Posts

Posted on

Celebration VI roundup: A week to go!

We’re now just a week away from the official start of the con. A WEEK. Crazy. As you might expect, it’s been a veritable glut of Celebration VI news lately, and as such I’ve fallen a bit behind. Here are some of the highlights:

History lessons. Dan Madsen remembers the first with The Celebration That Almost Wasn’t.

Expanded Universe. Tim Zahn has posted his Celebration schedule. He has three autograph sessions in addition to his panels, if you were wondering about that – including one on Sunday that he shares with fellow authors James Luceno, Aaron Allston, Troy Denning, Drew Karpyshyn and John Jackson Miller.

Guests. Matt Lanter (The Clone Wars) and Sam Witwer (The Force Unleashed) are the latest additions. And for the few, the proud, the VIP badge holders, here’s the Meet & Greet schedule.

Booths. I’m so happy that ThinkGeek is coming to Celebration! They’ve even posted a few hints at what new products we can expect from them. Also on the con floor? Disney Parks. Muppet merchandise, you WILL BE MINE!

El Rancho. Steve Sansweet writes about picking and packing up a fraction of his massive collection for exhibition at the Rancho Obi-Wan Experience.

Events. Kristen Hidalgo runs down the docket for the Star Wars Family Room; Patrick T. Gorman on how Star Wars Saga in 60 Minutes came to be; Stefan Cembolista talks about the props, new and returning, that we’ll see; John Scoleri highlights the art of Ralph McQuarrie and the many tributes to him; Art Andrews on the As You Wish Helmet Project; And our own James Floyd chats up The Bounty Hunt.

Posted on

Raiders of the Lost Ark to return to theaters – in IMAX!

Running from the boulderThe original Indiana Jones adventure is coming back to the big screen — a very big screen, actually: IMAX. Screencrush reports that Raiders of the Lost Ark will be released in IMAX (and fake IMAX) formats for a limited run (Sept 7 to Sept 13) to promote the upcoming Blu-ray box set. That boulder’s gonna be huge!

As reported earlier, The Complete Adventures of Indiana Jones Blu-ray box set (containing all four Indy films) comes out on September 18. For a movie that came out 31 years ago, the enduring classic adventure of Raiders shows that it’s not the years or the mileage… it’s the awesome.

Also, to help promote the Blu-ray, Lucasfilm has been updating Indiana Jones’ timeline on Facebook with actual dates for his epic adventures. So far, 1957 is full of Crystal Skull events, while they’ve just started on his quest of Temple of Doom in 1935.

Posted on

Her Universe: Only 300 Mara Jade shirts at CVI

The Mara shirt, featuring art by Cat Staggs, is one of HU’s two Celebration exclusives, and there will only be 300 available. Similarly limited will be an R2-D2 charm. For those not attending, 50 of each will be available through the Her Universe site on August 23rd. The good news: They’ll have the shirt in sizes all the way up to 4X!

The Rebel and Imperial tank tops will also be debuting, though those appear to be part of the permanent line.

Also among the announcements is for the con are Her Universe photo shoots and the Bullied panel.

So why is the Mara shirt a limited engagement? Ashley explains:

Huh. Who knew?

UPDATE: Cat Staggs has posted the Mara art to her DeviantArt account, if you want a closer look at it.

Posted on

EUbits: Even more Mercy Kill reviews

Mercy Kill. Everyone loves this book! The reviews continue to be overwhelmingly positive. Here’s the latest batch: EUCantina, Roqoo Depot Fangirl, Knights Archive and Tosche Station (twice!)

Celebration VI. Pablo Hidalgo counts down his Thursday slate on the Behind the Scenes Stage. And there’s another edition for EU fans on Friday: Holocron 101. One problem: It directly conflicts with the Del Rey panel.

Interviews. Mark at Jedi News chats with new author Tim Lebbon, who’s writing the Dawn of the Jedi novel Into the Void for next year. Meanwhile, John Jackson Miller chatted with fans on Facebook last week. There’s another chat this afternoon with Leland Chee.

Street date shuffle. The release of Reaves and Bohnoff’s The Last Jedi has moved up by a month on the Random House catalog. It’s now scheduled for February 26, making it likely to be the first release of 2013.

Comics. James reviews Knight Errant: Escape #3 and Lost Tribe of the Sith: Spiral #1 at Big Shiny Robot.

Posted on

Del Rey reveals final Crucible cover art

Del Rey posted the finished version of the Crucible cover on Facebook today. It hasn’t changed all that drastically since the first version revealed at SDCC. (Click on Luke over there to see the whole thing.) They’re also calling it for Summer 2013, as opposed to the original announcement of Spring, but until we get a more specific date I’m not going quibble over that.

The book is still by Troy Denning, and it’s still a hardcover. We’re pretty much guaranteed to hear more about it next week at Celebration.

Posted on

Out this week: The Sith Hunters

As expected, it’s a slow week for Star Wars releases. Comic-reading Clone Wars fans can look forward to something on Wednesday with the release of a new Clone Wars digest, The Sith Hunters.

Looking forward, our next few book releases are both paperback reprints: Aaron Allston’s Fate of the Jedi: Conviction (Aug. 28) and Drew Karpyshyn’s The Old Republic: Revan (Sept. 25.) The next actual new release will be The Essential Reader’s Companion by Pablo Hidalgo – which Del Rey kindly gave us a peek at last week – on October 2.

Posted on

Choose wisely: It’s awesome overload in the CVI store

The merchandise selection for the show store is out, and there’s plenty of great stuff to chose from. We already knew about the Expanded Universe maquettes, above. (There’s a zombie stormtrooper one as well.) As for the rest, I’m guessing the Jar Jar whoopie cushion and retro-style bag will be big sellers… See them, and a few of my other picks, below.

And yes, there’s a ton more at the link – StarWars.com has a handful of high res pics – and the Han and Leia couple shirts are back as well.