One that I’ve been waiting for for a while is the new Star Wars novel, Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor, by Matthew Stover. The storyline picks up after the deaths of Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader, and the defeat of the Empire forces… except that as we all know, once you win the war the hard work really begins! There are still plenty of bad-ass characters who refuse to give up in the face of defeat, and its up to our heroes Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca, R2-D2, Lando Calrissian, Princess Leia etc to stamp these guys out and get the New Republic off and running.

Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor (Star Wars)

The book is a stand-alone novel, which means you can enjoy it even though you haven’t absorbed every little detail of the Star Wars saga in previous novels, movies, comics etc. This makes it a plus in my book – not everyone is a die-hard fan and some folks just like an occasional SW hit without having to remember thousands of years of previous storyline.  And for those wanting yet another hit of Luke & Co. doing their thing, it’s a good read. The book was originally scheduled to come out in February 2008, and after two delays finanally emerged at the end of December. You can get it on Amazon, and there are already used copies available!

The bad guy here is Shadowspawn, aka Lord Cronal, aka Blackhole.  A former Prophet of the Dark Side and Director of Imperial Intelligence under Palpatine, Shadowspawn is totally steeped in the Dark Side and totally nuts. He’s based on the planet Mindor, and its our heroes’ job to root him out. A good read!

Also just out is some very cool action figures from Hasbro depicting characters from the Crimson Empire novel. Check out the newly-released
Star Wars Exclusive Crimson Empire Crucible Action Figures
featuring 6 characters.

Star Wars Exclusive Crimson Empire Crucible Action Figures A Diamond/Previews Exclusive! From the Crimson Empire comic series! Train the future of the Empire!! A Previews Exclusive! Training the bodyguards for the galaxy’s elite ruler is no easy task– especially when he stops by to see how you’re doing. This set of action figures brings the training of the Emperor’s Royal Guard to life for the first time! These elite warriors were given intense training, specialized uniforms, and a unique insignia on their helmet– and then they were instructed to fight to the death. Taken straight from the pages of Dark Horse Comics’ Crimson Empire series, these guards-to-be are ready for anything! They’re not afraid to kill for their leader and for the glory of his Empire, so don’t get in their way– you’d regret it! This box set includes 6 action figures, including:Emperor Palpatine with lightsaber; Darth Vader with lightsaber; Lemmet Tauk (purple) with battle staff; Kir Kanos (yellow) with battle staff; Alum Frost (red) with battle staff; Carnor Jax (blue) with battle staff

There’s a lot of neat stuff out there – and I’ll be featuring more cool items throughout this year. I got an email announcing a life size Captain Rex Monument from the Clone Wars movie, but when I went to the website it was nowhere to be found. It’s supposed to be released in mid-2009 and retail at a budget-busting $1500+, but we’re talking major collectible here! Stay tuned!

Cool New Star Wars Stuff for 2009 is a post from: Star Wars Forever!

But last year, the contract with the Lucas enterprise ended, and the last of the Master Replicas pieces are just out now. Lucas contracted with well-known toy-maker Hasbro, and completely unknown collectibles outfit eFx Collectibles to carry on the high-end Star Wars collectibles lines.

The new company, eFx Collectibles, will create, make, and and distribute collectible, limited-edition replicas of both full-sized and scaled props; studio- and reduced-scale vehicles and ships; full-sized helmets; and high-end, die-cast vehicles and ships that encompass the entire Star Wars universe. They’ve already got a couple of products on the ground, and one of the is the full size helmet of the clone Storm trooper:

It’s a fabulous piece that’s very high quality, and it retails for $429. Not cheap! But definitely high quality, “studio accurate”, and beautifully made. If they do as well as Master Replicas, and it seems they’re off to a good start, their prop replicas will be expensive to buy but will have a generous secondary market to give them a nice profit when they’re sold. If you look at closed prices of Master Replicas products on eBay, owners are easily getting $1500 and up for one of the limited edition pieces, when they paid a few hundred a few years ago. In fact, with this economy a lot of collectors of Master Replicas’ light sabers, helmets, and vehicles like the Millennium Falcon and Luke’s X-Wing Fighter are putting them on eBay and as time goes on and people need cash, you’ll see more of these high-end pieces going for very reasonable prices. You’ll have to keep checking back often and use the Saved Searches function to snag them.

