Nine Years of SWPAS

Yesterday was the 9th anniversary of SWPAS’s launch.  Almost a whole decade!  I know I haven’t written very much lately due to other things draining my batteries, but I plan to keep this site chugging along.  Thanks for all of your support all of these years!

Is A Naboo Collection Coming From Her Universe?

Maybe.

Late today came the bombshell that Hot Topic has purchased Her Universe.  Ashley Eckstein is still staying with the company and there are plans to expand into offering men’s items (including Ahsoka wear), more plus sizes, and products available to the European market.  Eckstein did a half hour or so chat on Facebook where she answered questions live.

The really interesting part (to most of us anyway) comes about in the last 6 minutes of the chat.  Here Eckstein mentions the design team creating a beautiful Naboo dress and then mentions there are designs for an entire collection.  She says she’d like to get some of those designs made, possibly for next spring or summer.  You can watch the whole thing here.  Let’s hope these do make it to market and they’re not just made for teenagers.  In the nearer future, there’s supposed to be an Ahsoka design for the holidays.

 

Lil’ Anakin Funko Pop Figure Coming To Target

Passed around on Twitter late this afternoon/evening was this screenshot of a Funko Pop Anakin (TPM) figure, coming soon exclusively to Target:

Photo from @Jenmarie on Twitter.

Everybody go running to Target this Sunday to see if it’s there!

 

Upcoming Stuff From SH Figuarts

Good thing Star Wars The Prequel Trilogy page on Facebook keeps up with this stuff, otherwise I’d never know!  It looks like more AOTC figures are coming next year besides Obi-Wan.  Here’s a pic of the upcoming AOTC Anakin:

 

Apparently, there will also be a Padme Amidala but no pics of her yet.  Meanwhile, S.H. Figuarts will produce for its “samurai” themed line of figures a Darth Maul for 2017 and possibly a Queen Amidala (along with IG-88 and a Gamorrean Guard).  Check out the concept art here.

“Rebels” Serves Up CW/PT Nostalgia

Last Saturday night’s “Rebels” episode “The Last Battle” was a trip down memory lane for fans of The Clone Wars and the prequels in general.  Written by Clone Wars alum Brent Friedman, it featured Captain Rex in a final battle against those “clankers”  when he went along with Ezra and Kanan to go salvage some battle wreckage for use by the Rebels.  It turned out the battle droids’ “boss,” itself a droid, thought the post-Order 66 shutdown order was a trick so these were still active.  It was sort of like those stories about Japanese soldiers hiding out for years after WWII and thinking the war was still going on.

Not only was it fun to see Rex in double barrel action mode and to get a few more laughs from the battle droids, it was also awesome to see droidekas again.  Seriously, those things were COOL.  Why did the Empire not use them?  They could’ve mowed down a lot of Rebel scum!  I also got a chuckle out of Rex’s joke about the superiority of first generation armor; the Empire went cheap on that too.

Speaking of the Empire, Ezra managed to solve the whole thing by pointing out that they and the Separatists were on the same side now.  This was driven home with the Imperials’ reaction to finding a battle droid was to shoot it.

To cap off the night of Clone Wars feels, the show ended with CW’s theme song and a CW-style rendering of the Rebels logo.

There’s more info here on other CW alumni contributions.

Anyone else see it?  What did you think?

Ewan On Star Wars

In spite of a huge DDoS attack that left millions without access to Twitter among other social media and commerce sites, Ewan McGregor’s chat on Twitter today went on as scheduled.  Basically, users could tweet questions with the hashtag #AskEwan and he would answer on video.  The purpose of the chat was to promote Ewan’s directorial debut “American Pastoral,” but he did answer a couple of Star Wars-related questions.

This from The Nerdist:

.@nerdist #AskEwan pic.twitter.com/9PfcuPALOj

— Ewan McGregor (@mcgregor_ewan) October 21, 2016

This from a Tangoush_Piba whose mad typing skillz left off the important “d” at the end of his question ;):

.@Tangoush_Piba #AskEwan pic.twitter.com/lBNL9qb6vs

— Ewan McGregor (@mcgregor_ewan) October 21, 2016

 

You can read the whole chat on Ewan’s Twitter timeline.

