→ It’s been noted that the ball droid may draw inspiration from some early Ralph McQuarrie ideas for R2-D2, though the concepts we’ve seen are far more vertical. The droid also might be a girl, which is something we also heard from the early (and still possibly spoilery) Making Star Wars report. Jalopnik has a nice in-depth look at the little gal, noting a possible connection to Eve of WALL-E.
→ In addition to a lot of great fan art (which I’ve mostly been featuring on our Tumblr, with more coming up tomorrow) there are already action figure customs. A.W. Quinn created Daisy Ridley and ball-droid figures, plus her speeder bike.
→ The broadsaber has been a… popular object of discussion, and The Washington Post even talked to a master bladesmith about it, but hey: If there wasn’t something ridiculous, it wouldn’t be Star Wars. (And yes, the Expanded Universe did do it first. I can’t wait for the concept art book to explain why they went the way they did.)
→ Unsurprisingly, the teaser is reinvigorating wary old fans all over the place.
→ But what is it missing?
→ For you military history folks, a comparison of real-life weapon tech and Star Wars in 1977 and 2015.
Love that Noto piece.