Return of the Jedi Archives

July 22, 2022July 24, 2022

HASBRO STAR WARS [SDCC 2022]: Re-Paint It Black.

For almost a decade, attending the annual Hasbro Star Wars product reveal panel at San Diego Comic-Con has been a tradition for yours truly. They’re there, every year, on Friday in room 7AB. And, every year, Patrick Schneider and his rebel alliance show off everything new under the sun for Star Wars action figure fans — from the 6-inch Black Series to the 3 3/4 The Vintage Collection to replica props and retro figures. Props to the team for having the panel at San Diego Comic-Con this year despite already thrilling (most) fans with some awesome announcements (not named HasLab Reva Lightsaber) at Star Wars Celebration just a shade under 2 months ago…

Let’s face it: the COVID world we live in hasn’t been so nice to this brand team, and fans are letting them hear it. Lots of delays. Lots of repacks, so many repaints. It’s par for the course. We spoiled Sith want new aliens, new droids, new Jedi; characters from the extended mythos (Legends), games (that aren’t trooper repaints), Disney+ series figures that don’t have a release date of 2023 (but hit random Targets months before everyone else…). Quite frankly, collecting these things right now is a mess.

I feel for this team, and some (really loud) fans have called them out for not being fun, being too robotic and “corporate”. Hey, it’s not easy to work under the guise of those ginormous mouse ears. But at this year’s SDCC, the SW Hasbro Squad were no doubt trying. They opened up the panel by giving a handful of lucky fans some lightsabers, and even good ol’ Patrick shouted “let’s have some fun, shall we?” They hear you. Fun this panel was, my young padawans.

Was it great? Was I blown away by anything revealed, or revealed online just hours before the panel (hey–can we stop doing that, Hasbro and every other pop culture planet in the world? Are there no such thing as surprises anymore? Hell, I was in the A Toy Kinda Mood Facebook chat and our own Michael Valade was posting crystal clear images of Black Series Imperial Light Cruiser Luke Skywalker and TVC Boba Fett’s Not Today Slave-I Starship before they even let us know in the panel.)? No, but if there wasn’t enough fun stuff to talk about I wouldn’t have bothered blogging about it.

Anyway, as I was saying, the team definitely continued their charisma from SWCA with more Star Wars Holiday toys, this time for Halloween, well… Halloween 2023 (technically Spring, but who the heck thinks of these things?). At least they got a good crackle from the crowd and seem far more appealing than any of the crap from Christmas past. I mean… the Skele-Glow Clone Trooper is fun. The Were-Wookie is even better, although this “all-new sculpt” is just Black Krrsatan with cute cat ears. Way to get mileage out of that sculp, Hasbro, especially since they also announced an all-new mold for the Kashyyykian bounty hunter later in the panel.

Being the G.I. Joe Classified simp I am, my favorite action figure of the panel is a left-field choice: the Credit Collection Dark Trooper. The faded green paints onto the metallic black is a wonderful touch, and with some Gridiron Studios third party accessories, a couple of these will look dope either protecting or patrolling around your Joe base dio. The other major highlight for me in this panel was the second Star Wars Retro Collection Multipack: C-3PO and R2-D2 (both with vac-metal, nice), Obi-Wan Kenobi, Death Star Commander, Jawa, and a Tusken Raider. I barely had any of the original Kenner figures as a kid, so these box sets are a treat and will stay vintage carded (although not M.O.C. because of the flimsy cardboard). There’s no pre-order date set quite yet, but the release is slated for Spring.

Do note: I don’t collect The Vintage Collection, so a lot of those reveals went through one ear and out the other. For The Black Series, we’re finally getting a proper Season One Bill Burr, another Grogu (for $25 because of a pram, nonetheless), a ton more for the Credit Collection, and arguably the best of the Mando bunch that I havent’ mentioned yet– the assassin droid HK-87. Pretty cool, I ordered one.

