Star Wars: The Force Awakens A Fandom Into A Frenzy


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I was at work when this trailer dropped and I can honestly say that I couldn’t wait to go on break so I could watch it and allow myself to react in an honest and proper way. To say that I lost my ever-loving mind once the trailer began playing would be an understatement.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens looks to return to it’s proper space opera roots. Roots as in the first trilogy instead of the much-maligned (deservedly so) prequel trilogy which would end up marking George Lucas’ final work on the franchise he created in 1977. Walt Disney Studios has bought all that is Star Wars and the industry which sprung from it’s creation and are now master of all.

J.J. Abrams now has the tough task of pulling back in the fans that felt disappointed at how the last three films in the franchise turned out. From what this teaser trailer has shown he seems to have come up with a new entry in the franchise that may just delight fans old and new.

Oh yeah, Chewie is back alive and well. No more of that dropping a moon on his head crap.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens set to give the world a fine Christmas 2015.

Star Wars: TIE Fighter Anime Short Film


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There’s always been great combos throughout history. Whether it was Lee and Stonewall, Grant and Sherman right up to peanut butter and jelly. Sometimes two things alone and by themselves are very good, but only reach the level of greatness when put together.

This short anime film by animator Paul Johnson (Youtube user Otaking77077) done over four years in the traditional anime style is turning out to be one of the best things to come out this year. It combines two things that were already great on their own, anime and Star Wars, but when put together has reached epicness status.

It even puts the narrative (scored with heavy metal fashion by Zakir Rahman) completely on the side of the Galactic Empire. This is a narrative we rarely get to see since everyone seems to be all in Team Rebel Alliance.

Enough talk…just watch and enjoy.

What I Built in My Spare Time


As I point out in nearly every post, I’m not terribly motivated.  I make posts now and again when the inspiration strikes, and while I sometimes wish I were as prolific a writer as others here, I’ve accepted that it’s just not my thing.  Part of my lack of posts is due to me putting in a ton of overtime at my job, and when I’m at home, I find that I just want to sit in peace and quiet, with no TV on, and so no anime DVDs being watched.  But, just sitting and staring blankly at a computer screen is only fun for the first 7 days or so.  After that, I find I need something to occupy my time.  Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always loved Legos.  I had many kits of them, and of course a lot of the fun back then was mixing and matching them to make my own creations.  These days I still love Legos, but they have such amazing kits that I’m quite satisfied building what they show.  In this instance, I really got back into building with Legos a few years ago when I came across a Lego store in a mall.  Never having seen a Lego store before, I went in and was instantly hooked on their Star Wars collections.  I started with the Super Star Destroyer Executor, and haven’t looked back.  The most recent kit that caught my eye was Slave I, which is Boba Fett’s iconic ship.  It was a nearly 2000 piece set, and the final product is about 18 inches tall.  Instead of me rambling on more than I already have, I’ll just let the pictures do the talking.  For the most part every picture is the completion of one bag of parts, of which there were 13.

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Well worth the $200 and 5 or so days (only doing a couple bags per day) it took me, and it’ll look quite nice with the SSD, R2D2, and the AT-AT that I also own.  My only regret is not getting into this much earlier, since there are several limited edition sets that I’ll never realistically own due to their insanely inflated prices.  Yeah, I’m talking to you Ultimate Collector’s Millennium Falcon and your $5,000 price tag.  Could have had you for a mere $500 when you first came out!

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Official Teaser is out!


Greetings, Ladies and Gents. Hope everyone’s faring well after the Thanksgiving Holiday here in the States and a week that’s winding down. Disney, J.J. Abrams and the powers that be have not only made the teaser for Star Wars: The Force Awakens available in select theatre locations, but have also made it available online.

Like the trailer that premiered for The Phantom Menace, we’re seeing a lot of surprises here. New droid types, unconventional lightsaber designs and the Millenium Falcon in all it’s glory. It’s a small taste of what’s to come, but enough to pique the interests of anyone in love with the franchise. If nothing else, it serves as a good conversation starter.

Enjoy!

Getting In Touch with my Inner Destro (Marvel Style)


Yesterday’s nerdery inspired me to expand upon the seed planted yesterday.

My idea takes place in a reality where the military–industrial complex reigns supreme and controls over every innovation made by super scientists like Reed Richards, Hank Pym, Tony Stark etc.

A Doop Ring is a portable storage device that contains items within a simulated Doop Land (pocket dimension used by Doop to store things).