Here are some pictures of other items in eFx’s pipeline. You can buy these directly from the company’s website but be prepared to be patient – it can take 6-8 weeks to produce your item, as they don’t mass produce these fine collectibles. I believe they also do special custom order pieces. If you were lucky enough to attend this year’s Comic Con in San Diego, you might have seen their booth with some of the sample pieces.

Definitely a company and product line to watch! In a future post I’ll cover what Hasbro has been up to. Not a good time to be launching new expensive collectibles, but hopefully there’s a few folks out there with some money to spend!

Goodbye Master Replicas, Hello Hasbro & eFx! is a post from: Star Wars Forever!

I haven’t seen this on eBay yet, but you can get it from retailer Entertainment Earth (link below). They have the coolest collectible toys and memorabilia – I spend hours browsing their store.

This set doesn’t need batteries – it’s strictly imagination-powered. You get Luke and his light saber, plus the X-Wing Fighter with removable swamp moss! Also the dragonsnake action figure.

Click here to see all the details:

Star Wars X-Wing Fighter Vehicle with Luke Skywalker Figure

Give a Gift of Star Wars this Christmas! is a post from: Star Wars Forever!

I loved everything about it, and kicked myself for waiting so long to see it. I saw it twice or maybe three times more in the theater. I couldn’t wait for the next movie to come out.  Niall Roche’s article below gives some good reasons why this was a defining moment in movie-making, and in many of our lives. You had to be there…

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By Niall Roche

There was a moment in the history of film making when everything changed. Before this moment, science fiction films occupied a fairly small niche position in film making and in movies people went to see. But when this moment happened, a change happened that virtually made science fiction the king of film styles for a long time to come. And that event was the initial release of Star Wars.

The fundamental difference in what surprised the world when those words scrolled across the screen and Star Wars took over science fiction movie making was the vision that George Lucas had when he conceived the films. When you have a man of vision creating something completely new, you know big changes are going to happen. But there are very specific ways that Star Wars changed science fiction movies forever that we can identify.

• Star Wars created a whole new model for movie making. Because it incorporated elements of the western and even of works of big vision like Wagner’s operas, it reached for something much more noble and literary than what had been seen before.
• Star Wars was as much about people and their relationships as it was about science fiction. We cared about Luke and Leah and Han from the moment we met them and the more people that got added to the adventure over the years, the more we cared about the human story as much as the space adventure.
• Star Wars was funny but it wasn’t a comedy. That was a break through in science fiction movies. We knew about spoofs and science fiction comedies. And we knew about “serious” science fiction. But Star Wars combined the two and never stopped being a great science fiction movie.
• Star Wars birthed the blockbuster film. Next to Jaws, Star Wars is what got this entire era of huge movies making massive amounts of money going for the very first time. The funny thing was that it surprised George Lucas and the filmmakers as much as anybody.
• Star Wars made special effects explode and changed the scope of movies because of it. We had never seen effects so huge, so real and so fantastic as what we saw in Star Wars. From the bar scene with so much creativity on display to the spine tingling space war scenes, Star Wars was and is the standard every other film is held up to that tries to match the power of that movie.

Those of us that are massive Star Wars “geeks” know why we love it so. We love the stories, the people, the effects, and the excitement that a movie that stretched over six movies and many years and decades has held for us. But it’s good to sit back and appreciate the incredible impact Star Wars has had on film history because after Star Wars came out, nothing was ever the same again. And that was a good thing.

You always wanted to be a Jedi when you were growing up didn’t you? The only thing that was stopping you was owning your own real lightsaber – why not own one today?

Source: www.lightsaberguide.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Niall_Roche

http://EzineArticles.com/?Star-Wars—When-Nothing-Was-Ever-the-Same-Again&id=873059

Star Wars – When Nothing Was Ever the Same Again is a post from: Star Wars Forever!

Here’s a little help for those who are just getting into the Star Wars “stuff” game – the world of collectibles and memorabilia mostly organized by movie. Click on the link below for additional information for each of the Star Wars movies:

Star Wars Movie Facts and Updates is a post from: Star Wars Forever!