That's no moon!

Today's RIPT Apparel t-shirt features a parody of E.T. and Eliot biking in front of the moon.  

$10 buys it, but it goes away at midnight.

Mother Falcon Struck Back

Andrew Spear

Back to the regular world following Celebration V, I wanted to see what I missed at Mother Falcon Strikes Back, Mother Falcon Clothing's unofficial Empire Strikes Back Celebration. It took place on the first day of Celebration and by the accounts I heard was a really fun time.

The highlight of the show was the t-shirts and original art that had been created with Empire themes by local artists. The shirts can be seen here and the art will be displayed in the store till September 15th. The SWGFA's own Danny Haas contributed this classic:

Danny Haas

Next year is the 30th anniversary of Indiana Jones, could Raiders of the Lost Art be far behind?

I Melt With You

Today's t-shirt from RipT Apparel depicts a melting Stormtrooper ice cream pop by artist Yanmos. It seems appropriate as we approach this week's Celebration V during this hot week in Orlando.

If the concept seems familiar, it might be that you've seen something similar at Star Wars Weekends in the last couple of years on t-shirts and pins.





Or perhaps you recall David Schwen's melting Han-sicle from last year.

Today's shirt is available till midnight for $10. For additional designs by Yanmos, check out his site which includes a number of other Star Wars-inspired designs.

Won't You Join Us?

Always two sides there are, when it comes to handbills. And last week I revealed the dark side of the GFA CV postcard. Now, just a scant three days before we commune in the Orange County Convention Center here's the more informative side.

With art by Celebration Art Show artist Kevin Graham and another great layout by The Jawas, we've got two great designs to tell the world about the SWGFA.

Many older fans will recognize that the image of Vader is an oft-seen promotional shot from Return of the Jedi. Kevin's mashed up his own rendition of the Dark Lord with J.M. Flagg's classic World War I recruitment poster depicting Uncle Sam.

  

Interestingly, the Flagg poster was based on an even earlier poster featuring British Secretary of War, Lord Kitchener.

Known commonly as the "Lord Kitchener Wants You" poster, it's unlikely that anyone could have predicted that 94 years later the concept would be morphed into Lord Vader beckoning Florida fans to join the Grand Florida Alliance.

Many thanks to everyone who helped make the flyer possible. We've got plenty of copies on hand and we'll be passing them out at our booth, #1520, each day of Star Wars Celebration V.  

Heroes Landing & Star Wars Action News Unite To Beat Leukemia

SWGFA ally Heroes Landing has a special event in Clermont the night before Celebration V begins:

from Yakface.com

Heroes Landing, along with Star Wars Action News have joined forces to host a Star Wars Trivia Night to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Central Florida. The event will be held on August 11, 2010 at 7:00 pm. This event will be emceed by Marjorie Carvalho and Arnie Carvalho, hosts of Star Wars Action News, a popular Star Wars podcast.

The event will be held at Heroes Landing, located at 12348 Roper Boulevard, Clermont, FL. All questions will be Star Wars themed with topics ranging from the six Star Wars movies to the hit Cartoon Network show Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Trivia will be team-based with the winning team receiving 50% of the entry fees with the rest, as well as any other money raised, donated to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Central Florida. In addition to the team cash prize, there will also be chances for individuals to win door prizes donated by Star Wars Action News, Sideshow Collectibles, Dark Horse comics, and a gift certificate to Heroes Landing.

This event will take place the evening before the official Star Wars Celebration begins in Orlando. “We are very excited that Heroes Landing asked us to help out with the trivia night,” said Arnie Carvalho of Star Wars Action News. “This is a perfect kick off to the biggest Star Wars party in the galaxy - Star Wars Celebration and it’s a great benefit for great charity.”

Heroes Landing’s Todd Merrick added "Heroes Landing has always supported local charities and knew that teaming up with Star Wars Action News would reach a broader audience than just our local community. We look forward to hosting this event with great success."

