"It's So Much Bigger" - Thoughts on Luke Skywalker & The Last Jedi

It's no secret that I'm a massive Luke Skywalker fan and now I've had some time to process The Last Jedi's incredible teaser trailer (and re-watch it like 10 times) I can't help but speculate on where they might be going with the character in both The Last Jedi and the sequel trilogy in general.

My first thoughts on watching it (besides the typical OMG that was amazing) were this reminds me so much of The New Jedi Order.  But more on that in a moment.  It also reminded me of speculation I had for Luke following EW's preview article on The Force Awaken's back in 2015.  And Daisy Ridley's comment at the panel about being careful of meeting your heroes also reminded me of that.

"Who is Luke Skywalker?" That was the question that ultimately convinced J.J. Abrams to do The Force Awakens.  EW wrote;

"After all these years, we thought we knew him, but what if there was more to that Tatooine farmboy? Or… what if there was less?"

Just like this new teaser has fans speculating what the end of the Jedi could mean, that question, "what if there was less?", really got inside my head.  Back then I wrote this;

"Our only image of him is alone with only his faithful droid by his side.  In those circumstances, has Luke become less than what we expected him to after Return of the Jedi?  Is then Luke's story in this trilogy a different form of redemption story?  Redemption not from his own dark side but from his inaction allowing darkness to rise and spread in the galaxy?  An arc that will see him leave his apparent isolation to finally fulfil Yoda's instruction, passing on what he has learned and bringing back the Jedi."

It was speculation based on a single image in the teaser trailer but nothing in the film really changed it.  If anything Luke was more alone because he didn't even have Artoo with him.

"It's time for the Jedi to end."

Is this Luke at his lowest?  In isolation.  Defeated.  Unwilling to try again after Ben's betrayal and the massacre of his fledgling Jedi Order.  Twice now a promising Jedi has fallen and all Luke's done is repeat the mistakes of the past.

At its simplest this could be a story of Rey bringing Luke out of his isolation and back to the Jedi, convincing him the Order is worth reviving (basically the arc I speculated back before The Force Awakens).  But I'm no longer sure that's the case.  One line in the teaser changed my views on Luke's arc for this film and the Sequel Trilogy;

"It's so much bigger."

Like I said at the start, if there's one thing this teaser made me think of it was The New Jedi Order novel series and Jacen Solo.  In that series, before subsequent the retcons and Legacy of the Force debacle, Jacen reached a deeper understanding of the Force, a Unifying Force that encompassed both light and dark that he was able to balance within himself as he momentarily achieved oneness with the Force at the climax of the series.  That's really oversimplifying it but he also realised that this was not a discovery but a rediscovery of old knowledge that had been lost.

Luke asks Rey what she feels.  She speaks of the light, the dark and the balance.  "It's so much bigger."

We're told in The Force Awakens that after the massacre Luke sought the First Jedi Temple.  Could it be that here he made the same rediscovery that Jacen did in the old Legends series?  That light and dark are only partial truths and the Force is so much more?

From the beginning of the Saga we're told that the Force is out of balance.  The death of both the Sith and the old Jedi order in Return of the Jedi restored the balance (at least for a time) leaving Luke as the start of something new.  Could it be that in trying to rebuild the Jedi Luke unintentionally upset the balance that he helped restore?  Is that how Luke sees the fall of Ben and the rise of the First Order?

But his isolation had consequences to as the New Republic fell and Han died at his son's hand.

"Pass on what you have learned."

I always assumed this meant rebuild the Jedi Order.  But what if it didn't?  The old Jedi Order was far from perfect and it was only in rejecting Yoda and Obi-Wan's instruction to confront/kill Vader that Luke redeemed his father and succeeded where they failed.

"It's time for the Jedi to end."

Luke may be the last Jedi, but with new (or old) knowledge of the Force he may also be the first of something new.  Something potentially great, more unifying.  Something that's so much bigger.

Star Wars Celebration is Here!!

IT'S HERE!!!

Didn't think I'd post on this blog again (I just never seem to have the time) but this is Star Wars Celebration and I'm hyped!!

