It’s a great children’s toy that promotes creativity and it’s something that parents can enjoy with their kids. Also, their Star Wars line is exceptional. Starting way back with The Phantom Menace, and continuing today, I feel that Lego is the most consistently good Star Wars toy license (sorry Hasbro). So I was excited when leaks of upcoming sets surfaced over the weekend. Jesse already linked to the images in a previous post but I thought I would delve a little more deeply. For starters, it looks like the initial list of prototype pictures was deleted but you can find them here. The thing to remember is that these are mock-ups. These are not the final product. With Lego, mock-ups include placeholder mini-figs that do not at all look like the final product. My favorite example of this is the recently released Mos Eisley Cantina set which featured Squidward mini-figs as a placeholder for the Bith band: With that in mind, many were confused about the red clothed mini-fig seen in the Ezra Speeder set.
It’s a good bet that this will be Sabine Wren. In the Rebels extended preview (about the 4:30 mark) we see Ezra and Sabine first meet as Sabine jumps onto the speeder bike that Ezra stole. I’m guessing this set is based on that scene. Sabine was the only member of the Rebels crew that wasn’t made into a mini-fig in the initial Rebels sets so she’s due. (Hat tip to Sal Perales for calling this one). I’m definitely excited to get a Sabine mini-fig. Just as exciting is the Inquisitor mini-fig (I hope he comes with his helmet) and FINALLY the chance to troop build with FOUR Stormtroopers in the Imperial Troop Transport. Potentially the most interesting set is… Shadow Troopers are not new to the Star Wars universe or collecting. Almost any time a toy company releases a Stormtrooper, they will paint it black and re-release it as a Shadow or Blackhole Stormtrooper. It looks cool, the cost is low and everybody is happy. This actually isn’t even the first time Lego will be releasing a Shadow Stormtrooper.
Back in 2007, they released an EU based TIE Crawler set with 2 Shadow Troopers. However, this upcoming set is particularly interesting given the generally accepted understanding in the collecting community that Lucasfilm wants only canon toys to be released going forward. So, as Jedi Fred and others have pointed out, why are they releasing this set if it’s not in any canon appearance that we’re aware of? To add fuel to the fire, Hasbro is also releasing a set of Shadow Squadron Troopers in its 6″ Black Series line, which is supposed to focus on the core characters from the films. So what’s going on? Frankly, I have no idea. But there is a part of me that genuinely thinks we are going to see Shadow Troopers make a new canon appearance very soon. Hasbro’s figures alone might be overlooked, but Lego and Hasbro, two of the biggest Star Wars toy makers, both releasing Shadow Troopers tells me there’s more going on than we know currently. However, I don’t at all believe that these are Episode VII figures.
It’s far too early for that. But we may very well see Shadow Troopers in an upcoming book, comic or other medium. For now, just enjoy these awesome looking toys! announced that Star Wars has licensed with 50 universities across the country to release Star Wars branded college clothing. This makes no sense to me…but I’ll still be buying myself gear from my alma mater. I guess that’s the point. I don’t know what a Stormtrooper has to do with UCLA or what it means to “Play like a Jedi”, but people love their colleges and they love Star Wars so put them together and…$$$. Disney Eric Tan Star Wars Posters Disney recently released these incredible OT posters by artist Eric Tan. They’re flat out awesome. Unfortunately, they’re extremely limited (100 pieces each) and very expensive ($399 each). My mind was blown when I saw the images and then I saw the price tag and my wallet was blown too. Be sure to head over to Slashfilm to read more about how these incredible posters came about
And if anyone wants to send me an early Christmas gift, I won’t object! Cars, Merchandise, News, Toy Story Toy Story and Cars Coming to LEGO Disney has just recently signed a deal with to release three franchises through the toy block building company. Two of these will be Pixar properties, specifically Toy Story and Cars, the other one being Prince of Persia. The Pixar sets will premiere with Toy Story and Toy Story 2 in January followed by Toy Story 3 and Cars in June of 2010. The LEGOs are being produced in standard and DUPLO (for young children) variations, and will invite anyone to recreate the adventures from the hugely succesful and beloved movies. The deal between the two brands synonimous with family entertainment will yield more LEGO franchises in the future. I can already see Angus MacLane smiling… For more information read the Disney/LEGO press release here. Here are the best online videos of the week, including: The Lego walk of pain, folding record-breaking paper plane, ridiculously impressive Resident Evil 7 knife-only speedrun.