Join Heroes Landing and Star Wars Action News as bring Star Wars fans and trivia buffs together to raise money for an important cause. The event begins at 7:00 PM, teams or individuals can register starting at 6:30 PM.

Five Clubs, Five Patches for Celebration V

If you happened to check the main page of StarWars.com a few days ago you may have seen an article about our patch project with The Washington DC Area Star Wars Collecting Club (DCSWCC), The Kentucky Star Wars Collectors Club (KSWCC), The Ohio Star Wars Collectors Club (OSWCC), and The Pennsylvania Star Wars Collecting Society (PSWCS). Even now, their Collecting page features it prominently.

Crack reporter, and SWGFA co-founder, Chris posted it on Rebelscum and it soon made it's way to the Official Star Wars Blog, and collecting sites like Galactic Hunter, Jedi Defender, and Yodas News.

It was a long process to get these patches made and we're really proud that the group is moving ahead. Looking forward we hope to develop further exclusives which may include charity patches, pins, and coins. This past year we've been recognized by Lucasfilm who approved not only this project but all of the logos that you see sporting trademarks.

To the veterans and to those of you just coming on board, the Star Wars Grand Florida Alliance is on the move fulfilling our mission to bring together Florida fans in all quarters.

Today's TeeFury: MASTER TODA

The shirt of the day at TeeFury.com available till midnight (EST) tonight is a visual pun: Master Toda by artist Joao Lauro Fonte.

For $9 and a couple of bucks shipping it can be yours.

A Rather Angular Circular

If we're going to have a booth, we need to have an exclusive, right? Ramping up to Celebration V we've been developing a sharp-looking handbill to give out at our booth. With ideas contributed by the Alliance Council and realized by ForceCastTV producer Mark Minckiewicz this flyer will be our first professionally printed giveaway. We wanted it to convey who we are, but we also wanted to make it desirable as a collectible, one of those things you pull out of your convention swag bag to keep.

One side has most of the information about who we are, how to be part of the group, and some exclusive artwork by Celebration V Art Show artist Kevin Graham. I'm going to show that art very soon, but today you get to see The Dark Side.

We're all familiar with the classic Kenner action figure packaging of the Original Trilogy whether you know it or not. Maybe you saw these hanging on the pegs like I did in the 70s and 80s or bought variations on them in the last decade, Star Wars fans generally like the vintage metallic "racetrack" border, the black background, and classic logos. It's with this in mind that The SWGFA now brings you:    

Look for the 4x6" flyer to be handed out from booth #1520 at Celebration V all four days.

Celebration V: SWGFA Booth #1520

The Alliance Council and Justin (whendroidsfly) are working on some pretty neat ideas for our booth which include some very nice flyers (to distribute), t-shirts (to wear, not to distribute), our banner, a slideshow of past activities, the AT-AT, and our Patch wedge.

However, we can always use more input. Do you have any ideas that you think might make this a particularly interesting booth? Can you think of a game or method of giving out our patches creatively? Got a large display or collectible you'd like to show off? Let us know! This is everyone's club. We'd love help volunteering, but even if you aren't able to do that, you can help with the creation of this booth. We've got only 13 more days till we set this thing up and it's getting pretty exciting!

TeeFury.com's Shirt of the Day

For the past year or two I've been acquiring t-shirts from a handful of websites that often feature a single design. Due to parody rights they are able to use what we'd normally think of as intellectual property and use it without licensing fees. This makes the shirts very inexpensive. Perhaps not to overstay their welcome, many of these sites only sell most of their designs for a single day.

The one that most frequently posts Star Wars designs is called TeeFury.com. Their t-shirts are $9 each plus $2 shipping to Florida.

Today's design exemplifies their bizarre mash-ups and mixtures of Star Wars culture. Some are hits, some swing and miss. Choose for yourself. I give you, Love Child, by artist Jon Plante. It's available till midnight.

To check on several other shirt-a-day sites in one stop, check out Teemagnet.com.