Ok, technically it starts tomorrow but every Celebration fan knows that it really starts the day before with the now legendary over night queues and a pizza dinner courtesy of Kathleen Kennedy and Lucasfilm!  So totally jealous of everyone lucky enough to be there this year.  I had a blast at Celebration Europe last year and I'm gutted that I can't be in Orlando this year but I'll be there in spirit watching the live stream every step of the way!

Last year was incredible but this year promises to be even more epic, kicking off with a celebratory 40 Years of Star Wars panel that we're promised will set the tone for the whole weekend.  Now, the rest of the weekend promises some pretty massive events (like, oh, a teaser trailer for The Last Jedi!!) so I'm really excited to see what they have in store here.

Then there's star panels with Billy Dee Williams (man that dude needs to be in the sequel trilogy at some point), Ian McDiarmid and Ray Park, plus a panel with Dave Filoni called "Animated Origins and Unexpected Fates".  Now, last year the Rogue One panel was amazing but my favourite was probably the Rebels panel, Dave Filoni certainly knows how to work a Celebration audience and this panel could reveal anything from more Clone Wars secrets to a new animated series so it's definitely one to watch.  I pray they put it on the live stream.

And that's just Thursday!  Friday features a star panel for the awesome Warwick Davis (who was a fantastic stage host at Celebration Europe), The Making of Rogue One and a little something called The Last Jedi.  And, of course, Mark Hamill's Tribute to Carrie Fisher.  A panel that will hopefully be as beautiful and witty as the woman herself, a true celebration of her life.

Saturday brings the Rebels Season 4 panel to the Galaxy Stage.  Last year they screened the first two episodes but looking at the panel times I don't think they're doing that this year but we should still see an awesome trailer, some clips and, of course, some teases and hints at the future from Dave Filoni (Ahsoka Lives?).  And speaking of the future, that really seems to be the theme of the day! The premiere of Battlefront II (ignoring that little leak we had earlier!), panels for Del Rey Books and Marvel Comics, all certain to reveal plenty to look forward over the next few months and capped off by a Disney Parks panel that's sure to bring exciting news about the upcoming Star Wars lands, like I really needed another reason to go back to Walt Disney World!  All that and an Anthony Daniels panel as well!! Last year he read the story of Threepio's red arm, hopefully he'll have another story to tell this year.

Sunday brings it all to a close with the Jedi Master himself taking the stage (Mark Hamill's panels are worth it for so many reasons but just hearing that Joker voice in person is top of the list!), a special look at the droids of Star Wars with Warwick Davis (hopefully they'll roll out BB-8 for this one!) and, of course, the Closing Ceremony, looking back at the highlights of the weekend and hopefully teasing the future as well (Celebration 2019 here we go!!)

And that's just my highlights! There's so much to see and do at Celebration you can never fit it all in!  Can you imagine trying to do everything I'be mentioned above (ignoring panel clashes for a moment) plus grabbing a bite to eat, seeing the show floor, getting into (or at least trying to) the Celeration Store.  Thank God for the live stream and YouTube panel videos! Even if you are there you'll need them to catch what you've missed!

But more than anything, even more than the panels and the trailer debuts, Celebration is about the fans. Meeting other people that love Star Wars as much as you is the best reason to go to Celebration and the reason why some of my fondest memories from last year are the night we spent on the convention room floor, sharing stories and making new friends who we're still in touch with today (and who are queuing up in Orlando right now, not that I'm jealous or anything!). There really is no other convention like it, everyone is connected by Star Wars and it feels great!

Now I've got to start saving for 2019, that'll be a celebration of the complete Skywalker Saga and something I don't want to miss!

May the Force by with you!

Force Friday - A Star Wars Adventure!

What an adventure Force Friday turned out to be!!

I've done every Midnight Madness since The Phantom Menance (things were a lot cheaper when I could just ask mum to buy me a Darth Maul!) but nothing could have prepared me for Thursday night.  My plan was to do Midnight Madness at Toys R Us in Warrington, pick up the first wave of the Black Series, then head to Disney Store the next morning to get Sphero's BB-8 then go home and relax.  Yeah, that didn't happen!

