Every year, Halloween costumes get weirder and more complicated. Case in point: this inflatable Han-in-Carbonite one.
Here's how it works:
For $59.99, you get the adult-sized costume (and a battery-operated fan to inflate it), plus gloves and a mask for the full effect.
Previously on BB: Other Han-in-Carbonite items
LEGO Han in Carbonite is reason enough for me to buy the LEGO Star Wars Carbon-Freezing Chamber.
While LEGO Lando isn't to be seen, he's clearly still a traitorous jerk! LEGO Han is getting frozen in carbonite! LEGO Boba and an Ugnaught are included to run the operation.
LEGO Star Wars Carbon-Freezing Chamber 75137 via Amazon Read the rest
My eight year-old nephew clicked this X-Wing fighter together in about 3 hours, and then spent two days playing with it, nonstop.
This Luke-era X-Wing, with Luke and R2 minifigs, was the project of choice for my nephew. He said he loves to build LEGO, and attacked this set with gusto. Unlike my daughter's massive collection of Star Wars LEGO, which is all carefully organized on our living room shelves, nephew plays with his LEGO builds hard.
It is fun to watch.
LEGO Star Wars X-Wing Starfighter 75218 Building Kit (731 Piece) via Amazon Read the rest
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi was briefly called "Revenge of the Jedi." Apparently screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan had told Lucas that "Return of the Jedi" was a "weak title." In December 1982 though, Lucas went back to his original title but not before promotional posters had already been released, such as the one above that is currently up for auction at Sotheby's with an expected hammer price of 1,400 - 2,600 GBP ($1800 - $3200 USD).
From Wikipedia:
In December 1982, Lucas decided that "Revenge" was not appropriate as Jedi should not seek revenge and returned to his original title. By that time thousands of "Revenge" teaser posters (with artwork by Drew Struzan) had been printed and distributed. Lucasfilm stopped the shipping of the posters and sold the remaining stock of 6,800 posters to Star Wars fan club members for $9.50.
(via Uncrate) Read the rest
My 11 year-old paid more attention during Solo than I did. She insisted on Moloch's Landspeeder as her latest Star Wars LEGO. Read the rest
Unused footage of Carrie Fisher from The Last Jedi will be put to use in Episode IX, reports Hollywood Reporter. Mark Hamill will return as Luke Skywalker, as will Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian.
In January 2017, Lucasfilm issued a statement assuring fans that there were no plans for a digital re-creation of Leia, after reviving late actor Peter Cushing's Grand Moff Tarkin for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. In April 2017, Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy said Fisher would not appear in Episode IX. Abrams took over as director of Episode IX in September 2017 after the exit of Colin Trevorrow, and penned a new script himself with Chris Terrio, and it seems plans changed sometime after that point.
Also back: Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Kelly Marie Tran and Joonas Suotamo. Richard E. Grant is joining the cast, as is Naomi Ackie. Read the rest
Darth Vader only appeared on screen for 34 minutes yet is the most visually iconic character of the original trilogy. Nerdwriter's Evan Puschak explains why.
This excellent pizza cutter is not as clumsy or random as our old one.
What can I say? We needed a new pizza cutter. This one is modeled on the iconic Darth Vader lightsaber.
Underground Toys Star Wars Home Kitchen Pizza Cutter Lightsaber via Amazon Read the rest
Han Solo's blaster used in "Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi" sold for $550,000 at a Las Vegas auction on Saturday. Turns out that Ripley's Believe It Or Not bought it. Believe it... or not. The prop was part of a collection sold off by the movie's art director James L. Schoppe. From Rolling Stone:
Read the restOther items at Saturday's auction included an original "Biker Scout Blaster" (sold for $90,000) and an Ewok prop axe ($11,000) from Return of the Jedi.
However, Han Solo's blaster fell well short of the record for the priciest Star Wars item in the franchise's auction history: In June 2017, an R2-D2 unit that was seen in numerous Star Wars films sold at auction for $2.76 million, over its $2 million pre-auction estimate.
