I saw F9/11 today. I don't come from a Republcan background, but I wouldn't say I'm Democrat either (definitely liberal-leaning, though.) That said, he made some very good points that, had they been brought to light back in '00, might've made the GOP reconsider W as their candidate.

MM's very dry wit is in tact. It was a good film, it certainly stirred some things in my heart.

If you don't want to hear his opinion (and you know already what it is anyway), I'd suggest not going. If you have an open mind, this is a top-rate documentary.

sigh...

I'm right there with you, CHEWIE, wishing playsets were a priority for Hasbro.

There are three big strikes against palysets (as already mentioned and pretty much universally accepted):

1) Too expensive for Hasbro to invest in the toolings

2) Too expensive for the consumer to purchase at the store

3) Not enough shelf space at the retailer

I wish the impetus was there to look beyond these limitations and figure out a way to get us some neat stuff. Just look at Kenner's solutions to these problems twenty years ago: the vintage Death Star was mostly space, defintiely home-assembled, and completed with cardboard walls. The only Cloud City Playset was aslo a cardboard pop-up one that fit into a TV-Dinner sized box.


I'd be willing to take a board-based playset, something you assemble at home and fits in a box no bigger than a board game. Key pieces of the set could be molded in plastic that would then "plug in" to the walls and floors, but for the larger surfaces, I'd take cardboard-like parts printed to look movie-accurate.

The Death Star playset I made for myself (as an example) exists really as mostly flat sticker-covered walls with just a few pieces thrown in to bring it to life (computer consoles, doorways, etc).

It could be made without the toolings, it could be cheap enough to buy, it could take up less space on the shelf.

In short, it could work if anyone were willing to think outside of the (plastic) box.

Uncle Jesse vs Uncle Jesse

I ran into this phenomenon first hand over Father's Day weekend.

It appears the younger generation has the wrong idea about who Uncle Jesse really is...

The highly-anticipated upgrade for JediDefender?

This is the reason I love Chris Berry and want to have his children...










...come over for dinner some time.

I enjoy their diorama section. A lot of nice (not to mention talented) fellows in there.

Otherwise, meh...I like the atmosphere here.

I don’t believe there can be any argument that the novelization of A New Hope is hopelessly out-of-date.

I’d like to see a revamped novelization of the story, utilizing thirty years of hindsight and reams of backstory (EU or otherwise).

The kicker this time is to make it the exhaustive story of the “first” movie. Interesting asides like Kyle Katarn’s first stealing of the Death Star plans, to the Tantive IV’s story, to Biggs’s story (as touched upon in recent Empire comics) could be included to really develop the themes of war and rebellion and what these people were sacrificing. Give us sidestories for some characters from the EU—Mara Jade as a prime example.  A truly galaxy-spanning story, over a thousand pages easily, with the movie’s events only really occupying half of it.

The movie follows Luke’s story, but let’s expand the new novel to multiple POVs that we can truly appreciate after the prequels. Let’s have chapters told from Vader’s perspective, or Obi-Wan’s…maybe even Owen and Beru.

A New Hope ought to be your favorite Star Wars novel, but I’ll bet it’s not. This could change that.

What do you think? What would you like an expanded version of the classic story to contain?