Star Wars Articles

No matter which Lego series it was, whether it was Harry Potter, Indiana Jones or Star Wars, the games have always had a tongue in cheek look at the films that they are portraying. And in this case, Lego Star Wars III is right up there with their take on the wildly popular animated series. Along with the major battles and supercool gameplay, some of the plot points are just hilarious. Such as when Anakin crashes the fighter into the hanger bay and Obi-Wan just puts his head in his palm. The action will be both localized and on a massive scale. If you’ve seen the series, huge battles are a big part of the show and in the first trilogy, there were incredibly complicated and epic. Lego Star Wars III is not going to disappoint in...

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...

The Toy Fair 2011 was this weekend and Star Wars had their usual presence there, but it was certainly the year for The Clone Wars, with much of the new toys being targeted toward that show rather than the movies in general, which was somewhat of a disappointment for some fans. However, it was quite a boom for fans of the animated series with new characters, new character looks a spiffy new large scale Attack Shuttle and other toys. For those that have a fondness for your own lightsaber, Hasbro introduced a plastic hilt version of the FX Light Saber for $35 which is a big savings off the collectible metal model. Darth and Luke’s sabers will hit the stores soon. Star Wars, by the way, took in a record total for 2010, even though there...

Comic book fans are familiar with Dark Horse’s Star Wars: Knight Errant, but we thought we might introduce those that haven’t seen it to this interesting series. The upcoming Old Republic game will focus on the time 1000 years into the past, before the events of the movies, and so does Star Wars: Knight Errant. This is a dark time for the worlds, a kind of wild west of space when everyone is trying to get their own piece of the action and there is no governing empire to look over the whole thing. It is strictly every man and every district for themselves. The Sith are the power in the galaxy and the Republic and the Jedi are struggling groups trying to get on top of the situation to bring order to chaos. Evil is everywhere and no...

In recent days, Carrie Fisher who played Princess Leia Organa, has been very open about her life, her famous family, and her bouts with depression. Her latest revelation, which she revealed on Oprah sitting next to her mother, actress and dancer Debbie Reynolds, is that the undergoes shock treatment every six weeks to help her deal with her chronic illness. Fisher, who is 54, says that it clears her mind, blows out the cement to use her terms. She also mentioned that it’s not the horrid treatment it once was with mad scientists in asylums, but a civilized procedure where one is put to sleep, with no convulsions or seizures. When the treatment is complete, Fisher says she feels much better and has a much clearer mind. It should be...

LucasFilms has purchased the domain name and filed for a trademark for Star Wars Detours. The trademark lists a whole lot of items, but mostly interactive media covering everything from video games to music to DVDs and even leaves open the possibility for merchandise. Whatever it is, they sound like it’s going to be big. Some people are speculating that it might have to do with the Kinect video game that is due out by the end of the year, but it’s unlikely, although a real name for the title has not really surfaced as of yet. Still, the trademark is way too extensive to be just for a single console game. No, it sounds as if it will be more of a whole synergistic behemoth, judging from the scope. What that behemoth could be is...

As season 3 winds down, we get a visit from one of our old favorites, Chewbacca, who will make an appearance in the final episode of the season and he doesn’t appear to be very thrilled with what’s going on, according to the preview video. While not reprising his role exactly, Peter Mayhew, the original actor under the fur, came back to advise the animators on all things Chewie, especially how he walked. Even back then, Mayhew had a bit of trouble walking, something he now uses a cane for, and that was part of how Chewbacca walked. Also that his mouth was open at all times, even when it was “closed”. Things like this helped the animators to create a very realistic looking Chewy. There had always been plans for the wookie to appear...

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. [video=youtube;z0z_TU4Gw5o] Also...

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...

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...

As we’ve said before, Lucas will be releasing the six episodes of Star Wars once again in glorious 3D, jumping on the bandwagon of all the other movies that will be rereleased like Titanic. The problem is that movies that are converted to 3D from 2D are not very impressive, at least not so far. Of course, if anyone is going to have the technical knowhow to do it, it would be Lucas and Industrial Light and Magic. The good news is that the theatrical release, starting on February 10, 2012 with Star Wars Episode I: Phantom Menace, will bring the Star Wars movies to a whole new generation. And many of the children that see the movies really liked the first three episodes, versus episodes 4,5,6 because they are more modernized, where to...

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...

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...

Guilds are a staple of the MMO world and Bio-Ware wants to make sure that they are no exception. But instead of waiting for the game release for players to get their guilds going, they’ve opened up Guild Headquarters in three phases before the 12/31/2011 release of the game. The first phase is to join an already existing guild that you think you would be compatible with, or you can begin your own guild with its own members, that you can recruit. The choice is yours. The second phase will allow guilds to align with eachother to build alliances and finally in the third phase, the guilds that have what it takes will be put into the roster area where other players can join as they enter the game. Players will be free to withdraw from a...

As every fan knows by now and we’ve announced here that Phantom Menace will be the first of the six movies to be re-released in 3D. John Knoll, a veteran in visual effects for Industrial Light and Magic, as well as a co-creator for Adobe Photoshop, will be leading the project. He was the original Visual FX Supervisor for Episodes I, II and III and one of things he talked about in doing the conversion was that since he was in charge then, he knows what kind of depth there was in each scene. This should make it easier and more accurate, assuring that it will look correct in the final project. But it’s pretty clear that LucasFilms recognizes the hesitation in the fan’s hearts over this. After all, everyone remembers the fiasco around...

There is a new trailer released today from Bio-Ware for their upcoming game Star Wars: The Old Republic, a massive MMO set to premiere on New Years Eve in 2011. It provides a very quick history in typical trailer format of how the characters got to this point. The video does a fair job of showing the battle sequences in addition to the peaceful scenarios with some very stunning scenery to back it all up. There is also looks at many of the character classes that will be available too. We haven’t really seen any humor in the game thus far until now. One of the robot fighters in the video says as “Set prejudice to maximum” before firing. This is an old military term, to destroy with extreme prejudice. We think this is probably the...

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...

Last news we featured Star Wars Uncut, which featured a fan based recreation of the first Star Wars movie in 15 second increments. Today, we find another gem from a couple of fans of the film, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Both actors are starring in the new film Paul about an alien landing on Earth. They’ve put together a short film in which they try and recreate the scene where R2D2 and C3PO are out in the desert. Their original intent was to reshoot scene by scene, but only managed to finish one, and that one went a bit awry itself. This is definitely fun stuff from College Humor. One of the highlights of the Star Wars video games is the Lego ones and on March 22, 2011, Lego: Star Wars III hits the console games. One of 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...

Everyone is awaiting the release of Star Wars: The Old Republic, which has been marketed quite a bit before its release on December 31, 2011. But right now, they are soliciting beta testers and have already gotten 1.5 million, which is a good start to the game’s success. Execs at Bio-Ware and EA have a lot riding on this huge undertaking and have been quite careful to keep the public involved. For instance, they recently put up a section of their site where guilds can be formed in anticipation of the game. They hope to get at least a few million to be able to be profitable and compete in the marketplace with Worlds of Warcraft. To do this, they know that they may have to introduce the idea of MMO to people who’ve never played WoW...