Tag: steve sansweet

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Rancho Obi-Wan auctioning off almost 2,000 Star Wars action figures

This month, Steve Sansweet’s Rancho Obi-Wan celebrates it’s one-year anniversary as a nonprofit and the release of Sansweet’s latest book, Star Wars: The Ultimate Action Figure Collection. And to commemorate it, they’re auctioning off a collection of 1,950 Star Wars action figures.

The figures were originally collected and donated by one-time ILM model maker Fon Davis, and date from the original Kenner vintage line through early 2011.

Funds raised from the auction will go to support Rancho Obi-Wan.

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EUbits: Get the full story from NYCC

NYCC. Aaron Goins writes up last weekend’s Star Wars Books panel. We may have gleaned the big news then, but there’s more here. Since he was in town, Suvudu talked to Pablo Hidalgo about The Essential Readers’ Companion and Timothy Zahn about Scoundrels. And Tim Zahn met the Emperor!

Interviews. EUCantina talked to Del Rey’s Erich Schoeneweiss about winning back jaded fans, editorial decisions and even those Stover rumors. (Spoiler: Don’t hold your breath) and more. Meanwhile, there’s more Pablo over at BSR, and Bombad Radio has Drew Karpyshyn.

The blogside. On the occasion of old stories coming out into the light again, Charlene Newcomb writes about the birth of Alex Winger. And Steve Sansweet learns to love his action figure book.

Sword of the Jedi. All the news is above, but here are Shelly Shapiro, Jennifer Heddle and Frank Parisi discussing the series with Christie Golden.

HORRORS! Tosche Station’s Nanci is rereading the Jedi Prince books. Oh dear.

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Celebration VI: Steve Sansweet nabs Cupcake Wars TIE; Dave Filoni recaps the con

Wondering what happened to the TIE Fighter that displayed all the sweets you saw on Cupcake Wars the other night? Well, wonder no more: It’s headed to Steve Sansweet’s Rancho Obi-Wan, of course.

(On that note, Food Network has posted the recipe for the Spiced Black Pepper Cupcakes, if you want to try them yourself.)

In other CVI news, Dave Filoni posted about his own experience in Orlando.

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Celebration VI roundup: A week to go!

We’re now just a week away from the official start of the con. A WEEK. Crazy. As you might expect, it’s been a veritable glut of Celebration VI news lately, and as such I’ve fallen a bit behind. Here are some of the highlights:

History lessons. Dan Madsen remembers the first with The Celebration That Almost Wasn’t.

Expanded Universe. Tim Zahn has posted his Celebration schedule. He has three autograph sessions in addition to his panels, if you were wondering about that – including one on Sunday that he shares with fellow authors James Luceno, Aaron Allston, Troy Denning, Drew Karpyshyn and John Jackson Miller.

Guests. Matt Lanter (The Clone Wars) and Sam Witwer (The Force Unleashed) are the latest additions. And for the few, the proud, the VIP badge holders, here’s the Meet & Greet schedule.

Booths. I’m so happy that ThinkGeek is coming to Celebration! They’ve even posted a few hints at what new products we can expect from them. Also on the con floor? Disney Parks. Muppet merchandise, you WILL BE MINE!

El Rancho. Steve Sansweet writes about picking and packing up a fraction of his massive collection for exhibition at the Rancho Obi-Wan Experience.

Events. Kristen Hidalgo runs down the docket for the Star Wars Family Room; Patrick T. Gorman on how Star Wars Saga in 60 Minutes came to be; Stefan Cembolista talks about the props, new and returning, that we’ll see; John Scoleri highlights the art of Ralph McQuarrie and the many tributes to him; Art Andrews on the As You Wish Helmet Project; And our own James Floyd chats up The Bounty Hunt.

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More details on the Rancho Obi-Wan Experience at Celebration VI

Rancho Obi-Wan has announced more details on what will be on display and for sale at the Rancho Obi-Wan Experience, a mini-museum of rare Star Wars items on the Exhibition Floor at Star Wars Celebration VI. They’ve increased their floor space, and will have such unique items as a prototype 1978 Boba Fett blaster, a piñata of Luke riding a tauntaun, and more – about 300 pieces of Steve Sansweet’s collection will be shown at Celebration.

When asked if something with a Club Jade connection will be coming to Orlando, Steve responded:

“We’re going to take my “Amidala and Handmaidens Go Vegas” dolls to C VI for the Rancho Obi-Wan Experience—made by Club Jade members and auctioned off for a Kids Reading cause. I was in a fierce bidding contest with Lisa Stevens, onetime owner of the company that ran the Official Fan Club and Insider!”

