Wacky merchandise du jour: Star Wars Choppers

Of course Lucas Licensing would approve something as ridiculous as the Star Wars Choppers line. I won’t even bother to justify this, but props to Hell for Leather’s Wes Siler for trying:

Out on his bike, no one has to know he’s just a lackey for the Emperor, he’s free to be the large and in charge man he was born to be.

Oh, Hasbro. Don’t worry, I’m sure The Clone Wars will dream up something better for you and the target demographic soon. Meanwhile, it’s probably best to keep the hallucinogens away from the design team.

Gift Guide: Santa Maul supposes that even the most craven of lightsiders deserve presents sometimes

Santa Maul's Holiday Gift GuideSanta Maul has been advised that there are some among his readers who are not disposed to the bearded Obi-Wan, snarky scoundrels, or even the sheer magnetism of a dexterous bad boy. No, some even prefer heroes of the goody-goody persuasion. Santa Maul is puzzled, but he knows his duty, and thus recommends to deviants of the light Sideshow’s Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight Premium format figure. At least he is not dressed in beige.

As an additional bonus, Santa Maul finds the faux-epic ‘trailer’ soundtrack tickles his bone of funny.

From April Fools to reality: NYT explores origins of Thinkgeek’s tauntaun sleeping bag

ThinkGeek's Tauntaun sleeping bagThinkgeek and their tauntaun sleeping bag has made the mainstream: A profile in The New York Times.

Mostly a retailer, ThinkGeek does very little licensing and manufacturing, and its attempts to get a meeting with Lucasfilm to work out the rights to make the sleeping bag went nowhere. “We’d really pretty much given up,” Ty Liotta, the company’s senior merchandiser, said. “We decided: ‘We’re not doing anything else with this, and it’s funny. Let’s make it an April Fools’ product.’ ”

And an internet phenomenon was born…

Santa Maul has awakened! He wants a doughnut.

Santa Maul's Holiday Gift GuideSanta Maul gave his Black Friday spiel last year, and he’s particularly cranky today, so will just get to it. Remember, the more shopping you do, the more websites Santa Maul gets to crash, and the happier he will become. Also, now he is on Twitter, where he will be posting any further deals he finds today.

In conclusion, humor.

Cute attack: Star Wars at Build-A-Bear Workshop

Shouldn't the more reddish bear get Obi-Wan's outfit? NOT CANON!

Even putting the Ewoks aside, fanmade Star Wars and other sci-fi themed teddy bears are nothing new, as a quick search on Flickr (and CJ’s own Lissy) will tell you.

But now we have something from the official realm to make it easier to please kids and collectors: Star Wars costumes from Build-a-bear Workshop. Currently they only have Clone Wars-inspired Anakin, Jedi (totally Obi-Wan,) and Rex, plus a Darth Vader and a themed pajama set. Will we see more movie-inspired styles? I suspect the Christmas sales rates will tell us… Dressed bears cost $40-$35, and the costumes alone go for $15-12. The Vader outfit is currently one of their top 20 products! (via)