(Some of) ThinkGeek’s exclusives for Celebration

ThinkGeek is bringing several new items to Celebration – and here are my picks! The Death Star charm above will be coming to the site, but you can get it at Celebration first. And the patch is, sadly, a limited edition that you only get with a purchase of Con Bag of Holding… (Which, of course, I bought before the con.)

The Russell Walks Retro Star Wars Poster Set below, is limited to 250 copies. My heart! Check out the rest at Yakface.

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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.

Gift guide: Underwear for geeks of the female persuasion

Santa Maul's Holiday Gift GuideSanta Maul has no desire to be crude, but he suspects there are many ladies among his readership who will be amused by Thinkgeek’s HTTPanties.

If underthings are not yet an appropriate gift for the geeky women in one’s life, Santa Maul urges his friends to peruse their selection of women’s t-shirts or tech jewelry. (A familiar-looking pendant necklace is on the sale.) Of course, Santa Maul knows there is much among ThinkGeek’s selection that is appropriate for all genders, and even younglings.

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…