Ever heard of musical Tesla Coils? Did you see them used by Jay Baruchel in The Sorceror's Apprentice? Check out these most impressive renditions of Darth Vader's Theme as played with some seriously arcing electricity.
The first is by Arc Attack who later went on to impress the judges at America's Got Talent.
Here's a bit about how it's all done.
And this one, by The Masters of Lightning plays the entire theme.
Many more renditions can be found on Youtube.
News, Notes, and Knick Knacks from the Star Wars Generation
Monday, January 31, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Star Wars Vinylmation- finally!
We've seen the designs for over a year. We even got exclusive Celebration V pins in the image of them. Now, tonight at midnight, Disney's popular Vinylmation line of figures is being premiered at D-Street in Downtown Disney's West Side. Including a signing by Disney Design Group artist Mike Sullivan, the store will be open from midnight to 2am to release the 12 new designs.
They'll roll out a few days later at Disneyland. Check out all the details at the DisneyParks blog.
Thanks to Kyle for the heads up.
Sunday, January 09, 2011
Star Tours Opened 24 Years Ago
Just down the road from most of us is a boarded off ride area in Disney's Hollywood Studios. Early this Summer, most likely May 17th at Star Wars Weekends 2011, it will emerge as Star Tours II. Twenty four years ago today, the original Star Tours opened to the public in Anaheim.
The Disney collaboration began when George Lucas and Disney produced the 3-D space-fantasy featurette Captain EO starring Michael Jackson, and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Walt Disney Imagineering's concept designer Tony Baxter said in a 2004 interview with Lucasfilm's Bonnie Burton, "Star Tours evolved from the first presentation we gave to George of a possible ride that was a little more complicated than our average attraction -- you could go every which way and choose the direction," Baxter recalls. "George said, 'Well that's great, but what can we do to get something going right now?' So we looked around and found this fantastic device that was being used at the Air Force and the government to simulate excursions into space. We thought it was a natural fit. We combined the space of fantasy that George had created with real world technology, and we ended up with an attraction that would give the general public a brand new experience."
The Disney collaboration began when George Lucas and Disney produced the 3-D space-fantasy featurette Captain EO starring Michael Jackson, and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Walt Disney Imagineering's concept designer Tony Baxter said in a 2004 interview with Lucasfilm's Bonnie Burton, "Star Tours evolved from the first presentation we gave to George of a possible ride that was a little more complicated than our average attraction -- you could go every which way and choose the direction," Baxter recalls. "George said, 'Well that's great, but what can we do to get something going right now?' So we looked around and found this fantastic device that was being used at the Air Force and the government to simulate excursions into space. We thought it was a natural fit. We combined the space of fantasy that George had created with real world technology, and we ended up with an attraction that would give the general public a brand new experience."This led to the development of a state of the art simulator in Tomorrowland- the original Star Tours. After an opening that lasted 60 hours (10am January 9 to 10pm January 11, 1987) the ride became one of the biggest attractions at Disneyland, eventually being reproduced at Disney-MGM Studios in Florida, Disneyland Paris and Tokyo Disneyland.
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| photo by Dave Cobb |
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Happy Holiday Edition Action Figures
It's December 25th, so for me this day brings a lot of great memories of Star Wars toys I received in Christmases as a kid. If you're a kid or family member that's exchanging Star Wars gifts this holiday I hope you're able to create some memories as vivid as I was able to make as a youngling. If this holiday isn't for you, Merry Christmas all the same. No matter what your background, I hope everyone has a wonderful day and finds good fortune in 2011.
There have been quite a few Christmas-related Star Wars products over the years, everything from ornaments and snowglobes to action figures and greeting cards. The latter of these has spun off in the last decade into four releases from Hasbro that feature Lucasfilm Star Wars Christmas artwork.
In 2002, the tradition began as Wal-mart had an exclusive R2-D2 and C-3PO dressed as a reindeer and Santa, respectively. Included in the package was a reproduction of the 1980 Ralph McQuarrie Lucasfilm holiday card that inspired the design.
The next year the Star Wars Fan Club offered an exclusive Santa Yoda based on a McQuarrie painted design. It was packaged similarly and again included a copy of a Lucasfilm card, this one from 1981.
By 2004 the series was in full swing and a Christmas pair of Jawas was released exclusive to Entertainment Earth. Interestingly, the light ports common to Hasbro's Jawas at the time were colored red and green so each Jawa sported festive glowing eyes. The card that was included was originally sent out by Lucasfilm in 1994.