Now it’s time for my favorite part and yours of the Hasbro Star Wars panel: the Pipeline reveals! Continuing Repack/Repaint City is the 40th Anniversary of Return of the Jedi. Another Bib, Chewie, Emperor Palp, ANOTHER Leia (Endor) with Endor Han, ANOTHER Skiff Guard Lando, Paploo (okay, cool!! Glad I got rid of that PulseCon Endor set), Scout Trooper, Stormtrooper and — yay! — I GETS WICKET! One of the few Kenner figs I had as a kid.

Thankfully there were three other mentions in the pipeline for mainline, too, the Jedi Council’s Cerean alien Ki Adi Mundi (you wanted more Jedi!!), an “all-new” Mandalorian (maybe this time with a proper sculpt for Pedro?), and, yes, they heard the fans, a Black Krrsatan that isn’t a Paint It Black Chewie. Just a shame our Con exclusive this year is my favorite pop culture character, Boba Fett, of course, with his decade-old ESB mold, doused in black paint, with no flame-throwing blast effects for those gauntlets.

Overall, it was a fun panel, and I enjoyed the Hasbro Star Wars brand team’s charisma, connection to the fans, presentation, and enthusiasm. But let’s face the facts: even with some exciting promise down the pipeline, and Mando figures we wanted (Luke, a proper Migs Mayfeld), another awesome retro Kenner-inspired set, and pleasing pre-orders that most TVC collectors have been craving, almost everything revealed in this panel was a repaint. And how the heck did they forget to present one of the coolest figures of all?

I guess this is the way?

Panel = 3/5 Whiskeys.

-Travis Moody

December 12, 2017December 12, 2017

STAR WARS – THE LAST JEDI [Review]: ‘The Feels’ Strike Back.

In the interest of remaining SPOILER FREE, this review gives away nothing narratively-speaking.

“Dynast” Dana Keels
IG/Twitter @hatandwand

“This is not going to go the way you think.”

These are words spoken by the great Jedi Master Luke Skywalker that perfectly sum up Star Wars, Episode VIII: The Last Jedi. Picking up the mantle from J.J. Abrams, Rian Johnson helms the latest iteration of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. How does it compare to the previous films?

For starters, I very much disliked both The Force Awakens, and Rogue One. The two most recent Star Wars films captured the look of Star Wars but none of the heart and soul. They were simple, hollow set pieces set against the backdrop of familiar music; the modern SW flicks also focused too much on nostalgia, arguably not adding enough zing of their own. The Last Jedi is different. The Last Jedi remains faithful to the Star Wars mythos, while reinventing, honoring, and enhancing on what has come before.

The story picks up with the Resistance — now again the Rebel alliance — continuing its struggle against the nefarious First Order, led by the mysterious Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis, doing his best inspired-by-Palpatine-alien). As per The Force Awakens doing its best to match A New Hope, The Last Jedi does a much better job at harkening back to The Empire Strikes Back without feeling like a lifted version. It hits similar beats (feeling like a reprise at time) but always in a new and interesting way. Johnson’s film offers impeccabble pace and captures more out of longer scenes than trying to hit too many jump-cuts.

At two-and-a-half hours, TLJ is also the longest film in the series. This works well for this particular story, allowing the film to breathe and conjur a previously unfelt Jedi emotion. Nothing feels rushed. The ideas presented in the film truly needed this runtime to soar. The story wistfully moves along, but on some — and very few — occasions does stall. Thankfully, this is a minor criticism that hardly detracts from the film’s overall tone.

The heart of The Last Jedi lies in, well, the heart. Feelings and emotions are at the center of this film–feelings (especially for the older Warsian generation) that were lacking from The Force Awakens and Rogue One. The movie offers feelings that unify our characters or tear them apart; feelings that are much more human and personal; feelings that reflect the original trilogy’s sheer reliance to move the story along.

Carrie Fisher, rest her soul, is phenomenal here. It’s nonetheless awesome to watch her portrayal as a seasoned and savvy general, coming from the young scrappy princess we all fell in love with. But, Mark Hamill steals the show. The film is at its best whenever Luke is on screen. And his relations to other characters in the film, a fantastic scene including R2, puts the wigglies in your belly. Hamill’s performance brings the heart back into Star Wars.

