Star Wars Rise of the Jedi

Last week I got a little bored and started thinking of Star Wars.  I thought of how great Rogue One was, and how it paid so much fan service.  The movie fit so nicely into the Star Wars universe by adding to the story, expanding the story and most importantly binding loose ends together.  The fan service was so high that I was able to predict the ending of the movie; Spoiler Alert, everyone dying and their efforts resulting in the beginning of A New Hope.  I had hoped (no pun intended) that it would end with Princess Leia (R.I.P.) because that’s how episode IV started, and when it did I felt rewarded.

Well moving on to last week and thinking of Rogue One, I thought how nice a movie that went even further back in the Star Wars universe would be.  Of course it would also tie in with the past movies and also expand and define the current Star Wars universe.  My story abbreviated would be of a very young Yoda and Darth Plagueis The Wise.  It would be the classic story of good vs. evil, where it would show how Yoda (the good) became a Jedi and Darth Plagueis (the evil) became corrupt with power.  Eventually Darth Plagueis own thirst for power became his own agony as he was defeated by his own apprentice.  Though it was believed he had died, his spirit remained, tortured by his betrayal; he would stay in purgatory until one day he would rise again as Snoke.

As I started to develop my story I was able to connect parts from other films to my story.  But then I thought to myself that this was probably one of the nerdiest things I have done in a long time; develop my own Star Wars movie.  So I decided to forget the story.  Then suddenly yesterday I was surprised by the announcement that the next Star Wars film would be called The Last Jedi.  I thought it was funny because I would have called my movie the First Jedi; in honor of Yoda.  But now that the official title of episode VIII has been released, I would like to call my movie, Star Wars Rise of the Jedi.  In the future I hope to one day write the story of my movie and post it on here, but for now the build up to The Last Jedi will keep me fantasizing.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

(Spoiler Alert)  I just came back from watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and…

Retro Star Wars T-Shirt

Today’s big news was that Disney bought Lucasfilm Ltd.  This means that they’ll now have the chance to create another Star Wars film and continue the legacy.  Personally Episodes IV-VI were classics, and I have eventually come to love Episodes I-III as well.  They’re an acquired taste, but they are good.  So I might be in the minority of thinking this was a good thing, so I can’t wait to eventually re-live the experience of another film and all the hype the surrounds it.  Mid-night releases, toys, advertising on buses and buildings, and fast food collector cups.  Today’s t-shirt is a retro Star Wars t-shirt I bought from Old Navy, it has this worn and faded look to it.

Mighty Muggs Star Wars Darth Vader

Mighty Muggs was Hasbro’s vinyl toy response to the whole vinyl toy craze from a few years ago.  It was a time when indie toy manufacturers got together with artists to produce high end designer toys. These toys were released in limited runs, which contributed to high mark ups in resell values.  I personally I never understood this fad because everything was over-priced beyond what you were actually getting.  What you got was a piece of vinyl or plastic that seemed pretty warped and simple.  The worst part was when some toys came blind box, so you didn’t even know what you were getting.

I did buy a few vinyl toys during those years, but I generally stayed away because of how over priced they were.  Seeing the dollar bills in this culture, the big toy manufactures decided to take a piece of the pie.  The advantage they had was the money to buy the major licences.  I know most people that collect vinyl toys didn’t like it when Hasbro started to release vinyl toys but I did.  Although it did saturate the market, it also made toys easy to get and affordable.

My first vinyl toy from Hasbro was this Star Wars Mighty Muggs of Darth Vader.  I bought him when the toy first released in 2007 and paid retail for him.  The toy is very simple in design, and also very cute to look at with his fat stubby shape.  The only accessory he comes with is a red lightsaber.  The box it comes in is nicely designed with a Star Wars theme and perfect for mint in box collects because the plastic window shows off the toy.

Might Muggs Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mighty_Muggs

Hasbro Mighty Muggs:

www.hasbro.com/mightymuggs/

YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IknTNVWMtGs

PEZ: Darth Vader

I went to the Dollar Store this weekend and was surprised to find out they had a Star Wars PEZ display.  I was fortunate enough to be the first person to go through it because I picked out a Darth Vader version (I’m sure he’s the first one to go).  Star Wars is part of PEZ’s 2012 releases, and also includes Darth Maul.  (Note to self: e-mail PEZ on creating a lightsaber PEZ dispenser).  As a bonus I also picked a version of the dispenser with their new candy flavour; raspberry-lemon.

Pez:

http://www.pez.com

R2-D2 Papercraft

The R2-D2 papercraft has been one of the most intimidating papercrafts that I have done to date. Although the template only takes up three pages, what seems difficult is all the cutting and gluing that is required to finish it. But if you take your time like I did, eventually it all comes out pretty smoothly. For this project I decided to use special tools that I borrowed from a manicure set. In this case I used small scissors to cut little tiny details (the zig-zag areas), a nail file to press down on areas that needed to be bent in a straight line, a nail cuticle tool to paint on the glue, and some eyebrow tweezers to glue small pieces together.

I also used a pen filter which I wrapped masking tape around so that I could glue paper parts that were circular. This project took me about a week on and off, and the cutting was what was most time consuming. Advice that I would give anyone that wants to do this papercraft is to print out two copies of the template so you can have one as a guide line along the way because this is a pretty confusing project. My only complaint about this template is that it doesn’t come with English instructions, but the pictures more than make up for it along the way. I think this is one of the best papercrafts you can find online and it being part of Star Wars makes it a 10 out of 10 in my opinion.

Link to the template:

http://chomikuj.pl/Dareczek86/Papercraft+(.pdo+.pdf+.jpg)/Star+Wars+-+R2D2+(.pdf)+(3)

YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smrhiPsq55A