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Wondercon, for those of you unaware, is one of the largest Comic Book conventions of the year. It’s held this year from April 1st-April 3rd at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA. And while it is mostly for comic books, the years have introduced it to a lot of pop culture as well, much like its brethren Comic-Con. And there is nothing more pop culture than Star Wars, and so Lucas and companies fit right in. There are many educational and exciting panel and entertainment venues to go to while you are there.

Here are the Star Wars related events:

Now in its 10th year is the Star Wars Last Fan Movie Standing. Budding moviemakers get to show their stuff not only to the audience of fans, but to George Lucas himself, who has the final word on who wins, after the audience has their chance. While it’s surely too late to get entries in, you can cheer on the ones you love, boo the ones you hate, and have a good old time watching some great talent light up the...

During the closing of a cricket club in the UK, two men intending to rob the place thought they could remain anonymous by donning Darth Maul masks. The ploy seems to have worked because all that they had for the police as a description was their height and estimates of their weight. The pair arrived at closing time and when confronted by two male employees, they attacked the club’s workers with metal bars. Both men defending the club suffered injuries to their arm and face with severe bruising, but there was nothing life threatening. The guys are still at large.

This isn’t the first time a Sith Lord has resorted to robbery to fund his evil empire. Back in June 2010, a man dressed in a full Darth Vader getup including mask and cape, went into a Long Island, NY bank and robbed it at gunpoint. At one time, he struggled with a customer who thought it was a joke at first because of the camouflage pants the bandit was wearing with the disguise. Once the...

It’s time once again to look at some more interesting and cool Star Wars things that are sure to get the wallet out of your pocket, or at least a smile on your face, or a face palm. Either way, here are three items we haven’t talked about before and maybe should have.

Our first one comes from ThinkGeek. It’s a Force Trainer. It will teach you to hone your mind skills like a Jedi in order to move objects with your mind. By wearing the included headset, your mission is to lift the ball up in the tube using your brainwaves. This is based on the same type of technology as Mattel’s Mindflex which I’ll be honest with you is a bit more fun. In that one, the tube is not the only challenge, but getting the ball through rotating hoops and stuff. The Mindflex is only $55, versus $79.99 for the Force Trainer, but for the collector or fan, the coolness of Star Wars has to be factored in.

You can order it at...

Star Wars Uncut, if you haven’t heard about it, is a remake of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope in which they asked people all over the world to contribute their version of scenes in 15 second increments. The interpretations could be in any visual style or with any tools that they had to do so. Some clips are using Legos, others are using anime action figures of the Star Wars characters. There is live action, animation, and a whole lot of other techniques.

Casey Pugh, who worked for Vimeo, had the idea of crowdsourcing as he calls it. That is to take something that the world already enjoys and get volunteers to create something wonderful. And since Star Wars is one of the best known and most interactive of all the movies, it seemed like the logical place to start his Uncut series. So with the help of thousands, he and his crew took in submissions via a website for 15 second scenes, for which A New Hope was divided up. One could then take the scene and...

Andrew Ainsworth is perhaps not a name that you would know off hand, but he was instrumental in the Star Wars trilogy by bringing the StormTrooper uniforms to life for Episode 4 and the other films. While the helmets were not designed by Ainsworth, but by Nick Pemberton, a friend and artist that lived in the same complex in Britain, he had created the molds for the actual costumes that were worn in the 1976 film. He also created the armor as well. And after Star Wars, Ainsworth went on to work in the film and television industry as a prop maker for such shows as Space 1999 and films Aliens and Superman, for which he created a wind machine and a front screen projector.

But he never forgot his roots and in 2004 decided to sell new castings from the original 1976 molds to fans, originally just in the UK, but once Lucas found out he had sold to US people as well, the legal team of the empire swooped down like Darth Vader going after Luke in the trench. They...

Few roles have the public’s interest like that of Star Wars. Roles that once you are cast, you are forever known as that character, no matter how many other roles you’ve had or how popular they were. And the constant reminder of a role can get to be a bit daunting for the celebrity, especially years after they were done. I doubt many people would like to be reminded of a job they had ten years ago every day of their lives. And while I’m sure that most of them appreciated the job and what doors it opened for them, if any, being known for only one project can be frustrating for an actor or actresses who live for their next gig.

Natalie Portman, who had a career before Star Wars, and has just won an Academy Award for her role as the emotionally damaged ballerina in Black Swan, was quoted this week as saying that she wishes that people would forget that she was in Star Wars and concentrate on what she’s doing now. Course some will say that it’s hard to feel...