Doop (Art by Mike Allred, belongs to Marvel Comics)

A Gamma Blaster is a M79 grenade launcher re-purposed to discharge concentrated Gamma bursts.

grenade launcher

An Inferno Revolver is an improvised flamethrower created from a Colt Army Model 1860 integrated with Pyronanos (a hive race of giant burning nanomachine-based robots derived from the android Human Torch’s cells).  The flames are hotter than the flames created by Jim Hammond.

colt

A Kirby Battery is a portable derivative of the engine of the Marvel, an extradimensional Kree vessel. It converts the user’s belief into energy.  All of the firearms are equipped with a battery.

A Pym Particle Pistol is a custom Heckler & Koch USP with a built-in molecular assembler. It manufactures and fires smart bullets derived from Unstable Molecules saturated with Pym Particles.

The bullets possess the following traits:

  • A target lock feature with Z-axis manipulation to phase through any obstacle (civilian or barrier) to reach the target or increase its density to diamond hardness to penetrate armor.
  • Y-axis manipulation will propel the projectile towards the target.
  • X-axis manipulation will cause the bullet to expand to the size of a rocket and gain an ionic payload similar to Simon William’s energy discharge.

pistol

 A Repulsor Carbine is a firearm developed from an application of Stark’s Repulsor Ray technology.  It discharges concussive energy bolts. 

carbine

(This image is the property of LucasArts)

An ultimative Aufhebung is a prototype Ultimate Nullifier created from a WWII Mauser C96.  It completely eliminates any target the wielder chooses.

Mauser 

Reverbium Grenade is an oscillation-based explosive device derived from Horizon Lab’s artificial Vibranium experiments.  Reverbium doesn’t absorb vibrations, it does the opposite and blows everything away.

SGH (Strontian Growth Hormones) is a variant of Mutant Growth Hormones created from cellular samples retrieved from Kubark.  It temporarily grants the user genetic traits of a Strontian: superhuman strength, superhuman speed, superhuman stamina, invulnerability, superhuman agility, superhuman reflexes, flight, heat beams, super breath, microscopic vision, and psi resistance.

The Howlett Strain is a fleet of nano-Sentinels that simulate the function of James Howlett’s healing factor

Ghosts of Christmas Past #6: The Lego Star Wars Christmas Special


Earlier today, I went on YouTube in a search for more classic Christmas episodes and specials.  While I was searching through the results, I came across the Lego Star Wars Holiday Special from 2009.  Seeing as how quite a few of our readers had a good reaction to The Star Wars Holiday Special, I figured why not share the Lego version here?

So, directly from Al Nickels Films, here’s the Lego Star Wars Christmas Special!

Enjoy!

Ghosts of Christmas Past #3: The Star Wars Holiday Special Retrospective


I am not a huge Star Wars fan.

Don’t get me wrong.  I respect the fact that the movies are important to a lot of my close friends and fellow movie bloggers.  My boyfriend loves the first three Star Wars films and I’ve told him that if he ever wants me to wear a gold bikini and a chain around my neck, I’ll do it.  It’s just that, on a personal level, the Star Wars films don’t do much for me.  When people mention Star Wars, I usually think about how I fell asleep 10 minutes into Attack of the Clones and then when my date woke me up at the end of the movie, my bra had mysteriously been undone.

That said, I still knew that when I started my series of Christmas Past posts, I would have to post something about The Star Wars Holiday Special.  The Holiday Special aired way back in 1978 and it was apparently such a disaster that George Lucas has spent the past 3 and a half decades trying to convince people that it doesn’t exist.

Perhaps that’s why, when I did a search for the Holiday Special on YouTube, I came across a lot of videos that had been either taken down or had their audio tracks removed.

However, I was able to find a 15 minutes video from a YouTube user who goes by the name of StarWarsFan1975.  The Star Wars Holiday Special Retrospective features some background material on the Holiday Special and some of the special’s more bizarre moments.

Enjoy!

You’re Tearing Me Apart, Lisa: The Room/Star Wars Mash-Up


If you’ve been reading this blog for a while then you probably know that I absolutely love Tommy Wiseau’s 2003 film The Room.  I love it for its off-center dialogue, for Tommy Wiseau’s interesting performance, and for the scene where Tommy says, “Oh, hai, doggy.” 

(Of course, the main reason that I love it is because Tommy screams, “You’re tearing me apart, Lisa!” at one point.)

I also know that several of our loyal readers love Star Wars.

So, what could possibly be better than a viral video that combines my love of The Room with your love of Star Wars?

How about two videos that do just that?

I found these videos on YouTube and all credit for them should go to the enigmatic artist known as noisyimp.