Anyone on Tatooine can tell you that Jawas are annoying pests. They wander around collecting scraps and selling droids and are just generally everywhere. Meanwhile, on Earth, it turns out that we have our own Jawa pests.
This species of cockroach – called the lucihormetica luckae – looks just like a tiny Jawa, but there’s no droid selling here. I wonder if George Lucas was a bug collector and this was his inspiration.
Sadly, the bugs might be extinct now. They were only recently discovered, living inside a volcano in Ecuador. The problem is that the volcano erupted back in 2010, and they haven’t been seen since. They just need tiny blasters.
These cockroaches look adorable – especially when they glow in the dark. Bet you never saw a Jawa do this…
When I was growing up, I must have listened to my Return of the Jedi album hundreds of times. And if I had dared to paint all over it my dad would have been pissed. Now that I have seen this awesome painted record and am no longer a child, (okay, that is debatable) I might just paint on mine too.
This Return of the Jedi painted montage is just awesome. It features Admiral Ackbar, the Rancor, an Ewok and Salacious Crumb – all painted on vinyl. This is the work of CyclopticSpider with and was done with watercolor paints of all things. I would think watercolors would be hard to use with all of the grooves, but somehow he pulled it off. He also did Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back versions, in case Ewoks aren’t your thing.
You know how they have the building plaques on some ships to commemorate their construction? Every Star Trek ship has one on the bridge too. Well, even though the Star Wars ships never had these, you can buy them from Big Bay Toy Store.
They’re printed on brushed aluminum, with a black box backing for hanging and a certificate of authenticity. It’s a great way to pretend that your office or living room is a Star Wars ship, even though it doesn’t look like one. Choose from the Millennium Falcon, the X-34 Landspeeder, or the T-65 X-Wing Starfighter.
Each plate is limited to 295 pieces and is available for pre-order now. They will cost you a crazy $264.99(USD) each, but they do look pretty awesome. Serious Star Wars fans will want at least one.
Here in the spring of 2013, very little is clear on how the now Disney-owned Lucasfilm will be going about releasing the next wave of Star Wars films. What is clear is that they will, indeed, be releasing not one, but several live-action films based in the Star Wars universe – but that small an amount of information isn’t going to stop the massive waves of fans of the series creating mock-up trailers such as the one you’re about to see today, passing them off as real for the fun of it.
The trailer you’re going to see is not real. It’s been made with music from Lucasfilm, newly created text panels, and a Costume Test of a character from the video game Knights of the Old Republic. That’s not to say that it isn’t fabulously inspiring.
What you’ll see next is the screen test the ominous bits of the mock-up you see above, created as a project completely separate from what you see above. Here you’ll find an extended collection of clips filmed and posted without special effects, with a character made “entirely from scratch” by the talented Darth Serberus, aka the owner of “Order 66 Creatures and Effects”, Julian Checkley.
Filming was done, according to Checkley, by Kamil Photography with a Red MX camera that’d originally been reserved for a different project entirely. It was only on a whim that this bit of footage was made real.
This costume was made for fun – and to wear at special events like comic book conventions, of course – but was not licensed by Lucasfilm or Disney. In other words: it wasn’t made for Knights of the Old Republic, nor was it made for Star Wars Episode 7.
This is the level of devotion and healthy obsession shown by fans of the Star Wars universe. This is how important this next film is to the public.
Unfortunately, it’s likely that with Disney at the helm, nothing so terrifying as this will ever see the big screen. With the direction the Star Wars movies have gone in even at their darkest, there will not be blood. It’s the fans, again, that will need to take charge if there’s ever going to be a Darth Malgus outside of a video game.
Images of the costume outside the video posted above and below come from The Prop Forum where Checkley has posted in-progress makings of the masterpiece. He’s made it clear that though he’s worked in the film industry for 20 years, he’s out for now – he does add the following, on the other hand:
“I learnt my skills working in the film industry for 20 years but now I mainly make private commissions. But if JJ came calling I could definitely be tempted back! ;)” – Checkley
Let us know if you find any other fabulous fakery for the future of Star Wars between here and the first actual trailer for the film, and don’t ease up on the alternate universe iterations!
A couple of years ago we saw a Final Fantasy cosplay that looked like an action figure come to life. This Darth Malgus cosplay on the other hand doesn’t just look like a life-size toy. Even though the costume is based on the Sith lord from the Star Wars: the Old Republic MMORPG, this dude looks like he stepped out of a Star Wars movie. From the future.
The artist behind (and inside) the costume is RPF member Darth Serberus. With the exception of the lightsaber prop, Darth Serberus designed and built the entire thing. He claims on YouTube that he has worked in the film industry for 20 years and now uses his skills for private commissions. The video below validates his claims:
Wow. I’m sure he’s a lot more imposing in person, especially since Darth Serberus is a ripped 6’6″ beast of a man. Head to Darth Serberus’ thread on RPF to read about how he made his costume, plus a bonus shot of him in a Bane costume.
This X-Wing Fighter is the largest LEGO model ever created. It is amazing. Astounding! Feel free to nerdgasm, jump around the room, bounce off the walls, and then return to read on.
LEGO built this 1:1 scale model of the X-Wing fighter from 5,335,200 bricks. It’s as big as the real thing, and can hold Rebel pilots – even Porkins. This X-Wing reproduces the official $60 LEGO 9493 X-Wing Fighter.
That one is a mere 560-pieces and a few inches long. Yawn. This one has over five million pieces and it’s 11-feet-tall, 43-feet-long, with a 44-foot wingspan and weighs nearly 46,000 pounds. Just like the real X-Wing. Oh, and it took over 17,000 person-hours to build it.
LEGO created it to help celebrate the launch of a three-part LEGO Star Wars animated series, called The Yoda Chronicles, set to premiere on the Cartoon Network this May 29th.
The engines even light up and produce a roar. Best of all you can see it for yourself if you are in Times Square, where it is currently on display for the next couple of days before it heads out to LEGOLAND California.
Head over to CoolThings for more images and video of this amazing creation.
Electronic Arts says that they will be revealing their plans for the future of Star Wars games during E3 2013 next month. The game publisher was recently granted exclusive rights for the Star Wars franchise after Disney bought LucasArts, the developer responsible for past Star Wars installments.
EA Labels president Frank Gibeau said in a company blog post that their E3 press conference will include “a first look at [their] plans for the Star Wars partnership with Disney.” EA previously revealed that DICE and Visceral Games will produce new Star Wars titles in the future, as they join BioWare, who is continuing to develop games for the franchise.
As for what to expect in upcoming Star Wars games, Gibeau previously mentioned that the new games will be “entirely original with all new stories and gameplay,” with some elements being borrowed from past films. That’s all the details that we know of so far, but we should hear a healthy amount at E3 during the company’s presser on June 10.
EA will also be showing off some other next-generation titles, such as Battlefield 4, a new Need for Speed, as well as FIFA 14, NBA Live 14, Madden NFL 25, and EA Sports UFC, which we heard about yesterday during the Xbox One unveiling event. Those sports games in particular will be running on EA’s new Ignite engine on the Xbox One. However, PC versions of these games will not be built on the new engine.
With EA’s recently-poor track record, as well as their “worst company in America” award for the second straight year, we’re wondering how these Star Wars games will turn out. Not every game based on the movie franchise has turned out great, but it’ll be interesting to see what the DRM situation will end up being. It’s possible that EA can turn things around by the time they release a new Star Wars title, but we’ll ultimately have to wait and see.
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