Hasta La Gadget!

Yesterday I mentioned that Disney CEO Bob Iger had confirmed that there would be spinoff films in the Star Wars franchise. While the CEO said that the spinoff films were coming, he didn’t say which Star Wars characters the films will focus on. Rumors begin to swirl pointing to the first spinoff film focusing on Jedi master Yoda.

I may be in the minority here, but of all the characters in the Star Wars franchise Yoda was far from my favorite. Lucasfilms has now confirmed which Star Wars characters will be the subject the spinoff films. I’d wager that the two characters chosen are among to the most popular in the entire franchise – Boba Fett and Han Solo.

According to reports, the Han Solo film could be set between and the Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope or between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. If the film will covers a young Han Solo I sincerely hope we will get to see the card game where Han wins the Millennium Falcon. With Harrison Ford no longer looking like a young Han Solo, I have to wonder how they’ll pull this off.

The other character that will be the subject of one of the standalone films is Boba Fett. Even though Boba was technically a bad guy in the original trilogy and the new films, he is an interesting character nonetheless. It’s unclear what time frame this film will cover. There are no casting details for either film at this time.

[via Digital Trends]

Star Wars spinoff films to focus on Boba Fett and Han Solo is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Like many Star Wars fans, I’m simultaneously excited and filled with dread at the thought of more Star Wars films coming now that Disney has acquired Lucasfilm. I’m excited that new movies are coming, but I’m worried the movies might not fit with expectations. An story is making the rounds that Disney is developing standalone Star Wars films based around individual characters.

This is similar to what the X-Men franchise did with the X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie. The tip on the standalone films comes from Disney CEO Bob Iger. He said that Disney was working on a “few stand-alone films.” He didn’t offer any specifics, but rumors suggest that the first standalone film would focus on Yoda.

Work on the standalone movie is said to be progressing alongside the new Star Wars trilogy. The first installment of that new trilogy will be directed by JJ Abrams, and is due out in 2015. The standalone films are reportedly expected between 2015 and 2021 and are being written by Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg.

The first Star Wars film we can expect from Disney will be written by Michael Ardnt, who wrote Toy Story 3 and Little Miss Sunshine. Iger noted that Disney plans to make Star Wars 7, 8, and 9 over a roughly 6-year. He said there would be a few other films released during that period. Star Wars fans may or may not know that Kasdan worked on the scripts for the original trilogy including The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

[via BBC]

Standalone Star Wars films planned by Disney is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We’re not sure what is the Internet’s obsession with getting a Death Star built as they petitioned for the U.S. government to build it, only to be met with rejection weeks later. You would think that would be the end of the story and Star Wars nerds around the world would return to their forums to choice to complain about The Phantom Menace for the millionth time. But it turns out it didn’t end there as a Kickstarter project has been started to help build a Death Star.

The Kickstarter Open Source Death Star campaign has a $30 million dollar funding goal, which will be used to help create “more detailed plans” than the current design team has come up with as well as purchasing “enough chicken wire to protect reactor exhaust ports.” The project also mentions a Stretch Goal of $850 quintillion dollars would be needed in order to use the funded plans to actually build a full-scale Death Star.

(more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: DARPA Wants Self-Destructing Electronics, TrackingPoint Brings ‘Auto-Aim’ To The Real World With Linux-Powered Rifles,

We would all love to have full sized AT-ST models guarding our front yards (or at least for our cats), but sadly that is beyond reach for most of us. At least you can make some mini AT-ST models from popsicle sticks.

These “chicken walkers” proved a challlenge to build compared with other projects because of the two skinny mechanical legs that they balance on. So there may be some difficulty here, but nothing that you can’t overcome. All you need is a few tools, popsicle sticks and some glue and Instructables will show you how to create these mini Imperial vehicles after you finish your frozen treats.

Don’t let tiny Ewoks anywhere near them though. It just takes a pair of smart Ewoks and some logs to really mess up an AT-ST’s day and smash it’s head in.

[via Unique Daily]

With the advent of E-mail and online bill payment, I don’t find myself buying postal stamps very often. But I guess I should at least keep track of what sort of collectible stamps are being made, since I’ve managed to miss out on some cool designs over the years. For example, back in 2007, the US Post Office issued this cool Yoda postage stamp.

Yoda U.S. Stamp via catwalker / Shutterstock.com

He almost looks like the holographic Yoda from the end of Return of the Jedi. I’m actually surprised that nobody ever mailed me a letter with Yoda on it. And now that the cost of a First-Class letter has gone up to 46 cents, you’d have to add on another 5 cent stamp if you even tried.

On the plus side, you can still find these collectible stamps for sale over on Amazon for about $16 to $20 for a sheet of 20. I wonder how much postage it would take to mail a First-Class letter to the Dagobah system.