Star Wars

Hanging Out with Darth Vader Sure Seems Fun

Camping. Skateboarding. Getting your hair done. If you’re a looking for a buddy, Darth Vader is the Sith Lord you want. Vader appears in the Samsung Galaxy spots for Japanese mobile carrier Docomo. Debuting last fall, the commercial is part of the “Walk with You” series of commercials that turns celebrities in personified cell phones…

Return of the Jedi LEGO Has a Freakin’ Sarlacc Pit

There’s been a lot of great Star Wars LEGO over the years, but these two new sets, both based on the opening of Return of the Jedi, are my new favourites. The first set is Jabba’s Palace ($120). It not only has a moving throne platform, for trapping Luke beneath while he sticks bones in…

Air Force Dad Surprises Son by Coming Home as a Jedi Knight

Col. Rob Kiebler spent 14 months away from his family serving with the US Air Force, both training and on a tour of Afghanistan. He recently returned home, and having not seen his son for over a year, wanted to really surprise him. Adorable. What just about brought the tears down for me, though, was…

Star Wars: The Old Republic Is Going Free-To-Play This Fall

BioWare’s massively multiplayer online RPG Star Wars: The Old Republic will go free-to-play this fall, publisher Electronic Arts said today. EA later said in a press release that The Old Republic will go free-to-play this November. The game will be available for $15 starting August 7, a price that also includes a month of free…

The Awesome Japanese Models Behind 2012’s Coolest Shooter

Kow Yokoyama's Maschinen Krieger casts a long shadow

How The First Death Star Was Built

You see the Death Star being built in Revenge of the Sith, but only from a distance. You see the second Death Star under construction during Return of the Jedi, but you don’t actually see it being constructed. There’s no extended footage of imperial workers swinging space hammers, popping galactic rivets or doubling their efforts.…

The Hello Kitty Dolls of Your Dreams

One of the ways Hello Kitty stays relevant is to turn itself into a feline billboard to promote other things. Recently, that’s meant the birth of an array of interesting Kitty-chan collaborations—like a Hello Kitty X Ringu tie-up that was used to promote the horror series’ latest spin-off. Artist Joseph Senior goes one step further—and…

Star Wars Used to be Uncool. Pinball Helped Bring it Back.

This Star Wars pinball machine wasn’t released in the 70s, or 80s. It was released in 1992, which makes it very special, because that makes it part of the great Star Wars renaissance. After the hype over the original trilogy died down after the mid-80s, as weird as it is to imagine now, Star Wars…

A Child’s Sketchbook From the 1980s, Preserved For the 21st Century

From 2012, let’s take a trip back to the 1980s, and what it was like to be a kid drawing the stuff you were into. Some of the images you’re about to see are ostensibly part of “schoolwork”, others drawings scribbled in the rear pages of a book where there was supposed to be stuff…

Star Wars’ Best Scenes Recreated With Action Figures (by a Comedian)

Colin Mochrie, who should be well-known to anyone who’s ever seen an episode of ad-lib comedy spectacular Whose Line is it Anyway?, here grabs some Star Wars figures and re-enacts some of his favourite scenes. If you’re wondering why, at least initially, so many lines are “wrong”, see again his job description, above. Collin Mochire’s…

Behold the Glorious Epicenter of Costly Comic-Con Collectibles

From Marvel to DC, Mass Effect to Halo, Star Wars to The Lord of the Rings; the Sideshow booth was the crossroads of fan service at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con. Though I spent less than an hour touring Sideshow Collectibles’ Comic-Con presence last Wednesday night, every time I stepped onto the show floor for…

Old Republic’s Got Some Killer New Droids (and a Killer New Trailer)

If you were at the San Diego Comic-Con, you may have already seen this clip! Since you probably weren’t, though, here’s your first look at the unveiling of killer droid HK-51 in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Note this is HK-51, and not everybody’s favourite meatbag killer HK-47, from classic RPG Knights of the Old…

It’s Call Me Maybe. Made Entirely With Lines From Star Wars. So Good.

The tune itself might be wearing thin. Ditto for the novelty remixes. But this…this is magnificent.

This Pikachu Can Pull a Man’s Arms Out of His Sockets

It’s Han Solo’s co-pilot, Chewbacca, crossbred with Ash’s buddy, Pikachu. The result? Wookimon? Chewbachu? Pikachewie? Yes, Pikachewie That’s what custom figure maker KodyKoala is calling it—and he should know because he made it. According to KodyKoala: I used a Jakks 2007 Electronic Pikachu and I covered him in Apoxy sculpt and made him look hairy.…

Star Wars: The Old Republic Will Now Let You Try The First 15 Levels for Free

If you’ve been curious about Star Wars: The Old Republic but haven’t felt like spending money to find out if you like it, today’s a good day for you. Beginning today, SW:TOR has a free trial available to new players. The trial lets players create characters in any class and play them normally through level…

And Suddenly I Want to Play a Star Wars Trials Game

Given their disastrous performance at the Battle of Endor, it’s no surprise that Imperial forces have since opted to equip their Scout Troopers with something a little more reliable. Sure, wheels might be old news in the Star Wars universe, but the only time I saw a speeder bike pull off aerials like these are…

Art That Gets to the Heart of Star Wars (and Tomb Raider, and Resistance)

Concept artist Christian Piccolo works at BioWare’s Austin studio. Before that, he’s worked on a number of cool game franchises (and other projects) like Tomb Raider, Resistance and Marvel Ultimate Alliance My favourite stuff, though, comes not from a game, but from a book. Piccolo managed to get a gig on DK’s amazing Star Wars…

These Action Figures Make Star Wars‘ Scum & Villainy—and Military Heroism—Look Damn Good

I still remember the lone Star Wars figure I owned a long time ago in a childhood far, far away. Getting that Imperial Guard was a rare treat for me as my two siblings and I were raised by a single mom. Money was always tight and I always had to plead with my mom…

Sideshow Collectibles’ Comic-Con Exclusives Star Wars Figures gallery

Enjoy A Whole Hour’s Footage of Star Wars: Battlefront III

There’s a guy out there with a rough, obviously very unfinished copy of Star Wars: Battlefront III. We’ve seen a few snippets and shots from him before, but this, this is something else. PTOP has uploaded an entire hour’s worth of gameplay footage from the cancelled project that serves little purpose other than to upset…