It’s truly a testament to George Lucas that his legacy keeps on, despite not having any dogs in the hunt for Oscar gold. His legacy’s presence was commonplace at this year’s Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awards (or in other words, Oscars). In the 83rd giving out of the golden man trophies, Lucas didn’t have a single nomination, and yet he was still a big part of the night’s festivities, perhaps even more so than those that did, like Disney.

While many of the references were not so much directly related, but had a part of the movie juggernaut at one point or another. One could make this argument on just about any connection to anything else in Hollywood. If Kevin Bacon won, would they spend time talking about Footloose or Tremors, because he was in them? Probably not, but the world of George Lucas is just so expansive that it’s hard to separate out it’s alumni without the connection coming to mind.

There were some very direct references...

As Disney gets ready to open “Star Tours II: The Adventures Continue” on May 20th, there will be collectible toys sold based on the attraction. These toys will most likely be limited to the gift shops at Disney World, especially the one at the attraction exit, but maybe available elsewhere. Most of the two playsets center around characters seen in the preshow or the main ride.

In the first, which is called the Star Tours Ambush Pack, there will be the Dark Lord himself on a moving platform, Boba Fett, who doesn’t need a moving platform because of his jet pack, and two skytroopers. While Disney hasn’t given a specific plot yet, it’s probably a good bet based on these toys that Darth Vader and Boba Fett have a plan up their sleeve to hijack the Starspeeder to destinations unknown.

The second pack is the Star Tours Travel Agency Pack. As you may know, the cover story for Star Tours is that the Starspeeder is transportation to your out-of-this world tourist...

Even as an adult, its fun to play with Legos and build things that we can imagine in our minds and of course there are plenty of Star Wars sets to create just about any scenario. And we’ve seen some truly elaborate uses. Complete ships in the Star Wars universe have been made out of Lego and whole sets from the movies and TV shows as well. Well, for one boy, who apparently has a lot of sets and time, he created what is the most elaborate, funny and to the point video we’ve seen. He compressed the entire story of all three of the original movies (Episodes IV-VI) into just over two minutes, covering most of the major scenes in great detail. We had to show this video to our readers. It’s amazing.


Also, in the world of Star Wars Legos there are some great ads that have been created that depict scenes from their imagination, that are basically dying for captions and back stories...

There is no end to the amount of Star Wars merchandise that makes you go hmmmm. And then we wonder why we didn’t think of it? Here is another five items that seemed particularly strange to us, but maybe useful.

Jazwares starts us off with an item they haven’t yet released, but will probably be coming out very soon. It is a replica of Darth Vader’s head as a CD player and MP3 Device Speaker System. While they call it a boombox, it really isn’t persay, at least not in the true traditional sense, but his noggin will rock out the tunes for you as it’s compatible with most music players, as well as being able to play a CD right inside the helmet. And to make it a bit more creepy, the eyes glow red when the music is playing. Expect to pay $69.99 for this unique gift.

R2D2 has been turned into many things from a belt buckle to an ice chest to even a bathing suit, but now he has two new identities. One is a tissue holder where you can pull tissues from the top...

During what was one of the most watched Super Bowls in history, a young boy became a legend in what was a 30 second commercial for Volkswagen. If you haven’t seen the commercial, he plays a kid dressed up in a Darth Vader costume who tries to use the powers of the force on things like the washing machine, and even the dog. But when he goes outside and faces the car, he finds it starts up, causing him to jump. Thinking it actually worked, but it was really his parents that started the car by remote, a feature of the new 2011 Passat.

We hadn’t realized when we mentioned the boy in yesterday’s news feed that he had become the new Star Wars Kid and brought new interest back in the series and of course, in Darth Vader costumes for kids. The YouTube video of the commercial has garnished over a million views and the commercial itself is seen by 20 million during the Super Bowl.

And Max Page, the lad who played the miniature Darth, has been given the royal...

We don’t wish to be the center of gossip in the galaxy like other sites, but when this green guy named Greedo came to us with what he claimed was a diary belonging to Darth Vader, we couldn’t resist his offer. He wanted 5000 galactic credits, which seemed like a lot, until we realized that with the current exchange rate, it came to $1.55 in US. He said he really needed the money as he was saving for a bullet proof vest and hoped to get the rest of the money when he collected his reward for catching this guy Ham Salad, er Han Sherbert, or something like that. I wished him luck and we haven’t seen him again. Most of the diary is using an ancient code that we have yet to decipher, but we did manage to get one page done with our secret decoder ring and a rubber band.

It’s apparently from the day they attacked the diplomatic ship with Princess Leia on board. Here is what it said:

I have such a headache this morning from staying in that air chamber too long. I...