I got to Toys R Us around 19:30 on Thursday.  I figured I'd just be sat at home clock watching so I may as well be waiting there.  With hindsight it's a good job I did!  I was 5th in line when I arrived and it was a great group of guys.  We passed the hours chatting about Star Wars and collecting and just generally having a laugh.  They had Ray managing the line who I know and is a huge Star Wars fan so that was nice.  Thinking back he did tell us that everything they had was going out, that probably should have set off some alarm bells but I was near the front and I'd never walked away from any of the previous midnight openings without being able to get everything I wanted so it didn't worry me.

The 501st arrived with a Stormtrooper and two Sandtroopers and we all posed from photos (sorry, my old iPhone doesn't have the best camera);

Guess I shouldn't have said I was here for the Black Series!

The lightsabers were a lot of fun!

A bit later a local news crew arrived to cover the opening and interviewed a few of us (I told a Sandtrooper to move along when he said he'd bought all the Kylo Rens, hopefully it sounded as funny out loud as it did in my head!)

By the time midnight arrived the line had grown to over 200 people!  We'd even seen people drive into the car park, take one look at the line and turn around!

You can see how much the line grew in the last hour between these two pictures!

The veil of secrecy was still going strong right up till midnight.  At previous events the manager has come out with a list of everything they had, shown us samples of some of the products and talked about any exclusives they had.  This time there was none of that.  We were even given raffle tickets for a raffle that they couldn't tell us the prizes to (it ended up being some awesome Lego sets with the top prize being the new Force Awakens Millennium Falcon).

At midnight they led us into the store and gave us our free posters and t-shirts, along with a Lego keyring (we didn't get the exclusive brick that was given out in America).  Then we were led to the front of store display.  Ray had told me they weren't expecting this in until the weekend so they were really glad it arrived in time for the event.  The display looked amazing;

This is when the alarm bells started ringing.  As they let in the first four people I scanned the shelves from where I was and couldn't even see the Black Series.  One of the guys turned to me and said they only had 2 of each of Rey, Finn, Kylo Ren and Chewbacca and no Stormtroopers at all!  Luckily for me not everyone in the first four was after the Black Series so I was able to grab the last Finn and a Chewie.  I imagine the final Chewie went to someone in my group.  No way anyone after the 6th or 7th person was getting anything from the Black Series.

I'll be honest, I was disappointed.  Everyone in my group was, even the guys who were are the front of the line due to the lack of any Black Series Stormtroopers.  Given previous events where everything had been plentiful we'd all expected to be able to get everything we wanted and with reports online countries that some people had found wave 2 we were all hoping that we might get lucky and score a Poe and Phasma.  Not of us expected we wouldn't even be able to complete wave 1!

I can see now why they were only letting 4-5 people up at a time, previous events generally let 10-15 up at once but given the limited quantities of some products it would have been chaos.  This way people had a chance to actually look at what they were getting and meant there was no pushing or shoving.  It meant the line moved slowly but it was a better experience when you were at the display.  I didn't spend much time looking at the rest of the range.  I had what I came for so I moved on to help keep the line moving.  But I did get a photo with their special Force Friday display;

 

At the checkout we were given one last gift - a mini Lego TIE Fighter.  We all hung around until the raffle.  Whilst waiting I decided to go back outside and see Ray and ended up spending a bit of time chatting with him and another great guy from Toys R Us.

We probably ended up leaving around 12:45.  Whilst it was a little disappointing to not complete the first wave at Midnight Madness it was a great night.  I got to spend a few hours talking Star Wars with a great bunch of fans who were as excited (and spoiler free) as me for the new film.  I knew these figures would be everywhere in the next few days/weeks so I certainly wasn't going to let it ruin my night.  After all, looking back on previous events, I remember some of what I bought but it's the social build up and camaraderie that I remember most and I'm sure this time won't be any different.



Toys R Us Midnight Madness Giveaways

This has to be my cheapest ever Midnight Madness!

