Star Wars Fan News

The Star Wars and adidas Originals campaign has been a prominent fixture over the last few weeks representing two strong brands in the respective world of cinematography and sports. To help cap off a successful footwear-centric capsule, we’ve seen a number of city tours that have involved the iconic Star Wars antagonist, Darth Vader and an army of Storm Troopers. Just yesterday, the Dark Lord of the Sith took over the streets of New York alongside none other than Snoop Dogg. In this hypebeast.tv episode, we take a look into the the sights and sounds as well as hearing Snoop’s insights and upcoming projects.

Director: Kellen Dengler

Recently, we gave you a sneak peek at the products within the first season of the exciting new Star Wars adidas Originals collection. Now here is a set of images which showcase the collection in all its glory and bring to life the inspirations behind each piece in the range.

The Star Wars adidas Originals collectionfor the first season is split into three packs — The Characters Pack, the Vehicles Pack and the Direct Pack. The products in each pack take inspiration from the respective aspect of the Star Wars lexicon from legendary characters and crafts to classic scenes and fuse them with iconic adidas Originals silhouettes. The pieces will begin to hit all Star Wars adidas Originals collection stores and other select retailers in January. Also, look out for a very special web application announcing the adidas and Star Wars collaboration which will hit the internet within the next couple of weeks. Below is an overview of the products within each pack.

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Characters Pack
This pack takes the most iconic moments and characters from the Star Wars saga and brings them to life across five sneakers, two short sleeve T-shirts and the Superstar Track Top.

Vehicles Pack
For this pack, we have taken inspiration from the well known vehicles and crafts from the Star Wars saga and translated them to our five most iconic adidas Originals sneakers and two key Star Wars adidas Originals collectionapparel models. Across these models we have paid homage to the distinguished features of airborne crafts and land based vehicles from both sides of the Force and executed them to appeal to both adidas and Star Wars fans alike.

Direct Pack
Darth Vader and the Stormtroopers appear in this pack as well as in the Characters pack. Also, the Women’s Game Mid silhouette that appears here is inspired by Princess Leia, featuring gold detailing paired with a modern high-top silhouette with matching apparel.

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“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” It’s been 30 years since those immortal words were first seen on movie screens nationwide and it was the start of a worldwide phenomenon and the beginning of the most successful movie franchise of all time.

The Star Wars Vault: Thirty Years of Treasures from the Lucasfilm Archives, With Removable Memorabilia and Two Audio CDs by Stephen J. Sansweet and Peter Vilmur (HarperEntertainment; on-sale October 30, 2007; $85.00) is the official illustrated book celebrating this year’s 30th anniversary of George Lucas’ first Star Wars movie, and includes removable reproductions of memorabilia, along with two CDs containing vintage radio ads, original cast interviews, George Lucas’ commentary, and even Carrie Fisher singing in the Star Wars Holiday Special.

The Star Wars Vault is the insider’s look at the development and making of all six movies, and the huge cultural impact they’ve had. In addition to hundreds of photos and pieces of artwork, the book includes fifty interactive, rare, and some never-before-seen pieces of memorabilia.

Among the book’s features are:

• The special questionnaire for the first and only test screening of the original Star Wars — and the invitation to attend it
• George Lucas’ hand-written treatment for The Empire Strikes Back
• Lucasfilm Christmas cards
• Iron-on T-shirt transfer
• The very first concept sketch drawn for Star Wars
• Blueprints of Star Wars vehicles and sets
• Original hand-written directions for ground-breaking special effects

The Star Wars Vault is the ultimate, one-of-a-kind insider’s look into the sensation that launched a phenomenon that includes six feature films; two spin-off films; three television series with more to come; and an extensive collection of licensed books, comics, video games, action figures, trading cards, and many other products worldwide.

About the Author

Steve Sansweet joined Lucasfilm Ltd in 1996 after a 26-year career as a journalist at The Wall Street Journal; his last position there was as Los Angeles Bureau Chief. He is currently Director of Content Management and head of fan relations in Lucasfilm’s Marketing Division. Steve started collecting robots and space toys in the mid-1970s and now owns the largest private collection of Star Wars memorabilia in the world.

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: It Books (October 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061257311
• ISBN-13: 978-0061257315

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi Speeder Bike

New high speed flying transport vehicle used by the EMPIRE in the new movie, RETURN OF THE JEDI! This highly detailed replica features automatic rear brake flaps, a seat for one STAR WARS Action Figure, movable handle bars and an exciting “blow apart battle damage” feature enabling a child to create exciting crash scenes and explosions. Action Figures sold separately. Ages 4 and up.

