If you enjoyed the movies even a little bit, you must watch this trailer.  It’s fantastic!  I’m not a video game guy, but even I’m seriously considering playing this one.

If you can’t view the embedded trailer above, please click here.  My thanks to Ed for directing me to this trailer.

Nintendo has announced there will be two new games and some Sonic Screwdriver accessories released in the UK and Australia later this year.  Doctor Who: Return To Earth will be released for the Wii along with Doctor Who: Evacuation Earth for the Nintendo DS.  Both games should be available in the UK and Australia on October 29.  The games will feature the current Doctor and his companion Amy Pond.  Both Matt Smith and Karen Gillan will be involved in the game and the storylines were created by the Doctor Who production team.  In regard to accessories, there will be a Sonic Screwdriver Wii remote and a Sonic Screwdriver DS stylus.

These accessories are so friggin’ cool!  I may just order the Sonic Screwdriver stylus for the Rambunctious Rascal to use with his DS.  I wonder if the games will play on US systems.  Anyone know if there are restrictions on games per Region like there are for DVD players?

For more information on the games, please click here.  For more information on the accessories, please click here.  According to The Escapist, it’s unlikely these games will be released in the US.  Thanks to my good buddy Shawn for sending this information my way.

If you can’t see the embedded movie above, click here.

This game is set to debut in November. I’m not a video game guy, but this movie-like preview looks amazing!

Click the image to enlarge.

Found on deankotz’s Deviant art page.  According to the artist, his next project will be Superman vs Burger Time!

I’m sure I’m the last geek to the party on this one, but I finally got around to watching some of The Guild.  If you’re not familiar with it, The Guild is an independent sitcom web series about a group of online gamers.  It stars Felicia Day, who also created the series and writes it.  Day is best known for her role on Buffy the Vampire Slayer as “Vi” and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog as “Penny”.

I’ve watched most of the first season and I find this show to be hilarious!  And I’m not even a gamer!  Below is the first episode, running time about 4 minutes.  You can find the first three seasons on YouTube.  If you can’t view the embedded video below, click here.  For more information on The Guild, click here.

And just for fun, here is their music video, (Do You Wanna Date My) Avatar

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… and cue the comment from Ed saying, “I told you so!”

The West End Games (WEG) system was released in 1987 during Star Wars‘ wilderness years.  After Return of the Jedi in 1983, Star Wars fanaticism began to cool off.  By 1987 Star Wars was positively old news, so the WEG game didn’t really make a big splash.  However, people began to take notice once the system was awarded the “Origins Award” for Best Roleplaying Rules of 1987.  Not only did the game contain a decent rules system, the books were chock-full of new Star Wars ideas and information.  In fact, it’s widely accepted that WEG established much of the groundwork of what later became the Star Wars Expanded Universe.  Lucasfilm considered their sourcebooks so authoritative that when Timothy Zahn was hired to write what became the Thrawn trilogy, he was sent a box of WEG Star Wars books and directed to base his novel on the background material presented within.  How’s that for an endorsement!  Once Star Wars popularity began to rise again in 1991, WEG was well-positioned to take advantage of the resurgence.  In 1994 WEG took to publishing its own original fiction in their quarterly Star Wars Adventure Journal, featuring stories from authors like Timothy Zahn, Michael A. Stackpole, Kevin J. Anderson, Barbara Hambly, and Kathy Tyers.  Sadly, WEG lost the Star Wars license to Wizards of the Coast around the release of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.

Below you’ll find all my Star Wars RPG books.  Click the image to enlarge.

WEST END GAMES

• Star Wars Roleplaying Game – First Edition
• Star Wars Roleplaying Game – Second Edition
• Star Wars Roleplaying Game – Second Edition – Revised and Expanded
• Gamemaster Handbook
• Gamemaster Screen – Second Edition
• Gamemaster Screen – Second Edition – Revised
• Star Wars Sourcebook – Second Edition
• Movie Trilogy Sourcebook
• Rebel Alliance Sourcebook – Second Edition
• Imperial Sourcebook – Second Edition
• Tales of the Jedi Companion
• Shadows of the Empire Sourcebook
• Heroes and Rogues
• Galaxy Guide 4: Alien Races
• Galaxy Guide 8: Scouts
• Galaxy Guide 9: Fragments from the Rim
• Galaxy Guide 10: Bounty Hunters
• Galaxy Guide 11: Criminal Organizations
• Rules of Engagement: Rebel Specforce Handbook
• Platt’s Starport Guide
• Pirates and Privateers
• Fantastic Technology
• Fantastic Technology: Droids
• Fantastic Tech: Personal Gear
• Cracken’s Rebel Field Guide
• Wanted by Cracken
• Wretched Hives of Scum and Villainy
• Flashpoint! Brak Sector
• Classic Adventures: Volume 2
• Classic Adventures: Volume 3
• DarkStryder Campaign Box Set
• Adventure Journal Volume 1, Number 7
• Adventure Journal Volume 1, Number 9
• Adventure Journal Volume 1, Number 11

