Luke Skywalker

<edit>I took the crits that some of you gave about Luke being a little too buff and I slimmed him down. I sanded down his traps and lats and gave him slimmer arms. For those of you that missed it, the original is below:

This custom has been rolling around in my head for a while. At the beginning of the year I decided I wanted to make my ultimate Star wars line and get back to what got me started with customs in the first place. I posted Vader first but I think I started Vader and Luke towards the end of last year. I had a great idea for how to accomplish this custom but I didn't have the ability to do it alone. This custom is a collaboration between myself, Glassman6, and Jsalwen.

My first version of this figure was completed in November and looked like this:

I PM'd Glorbes and IBMMT to get their thoughts and ultimately ended up going a different way with the custom. I think it was Glorbes that suggested that the vest was too stylized. I also wanted the custom to have some soft goods elements since that's always been a part of Star Wars so I turned to Jsalwen who made some awesome 1/12 scale jumpsuits for his figures. He ended up making me a whole jumpsuited figure pictured here:http://thefwoosh.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2089868#p2089868with a removable tunic.



I wanted to use a shrunk down version of the Sideshow head so I turned to Glassman6 who lives about 20 minutes from me. He was a HUGE help and hooked me up with a few shrunken heads to work with. However I ended up scaling up from 6 inch because the heads were a little too big for the Longshot body I intended to use. So the whole project was moved from 6 inch to 7 inch scale.



I used an ML punisher figuring that with a few mods and Luke's big head I could  make the body look like a short 7 inch figure instead of a buff 6 inch figure. I used the forearms from a DCUC Mr Terrific and the right hand from a MOTUC Hordack and a left from a MOTUC King Grayskull which lengthened his arms. His knees are from ML venom and his belt is from 200X Prince Adam. I painted everything up. I didn't end up using the body suited figure Jsalwen made but the vest worked like magic and made it so I could have a DS2 Luke and a Jabba's palace Luke.


Comparatively I think he might be just a little bit too tall. Just a hair. I agonized over it for a few days but I couldn't figure out a solution that didn't result in Vader being too tall (or ruining Luke's proportions). I have a couple in progress and I want Vader and Chewbacca(already started) to be the same height, Han to be a little taller than Luke etc. The minor discrepancy wasn't worth it to satisfy my OCD and potentially throw off everyone else's relativescale.



Recipe:
Head:Hydroshrunk Sideshow Jedi Luke (Glassman6)
Vest: Custom made by Jsalwen
Body: modified ML Punisher
Knees: ML venom
forearms: DCUC Mr. Terrific
Right hand: MOTUC hordak
Left hand: MOTUC King Grayskull

Thanks so much to Jsalwen and Glassman6!!!! This is now one of my most favorite things that I own. 

"I wasn't really sure where this tunnel was headed but I had to find that artifact."


"waitasecond...."


"HEY YOU! Hands up!"


"Not likely pal."






"Snap-hissss"


Gaaaah!!!


-"Thanks kid but I had it under control, y'know just cause you're the big jedi master I don't need..."

-"Han, wait.."


-"what?"
-"I'm getting something weird from the Force."


"What the?" Thrackan Sal? I thought you were dead?!?"

" Thrackan who? Try again buddy."[/quote]


I thought this would be a fun way to show of my Dark Empire Luke custom and my Indy custom

I just finished reading the newest Star wars offering from acclaimed author Timothy Zahn. For those of you who haven't heard of/ read the book here is a brief synopsis from Starwars.com:

"In Star Wars: Allegiance, which takes place during the time between Episodes IV and V, Luke Skywalker is still new to all this Jedi business. Han Solo isn't sure how much he's willing to commit to the Rebel Alliance. Princess Leia is trying to help run the Rebellion and wondering why Han is so infuriating. The young Mara Jade is one of the most valued agents of the evil Emperor. And a team of stormtroopers goes rogue, deciding to mete out justice their own way"

It sounds good doesn't it? In fact it sounds like the second coming of Shadows of the Empire (which was a fantastic book). Unfortunately, in my opinion the book is neither.

I will preface this review with this; If you want to read a story that 1) Fleshes out important events between ANH and ESB and 2) tells a great story starring the heroes of the rebellion, then this is NOT the book for you. In fact you will be, as I was, quite dissapointed. If you want to read an in depth tale of Mara Jade and some rogue Stormtroopers you will probably really enjoy this book.

The problem with this book is not Zahn's handling of the "main" (and I use the term loosely) characters Han, Luke, and Leia. In fact he writes the characters so brilliantly that it makes it even more frustrating that they only appear for about 20% of the book. It felt as though the characters that should have been the focus of the book were relegated to supporting roles. Even more frustrating is how Zahn touches on extremely interesting ideas/relationships and doesn't go anywhere with them, such as the fact that Obi-wan is still training Luke from beyond, and Han and Leia's budding relationship.