In addition to selling memberships to the non-profit organization (with exclusive Celebration membership swag, like the Yoda patch, above), members will have a chance to win a bronze bust of Darth Vader, while everyone can share in giveaways of postcards, bookplates, and stickers. Additionally, Rancho Obi-Wan souvenirs will be available for purchase, including shirts, caps, patches, and of course, copies of Steve’s books. Also, The ROW Experience will serve as headquarters for the Curto Burns Collectors’ Cast, a monthly podcast about Star Wars collecting.

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Rancho Obi-Wan bringing mini-museum to Celebration VI

Your father wanted you to have this when you were old enough

Rancho Obi-Wan, the giant collection of all things Star Wars owned by Steve Sansweet, will be hitting the road for Celebration VI. The Rancho Obi-Wan Experience will have a mini-museum space on the main exhibit floor and will showcase all sorts of item, from props and prototypes to original art and fan-made wonders, all brought from the world’s largest private collection of Star Wars stuff.

Steve Sansweet will be on hand to chat with fans and answer questions. Steve and other managers and board members of Rancho Obi-Wan will be doing a panel on Rancho Obi-Wan as part of the Collectors’ Track. Additionally, there will be preview sales of the upcoming Star Wars: Ultimate Action Figure Collection book at the booth, with all four authors on hand to sign unique bookplates. Fans who sign up to be members of Rancho Obi-Wan at Celebration will receive an exclusive Celebration VI patch that matches the 2012 Rancho Obi-Wan membership patch, as well as a personalized membership kits.

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The official Star Wars Blog is back

…Or they say they are, anyway, as there’s only one new post. (Unless you count the roundups.) But it lays out some intriguing ideas. By featuring posts by VIPs like Dave Filoni, J.W. Rinzler, Leland Chee and Mary Franklin, they can give them a better venue than Twitter and Facebook for expanding on the projects they’re currently working on.

I do agree with some of the commenters – there are multiple fan sites and Tumblrs that can cover the more fannish stuff. The official blog can – and should – be able to aim higher than that. I’m interested to see what they’ll come up with.

UPDATE: Oh hey, here’s a post from Steve Sansweet.

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EUbits: Maul and Savage and the open road

Of course. There’s a Darth Maul comic coming. Darth Maul: Death Sentence #1 will launch July 25 and feature Maul and his brother Savage Opress roaming the galaxy in a beat-up light freighter and solving mysteries. Well, I made up the bit about the freighter. And the mysteries. Everything else is true! Sort of.

Confirmation, non-fiction. It’s not available yet, but Rancho Obi-wan has added the new Steve Sansweet book, Star Wars: The Ultimate Action Figure Collection: 35 Years of Characters. It’s co-authored by Anne Neumann and noted fan photographer Dan Curto.

Confirmation, fiction. Looks like they’re moving ahead with a third character guide. Expect a totally new different-looking Ben Skywalker!

Street date shuffle. Feel like some super minor schedule news? Lost Tribe of the Sith: The Collected Stories has moved up a week, from July 31 to the 24th. Exciting!

Pretty. Knights Archive spotted the cover for Star Wars Art: Illustration on Amazon. There’s a Yoda on it: Bitches love Yoda.

Kids. Snark aside, Darth Vader and Son looks kind of cute. Sadly, we will never see a ‘Mommy and Me’ version of this, unless you count The Phantom Menace, and I wouldn’t. It’ll be out any minute now.

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EUbits: Cover art for Allston’s Mercy Kill gets a makeover

Okay… The Mercy Kill cover has been tweaked. The ships appear the same, but the background has been tweaked – the ‘gray’ background will be silver when printed. It seems a bit overdone to me: you know Coco Chanel’s old axiom about always removing one accessory before you leave the house? I think it applies here. Maybe it’ll look better in actual silver? Still, I don’t think it’ll hurt Aaron Allston’s sales figures, and we’ve certainly seen worse.

Nonfiction. Knights Archive spotted Steve Sansweet’s next book, Star Wars: The Ultimate Action Figure Collection: 35 Years of Characters, on Amazon. Rancho Obi-wan publicist Consetta Parker confirms, as well as giving us a look at the production. Amazon gives an October 17 release date.

Essential Guides. With The Essential Guide To Warfare just a week away, there’s already a brief review from Knight’s Archive and an interview with Jason Fry at EU Cantina.

Fate of the Jedi. Roqoo Depot’s Skuldren takes a look at the series as a whole. Meanwhile, as you may have heard, Apocalypse made the New York Times’ bestseller list.

Hey, librarians! You can contact DK to hold a “Summer of Star Wars” day in June or July. By the by, we don’t recommend handing kids Fate of the Jedi.