WIZARDS OF THE COAST

• Star Wars Roleplaying Game
• Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Saga Edition
• Gamemaster Screen
• Star Wars Gamer Magazine Numbers 1 – 5

NON-ROLEPLAYING BOOKS I FOUND USEFUL WHILE GAMING (not pictured)

• Star Wars Encyclopedia
• The New Essential Guide to Characters
• The Essential Guide to Droids
• The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels
• The Essential Chronology
• The Empire Strikes Back Sketchbook

Such a great game!  Even if you don’t care about the RPG rules themselves, you can sit down and read these books for hours as they are so interesting and truly flesh out the Star Wars universe.

This is going to wrap-up my Star Wars Resume for now, but check back tomorrow for some really unique Star Wars comic art.

With all this Star Wars in my brain, I thought I’d do a week of posts displaying some of my Star Wars collection – we’ll call it my Star Wars Resume.  This past weekend I went up in the attic and dug out my vintage Star Wars action figures.  Growing up I had every Star Wars action figure released through The Empire Strikes Back.  I picked up quite a few of the Return of the Jedi figures, but that was about the time I started losing interest in the toys.   In the late 1990s I started buying some of the newer Star Wars figures.  Primarily I focused on figures that didn’t have a corresponding toy in the original Kenner line (like Biggs and the Sandtrooper).  I’ve got about 50 of those figures, but I’m not going to display them here since they’re fairly recent by comparison.  My step-son also has about 50 of the Star Wars Galactic Heroes figures which are lots of fun and super cute. For the photo below I was too lazy to match each and every gun with the appropriate figure (though I can probably still do it from memory), so the weapons are all in one big pile.  Click the image to enlarge.

If memory serves, the really jaundiced Stormtrooper was the victim of a sandbox Sarlacc pit.

Below you’ll find my remaining vehicles and playsets.  I used to have the Creature Cantina Action Playset, but I must have pitched it at some point.  Interestingly, the base from the Land of the Jawas Action Playset below was reused two more times by Kenner.  They used the same mold with white plastic to create the Hoth Ice Planet Adventure Set and the Rebel Command Center Adventure Set.  The coolest of my remaining vehicles and playsets has to be the Death Star Space Station.  It was friggin’ huge and provided hours of entertainment and adventures.  I’m pretty impressed with myself for not losing the tiny pieces all these years (i.e. the swinging rope). Click the image to enlarge.

If you are a fan of the vintage Star Wars figures, then I highly recommend Star Wars: The Action Figure Archive.  This book was produced in 1999 and covers every Star Wars action figure, vehicle, and playset produced from 1977 – 1997.  It’s very informative and has over 2,000 gorgeous pictures.  It’s not in print anymore, but you should be able to pick up a copy used.  Definitely worth your effort.

For my Star Wars Resume this week I’ll also cover my novels, comics, and RPGs.  Below are some things I don’t have time to feature this week, but have contributed to my Star Wars fandom over the years.  This certainly isn’t a complete list, but it includes some items that come to mind immediately.

