I fail to see how regular string lights would conflict with Star Wars holiday or party decor, but for those of you who want to get as much branded merchandise as possible into one room, Artoo and Yoda light strings are here. Or will be, anyway.
Twelve geeky Barbie dolls, but no Star Wars
Topless Robot lists off the 12 greatest Barbie dolls for nerds, including multiple Treks. Who better to wear those short skirts?
As we’ve already addressed many times, I’m the furthest thing there is from a collecting expert, but I don’t think we’ve ever seen a legitimate Star Wars Barbie produced. (Somehow I doubt Kenner or Hasbro even allowed Mattel to think about it.) Which is really a pity, considering how many outfits the prequels produced. And yes, there is Sideshow, but there’s just something about Barbie, in all her opiate-of-the-masses glory.
Hallmark’s Star Wars ornaments for 2009
It’s May, so of course the Dream Book is out, because nothing says spring like planning out your Christmas tree. This year’s Star Wars selections are include The Phantom Menace duel (above,) Han in Stormtrooper gear, Luke’s landspeeder, and a Clone Wars twofer of Anakin and Ahsoka.
Also of interest: Indiana Jones, Star Trek, Harry Potter, Ghostbusters and my personal grinchy favorite, the Wicked Witch of the West.
(Thanks, Rach!)
Peek at the Star Wars Weekends merch
StarWars.com has your first look at the Weekends merchandise for this summer. Highlight looks to be these tees inspired by classical Japanese artwork.
All the LEGO Star Wars minifigs ever
So Gizmodo claims, anyway. We’re not Rebelscum, so I have no idea. Nice eye candy, anyway.
Wacky merchandise: Darth Vader alarm clock
That image is clearly an illustration, but the concept is still super-creepy.
New for sleepy Star Wars fans of all ages is Sakar’s Darth Vader Alarm Clock Radio ($29.99). It’s shaped as an actual replica of Darth Vader’s helmeted head and includes an AM/FM radio, snooze button, full-featured alarm clock with three sound effects to choose from for the alarm, and an audio jack input by which kids can plug in portable devices and run the audio through its speakers. But beware the Dark Side: the time glows red through the Sith Lord’s eyes!
Yes, nothing says up-and-at’em like a disembodied head with glowing numbers for eyes. (via)
Shop Star Wars for Earth Day
Zazzle has some appropriately-crunchy looking Star Wars shirts for Earth Day, but the real treat here are the WPA-inspired travel posters, above.
There’s something for everyone in Star Wars
Including giant bunnies. No, seriously. This of the kind of thing you need to be aware of if you’re even going to think about taking Star Wars too seriously.
Anyway, I know this is rather late, but Happy Easter/Passover/[insert spring holiday of your choice here], everyone!
(Meanwhile, all this stuff will be on sale tomorrow. The hand-painted eggs, not so much. But scrambled Ewok sounds good. Better than ham, anyway.)
Making of the Tauntaun sleeping bag
So it turns out that the maker of ThinkGeek’s most talked-about April Fool’s prank, the tauntaun sleeping bag, is actually a friend of CJ’s own Rach. She didn’t come up with the concept, but she did assemble it, and you can check out the photos at her Flickr.
And yes, in case you haven’t heard, the response was so positive that ThinkGeek is looking into licensing it for real!
Marvel tries for ‘female product,’ kinda fails
This would actually be kind of hilarious if it wasn’t rather sad… Marvel has apparently decided that the trick to getting girls to buy their merchandise are… Chibis and cosmetics. And yes, they actually use the term ‘female product.’ Seriously!
“Since our core customer has always been guys, we need to be very careful when we introduce female product so that we don’t alienate our core,” said Paul Gitter, president of consumer products, North America, for Marvel Entertainment Inc. “What we have found through testing is that we haven’t alienated them, which gives us the OK to move forward with female product.”
Yes, god forbid they alienate the menfolk.
Points for trying, I guess, but isn’t there some kind of middle road here? Do they really have to go over to the hearts-and-pink-things side – or define ‘female’ as ‘preteen’ – to get women to buy merchandise? (Via Maggiesox, who has her rant on.)