Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
In the midst of all the April Foolery yesterday, StarWars.com shared our first look at the official Celebration t-shirts, but they are indeed for real. I doubt these will be the only t-shirts – I’d expect at least one in-panel reveal, probably for The Force Awakens – but it’s almost certainly the bulk of them.
UPDATE: Apparently the figure is only being delayed “due to a production issue with Princess Leia’s robe.” She’ll be back on shelves “later this year.”
So hot on the heels of the last dustup over the lack of female figures, Jedi Temple Archive reports that Hasbro has pulled the Ceremonial Princess Leia figures from Wave 7 and Wave 8 of the Black Series, replacing her with… A stormtrooper and a clone trooper.
Yakface, one of the first to bring this to the attention of the wider fandom, started the #whereisleia and #wewantleia hashtags.
Devin Faraci at Badass Digest wrote about looking for action figures for his niece, the latest in a familiar refrain:
The fact that Hasbro is canceling one of its few Leia figures means that they’re only keeping the status quo. Would more girl toys sell now, as the demographics of fandom shifts dramatically? No one can know when the toys don’t exist. I wanted to go and spend my money on female characters for my goddaughter, but I was not offered the opportunity. Young female fans should be able to walk into Toys ‘R Us and find a toy based on the largest and most popular stories in our pop culture that speaks to them. It’s as simple as that, and when the only option is a sexualized and subservient variant – why would they want to buy that? Why would their parents want to buy that for them?
Sure, there’s that Ahsoka figure coming and it seems like Boushh disguise Leia is still on, but canceling any of the few Leia figures they were hyping just over a month ago isn’t exactly fostering good faith in their intentions.
The Star Wars Bladebuilders line, launching this fall, lets kids create any ridiculous lightsaber they want with a variety of connectors, blades and other options.
There are several new pieces of jewelry on the Her Universe site today, mostly Vader-related.
The framing of this Fortune story on David Eckstein and Her Universe seemed odd, until I realized it’s part of a series (in collaboration with Sports Illustrated) that profiles athletes who’ve moved into business careers. In any case, we learn a few things about HU: that they expect to bring in $5 million in sales this year, and the company is profitable. Phew. (via)
Her Universe added two Rebels shirts to their site today: Join Rebellion (adult/youth) and Graffiti (adult/youth.) Ashley Eckstein has also been teasing several new products: A Star Wars logo cardigan, a new dress, and Vader earrings.
StarWars.com’s Collectibles panel liveblog. Dan Brooks strikes again with this recap of what’s coming from eFX, Gentle Giant Studios, Kotobukiya, and Sideshow. Kotobukiya has a Luke and Leia ARTFX+ set coming up, plus their next Bishoujo will be a female stormtrooper. Gentle Giant has an Amidala mini-bust and a Leia as Bouschh jumbo retro figure in the pipeline.
The Hasbro panel at SDCC seems to have been, well, a Hasbro panel. Dan Brooks liveblogged it for StarWars.com, and above you see the female figures: The Black Series Medal Ceremony Leia will be in the 3.75-inch line, and for Rebels, Hera and Sabine each come in two-packs with troopers.
Hallmark’s 2015 Star Wars ornaments. Rebelscum has a gallery of pictures from Hallmark’s booth and our first look at next year’s Christmas ornaments. They include Yoda and Luke, Admiral Ackbar, a Y-wing, and a pair from Rebels.
At least two fully-clothed Leia figures coming to the Black Series, according to a couple new reports. We don’t know if they’ll be the larger figures or the smaller ones, but one is the Boussh disguise, and the second is likely the ceremonial version from A New Hope.