@TravMoody
STAR WARS HASBRO (Friday) – “It’s sort of drinking from a firehouse..”, moderators swooned over the additions of The Force Awakens and Rogue One to the Star Wars Hasbro Universe. Hasbro–which launched its now famed Black Series im 2013–has also worked close to Star Wars Rebels co-creator Dave Filoni. With Kanan Jarrus available on the market now, and Sabine on the way (a year delay for her and Darth Raven‘s 6″ figures, sadly), rebel pilot Hera is the next fig to drop from Rebels. The crowd got a kick out of the many Hasbro sculptors and designers’ jokes, too. “Did you scult her hands so it fits in with Kanan’s?”
The panel then exploded in awesomeness when the Black Series revealed the astonishing designs of a brand new Tusken Raider, The Clone Wars‘ Qui-Gon Jinn, the original trilogy Emperor’s Royal Guard (who you finally found out what’s under the cape–“boxers vs. briefs? Just for reference, they go commando”), and, likely the most notable of all, Lando “Frickin” Calrissian. According to the toymakers, Lando’s cape pattern still exists in the world. It took “a lot of effort to manufacture the cape that wraps around curves.”
(Cont.) Of course, no SDCC goes by without its share of Star Wars exclusive figures–and this year had a Big 3. “What defines Black Series is the emotional connection [fans have with the characters]. There was no better to fit that mold than the [Comic-Con exclusive] Alec Guinness Obi Wan Kenobi,” panelists added. The helmetless Kylo Ren exclusive–first available at Star Wars Celebration just over a week ago–was developed from November of last year.
“[Hasbro] had to go through an extreme level of back and forth to portray or describe this deep and immersive character with all his complexities”, panelists commented on Ren’s celebrated relationship with his grandfather, which was an opportunity to [add] all of the things that they couldn’t in the beginning. Cue laughter: “Anyone with young children can understand that frustration and rage.” The final and perhaps most wanted Black Series exclusive of the Con was the impeccable likeness of Felicity Jones, Rogue One‘s Jyn Erso. Inspired by all of the creative work of Instagrammers, Hasbro decided to di a photoshoot with Jyn. They placed her in scenic material based on the movie, and all hand-draw, custom created original art.
As for all the 3 3/4 action figure fans out there, all of the new reveals–including now continuity Thrawn–looked blah. Even the panel admitted people didn’t know who a particular figure was at the booth that was supposed to be that Poe Dameron. They definitely made that up with the showcasing of a new, fully smartphone controllable AT-AT (AT-AC?). Also, expect a Force Awakens Luke in 12-18 months due to the challenging development process of working around film schedules. Bummer! 4.5/5 Bibles.
@radio_adventure
STAR WARS PUBLISHING (Friday) – Despite the “every other year” of D23, there were concerns that Disney was going to have essentially no Star Wars presence at SDCC 2016. Not that there were any major announcements to speak of–not even on the comic book side of things–but there were a handful of Star Wars panels for us geeks to enjoy over the weekend. Star Wars fans are very aware that just a week prior, Disney and Lucasfilm held Star Wars Celebration in London, and they revealed a massive lineup of books at their publishing panel there, including a new Thrawn book by Timothy Zahn! Seriously?! How cool is that?! Would have been awesome to hear something like that at Comic-Con, right? *crickets*
(Cont.) The real problem with this panel was that Disney blew their Star Wars load at Celebration and (other than, according to Moody, action figures), didn’t leave much for us geeks at SDCC. The panel had plenty of in-the-know guests like Chuck Wending (Aftermath trilogy), Matt Martin and Katy Cook, but most of the panel focused on children’s and YA material. That is all fine and well, but it wasn’t exactly rousing for the packed room of largely adult Star Wars fans. We were treated to such announcements as a follow up to the ABC-3PO book. Neat, but what was in it for us adults? Perhaps the most interesting bit came when Mark Brooks was discussing his Han Solo comic book for Marvel, and he revealed that he used much more from Indiana Jones than he did from Star Wars when it came to making Harrison Ford expressive in the book. The “big” reveal came in the form of some Rogue One book reveals, in which they showed off the cover for The Art of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story for the first time. Neat, but not “SDCC Holy S***!” neat. 3/5 Droids You Were Looking For.