Force Friday itself we was up an out by 6:30 (I think I had about 4 hours sleep).  On the way to the Trafford Centre we called in at a 24 hour Asda just to check.  The shelves had been completely raided.  There was an Armour Series Poe and a few OT repacks and that was it.  We got to Trafford about 7am and were first in line.  We could even see them setting up behind the shutters!

Whilst we were waiting I got to talk to one of the staff who came out (I'm guessing on his break or finishing a night shift) and he confirmed that they did have the Sphero BB-8 and told me to go straight to the tills when they opened as they were behind the counter.  By the time the store opened at 9am there was only about 5 of us waiting.  A much calmer experience than the night before!  When they opened we all went straight to the tills for BB-8, I guess everyone loves that little droid!!

We bought BB-8 along with Disney Store's Star Wars bag and my wife and I both received a free pin badge.  BB-8 secured we decided to check out the rest of the store;

Sadly there was no Black Series to be had.  In fact, apart from the basic line and Sphero's BB-8 everything they offered looked to be Disney Store exclusive.  The Elite Series looked great but I can't afford to start a new line (though I may be tempted to pick up a Jedi Master Luke if they do one).  Jane picked up a plush BB-8 and a BB-8 cup.  It was all about the droid for us at Disney Store.

Disney Store's Force Friday Pin

Went a bit BB-8 crazy at the Disney Store

Since it was half nine I decided to wait for the rest of the Trafford Centre to open at ten rather than head straight into Manchester.  I figured all the big stores there would have been hit at opening so another half hour wouldn't make any real difference.

 

Hamleys had plenty of Lego and some of the basic line but surprisingly no Black Series (they also had an awesome guy in a Jedi cloak getting kids to use the Force to raise the shutters when the store opened!) and John Lewis was even worse.  Trafford Centre done we headed into Manchester.

 

The Entertainer had even less than Hamleys and no space on their shelves for anything else.  Jane loved the Bop-It R2-D2 but didn't pick it up as we'd just bought BB-8 between us.  The Disney Store was the same as the one in Trafford (they'd already sold out of Sphero's BB-8!) but Jane did manage to grab a Chewie hoodie in her size so it was worth the visit.  I really wish they'd do that Resistance jacket in adult size!

 

We headed to Forbidden Planet and they had nothing but the Funko Pop figures!  I knew the smaller independent comic/specialty stores could only order from Friday but I'll admit I thought Forbidden Planet would have been big enough to get some stock direct from Hasbro for Force Friday!  Manchester's Toys R Us hadn't had a midnight opening so they still had a reasonable selection of the basic line (including the Mission Series 3-Pack with BB-8 that really tempted me) but any Black Series figures were long gone.

 

On the way home we called at Salford's Sainsburys (no Black Series) and then Argos.  I never thought that Argos would be my Star Wars saviour!  Kind of fitting since I got my first ever Star Wars figure from them way back in 1997 (a Jedi Luke that I still have!).  We walked in and on the shelves sat Kylo Ren, Rey and 2 Finns.  I left the Rey as she had a bad paint job (her eyebrow touched her eye) and grabbed Kylo Ren and even got a free poster with my purchase!

 

Free poster from Argos

I can't believe I got the Force Friday giveaways from 3 different stores!

 

We did  a store check and saw that Argos had stock in both Birchwood and Warrington.  We called at Birchwood first but they were out of stock when we arrived.  We checked Asda whilst we were there but they were sold out to (but they at least had space for the Black Series on their shelves).  Off to Argos Warrington they had the same figures as Salford.  I grabbed Rey and headed for the checkout then got told I couldn't buy her as someone had reserved all four figures online.  It was like snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

 

Since we were in Warrington we called at Tesco (nothing, they said they were expecting a new end display on Monday) before heading up to Toys R Us again (wow those shelves were bare!) and the nearby Asda which had been cleared out at midnight, no doubt by the people who drove away from Toys R Us after seeing the queue.

