The fandom minute: The Star Wars food truck and how Empire ruined everything

Since it’s a holiday weekend – at least here in the U.S! – and we all have other things going on, here’s a quick sweep through the week’s best fannish links.

The fandom minute: Artoo chic

I have no idea if this is authorized (very probably not) but there’s no denying that the Artoo swimsuit is pretty neat. But since it’s a bit late in the season for swimming, perhaps galaxy leggings are more in order. (Only if you can accept that they are not pants, ladies.)

Women in Star Wars. MagnetGirl hijacks our pal Mandy’s blog to talk about Ahsoka and last week’s episode ‘Assassin.’

Craftacular. The Millennium Falcon apple pie, because edible crafts are the best crafts. And you know what this cries for? A lightsaber pie cutter.

Fanboy corner. Gizmodo’s Joel Johnson says it’s time to let the prequel butthurt die and forgive George Lucas. Yes, boys: You don’t have to love the prequels (Hell, I don’t) but just accept them as they are (until George SEs them) and move on. And on that note, Cracked has five reasons for Hollywood to stop making prequels.

It will not die. The rumor is still getting batted around, so Underwire brings us five reasons Lucas should film a new trilogy.

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: Space cowboys, art, alignments, cakes, devalued collectibles and Gonk

Scum and villainy.Yippee-ki-yay. Star Wars is SpaceWestern.com’s #1 most influential space western. Please spare us all the argument about how it’s totally not a space western; It’s an amalgam, silly. (Also, while I don’t think anyone can deny Firefly, isn’t it a bit early to rank it quite so high on a list that’s supposed to be about influence? Far as I can tell, the only thing that it’s inspired so far is a funny clip of Castle and Fox renewing Dollhouse.)

Art or something like it. io9 collects the greatest velvet paintings of science fiction. (As Wookieepedia is to Cracked, Google Image Search is to io9.) Giant Samurai Vader was a big hit on Twitter, and the official site gives us another peek at Visions featuring some of Club Jade’s favorite things (non-alcoholic division.) Dude, we get it: It’s a Star Wars fine art book, right? Enough teasing already.

Contain your shock. Darth Vader is Lawful Evil. No!

Baked-good corner. Two extremely well-made Star Wars cakes – Jabba and Darth Maul – from L.A.’s Rosebud Cakes. For the 30-year-old child party moll in all of us. As for something we can all achieve, take a cue from the sarlacc bundt cake.

Collecting. The ten most embarrassingly collectible Star Wars toys of the 90’s. Why didn’t I sell my Special Edition Luke when it was actually worth something? WHY?

At random. Power Droid gots to get his money.

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: L/M on Etsy, Star Wars car culture, 70’s school stuff, Palpy’s plummet, and cake!

Luke/Mara wedding cake topper by Hildoom @ EtsyThere really is something for everyone on Etsy. I’m prepping a few posts for next week, and I ran across a Luke and Mara Wedding cake topper. (What a post-ROTJ EU pairing has to do with The Clone Wars I have no idea.) The seller, Hildoom, also has a Yoda Birthday Cake topper for sale.

Cars. Jalopnik is on something of a streak, exploring the hot rod culture of Star Wars and likening the ABT Audi R8 V10 to something that “Anakin’s coke dealer” would drive.

Back to school. StarWars.com takes a look back at the 70’s with retro class cear from Helix.

Lists. Palpatine makes #1 on Sci-Fi Squad’s top ten sci-fi deaths.

Cakes. A neat Millenium Falcon by Da Bombe Desserts.

If only… io9 suggests swapping the writing staffs of The Clone Wars and the The Venture Brothers, which may be the only way to get me to cheerfully watch the former.

Om nom nom: Time for a pre-JadeCon cupcake break

Cupcakes by spoolsisters @ Flickr

Be sure to take a closer look at these great Star Wars cupcakes by Spoolsisters (Tracy & Carrie) at Flickr. (via)

I’m not sure how much posting there will be for the next couple of days, as JadeCon is officially gearing up on Thursday and I’ve got a ton and half to do before flying out tomorrow. But as always, we’ll have laptops and try our best to post from the con! (You can peruse the previous years, at your peril, here.)