It was 1997 when Simon Jansen started his remake of the first Star Wars film -- Episode IV - A New Hope -- as an ASCII animation (or "asciimation," as he coined it). Read the rest
Solo: A Star Wars Story, the latest Star Wars feature film and Disney's fourth, offers something new even as it stays connected to the old. I have a few gripes, but Solo is a nice side chapter to the ongoing Star Wars mythos.
Set roughly a decade before A New Hope, the original Star Wars film, Solo chronicles the journey of a 20-something Han Solo from an orphan looking for a brighter future to the swaggering but lovable scoundrel originally portrayed by Harrison Ford.
Standard backstory fare includes Solo meeting the Wookiee Chewbacca and fellow miscreant Lando Calrissian. We find out where he grew up and how he came by his surname. He acquires the Millenium Falcon and his biggest claim to fame: making the Kessel Run in a record-breaking twelve parsecs. Solo brims with action and humor—I think it's a great stand-alone film.
Here's an unusual opportunity for a hardcore Star Wars fan. An authenticated, screen-used segment of the original Death Star (yes, from 1977) can be bid on through eBay.
In partnership with Hollywood Memorabilia, this exclusive screen-used, sectional piece of the Death Star was featured in Star Wars: Episode IV and utilized for special effects. After filming, much of the Death Star was lost, but this authentic piece was discovered and salvaged. Very few of these pieces exist, and has remained mostly uncirculated with the Star Wars community, until now. The prop was kept by an ex-ILM employee for the next 37 years, and stored in a safe for the last 4 years.
This nearly two-foot-long piece of Star Wars history is expected to "sell for upwards of six figures," though the current bid is just over $10,000. Bidding ends June 3 and a letter of authenticity is included in the sale (I would hope so!). Read the rest
Onnit's $65 Solo Yoga Mat features a lifesize Han-in-Carbon for you to perform upward-facing Jabba on. (via Cnet) Read the rest
Hey Californians, a burlesque show is headed your way for a short tour all the way from Australia starting on May 31. Not just any burlesque show though, this is "The Empire Strips Back: A Burlesque Parody."
Yep, a Star Wars-themed burlesque show.
It started off in 2011 as a one-off event in Sydney but apparently the demand is high for sexy, stripping Stormtroopers. Its organizer Russall S. Beattie soon found himself extending its run, and then extending it some more. In 2014, he directed its full-blown production.
It was booked in a 150 capacity room with the expectation that he might get three nights out of it. Those three nights sold out in record time and the show has since succeeded beyond any expectations. Four national tours and one complete overhaul later, the show has delighted an audience of over 50,000 people since then. February 2016 saw a Huffington Post online video article on the show go viral, with its 20 million views in a few days spark the interest of many international promoters, thus an international tour is planned with the show heading overseas indefinitely within weeks/ days of the latest Australian tour ending.
Six lucky California cities will host the tour: Riverside, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, and Sacramento, with a final show in San Francisco. Tickets are available now.
Btw, this is how they get around the legality of using the almighty Star Wars brand:
Mexican artist Monica Robles Corzo created a cool mashup of modern monsters and Mayan iconography for her Mayanizations series, like this reimagining of the Alien Xenomorph. Read the rest
It appears that Jedi Master Yoda is holding up the books using the Force, but it's really just a strategically-placed metal bar which holds up the first book that gives that illusion.
You can buy this Yoda bookend for $19.95 from Hallmark, of all places.
Not only is Ron Howard the narrator (and an executive producer) on the Arrested Development, he's also the director of the upcoming Solo: A Star Wars Story. So, it was only natural that the two entities got combined somehow, especially since they both have end of the month release dates**.
Enter Star Wars: A New Hope, a clever parody that melds the music, narration, and editing style of the popular sitcom with the story of Star Wars.
It begins, "Now the story of a family that wants to rule the galaxy and the one son who had no choice but to save it." (The original narration began, "Now the story of a wealthy family who lost everything and the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together.)
**Season 5 of Arrested Development begins on May 29 on Netflix. Solo: A Star Wars Story opens in theaters on May 25.