No “current-gen” character conjurs up as much emotion as Kylo Ren. If you hated his character before (hell, one poll had him less popular than fracking Jar-Jar), you’ll garner up as much if not twice the emotion for Adam Driver‘s Sith this time round — for the better. That’s right, Kylo might be the most improved character since the original trilogy and his journey is a rocking rollercoaster that will have your every bit emotion rolling. But, of course when it comes to emotions, nothing touches the scenes where our most cherished characters from the 80s meet once again. I even heard the Monsignor sniffling in the seat next to me because his fanboy heart was set ablaze. I can’t make fun though, my eyes were a little wet too.

John Williams continues to kick ass, as only John Williams can. The score does a fantastic job of balancing fresh songs and mixing reprisals of the classic themes once again, and he kicks the door down on many a scene that is damn near orgasmic.

A pair of minor quibbles: we’re not sure if it’s the purple dew, her overwhelming star presence, or lack of chemistry, but scenes featuring the usually terrific Laura Dern aren’t the best. While her role as Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo winds up a lot less predictable than imagined, she feels like an unnecessary plot device that took me out of the film the few minutes she was on-screen. It’s also a little jarring to try and get used to the level of humor that’s been injected into the sequel trilogy. While many jokes are gut-busters — Luke, especially, kills with the dryer stuff we all love and quote from the O.G. trilogy — some of the quips fall flat, chiefly from the newer gen of SW characters. But again, the hit-and-miss humor shouldn’t take you out of this superior voyage.

All that points to the man who gave us the films Brick and the instant sci-fi classic Looper. Rian Johnson is to the Sequel trilogy what Irvin Kershner (The Empire Strikes Back) was to the Original Trilogy — a gifted storyteller whose emphasis on character and emotion elevate the source material to fantastic heights.

By the end of TLJ you feel like you’ve been on a journey, and not just assaulted by the special effects. You’ll also feel a little more for the characters, their relationships, and their situations. In this sequel, the characters new and old will resonate a little more than mere entertainment.

With three major space battles that justify and honor the series, The Last Jedi ranks up there with the Original Trilogy — hey, maybe not as good as Empire (and what is?) but still pretty damn great.

-Dana Keels

April 22, 2014April 26, 2014

STAR WARS REBELS [WonderCon ’14]: Intergalactic Plan-etary.

If you don’t know anything about the forthcoming animated series from LucasFilm/Disney, Star Wars Rebels, then you likely have never watched The Clone Wars.

That sucks.

The great news then, my faithful Jedi ensemble, is that your trusty Monsignor has been following the incredible creative team of SWR with a keen eye. In fact, before you scroll down to witness this rebirth of Empire Awesomeness, I suggest first checking out my blog from last fall’s New York Comic-Con. Oh, still haven’t finished the sixth and final season of TCW on Netflix either? No worries. We got you covered here too.

Now that I’m done plugging for the day — ayo! — why don’t you sit back, relax and peep the clip from WonderCon just below…

Just what us Warsies have been waiting for! And, indeed the audience who came to see showrunner Dave Filoni (The Clone Wars, duh), art director Kilian Plunket (Star Wars: Empire), and voice of our new primary pilot, Hera, Vanessa Marshall (Wonder Woman from JL: The Flashpoint Paradox), was just as delighted in their response to the footage. But fans weren’t the only ones amazed by the power of Rebels.

“I could feel the force on the page,” Marshall preached in reference to when she first laid eyes on the coded, top secret script of SWR. Having worked on both Old Republic and Knights of the Old Republic, the voice actress merely tries “not to nerd out” to the animated series that reflects a more unified appearance that TCW ever had.

Hera — with help from the mind of LucasFilm Amy Christensen — is basically a cross between your typical X-Wing pilot and Han Solo, a girl hero that’s every bit into the action as the men. For his show that will depict a tighter, more particular group of people throughout (so don’t go expecting the more-than-massive world of Corucant anytime soon), Filoni was more interested in making really good female characters as opposed to really strong.

(Flip the page for more Star Wars, yo!)

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