Actor Will Arnett walks over a bed of Lego. Learn how to fold a record-breaking paper plane from the best of the best. This guy finishes Resident Evil 7 on the hardest difficulty level with just a knife in record time. Not going to lie, the Nintendo Switch minigames look pretty shit. Ever wondered why old-school cartoon characters wore white gloves? The Gotham-saving hero is back and, though he’s tiny enough to fit in your pocket, The LEGO Batman Movie star is aiming for an opening weekend of super proportions. The spinoff of 2014’s surprise hit The LEGO Movie (Will Arnett’s Batman was enough of a scene-stealer to nab his own feature film) hits theaters Friday, and so far, the Caped Crusader has garnered positive reviews from critics. The star-studded cast, also including Zach Galifianakis, Michael Cera, Rosario Dawson, and Ralph Fiennes, also helps to round out the film. EW’s Chris Nashawaty gave the movie a B+, calling it a bit more “devious” than its predecessor, and praised it as “irresistibly clever.”
See more of Nashawaty’s review below, as well as excerpts from other critics. Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly “Arnett’s hilariously humorless Batman turns out to be the fun-size star of what’s basically a comic-book movie for kids who are too young to see comic-book movies…Good thing that beneath all of the semi-Dark Knight propaganda is an irresistibly clever and visually intoxicating adventure that once again shows why it’s more fulfilling to play with friends than brood alone in your Batcave.” Jesse Hassenger, A.V. Club “In rampaging through Batman mythologies like a child through a playroom, the movie makes an admirable attempt to reconcile kid-friendly adventures with the character’s psychological pain. Arnett plays Batman as, essentially, a young Bat-fan determined to maintain the invincibility of his favorite hero (in this case, himself) even as reality encroaches on his lone-vigilante fantasy; it’s no accident that Alfred can be glimpsed reading a child-rearing book at one point.
Cera syncs with this interpretation by playing up Robin’s more innocent childlike qualities. He finds such endearment doing so that despite the spoofy trappings, this Robin rises above mere parody to become a flat-out charming iteration of the superhero sidekick.” “The characters are Lego minifigures with pegs for heads and crudely etched faces that barely move, yet they have more personality than the majority of human actors. Most delicious of all: The Lego Batman Movie comes on like a kid-friendly sendup of the adult world, yet there’s a dizzying depth to its satirical observations that grows right out of the spectacularly fake settings, which are hypnotic to look at but have the effect of putting postmodern quotation marks around…everything.” Manohla Dargis, New York Times “One reason that the first Lego movie worked as well as it did is that its novelty and trippier moments conveyed a sense of play and unboundedness, which is part of the appeal of Legos themselves.
(It’s the better movie and ad.) The Batman story, by contrast, proves to be a prison, one its creators never escape. They toss around the superstuff and giggle at the legend, but they’re finally confined by the superhero story and its corporate sanctity. It’s a bottom-line bummer.” Michael Rechtshaffen, The Hollywood Reporter “While on the subject of teamwork, the writers — including novelist Seth Grahame-Smith (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies), Chris McKenna & Erik Sommers (Community) and Jared Stern & John Wittington (the upcoming animated Netflix series Green Eggs and Ham) — find no shortage of satirical targets, taking sly aim at everything from Suicide Squad to Donald Trump’s taxes. But they and director McKay prove less adept at finding that terrific balance between the blissfully inspired and a non-syrupy sweetness that made the first brick-and-knob feature excursion so successful.” “The film, directed by Chris McKay, is a spin-off of 2014 hit The Lego Movie, an unapologetic product unapologetically selling a product.
Sometimes brash, sometimes wearying, that movie at least felt like it was made by the brightest kid in the class. Not so for Lego Batman.” “Much of the material hinges on Batman’s un-superhero-like behavior, as when he throws a childlike tantrum before the stoic butler Alfred (Ralph Fiennes, dry as gin) or stands at the Wayne Manor microwave while his meal rotates for two boring minutes. These conceits work because director Chris McKay (who assisted on The Lego Movie) has sharp timing but also because Lego Batman plays everything so straight.” “Warner Bros. seems delighted it doesn’t have to coddle a man-size ego like, oh, Zack Snyder’s. It uses The LEGO Batman Movie to apologize for last year’s DC Universe mistakes. “Get a bunch of criminals to fight other criminals? What a stupid idea!” mutters Batman in a swipe at Suicide Squad.” Peter Travers, Rolling Stone “The kids are gonna love it, even if the inside jokes, Freudian subtext and subversive jabs at corporate America sail right over their towheads.