2005 saw the most recent 3.75" scale figures released as holiday editions. In June of that year a Vader and Luke came packed with a card in the "I Am Your Father's Day" Wal-mart set and fully red-clad Lord Vader repainted for the Holidays exclusive to StarWarsShop.com. While a card was included, it wasn't a McQuarrie reproduction. I was actually more amused by the interesting artwork on the card behind the figure. Using the Original Trilogy Collection design, the figure is posed on the deck of a Star Destroyer lit with candles and red lights. The figure was vac-metallized and suffered from chipping so it's better left in the package.
The Holiday Editions have been dormant for a while, but they're great little collectibles and can still be had cheaply on the secondary market. If you don't have enough of the galaxy far, far away decking your halls, it's time to get out on the hunt.
Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas Star Wars fans!
There have been quite a few Christmas-related Star Wars products over the years, everything from ornaments and snowglobes to action figures and greeting cards. The latter of these has spun off in the last decade into four releases from Hasbro that feature Lucasfilm Star Wars Christmas artwork.
In 2002, the tradition began as Wal-mart had an exclusive R2-D2 and C-3PO dressed as a reindeer and Santa, respectively. Included in the package was a reproduction of the 1980 Ralph McQuarrie Lucasfilm holiday card that inspired the design.
The next year the Star Wars Fan Club offered an exclusive Santa Yoda based on a McQuarrie painted design. It was packaged similarly and again included a copy of a Lucasfilm card, this one from 1981.
By 2004 the series was in full swing and a Christmas pair of Jawas was released exclusive to Entertainment Earth. Interestingly, the light ports common to Hasbro's Jawas at the time were colored red and green so each Jawa sported festive glowing eyes. The card that was included was originally sent out by Lucasfilm in 1994.
2005 saw the most recent 3.75" scale figures released as holiday editions. In June of that year a Vader and Luke came packed with a card in the "I Am Your Father's Day" Wal-mart set and fully red-clad Lord Vader repainted for the Holidays exclusive to StarWarsShop.com. While a card was included, it wasn't a McQuarrie reproduction. I was actually more amused by the interesting artwork on the card behind the figure. Using the Original Trilogy Collection design, the figure is posed on the deck of a Star Destroyer lit with candles and red lights. The figure was vac-metallized and suffered from chipping so it's better left in the package.
The Holiday Editions have been dormant for a while, but they're great little collectibles and can still be had cheaply on the secondary market. If you don't have enough of the galaxy far, far away decking your halls, it's time to get out on the hunt.
Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas Star Wars fans!
Tuesday, December 07, 2010
Solo and the Cookiee
Threadless is having a $9 sale through 11am tomorrow. They've got quite a few Star Wars designs including this one by San Diego illustrator Philip Tseng. It's a better take on this older design by Twallis.
This one's by Vincent Bocognani and recycles an old StarWars.com video:
Here's a very clever (jed)Eye Chart design by David Schwen that is both reminiscent of the Star Wars opening crawl and the first famous ten words from each picture:
This one's by Vincent Bocognani and recycles an old StarWars.com video:
There are quite a few more so check out the link and find your favorite.
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
Friday, November 26, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Samurai Origins
Another daily Star Wars shirt is up for sale. This time it's at TeeFury with art by AJ Paglia. It's available till midnight for $11 delivered.
This is a pass for me as I've seen the motif tackled in different ways that I prefer. You may remember an article just this fall with some very interesting takes on Star Wars characters as if from some Samurai scroll.
My personal favorite takes on this concept are by figure customizer Sillof:
This is a pass for me as I've seen the motif tackled in different ways that I prefer. You may remember an article just this fall with some very interesting takes on Star Wars characters as if from some Samurai scroll.
My personal favorite takes on this concept are by figure customizer Sillof:
Monday, November 22, 2010
Imperial Walkers have entered the base!
You may wonder why I tend to feature t-shirts on the blog. Beyond just liking clever t-shirts, I like the creative renegade nature of them. I like to wear them so that I can ride some of the spirit that the artist put into the design.
Today's shirt is the design of the day at RIPt Apparel and sells for $10.
I really like all the details and that it's all contained in a comically plausible shadow. The art is by UK illustrator Ian Summers.
Today's shirt is the design of the day at RIPt Apparel and sells for $10.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
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.
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.
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