 

We decided to do one final stop at Argos in Leigh.  The website said in stock but reservations were for collection the next day.  In store was the same so they must have been getting their figures from another store.  We called at another super market on the way home but by this point my heart wasn't in it anymore.  We were both tired, our feet ached and it was gone four at this point.  My wife did one last check of Argos stock and said a few local stores had one or two but I said no, they were probably just Finn anyway.  Then should found that the Ashton-Under-Lyne store had five.  It was an hour round trip but I was willing to gamble that they'd at least have a Rey so we reserved all five and set off one last time.  I was so glad that we did!  Not only did they have Rey but they had a Stormtrooper as well!  After Midnight Madness I never thought I'd see one of those on Friday!

 

Argos saves the day!

We finally got home around 17:30, eleven hours after we'd set off that morning!  But I'd managed to complete wave 1 of the Black Series and we'd got BB-8 (who's amazing!).  Force Friday definitely didn't go the way I planned but I'm happy we the end  result.  It also proved that I have the best, most patient, wife in the world!  To quote Darth Vader "This will be a day long remembered!"

 

The Black Series figures look fantastic together (even if I did have to "borrow" Luke's lightsaber to complete Finn);

 

 

And BB-8 is quite simply the best Star Wars toy EVER!!

 

The Force Awakens - Black Series 2-Pack Revealed!

I'll post my full Midnight Madness/Force Friday write up tomorrow but hunting down the Black Series figures today I came across this image that I hadn't seen anywhere before;

It's a 2-Pack of Poe Dameron and a Riot Control Stormtrooper that's due to be released in November exclusively at Argos in the UK.  I'm guessing this will be a Target exclusive in the US as Argos have Target's remote controlled BB-8 as a UK exclusive.

Now I'm going to relax!  It's been a long but enjoyable day!

5 Reasons to be Excited for Mondo's TMNT

In case my post last week didn't make it obvious - I'm ridiculously excited for Mondo's upcoming 1/6 scale Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line!  I've never bought anything from Mondo before but I've been a Turtles fan nearly as long as I can remember.  I was TMNT crazy as a kid but it was discovering the original Eastman and Laird comics in my teens that hooked me for life and I'm so glad it's that version of the Turtles that's serving as the primary inspiration for Mondo's line.  I literally can't stop thinking about these awesome figures and the massive potential this line has!

If you're a TMNT fan like me there's so many reasons to be excited for this line;

1) They look like they stepped right off the comic book page. Seriously they look absolutely perfect.  And as an added bonus they're based on Eastman and Laird's later work together.  NECA's brilliant but short lived 6" line was based on their first appearance but it was around issue 4 before they really refined the look of the characters, so even if you have the NECA figures there'll be more than just a scale difference as both looks are unique.

2) The selection of accessories is fantastic.  Whilst most companies would likely have been content to give the Turtles their signature weapons and call it a day but Mondo went back to the source material and added plenty of extras from Triceraton blasters to Mikey's Orphan Alien.  And like Turtles themselves the extras look like they just stepped right from the comics.  Just check out the pre-mutated Splinter that comes with Leo - posed perfectly like his comic book counterpart!

3) Mondo's planning for success.  TMNT fans are used to their collector's lines not taking off.  Both NECA's comic based line and Playmates' own Classics line never made it past the Turtles and 2 other characters.  Neither of them even released Shredder despite plans for him to be in both lines before they were cancelled.  At SDCC Mondo revealed they hope to include Shredder, a Foot Soldier and fan favourite Casey Jones in the second wave if the first wave sold well.  Judging by how things went last week I'd say we've a good chance of Mondo going ahead with their plans!  But before that though, Mondo will be releasing a 2-Pack of Mousers sometime after Raphael (maybe as a wave 1.5 to tide us over between the main waves?)

4) They're drawing influence from all sources.  Whilst the main influence for the Turtles is the comics Mondo are also taking inspiration from the cartoons (the alternate heads with the colour masks) and Playmates original toylike (the varied skin tones) to create the ultimate versions of these characters.  Which is good, at these prices you don't want a lot of variants!

5) The sky's the limit.  Whilst the first figures are comic influence Mondo aren't limited to just Mirage comic characters and they're confirmed that characters like Bebop and Rocksteady are available to them even if they aren't planned at the moment, so this really could be the ultimate Ninja Turtles line!

