The fandom minute: ESB in Entertainment Weekly, TPM/AOTC reviewer speaks

On the newstand. The 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back (and the upcoming Making of The Empire Strikes Back) lands the cover of this week’s Entertainment Weekly. The issue will be on stands (and hopefully in subscriber mailboxes) on Friday.

Prequel madness. With the release of his Attack of the Clones review, MTV has a an two-part interview with Mr. Plinkett/Mike Stoklasa of Red Letter Media for a sitdown on the reviews, copyright, mocking, and backlash. Meanwhile, Bryan Young continues his defense of The Phantom Menance.

Chartage. It’s equal mockery under the law for Star Wars, Star Trek, Firefly, Avatar and Lost fans in the sci-fi superfan reference manual.

Younglings. Head over to Offbeat Mama for Darth Aesop’s Death Star party. The balloon sabers are particularly brilliant.

Cake! Neatorama spotlights Star Wars cakes.

The fandom minute: Defending TPM, subtext, politics, cake, and other things you do under the cover of night

Rebuttal. Big-time prequel fan Bryan Young has begun his response to the 90-minute Phantom Menace review that was going around a while back.

Presented without comment. Karen Miller, whose Star Wars books have been enthusiastically received by certain areas of fandom, wants folks to know that she’s not writing homoerotic subtext into her Clone Wars books. Okay then. (It seems the rant was inspired by this thread. Sigh.)

If we ever see an Essential Guide again… Suggestions for a book on GFFA politics. Dan Wallace is game!

Cakes! Clone Wars’ fame continues to spread with an impressive Republic Gunship and an adorable Jabba with Rotta. (via/via)

Crass fansumerism. Chewbika or soap? A bank?

The fandom minute: Do tauntaun guts taste like candy?

EW.The internet’s favorite Star Wars cake – this week. As impressive as this Tauntaun grooms cake is, I’m not sure I’d want to eat it. Still, props to the folks at Cake Nouveau for really capturing the moment. And by moment I meant slimy tauntaun guts. (Their dazed-out Luke is amazingly good, too.)

Artoo found in Transformers 2. Are there enough oil baths in the world to get the poor droid clean after this?

Seriously? Someone is taking their dedication to authentic costuming a little too far.

Quack Vader. This unauthorized ’70’s Vader light looks like something Robot Chicken would come up with. Maybe Seth Green had one, too?

And finally… Sideshow has a site up for the customized stormtrooper figures they showed off at SDCC.

The fandom minute: Plo cake will eat your brain at 30 Rockefeller Plaza for guitar-playing wounded soldiers

plo cakeHis biggest fan. Of course there was a Plo Koon cake, and of course it was eventually served to none other than Dave Filoni. (And Jeremy Bulloch. And Ashley Eckstein.)

Brains. StarWars.com celebrates the release of Death Troopers with Zombie Week. I wish I had the words to tell you how much I’m feeling Zombie Week, but I’m exhausted.

Obession corner. TFN’s Mike Barrick has collected Star Wars references on NBC’s 30 Rock, while GalacticBinder counts down the top 12 Star Wars guitar crossovers.

Charity. The Pennsylvania Star Wars Collecting Society is selling Obi-Wan medallions to help raise money for seriously injured service members.

The fandom minute: Bathrooms, mummies, roller derby, games, and cake (always cake)

I have a feeling no one actually uses this. Tour the Star Wars bathroom. And if they do, I feel very sorry for whoever has to clean it.

Fanmade. Mummy Boy-customs by Leecifer.

Event. The Indiana 501st and Rebel Legion are heading out to cheer on battling roller derby teams at Cyclone Wars this weekend. (via)

Lists. Jennifer Volpe’s Top Ten Best ‘Star Wars’ Games. I’m taking a strange ornery pride in the fact that I haven’t played a single one. (Please don’t tell me to start. Some people don’t read: I don’t game.)

And finally, cake. You know it’s love when she makes you a Star Destroyer.

The fandom minute: TPM documentry, PT defense, AT-STs in the park, plus cake

gffa-docContinuing adventures in TPM nostalgia. Everyone’s talking about the documentary A Galaxy Far Far Away, which has a 10th anniversary edition out. (Hey, it was news to me!) The reviews are not all so good, though.

And on that note… Somewhere on the internet, someone is always defending the prequels.

Pro art: Colleen Doran shares the original sketch for her Anakin/Padme card from the Galaxy 4 set.

Gathering: A Geekdad spotted a Star Wars event in in London, Ontario a few weeks back.

There must be cake. Perhaps the most amazing AT-AT cake you’ve ever seen.

Fun fact: Darth Vader’s reveal to Luke is the most misquoted phrase in film.

What? I can’t believe GalacticBinder found even one, let alone ten Star Wars surfing crossovers.

The fandom minute: Ima Trooping; Scalzi ponders Star Wars 3-D; BOW cake; Yoda’s travels

  • Photo fun Adventures in Stormtrooping with a little help from The Simpsons, Cobra Commander, Hellboy and a very naughty Wall-E.
  • The blogside: John Scalzi theorizes that George wants to release Star Wars in 3-D to beat Gone With the Wind in the all-timers. Seems a bit of a reach to me: If that was the case, why all this waiting? Has George seen Coraline?
  • Cake: Bearded Obi-Wan is full of… Strawberry jam? I’m sure there’s a Spaceballs joke in there somewhere.
  • Travels: Yoda sees the world.