel. Cupcake fans, I have so many pictures of the Cupcake Wars cupcakes that your teeth will hurt. (And big thanks to Her Universe for the invite!) James, I will never stop taking pictures of you with food when you insist on posing with it. And finally: Disco Anakin. I know you want to see Disco Anakin, an officially licensed product of Hasbro, not something Club Jaders made on a dare, I swear.

And, yes, don’t forget James’ pictures! Also, if anyone got a shot of either of the two Doctor Who Elevens I heard about, please share a link to it in the comments!

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Celebration VI: Hasbro’s Jedi Mara Jade Skywalker figure has a new sculpt, same catsuit

Well, this is disappointing… Hasbro revealed their new Mara Jade Skywalker figure at Celebration VI – the Jedi one we voted for in hopes she’d be wearing something other than the catsuit. Well, as expected, the figure is wearing the catsuit anyway… And sporting the wrong lightsaber to boot, so there are certainly going to be some disappointed Mara fans out there. In any case, start looking for the figure in the spring.

Thanks to Phil of ASMZine for the heads-up – check out the figure, plus further thoughts and the possibility of another – under the cut.

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