Palm Con is coming and the SWGFA is too!

As Indiana Jones once said, "I'm like a bad penny. I always turn up."

And that's just what we'll be doing at the first Palm Con in Lake Worth on September 17th. For less than the price of an action figure, you can take the whole family to this Palm Beach County Comics and Collectibles Show. Come on out, meet members of the 501st, chat with the good folks of The SWGFA, and scope out this intimate show for and by the fans.

The SWGFA Summer Outing

In a departure from our seasonal Events, a good sized contingent of the Alliance will be heading over to Fantasy of Flight on Saturday, August 13th for the first annual SWGFA Summer Outing. Most importantly, you're invited! Best of all, we're able to take advantage of their Florida Resident Summer Special- Buy One, Get One Free Admission. The complimentary admission is valid when accompanied by a guest purchasing a paid admission ticket of equal or greater value so it's available to adults and children alike.

We're meeting at 10:00am in the parking lot of Fantasy of Flight. To give everyone a chance to arrive, we'll wait until 10:30am and then enter the museum together as a group. If you're attending by yourself, fear not, we'll do our best to match you up with someone that morning so everyone can take advantage of the deal. If you've got a Star Wars t-shirt, please wear it! We'll be able to recognize each other as we roam around the museum and it will help represent our group.

                   

As many Star Wars fans share a love for George Lucas' adventuring archaeologist we're particularly excited to see the actual Ford Tri-Motor that was used in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. It doesn't sport the Lao Che logo anymore, but the plane is unmistakable all the same.

Dr. Jones and company fly the hostile skies.

There's also an exhibit dedicated to the Tuskegee Airmen, the heroic African-American pilots that we'll see in the next Lucasfilm, Red Tails. Over 40 restored airplanes can be seen including walk-through exhibits, airshows, simulators, and demonstrations.

We'll leave Fantasy of Flight at 3:30pm and head to Applebee's Neighborhood Grill located at 230 Arteva Drive Lakeland, FL 33809 to meet up for dinner at 4:00pm. Brush up on your Star Wars trivia knowledge because we'll see the return of our trivia challenge. Razors Edge Collectibles is sponsoring it so there will be some cool Star Wars prizes available.

For those that can't or simply do not wish to join us at the museum, you are welcome and encouraged to join us for dinner at Applebee's at 4:00pm. VERY IMPORTANT! We will need an exact number of attendees for dinner! If you will be joining us, please send an email to swgfa77@gmail.com with your name and how many people will be in your party so we can call ahead to reserve space for the group. If you do not let us know in advance, you may not get to sit with the group. We will take RSVP's from now until Friday, August 12th at 8:00pm.

Fantasy of Flight is located just off of I-4 at 1400 Broadway Blvd. S.E.Polk City, FL 33868. We'll see you there!

Sansweet is Forever

Unfortunately, it's no April Fool's joke. Steve Sansweet is turning the page in his career: moving out of the Lucasfilm nest. In cooperation with TheForce.net and Rebelscum we'd like to salute the man that's linked the corporate to the fan on the street.

 Steve Sansweet’s 1992 book “Star Wars: From Concept, To Screen, To Collectible” was a beacon of light at the end of the dark ages. His passion for the films resonated off of every page, and touched us deep in our cores. When he became Lucasfilm’s Director of Content Management and head of Fan Relations in 1996, he took that passion to the masses and the Star Wars Generation finally had a voice.

Today marks the last day in this chapter of Steve’s life, and while we will all miss the positive energy and genuine love for the franchise he brought with him on stage, we are very excited to see what he has planned from this point forward. One thing is for certain he will always remain the true voice of The Star Wars Generation

BlasTech DL-44

Today's TeeFury.com shirt features a smuggler's pistol. The weapon of a man who shoots first: the BlasTech DL-44. This Blaster design was created by Texas artist Tod Kennedy.

Till I wrote this, I'd never known why the gun model was a DL-44. A simple search lead me to an alternate definition. The DL-44 is the application for a California Driver's License.

Imperial March Lightning

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.

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.

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."

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.

photo by Dave Cobb



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! 

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.

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.

Irvin Kershner: Requiescat In Pace

Irvin Kershner, director of The Empire Strike Back, has died, age 87. May the Force Be With Him.