The Force Action Figure - Now Available!

A while back, I referred to the Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru action figures, which I had figured finally covered all of the major characters in Episode 4.  Little did I know that one of the most important concepts in the Star Wars canon was still awaiting representation - The Force!

That oversight has now been addressed:

Sold out on ebay, the Force was going for a $13.95 "Buy it Now" price.  Keep an eye on the seller - he has Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru on sale now, and hopefully will have some more Force figures will become available.

 

Extremely Rare Photo of Tusken Raiders Travelling Side By Side

Guess they will need some Banthas to cover their tracks...

Great post from Geeks of Doom!

Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru Immortalized At Last

The fans have been clamoring for years, and it seems the time has finally come - Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru in all of their molded plastic glory for your action figure playing pleasure!  Yes, the loving couple whose untimely passing after the droid were traced to their home launched Luke Skywalker on his galactic adventure.  None of this prequel nonsense, this is Owen and Beru Lars just as we remember them from A New Hope.  Maybe they should have let Luke go to the Academy with Biggs and Tank...

And speaking of Star Wars and untimely ends, from Dorkly comes "8 Lines That Would Have Ended Star Wars Real Fast".  In honor of Uncle Ben:

Get the rest of the list here:  http://www.dorkly.com/article/17253/8-lines-that-would-have-ended-star-wars-real-fast.

Why Are Some Non-Humans Treated Like "People" While Others Are Not?

I have always wondered why, in fiction, some obviously intelligent entities are treated as "animals" or "pets", while others are acknowledged as equal to their human compatriots. It seems like a very arbitratry thing. Below, I cite three examples of this, and challenge you, dear reader, to explain why these chracters do not get the respect as intelligent beings that they deserve.

1. Chewbacca - Chewbacca flies and repairs the Millenium Falcon, and wields his bowcaster - advanced uses of tools and obvious inteligence. Chewie also displays recognition of human laguage and an ability to communicate directly. He is a key member of the team that helps the Rebellion to triumph over the Empire. Yet for some reason, after destroying the Death Star, while Chewbacca is invited to participate in the Rebel award ceremony, and provides the final celebratory roar, but Princess Leia does not annoint him with a medal like she does Luke and Han. Why not? Don't even get me started on the droids - R2-D2 was property, while IG-88 roamed free as a bounty hunter?

2. Snoopy - Charles Schultz gave Snoopy a quiet wisdom and more emotional range than the humans around him, as well as the ability to fly a plane among other talents, yet he was consigned to the dog house in the backyard, as a second-class citizen of the Peanuts world.

3. Pluto - I believe it was the brilliant Wil Wheaton's dialogue from the movie "Stand By Me" that began my confusion about this: "Mickey's a mouse, Donald's a Duck, Pluto's a Dog - what's Goofy?" More to the point, Mickey, Donald and Goofy all interact as equals. Pluto, on the other hand, is Mickey's pet, walking on all fours among the cast of anthropomorphic bipeds that surround him. Why does Mickey, a mouse, who has relationships as an equally free and intelligent entity with everyone from Minnie to Roger Rabbit feel it necessary to subjugate Pluto as a "pet"?

What does it say about us that we accept the sub-human treatment of some of our most beloved characters?

Predator as an Opera

Arnold's seminal jungle massacre classic reimagined as an opera - incredible job!  "If it bleeds, we can kill it!" - Must watch!

Followup - Robocop may be getting a statue in Detroit after all!

"Serve the public trust, protect the innocent, uphold the awesome."

After Mayor David Bing shot down the idea of a Robocop statue on Twitter (Detroit Says Yes to Eminem, No to Robocop! ), a crowdquake broke out on the Interwebs.  First, Detroit resident John Leonard created a Facebook group called "Build a statue of RoboCop in Detroit", which at the time of this writing has over 3,500 members.

Then the artists who are currently rejuvenating the Imagination Station in Roosevelt Park got involved, asking people to put some money behind the effort with a Kickstarter proposal page: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/imaginationstation/detroit-needs-a-statue-of-robocop?ref=live, and http://detroitneedsrobocop.com/ - Pledges are pouring in!

They have a plan to scan a Robocop action figure with lasers, then reproduce it as a large scale cast for the metal statue.  That is just cool by itself - cause there are LASERS!

With a home for the statue and the financing rolling in, Officer Alex Murphy may be immortalized (again) at last.

FREAKANGELS - a free, weekly webcomic by Warren Ellis

If you haven't happened upon it already, I highly recommend "FREAKANGELS", a weekly web comic written by Warren Ellis and beautifully illustrated by Paul Duffield.  The comic is already at 124 issues, so there is plenty to catch up on, but each runs six pages, so it's not a huge task. 

Here's the intro:

"23 years ago, twelve strange children were born in England at exactly the same moment. 

6 years ago, the world ended. 

This is the story of what happened next."

The post-flood London locale is deep and immersive and the characters are memorable and relateable. As we meet the FreakAngels and learn about their Whitechapel neighborhood, it becomes a microcosm for the world, reflecting the conflicts and relationships all around.  The steampunk technology and psychic powers of the FreakAngels plant the story firmly in the sci-fi genre, but it's real empahsis is a series of character studies, filling out how the world got to be this way through the experience of the children (now young adults).  Paul Duffield's art is both spare and detailed, conveying emotion through facial expressions and through the atmosphere and backgrounds.

If all this isn't enough to make you curious, it's free and guaranteed to pull you in.  Try to read the first six pages and then stop.  I dare you.  They're right here: http://www.freakangels.com/?p=23

Detroit Says Yes to Eminem, No to Robocop!

A Robocop statue?  I'd buy that for a dollar!

As we learned last night, while Roethlisberger may have a ways to go on his road to redemption, Eminem is now the spokesperson for Detroit.  Good for Mr. Mathers.

On the other hand, a certain Officer Alex Murphy may not be getting the respect he richly deserves from Motown.  Upon a Twitter suggestion that the city erect a statue of it's most famous fictional character, as Philadelphia has done with Rocky, Detroit Mayor David Bing had this to say:

With leadership like this, it's no wonder the city will fall into complete disorder leaving Omni Consumer Products to come in and corporatize it's police force in the near future.

UPDATE 2/10/2011: Followup - Robocop may be getting a statue in Detroit after all!