Image Source: 1985 European POTF Promo Booklet
Description Source: 1983 Kenner Toy Fair Catalog

Description:
The incredibly fast speeder bike chase through the forests of the moon of Endor was one of the most thrilling segments of Return of the Jedi. As the official Star Wars toy licensee, Kenner must have loved it. After all, it allowed them to produce a fairly cheap action figure toy based on what was a key vehicle in the film.

If you were a kid who was into Star Wars, you had to love this toy. Not only was it authentically detailed, it featured the virtually patented Kenner “blow apart” feature. Press a button on the toy’s rear end and its entire top portion flipped forward, along with any action figure that might have been sitting on top of it. Speaking of figures, Kenner gave kids three that served as perfect Speeder Bike pilots: the Biker Scout (1983), Leia in Combat Poncho (1984) and Luke in Battle Poncho (1985).

The Speeder Bike has always been fairly easy to find in unused, boxed condition. Thus, it isn’t worth a whole lot. Collectors in search of a loose example of this toy should be aware that the two small flaps that clip onto its back are often missing. During the ’90s, Hasbro issued three new Speeder Bike toys, all of which were based on the Kenner original. They can be distinguished from their vintage counterparts by their complicated paint schemes, decals and modified handle bars.

First Issued: 1983 (ROTJ packaging)
Re-issues: None

Perfect for Star Wars fans looking to spruce up their collection, these twelve R2-D2 gadgets keep things interesting. From the R2-D2 mailbox and tissue box, to a custom PC, you’ll find it here. Click here for first picture in gallery

Steampunk R2D2

R2D2 Tissue Dispenser

R2D2 USB Hub

R2D2 Computer Speakers

R2D2 Trash Can

R2D2 Beanie

R2D2 Mini Fridge

R2-D2 Backpack

Custom R2D2 PC

Beer2D2

R2D2 Aquarium

R2D2 Mailbox

Star Wars lightsabers merge with Japanese culture and “Chop Sabers” are born! Suitable for eating sushi or defending the galaxy, the Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker lightsaber chopsticks measure 9″ long, with the blades cast in translucent material. The smaller “children’s size” Yoda lightsaber measures approximately 7″ long. As a special bonus each set includes translucent Star Wars logo chopstick rests. An awesome and fun collectible available now at StarWarsShop!

Luke Skywalker/Yoda Chopsticks Set
Darth Vader/Yoda Chopsticks Set

Here’s an outstanding project for all you Star Wars fans.  This guy took an R2D2 cooler and turned it into a retro gaming machine!  Inside are eight consoles and a even a projector mounted in the head just like R2D2.  Perfect!  Now you can have a personal gaming robot to follow you around and fulfill all your nostalgic gaming desires.  Unfortunately, these are all the pics and info we have about the project right now.

We can take a look at the guts of the system (minus the projector) and see the wild mess of cables, fans, and retro consoles.  It’s definitely a fantastic feat of engineering to get all of them to fit in such a small space and then have an R2D2 head-mount projector and built in sound system to work on top of it all.

Incredible R2D2 Hack has 8 Consoles + Projector

Incredible R2D2 Hack has 8 Consoles + Projector

Use the paws cat,use the paws.

Have you found or lost a cat?

ccording to Norwegian site VG Nett, bus driver Andreas Jankov has formally changed his name to Julius Andreas Gimli Arn MacGyver Chewbacka Highlander Elessar-Jankov. “I wanted to show that it is possible to be serious and at the same time take the name you like,” said the film enthusiast. “I wanted to see how far I could take it with respect to the number of names. I started thinking about this three years ago and it was approved in January this year.” Apparently, he’s had his passport and bank card reissued, but the name was too long so he dropped “Highlander.”

Thanks to our commenters, we’ve been able to break down the name:

- Julius is an homage to the famous chimp at the Kristiansand Zoo
- ‘Arn’ is a Swedish knight movie
- Elessar and Gimli are from ‘Lord of the Rings’
- ‘MacGyver’, just the greatest Richard Dean Anderson show ever!
- ‘Highlander’ could refer to either the movie or TV show
- Chewbacka (aka Chewbacca) is from ‘Star Wars’

So, When/If he gets married will he make his wife take his name?

Last weekend, one of the internet’s very first fan collecting sites — The Star Wars Collectors Archive — celebrated its 15th year online as a premiere destination for collectors looking to explore the vast expanse of merchandise produced over the last 30 years. Gus Lopez and Duncan Jenkins, creator and editor of the site respectively, currently maintain separate columns on starwars.com and have published a comprehensive book documenting the thousands of Star Wars collectibles produced around the world since 1976.

If you haven’t checked out theswca.com, head on over — get comfortable, though — you may want to stay awhile.