Boba Fett and Darth Maul debut

Most Star Wars fans that know me know that I wouldn't miss the anniversary of The Star Wars Holiday Special. It's typically something I try to take in on this day and a couple of years ago I even had a party at my house for The 30th Anniversary of The Holiday Special.

And yes, I own a red Snuggie so I can be part of the Wookiee Life Day ceremony should I choose ("Red Dork standing by").

Most people familiar with the Special want to only recall the Nelvana animated feature that's part of the show and introduced the public to Boba Fett. I watch it remembering my six year-old self under a card table fort watching CBS and loving that I could see something Star Wars in my pre-VCR world.

However, this date not only marks that notorious moment in Original Trilogy history. Twenty years later the public got its first views of a brand new trilogy as the teaser trailer for Star Wars Episode I was released. On November 17th, 1998, select theaters were able to show copies of The Waterboy and Meet Joe Black with the new Star Wars preview attached.




At the theater in Oviedo, FL where I personally saw it (with The Waterboy), the trailer was shown again after the movie. The manager announced this after taking a poll before the movie, "How many of you are here just to see the Star Wars preview?" Every one of us in the theater raised our hands.
 

StarWarsShop $5 Specials

For the first time in a long time Star Wars Shop is featuring quite a few items at a real, significant discount. Each of the ones featured below is $5 and originally sold for $16.99 to $59.99. The greatest discount, over 90% off, is on the Randy Martinez-designed Kashyyyk Rage Basketball Jersey.

Another impressive deal brings down the price of the once over-priced exclusive Warren Fu Concept General Grievous.

    

From Celebration Japan, this set of BearBrick Ewoks originally was sold for $24.99.

They've also got a couple of their exclusive ACME Character Keys including Maris Brood and Short Round.

There are quite a few individual action figures, the Tales of the Clone Wars webcomic collection, and some 12" Indy figures. For your t-shirt needs they've got the exclusive shirt that helped reveal Ahsoka Tano to the world as well as a few of Indiana Jones shirts.

I wasn't willing to shell out original prices for these products, but at $5 a pop, they just got a whole lot more interesting. Thanks StarWarsShop for letting us help clean out your storeroom!

Knowing is half the battle.

Today's Stupid Hurts Us t-shirt is a mash-up by Brinkerhoff of Darth Vader and GI Joe's Cobra Commander. I never realized how close his helmet resembled the Dark Lord's.

The shirt's $13 and is available till 3am EST.

My joints are almost frozen.

A swimsuit by Australian designer Black Milk was recently featured on Gizmodo. The one-piece bathing suit is made from the image of R2-D2's barrel-shaped body. While I doubt I'll be spending the more than $80 this item retails for, I certainly would love to see my wife sporting this around the pool next Summer.

 

Dengar Goes Through The Change

One of my favorite features on JediDefender.com is their Collect All 92! series that compares original Kenner figures to the best action figure versions of the same character. This week's selection is Dengar, comparing the original Kenner figure to the "Vintage" one currently on shelves. I like Dengar. Maybe not as much as I was made out to during the CV ramp-up, but I like that his EU-back story connects him to Han Solo. I also like how his strange bandaged get-up includes cobbled together pieces of Stormtrooper and Snowtrooper armor. Despite buying a several Dengars since Hasbro got back into the figure game, this one's one that I really need to pick up. The face likeness is one of the most realistic sculpt and paints I've seen. More than any human face figure (rivaled only by Luke in the Resurgence of the Jedi Battle Pack) this looks like an actual human was shrunk to action figure size.

Check out this great comparison shot from Rebelscum showing all the versions of Dengar from 1980 to now. I always thought the middle sculpt (and in comic pack paint to the right) looked a lot like Cincinnati Reds legend Pete Rose.

And for Pete's sake:

Happy Birthday, Carrie Fisher!

Carrie Fisher, known far and wide as Princess Leia from the original trilogy, was born on this day in 1956.

My Imperial Adidas

Today's RiptApparel.com t-shirt design by Mezakoo:



Available today only at RIPt Apparel for $10 plus shipping.

Brinkerhoff goes where no one has gone before.

Today's TeeFury offering is by artist Brinkerhoff (not to be confused with Star Wars artist Spencer Brinkerhoff) and features an interesting mash-up of Star Franchises. I have to wonder, does it fire proton torpedoes or photon torpedoes?

The Millennium Enterprise is available today only at Teefury. $11 delivered in the U.S.   Cheap!

Entertainment Earth Buy 1, Get 1 50% off Statue Sale

Entertainment Earth's running a buy 1, get half off of a 2nd statue sale right now through the first of November that applies to in stock or pre-orderable statues, including mini-busts and bookends. Since there are quite a few Gentle Giant offerings in the pipeline, if this is your sort of thing, it's worth checking out.

Some of the available pre-orders include the following mini-busts for $59.99:
Slave Leia
The Force Unleashed Darth Vader
Darth Revan
Lando Calrissian
Figran D'an

Cell Block 1138

There are a lot of threads on the SWGFA Message Boards; some strange, some sublime. One of the longer running ones celebrates the fact that many of us happen to notice when a clock reads 11:38. If that's not you, then you may not know the significance of 1138 to the world of Lucasfilm. If you are one of the many people caught by the 11:38 bug, and you're online at the magic time, consider saying 'hi' in the "It's 11:38!" thread.