The feeling I got after reading this book is the same feeling I got after reading Outbound Flight, Timothy Zahn wants to write a book about Mara Jade leading a group of Stormtroopers. In fact Allegiance sets the stage for him to write that very book. However, based on Alleigance Zahn is too in love with his romantacized conceptions of these characters to write a plausable tale. Throughout the book Zahn spends too much time trying to make Mara Jade a "good person who got caught up in the big bad empire while trying to do the right thing" . Quite frankly this is a hard pill to swallow for several reasons. 1) The fact that Mara could be as close to the emperor as she was and think that he was"a good man" is just ridiculous especially since we have been led to believe that she makes a career of killing his rivals. (unlike Anakin in ROTS)  2) the borderline idealistic individual we meet in allegiance doesn't match up to the cold blooded killer in Heir to the Empire. 3) the fact that someone who was trained in the darkside and practically raised by the emperor (for the purpose of being used as a weapon)would be anything less than a cold blooded killer is difficult to accept.Especially given what we saw of Darth Maul's personality (this is also unlike Anakin who was mainly trained by Obi-wan and Palpatine had to seduce to the dark side. Jade had been trained by Palaptine exclusively and during a period where Palpatine had no need to pretend to be a " good person")

The whole bit with the renegade stormtroopers is well written, if overdone. Zahn protrays the political fallout of Alderaan in a way that is both relevant and interesting at first. However, this isn't supposed to be a book solely about stormtroopers so the amount of time he allots to this plot thread is excessive to the point where you get 15 pages about these troopers Zahn made up and a page and a half about what's going on with the Rebellion. Frankly, the whole stormtropper thread got boring halfway through. Even worse, somehow Zahn manages in unbelievable fashion to have these traitors end up serving the Empire again under Mara Jade. Surprise. Surprise.

As I said earlier, Alleigance is no Shadows of the Empire.  In fact this seems like it would be more in line with the Republic Commando books. Star Wars Military buffs and Mara Jade fans will probably enjoy this book, beyond that I would recommend you pass on this one.

For Sale:

TATOOINE SKIFF (target exclusive Mint in box) 35.00 plus shipping

(I'd like to sell/trade the clones as sets I will sell either set for 25 dollars plus shipping)

-White clones x7 (Quick draw x3, Super Articulated x 4, Tank Gunner x1)

-Vader's Legion (blue marked clones)[/b] x6 (Tac Ops x3, Temple assaultx3)

So here's a question; Do you guys consider the Clone Wars cartoons canon or EU? The stock answer is "it's not in the movies so it's not Canon". But the opening crawl of ROTS basically details what happened in Clone Wars Volume 2 (minus the mutant smurfs). So does that mean CW is canon insofar as it is included in the opening crawl?  Is it all, some, or none?

I guess this question also goes to film references to EU like Obi Wan's statement re: Master Vos and that "business on Cato Neimodia". The common theme with all of these EU references is that the EU character/novel/cartoon came out before it's mention in the Canon (unlike Solo's reference to Ord MAntell) so it seems like an active effort on Lucas' part to incorporate ideas from the EU. Is being mentioned in a movie enough to make a character canon? I know there's is probably no definitive answer but I was wondering what you guys thought.

Index:
Bultar Swan
Darth Nihilus
Jango Fett (6inch)
Kyp Durron
Luke Skywalker (Bespin fatigues)
Luke Skywalker (Dagobah training)
Luke Skywalker Jedi Knight
Luke Skywalker Jedi Master (EU)
Mace Windu (6inch)
Mara Jade (mods)

Hey I'm new here but I've been customizing a while now. Here's my VOTC style Jedi Luke.  Ever since Hasbro came up with the VOTC idea idea I've wanted a Jedi Luke.
<Edit: I got rid of the pics of the original Hairdo because I don't want to waste space on photobucket.>
<as an Homage to the vintage Luke and my own laziness I gave Luke a brown Jedi cloak>
 This led to my idea for custom con which was going to be Luke Skywalker: Evolutions. My plans were to do Jedi, Bespin, and toss in the Tatooine luke and do a custom package. Unfortunately I came up with this idea maybe 3 days before the deadline so meh.
This was one huge kitbash. He has boots and lower arms from and evolutions count Dooku, Torso from an evolutions palpatine, cloth vest, head from an evolutions anakin skywalker and face from a Saga Jedi Luke. I originally used the Anakin faced but it didn't look like Hammil so I took a chance stuck the face from the saga Luke onto the anakin head after dremmeling it down to a nub. Then I thought the hair on the Saga Luke looked too amorphus and blobby so I resculpted it. The main torso is resulpted too. The fabric pieces are from Saga Luke's cloak.
The best part about using Dooku's hands is that now Luke can do this!!!!!!

Recipe:
Head- Evo: Anakin skywalker w/ Luke face-resculpted
Torso/upper legs arms- Evo Palpatine
lower arms legs- evo Count Dooku 



This is the final version of Luke: I got rid of the softgoods and went for the look from the final duel with Vader. I also added a belt from a VOTC luke.

I noticed later that there was some stuff stuck to his crotch area that has been removed