Starwars Lego CakesLego Starwars Birthday CakeLego Starwars PartyStarwars SweetsLego Star Wars Birthday PartyStarwars Party9Star Wars Lego Party CakeTorta StarsStar WardForwardBirthday Cakes - Star Wars lego cake. This is a lemon cake with lemon buttercream covered with mmf. All the Legos and other details are also made from mmf. To see a Lego-licensed game on the Game Boy Advance is not a surprise; it's a familiar kids' brand that's been exploited several times on the handheld in titles such as Lego Racers and the Bionicle spin-off series. But to actually play a Lego-licensed game that's not catering to the kids? Lego Star Wars: The Video Game for the GBA is definitely going to be a hard sell to gamers who sneer at anything "kiddy" related on store shelves, but if you're willing to take that jump, you're going to get an unexpectedly deep and fun romp through Episode I, Episode II and Episode III through the eyes of clickable pieces of colored plastic. Lego Star Wars is a videogame that features a curious blending of two unique properties, but it's a successful presentation because both properties compliment each other in the format extraordinarily well.
It's hard -- no, make that impossible -- to take little Lego Jedi and Droids seriously, and it's pretty obvious that the designers thought exactly the same thing and simply went wild with the idea of anchoring the Star Wars franchise into the world of Lego People. On the whole its a clever satire on both Lego toys and Star Wars, all the while offering up a pretty kick-ass game throughout the "joke." This GBA game, just like the console title it's based upon, is a retelling of the first three Episodes of the Star Wars story. You know, the tale of a young Jedi pulled to the Dark Side of the Force to become the infamous Darth Vader? I didn't ruin anything for you, did I? Lego Star Wars is broken down into these three Episodes, and this structure actually allows players to freely choose which Episode they want to play without the need for unlocking the other two. So, if you want a sneak peek at the upcoming film, you're free to snoop in at the levels based around Revenge of the Jedi, but since the entire story's told in pretty humorous pantomimed cutscenes with symbol icons representing "dialogue," this Lego game's not going to give a whole lot of spoilers away.
These cutscenes are intentionally vague and funny, stripping down important and sometimes emotional situations in the film using mute Lego actors -- try not to laugh when Anakin's mom bites the dust in Episode II. The entire game design is full-on action in an angled, isometric perspective. Throughout the adventure players will gain control of characters such as Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, Padme Amidala...even annoying bit players like Jar-Jar Binks. Control is surprisingly tight, and the action plentiful, requiring players to have a good grasp on Lightsaber handling and blaster shots, as well as a nice balance of platform jumping. Though much of the game is a run/jump/shoot-n-slash creation, Lego Star Wars isn't entirely mindless; certain characters have specific abilities, like Jar Jar Binks' high jump or R2D2's hover, and in many cases you can't get through to the next portion of the Episode without having to swap back and forth between the set of available playable folk.
Replay comes in the form of a decent number of hidden unlockables. Every completed area can be revisited with a new assortment of characters, which can sometimes get a little weird when you have, say, Padme rescue Padme in Episode I. In each level, there are specific "Death Star" spots to trigger, and scoring all the hidden spots in all three Episodes promises a nice extra unlockable specific to the task. It's a shame that the designers couldn't manage the same cooperative multiplayer mode that the PlayStation and Xbox versions enjoy, but after you experience the bout of slowdown in some of the more congested areas of Lego Star Wars, it's pretty clear why this feature was left out of the GBA rendition. It's pretty obvious that the developers of the GBA version had a blast producing Lego Star Wars, as the character animation and background level design really flows together well in the presentation. Areas are definitely "Lego" in construction, with bumped floors and walls, and special Lego brick platforms to create using Jedi powers throughout the action The audio work in the game is also pulled off admirably, offering some of the best PCM versions of the Star Wars soundtrack pieces on the weaker GBA sound hardware.
The action does tend to get a little repetitive in places, so it's a really, really good thing that the designers offer a "Save Anywhere" function to the cartridge SRAM. A little more "mystery" and exploration to the level design could have spiced up the action a bit. As it stands, it's pretty clear what needs to be done about 95% of the time; sparkly bits surrounding items is a gigantic "Use Jedi Power Here" indicator that's more obvious than a buzzing neon sign. But at least the game's not short on energy and stuff to destroy; Lego Star Wars does this extremely well. Lego Star Wars is among the umpteen GBA games that are based upon either the Star Wars franchise or the Lego toys. But combining the two together in a single package actually creates something special on the handheld system. The pairing of the two licenses works surprisingly well, offering gamers a decidedly different take on the past and upcoming Lucas films. The GBA version, though not quite as deep, does a great job complimenting the also unexpectedly great PS2 and Xbox versions.
Don't let the flat, plastic faces on the box frighten you away from the meaty package inside...it's a whole new way to use the Force.Female fans are used to being ignored by science fiction franchises. The lack of merchandise from recent blockbuster films has led to hashtag campaigns including: #WheresNatasha, #WheresGamora, #WheresNatasha (again), and most recently #WheresRey — a campaign targeting the fact that the two female leads of the new Star Wars film — Rey and Captain Phasma — were left out of a Target-exclusive 12″ action figure set. That one set seemed like part of an ongoing problem. For the previous six Star Wars movies, if a girl wanted to get a Star Wars t-shirt, she had to look in the boys department. Lucasfilm had not licensed a single Star Wars product for women or girls. Lucasfilm CEO Kathleen Kennedy addressed the issue directly at the Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit in October. Kathleen : We have to make sure that we create products that are, in a sense, appealing to both boys and girls.
