Must breathe... Hooooo heeeee hooooo heeeee

This is why I want a Wii... this has always *been* the reason for wanting a Wii. Especially after reading that The Force Unleashed Lightsaber isn't 100% reactive to your own movements.

Stolen from theforce.net (which stole from Lucasarts.com)

STAR WARS THE CLONE WARS: LIGHTSABER DUELS™ (Wii)Now everyone can experience the fun and excitement of a Lightsaber fight. Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels immerses you in the characters, locations, and epic duels from the all-new Star Wars animated feature film and TV series. Built from the ground-up for Wii™, Lightsaber Duels features an intuitive motion-controlled combat system that puts the Lightsaber™ weapon in your hand. Mastering the Jedi's distinctive weapon is now within any player's grasp.

-Fight the most memorable duels from The Clone Wars feature film and TV series.
-Wield your Wii Remote like a Lightsaber and experience first-hand the unique weapon of the Jedi knights with intuitive controls, so no matter what your gaming experience you can become a Lightsaber master.
-Play with your friends as your favorite Clone Wars hero or villain - from familiar characters like Anakin Skywalker and General Grievous to new faces like Ahsoka Tano and Asajj Ventress - each with a unique fighting style and set of skills.
-Exploit your interactive surroundings to defeat your opponent: slice down pillars and Force throw them against your foe.
-Duel your way through significant Clone Wars locations, such as Tatooine and Teth.

That's a Space Station!

So yup… she’s official. The Lego Death Star Playset. Holy SMOKES. I would love to have a set like this, because it just looks like so much fun to actually play with. It has 3800 pieces, and so at $500 CAD, the price has dropped to 13 cents per piece (usually 14 cents). On the other hand, the price in the states has risen to 10.5 cents (usually 9.5 cents). Good for us… bad for them. But here’s the kicker. When I mentioned earlier that it had 24 minifigs, I failed to notice one. The Dianoga! How sweet is that? (That’s the trash compactor monster for the uninformed out there.) So here’s a list of all the people you get.

Luke Skywalker™ (Stormtrooper™ outfit), Han Solo™ (Stormtrooper outfit), Assassin Droid™, Interrogation Droid, Death Star Droid, 2 Death Star Troopers™, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Obi-Wan Kenobi™, C-3PO™, R2-D2™, Princess Leia™, Chewbacca™, Luke Skywalker (Jedi Knight), Darth Vader™, Grand Moff Tarkin™, Emperor Palpatine™, 2 Stormtroopers, 2 Emperor's Royal Guards™, R2-Q5™, a mouse droid and the all-new Dianoga™ trash compactor monster!

Ayup… that’s a good amount. Anyway, I am pleased with this set, though at $400 US, I don’t think I have the means to buy it at this time… even for Alex. Perhaps in 3 or 4 years if it’s still available. Hey… my Star Destroyer is, and it came out about 6 years ago.

AFI 10 Top 10: A Rant.