Countdown to Midnight Madness

I can't believe it's almost here!  We still know so little about The Force Awakens but tomorrow night will see the merchandise officially released in stores.

The road to "Force Friday" has been a bit of a rocky one for Disney/Lucasfilm.  I don't know who came up with the idea of trying to keep everything secret until today (the official unboxing begins on YouTube today) but I do feel it was the wrong call as they completely lost control of the reveal and fans were left unable to budget until the last minute - I sure know my buying plans changed when it was revealed that Sphero's BB-8 would be out this week!

Personally, my midnight madness plans are pretty limited. I'll be at Toys R Us, like I have been for every Midnight Madness since The Phantom Menace, but judging by the leaks I'll only be picking up the 5 Black Series figures.  After that I'll be heading to Currys/PC World first thing on Friday to try and score a Sphero BB-8!  Before the BB-8 reveal I was planning on picking up the new Ultimate Star Wars book (finally out in the UK this week) and some of the young reader "Journey to The Force Awakens" novels (for whatever hints and teases they could give towards the film) but with BB-8 coming I needed to re-consider how much I was spending!

Doesn't he look awesome?!

But what I'm really looking forward to is the camaraderie.  What I remember most from previous midnight launches isn't what I bought, its spending time just hanging out with other Star Wars fans for a few hours, talking with excitement about what the future had in store.  And now, here at the start of the final push towards Episode VII, that future has never been brighter.

Mondo's TMNT On Sale Today!

Well that title is actually a little misleading as, whilst the regular edition is still on sale, the exclusive edition and the exclusive subscription are already sold out!  In fact the subscription sold out in less than five minutes!

I've been looking forward to these since they were revealed at this year's SDCC so I literally spent an hour when I got in from work today hitting refresh on Mondo's site until they went on sale (and that's on top of the phone battery I completely drained checking throughout the day).  I was fortunate enough to be one of the lucky 200 to snag the exclusive subscription so I don't have to work about the random sale times for Don, Mikey and Raph over the next 3 months.

This is my first purchase from Mondo and I couldn't be happier with the way they look.  The sculpts look like they literally walked off the pages of the original Eastman and Laird comics.  Ok, Raph could be a little less bright, but I get that they were going for the Playmates colour scheme from the original toys and that's kinda cool.  The attention to detail on these looks amazing with accessories, like the pre-mutated Splinter and the exclusive Shredder's gauntlet, taken right out of those early comics.

I'll be honest, given the current state of 1/6 scale pricing, and Mondo's pricing of their limited edition posters/screen prints, I was worried I'd be priced out of this line but happily these came in at a relatively reasonable (for 1/6 scale) $149.99.  The exclusive edition runs $10 more but one of the perks of the subscription is $10 off per figure making the exclusive the same price as the standard edition.  The biggest shocker for me was the price of international postage - $63.60 to the UK.  Given my recent Sideshow orders have all been around the $40 mark this seems a bit high.  I'll definitely be interested to see what Sideshow sells the regular editions of these figures for in the future as cheaper postage and their Flexpay option (instead of Mondo's pay in full at time of order) may tempt me to go with Sideshow if the line continues past the four Turtles.  That said, the $40 saving on the exclusive editions offsets half of the extra postage cost and the additional bonus of an exclusive Mondo print is likely worth well more than the other half and that's before any potential mark up Sideshow may add to the figure so it's not really as bad as it first appears.  I just need to take it a figure at a time and try not to think about the total :o)

I really hope this line does continue past the four Turtles.  I have never gone "all in" on a 1/6 scale line due to cost and space but if the final figures look as good as the images released so far and Mondo can keep up this level of quality and detail going forward then I may just be tempted to do it for this line.  I'd love to see them tackle Shredder, Splinter, April and Casey next, maybe even a Triceraton!  I'd even be up for Mondo's take on non-comic characters further down the line (Bebop and Rocksteady spring to mind but there's plenty more).

Right now I just happy that I was lucky enough to snag one of the subscriptions!  Leo's scheduled to ship Q2 next year and I'm looking forward to it already!!