What’s wrong with that? Even with simple things like t-shirts. There is a fantastic story with this young woman who came to Lucasfilm in 2009. She plays the character of Ahsoka in both Rebels and she also had a role in Clone Wars — and she came to Lucasfilm in 2009 saying, “Why aren’t there clothes that are tied to Star Wars for girls?” She struggled for quite a while and then put a company together called Her Universe. And it’s doing unbelievable business. And it’s — in fact — the t-shirt that I ran down on the Comic Con floor and grabbed and put on before the Comic Con convention. It just shows that anyone who steps out and does something in quality; they find that there’s plenty of young girls and women out there who are just as interested as the boys. But the changes went much further than Her Universe. With the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens — for the first time ever — Star Wars is being marketed directly to women and girls. Action figures, clothing, hand-bags and even a make-up line have been licensed — even if they are sometimes a little hard to find.
Female action figures have been flying off the shelves, with some items such as the Captain Phasma Black Series figure already selling for premium prices on ebay. “We underestimated the demand,” said one Disney executive on condition of anonymity. “We’re rushing to get more product into retail channels. It’s a good problem to have.” To help female fans find the merchandise that is still out there, Heroic Girls has put together this guide highlighting some of the best Star Wars merchandise made for women and girls. We’ve broken down our guide into sections, you can jump ahead if you like to” Still a favorite among both kids and adults, Funko has made a full line of Pops for Star Wars, including multiple Reys, a Captain Phasma, and quite a few Leias from the original trilogy. The “Black Series” is Hasbro’s name for their line of ultra-detailed collectible action figures. Rey has her own figure that comes with lovable droid BB-8, but the early sought-after prize is the hard-to-find Captain Phasma figure.
The most encouraging development is the prevalence of toys developed for children. There are Rey and Phasma action figures, and playsets fully integrated into the consumer line right along side the boys. While there are tons of female figures and sets, our favorite might be the Rey’s Speeder Bike set, which comes with a bonus Rey action figure, dressed to survive the harsh desert landscape of Jakku. LEGO has always done an above-average job of prioritizing diversity, and they continue that tradition with their Star Wars sets. Our favorite — again — is Rey’s Speeder Bike, which comes with dual stud shooters, opening storage hatch and side-mounted bag, blaster, buzzsaw, electrobinoculars and an “Unkar’s Thug” minifig, that we will go out on a limb and say is a bad guy . Build-A-Bear has a full line of The Force Awakens characters — no Captain Phasma, but they have this awesome Rey. Disney Infinity 3.0, the latest iteration of the popular toys-to-life franchise, is all about Star Wars.
The default set comes with Anikan Skywalker and Jedi-in-training Ahsoka Tano, giving kids a choice of gender, right out of the box. The Force Awakens playset is similarly gender-balanced, coming with both Finn and Rey. There are also sets featuring Leia, and the women from Star Wars Rebels. While there are several to choose from, our favorite Star Wars plush to date has to be the “Itty Bitty Rey” from Hallmark. We won’t justify this decision. Just look at it. The days of raiding the boys department are finally over. Disney licensed apparel for women and girls to a ton of retailers, including Target, Macy’s, Kohls, Amazon and Her Universe. Here are a few of our favorite items. If there is one person to thank for the fact that Disney is now Star Wars making merchandise for women, it is Ashley Eckstein, the voice of Ahsoka Tano on Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels. Ashley pushed Disney to give her a license to make Star Wars merchandise for women and girls — and when they said, “no,” she went out, recruited experts in fashion and apparel — and came back and asked again, and again, until the answer was, “yes.”
Her Universe proved once and for all that there was a market for quality geek merchandise and apparel for women. Ashley is the woman that made executives wake up and realize that women love comics, science fiction and fantasy just like the guys, and Her Universe remains the gold standard for female-friendly Star Wars apparel on the web. While Macy‘s doesn’t have much Star Wars clothing for girls, they have an incredible selection for juniors and women, with t-shirts, dresses and jogger pants. Target provides a wide assortment of entry-level Star Wars fashions for both women and girls. We buy a lot of stuff for the girls here because we want it to look good, but we don’t want to spend a ton of money on clothes they will outgrow in six months. Kohl’s — the second largest department store in the United States — has some truly stunning Star Wars apparel that elevates your fandom above simple cotton tees. Amazon partnered with Disney to license a fairly extensive line of Star Wars apparel and accessories that they carry right along side apparel made by other manufacturers.
While many stores carry merch for women, online is still one of the best places to find apparel for girls. If you’re having trouble finding clothing that let’s your little girl’s geek flag fly, Amazon is a great place to look. JCPenney has some cool designs that you can’t find anywhere else — including skirts, leggings and overprint tees. Hip bag and apparel maker Loungefly has bee cranking out some really attractive Star Wars handbags, wallets, cosmetics bags and more. And they are quality products. The wallets are made from leather. The totes are lined, with zippered products. If you want to display your geek pride over your shoulder, but all the bags you could found were made from cheap vinyl and plastic — your days of waiting are over. While there are inexpensive costume pieces at almost every retailer, Kay Jewelers has rolled out an entire line of exquisite gold and silver Star Wars jewelry. There has never been a better time to get a Darth Vader pendant made out of black diamonds.