So the American Film Institute (AFI) are a bunch of idiots. I thought the Academy Awards was political, but the AFI’s latest List is down right retarded. They did 10 categories and showed the top 10 movies in each category, that they felt were the 10 best for that category. Sports movies made sense; Gangster movies made sense; Sci-Fi movies mostly made sense… except for A Clockwork Orange. That movie was never on my books as Sci-Fi. And Westerns even made sense. Anyway… Fantasy made no sense at all. There was only one movie in the list that if you looked in the Fantasy section of a bookstore, would you find the novel of. That being Fellowship of the Ring. Umm… the only Fantasy movie to win a Best Picture Oscar was Return of the King… would *that* not qualify? Other “fantasy” movies in the list were Big, Groundhog Day, Field of Dreams, and Harvey. Those aren’t Fantasy… not really. I mean, yeah, they can’t happen in real life, but if that’s the only factor, where was Raiders of the Lost Ark? Actually I guess Harvey *can* happen in real life… it’s just a guy with an imaginary friend. I think I saw that in “A Beautiful Mind”. Fantasy should be about dragons or skeletons or magic. Where was the 7th Voyage of Sinbad? Where was Legend? Anyone ever hear of a movie called “The Dark Crystal”? The “#1” movie was The Wizard of Oz, which I would call fantasy, but was it better than Lord of the Rings? No… don’t be silly. 2001 A Space Odyssey was the number 1 Sci-Fi, with Star Wars (A New Hope) being #2. I guess you could say that 2001 was pure Sci-Fi, in that it is somewhat realistic and could even be achievable. It was an excellent book, but was it a good movie? I haven’t seen it, but others have called it boring, confusing, and artsie-fartsie. Now compare that to A New Hope. This movie changed the way Sci-Fi movies were made. It is a story of good vs. evil with good triumphing at the end. It’s a great movie that stands the test of time… at least it did until George went and made Han shoot second. 2001 obviously did not, because it’s 2008 and there’s still no moon base, space station with artificial gravity, or manned interplanetary space travel. It was rather funny that all but one of the Animated top ten were Disney or Disney-Pixar cartoons. The non-Disney cartoon was Shrek and it was number 8. Perhaps they don’t feel that Anime counts, because Akira was a dang fine movie. I hear that Princess Mononoke was also really good. What about Chicken Run or Curse of the Ware-rabbit? Both were really excellent animated movies. Oh yes… the #1 Romantic Comedy was a Charlie Chaplin silent picture called “City Lights”. Why? Quoting the AFI president: “When 'City Lights' is honored as the number 1 romantic comedy, millions of people will go back and watch it again." So basically they aren’t honoring any films, they are just using it as a 3 hour TV commercial for a bunch of movies that people don’t care about any more, and they throw some in that people do care about to keep them interested. Annie Freaking Hall. Anyway… I had to rant about that.

That's no moon!

Holy smokes! A Death Star playset is coming, and it looks like it will be very playable with. I just might have to buy this one, and put it away for Alex for when he's a touch older...

You can go here to see more pics. There are 24 minifigs that come with this set! TWENTY FOUR!!! 3 different Lukes! That's crazy! It also comes with a not quite mini TIE-Advanced X1 which also floats my boat.

Kudos to the Lego group for this one.

Cubes

This is pretty neat. You can make an army of paper stormtroopers. I'm pleased to see a cubic Usagi Yojimbo as well. I loved that comic when I was... um... well... I still love that comic.

A Future Star Wars Convention Venue?

There are plans to build a new hotel on the Caspian Sea, which from one angle appears to be a very similar to a certain moon-sized space station. Of course, we can only hope that rebel spies don’t get their grubby hands on these and blow it to pieces just after completion.

Actually, though it looks like a globe, it really isn't... click the link above to see views from other angles.

The Clone Wars

Something came over the internet tubes yesterday that put a smile on my face. Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which is a half hour cartoon will be starting its series run in movie theaters as a 100 minute long episode. August 15th... I'll be there.

Speaking of that. While Samuel L. Jackson was being interviewed about the movie "Jumper" which he is staring with Haydon Christenson, he stated that he would love to lend his voice to Mace Windu's character. That would be excellent.

Haydon was asked the same question about voicing Anakin, and he said he'd jump at the opportunity. I can't say I'm suprised at that one... not that I don't think he's a good actor, I just don't see his schedule being as busy as Sam Jackson's.

Anyway... August 15. WOOT!

New Star Wars Lego Sets for 2008

So Lego has released its list of what Star Wars sets are coming out for 2008, and I must say I’m a little excited. I’m also a little bit nervous.

First off, they have already released a picture of the rerelease of the AT-TE, which for the uninitiated is the 6 legged walker in Attack of the Clones, The Clone Wars, and Revenge of the Sith. I already own this set, so I won’t be getting this new one. Actually it looks to be pretty much the same, except that this one comes with a STAP, where as the one I got 5 years ago (HOLY SMOKES!!! Has it really been that long???) came with a burgundy Speeder Bike, which shows up in Battle Front, and the Novelization. Anyway, I’m happy with the set I have.

What gets me excited (and nervous) is this. The list included a TIE Defender, which is pictured here. The TIE Defender is from the old MS-DOS video game TIE Fighter, and it was the ultimate TIE ship. It had a hyper-drive and shields, and if I remember correctly was more maneuverable then the TIE Interceptor. This ship just looks mean as well, and if it does come out this summer, I will be picking it up as soon as I see it in stores. The thing that has me nervous is that on one list someone has that set (7678) listed as a Droid Gunship, which the TIE Defender isn’t. I just hope that they made a mistake, and it truly is the TIE D, because… well… Boromir says it best...