Video

• Four different copies of the first three films – Original video release, 1995 video release, 2004 DVD Special Edition release, and the 2006 DVD Special Edition release that contained the original theatrical versions.
• DVDs of Episodes 1 through 3
• Clone Wars movie and animated series
• Star Wars Holiday Special (1978) – so painful to watch nowadays, even for a geek like me.
• The Ewok Adventure (1984) & Ewoks: The Battle for Endor (1985) TV movies
  
• Droids cartoon & Ewoks cartoon
• Various behind-the-scenes videos

Audio

• Original Motion Picture Soundtracks for each of the six films
• Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire soundtrack
• Cocktails in the Cantina
• Original Radio Dramas for Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi
• Numerous books on tape – primarily the New Jedi Order novels

Games

• Escape from the Death Star board game (1977)
• Star Wars arcade game (1983)
• Return of the Jedi arcade game (1984)
• X-Wing video game (1993)
• Tie Fighter video game (1994)
• Dark Forces video game (1995)
• Rebel Assault II video game (1995)
• Star Wars Collectible Card Game (1995)
• Monopoly: Star Wars board game (1996)
• Monopoly: Star Wars video game (1997)
• Star Wars Galactic Battle Strategy board game (1997)
• Rebellion video game (1998)
• Trivial Pursuit: Star Wars Classic Trilogy board game (1998)
• Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast video game (2002)
• Battlefront video game (2004)
• Trivial Pursuit DVD: Star Wars Saga Edition board game (2005)
• Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy video game (2006)

Reference books

• Star Wars Encyclopedia
• The New Essential Guide to Characters
• The Essential Guide to Droids
• The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels
• The Essential Chronology
• The Empire Strikes Back Sketchbook
• The Action Figure Archive

Other things that come to mind are: tons of trading cards, Happy Meal-style toys, posters, mousepads, kid’s books, drinking glasses & dinnerware, and so on.  I’m sure I’m forgetting about a zillion things.  While my house isn’t covered in Star Wars paraphenalia, there certainly is a bunch of it lying around.  Check back here the rest of this week for my continuing Star Wars Resume.

If you can’t view the embedded video above, please click here.

With that said.. I LOVE IT!  This pathetic little ad inspired me to try roleplaying and seek out further comic adventures of these heroes.  Sometimes greatness comes from humble beginnings.  Click the image to enlarge.

What a gorgeous cover!  I used to have a poster of that image!  Loved it!  The set is huge too – the box measures 12.5″ x 15.5″.  Above you can see the exterior of the box with the quote, “Create exciting scenes from BATTLESTAR GALACTICA with Coloforms plastic that Sticks like Magic.  Can be used over and over again. Never wears out.”  I don’t know about “never”, but 30 yahrens later and they still sort-of stick.  However, the typographical error on the box cover is driving me mad!  On the fourth line the word “Sticks” is capitalized.  There is no reason for that!  Arrgghhh!  The proofing Nazi in me is unforgiving.  With that said, my grammar is terrible, so I really can’t fault them.

Below you’ll see the interior of the set.  I always loved the booklet as  kid.  You could see example play-scenes and other available products.  In this booklet they are advertising: Mickey Mouse, Snoopy, Ernie & Bert, Cookie Monster, Barbie, Holly Hobbie, Batman, and Raggedy Ann.  There is also a note to the parents worth repeating:

To the Parent – Colorforms’ toys help your child develop and improve these six important skills: 1) Finger dexterity, 2) Sense of spatial relationship, 3) Size matching, 4) Building ability, 5) Color Sense, and 6) Sense of neatness and order.

Who knew we were learning while having fun?!?!?

Here is a close-up of the yellow Colorforms.  The dork in me can easily recognize the characters.  I’m pretty confident that is Baltar, Cassiopeia, and Apollo.

Close-up of the blue Colorforms.  Clearly the Cylons.  I like their big meaty helmets.

Here we’ve got Athena, Muffit the Daggit, and Starbuck.  I’m pretty sure this one is Starbuck based upon the longer hair and the cape.  It’s possilbe that I’ve got Apollo and Starbuck backwards, but does anyone but me really care that much?

Here we’ve got Boxy and Ovion bug monsters from the casino on Carillon.

And finally, here is the playset depicting one of the greatest moments of Battlestar Galactica.  It’s the … It’s the… Escape from Hoth?  WTF?  I have no idea what this setting is supposed to be.  Turrets and a crazy looking X-Wing fighter?  Maybe someone from the 20th Century Fox studio got drunk and barged into the Universal City Studios Colorforms department.  Yeah, that’s makes sense.

There are those who believe that life here began out there, far across the universe, with tribes of humans who may have been the forefathers of the Egyptians, or the Toltecs, or the Mayans. Some believe that there may yet be brothers of man who even now fight to survive somewhere beyond the heavens…