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.

Black Friday Deals

Acme Archives is having 25% off their entire stock with the code HOLIDAY25, through November 29th.

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:

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.

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.