Lego Pricing Rant

Some things, I just don’t understand. The new Star Wars and Indiana Jones Lego sets were released yesterday, and guess what! They are on average 1.4 times the price as those sold in the States. Why is this? We are at par with the US dollar, should we not have the same buying power as they do? I can understand the older sets staying at the same price, but why aren’t the new sets priced to match. This bugs me. Lego does have a few sets that are “on sale” that match the US price, but only a few, and not the one that I really want for my collection, which frustrates me even more.

I went into Toys R Us last night, and found 2 sets that I wanted. The prices were not listed on the shelves, so based on the piece count, I guessed that they would be $40 and $55 respectively. I went to a price checker, and they were $55 and $70 respectively. When I checked out the price on the US Lego page, I found that the first was actually $40 US and the second was $50 ($5 less than I thought it should be). Why this discrepancy? Why won’t the distributors match the prices? I would have bought both sets for $90, but I put both of them back because $55 is too much for a set that only has 390 some pieces. 10 cents a piece is perfect, though Canadian distributors feel the need to charge 14 cents. Grrrr. It makes me mad.

Oh, and they only had 1 Indiana Jones set, and of course, not the one I was going to buy! We Canadians always get the shaft in the toy department, it seems.

Note the difference in price!

Lego: The Force Unleashed and The Clone Wars

Well, a few new ships and a walker are being released into stores already. These are on the 2008 slate, and one of them is a “need to get” as it is clearly an Imperial ship, though it is not from the movies. This one is from the upcoming game “The Force Unleashed” and is called the Rogue Shadow. It looks like a pretty funky ship, but the crazy thing about it is, it comes with a Battle Damaged Darth Vader. And by the looks of things, he gets pretty battle damaged. I am very much looking forward to this game, and fortunately it is coming out on the Wii platform. Will the Wiimote handle like a proper lightsaber, or will it fall short like Red Steel? Wii will see.


The next set is a walker. This one is called an AT-AP which stands for All Terrain Attack Pod, which was shown somewhere in Episode 3 on Felucia. It comes with a retractable 3rd leg which will stablize it when firing the main cannon. This one is another "Need to get" as I have all the other walkers that Lego has made.




The next set is from the upcoming cartoon series “The Clone Wars” which looks great. This set falls into my “wouldn’t mind having” list. It’s Anakin’s Jedi Starfighter, which is an altogether different model from Episode 2 and Episode 3 (and may even be different from the Clone Wars shorts that came out before Episode 3). It looks… interesting. What I really like about this set though is the hair that Anakin is sporting. That’s quite the mold that Lego has made. He also has very different eyes then other minifig heads have had, and think this is because it's based on a cartoon.

Sorry that all the links go to amazon.de but they aren't up at amazon.com yet.

Asteroids do not concern me, Admiral. I want that ship… not excuses.

Coming in at nearly 5200 pieces, this is the Madre con Lego. Being a self proclaimed Dark Lord of the Sith, I have stated that I will only collect Imperial (and possibly Republic) Star Ships and Fighters that come out of the Lego Group. However, even a Dark Lord knows a nice looking ship when he sees one, and this would be one good spoil of war. The only thing that stops me from purchasing this today is the ghastly price tag of $679.99 CAD. This really irritates me, as Lego sells this model in the states for $499.99 USD. Have they not heard that the Canadian Dollar is bouncing around par with the US Dollar? I *could* have it shipped to my sister in Seattle, but The Eradicator weighed an impressive 10 kilograms (22 lbs) and it was only 3100 pieces, and I wouldn’t want to drop this package in her lap to somehow get it to Edmonton. What makes this model even cooler is that it is scaled to fit the minifigs, so you can fit Han, Chewie, Luke, and Old Ben in the cockpit to make the experience complete. I guess Leia would be outside giving it a push to help it off the ground.

Just like Darth Vader, this starship will continue to slip through my grasp as I watch it inexplicable continue to make the jump to hyperspace… which makes me sad.