 

 

 

Sports Media Gang Up On Ball Player For Saying TPM Is His Favorite SW Film

Cleveland Indians starter Trevor Bauer revealed in an interview with NBC Sports’s Joe Posnanski that not only he is a Star Wars fan, but The Phantom Menace is his favorite of the series.  Posnanski felt it necessary to snark about it on Twitter, beginning a 2016-style media beatdown of anyone who fails to conform to their “correct opinions.”  Next was a jock site called Larry Brown Sports that felt it was a headline worthy story to mock Bauer.  Then back over at NBC Sports, Craig Cacacrappa or whatever his name is, also felt it worth several pixels beating up on Bauer.  And Jason Lukehart at Let’s Go Tribe, an Indians fan site, decided to proclaim Bauer’s choice as “questionable.”

Gee, and they wonder why I despise the media so much.  It’s full of despicable excuses for human beings.

Bryan Young called this bullying and gatekeeping.  There’s no reason at all for anyone to pile on a young man for his taste in movies.  I mean, WHO CARES?  But we have a media today that feels it is appropriate to shame, harass, and destroy anyone for any reason.  Just a few days ago, some outlets thought it was appropriate to dig into some Reddit posts by a guy who asked a question at a presidential/townhall debate and “expose” them.  It was totally not newsworthy and meant to do nothing more than to humiliate the man.  Unfortunately, the Gawker/Mic/Buzzfeed/etc. mentality is to do just that, humiliate and ruin anyone who doesn’t conform to what they think you should believe, act, say, etc..  And not only is that wrong, it’s frightening.  It isn’t just the posts themselves that are problematic, they invite a bunch of mean-spirited comments and people take them as license to go after the target directly.  On one site, a commenter said Bauer must have autism.  I have to wonder how many trolls and bashers went after Bauer on social media.

In response, Young asked people on Twitter to send him their TPM memories, fan art, cosplay, etc..  If you’re so inclined, he’s at @swankmotron.  He also tweeted to Bauer that he’s welcome on the Full of Sith podcast.  Bauer might be a little busy right now but if you’re on Twitter, you can send some support to @BauerOutage.

Now what would be great is if Bauer is invited to appear on The Star Wars Show, Lucasfilm’s official YouTube program, to talk about his love for the saga.  If Lucasfilm wants to put its money where its mouth is with being all anti-bullying and maybe show that they care about prequel fans too, this would be a great way to do it.  And of course, we’ve got his back here!

Disney’s AOTC Tsum Tsums & New Tees Out Today

As with the TPM Tsum Tsum set unloaded last spring, the Disney Store has introduced three new limited edition t-shirts to go with today’s release of its AOTC Tsum Tsum plushies:

 

 

 

The Anidala one (which is the first licensed Anakin/Padme t-shirt I’ve ever seen) is only for the ladies.

Each shirt is $30 but now through Sunday, you can buy two for $44.95. These are online exclusives! The Tsum Tsums are $5.95 apiece.

PopWrapped’s Top 5 Lines From The PT

PopWrapped has a list of its Top 5 lines from the prequels.  Some really interesting choices and interpretations.

New Power to the Prequels: Worlds of Star Wars

Retrozap has a new entry in the Power to the Prequels series, “The Prequel Trilogy Worlds of Star Wars”:

The most obvious example of planet-as-metaphor is probably Mustafar, a volcanic setting spewing fire and lava, volatile and unstable. It is an exact mirror of Anakin’s own emotions after he turns to the Dark Side. There is something removed and empty about Anakin as he murders the younglings and masters in the Jedi Temple, but by Mustafar the anguish and revulsion has caught up with him. Note his tears in the aftermath of murdering the Separatists leaders; as he looks out at the churning, heaving chaos of the planet before him, he is provoked to emotion. Wrapped tightly in his cloak, Anakin appears to shiver despite his fiery surroundings.