Star Wars Episode 7 Concept Art

A handful of concept art pieces leaked the other day, and I thought it was worth talking a bit about the value of these illustrations.

Me, and many of my generation are probably as excited as it's possible to be for a movie. I even knowpeople outside my generation are excited for the new movie. The popularity of Star Wars extends far beyond the kids that grew up watching it.

And we just can't wait. We have to know all the information right away! Every little piece of news regarding the JJ Abrams directed movie has the internet buzzing. Now that Lucas is out of the picture, we shouldn't have to worry about repercussions should we leak secret information. It's not like the new owners are overly protective of their copyrights.

Well, except if your image sort of resembles one of their million trademarked logos. 

Anyway, I don't fear any C&D letters, simply because I have nothing to gain from sharing these images. And to be fair, these illustrations does nothing but get fans more excited, so for all I know, the leak may be fully intentional.

But for the sake of the fans that want to go in to the theater with zero knowledge of what's coming, I'll put a break.

So hop on in for Star Wars Episode 7 concept art!

May 4th

Normally, I try to avoid these "days". I haven't posted waffle recipes on the international waffle day, nor have I regularly posted Halloween articles on Halloween (all though it has happened once). I usually don't make a big deal about holidays.

The fourth of May is as nonsensical a holiday as they get. But at the same time, these are exciting days to be a Star Wars fan. The action figures are as good as ever, with the 6" Black Series. The Lego sets are incredible, and the new Sandcrawler 75059 is truly monumental. And of course, the upcoming seventh movie already looks more promising than any Star Wars movie the last 30 years.

So here it is: May the fourth be with you.

Episode VII Cast

Actors John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, and Max von Sydow will join the original stars of the saga, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Kenny Baker in the new film.

Real time toy hunting

I live in the dark abyss of nowhere when it comes to toys and toy stores.

Hasbro has started producing 6 inch SW figures

Seriously, our toy stores are completely useless, compared to what I've seen in bigger cities around the world. Remember that the biggest city in Norway is really just a tiny town. It's just very provincial, and the stock of our stores reflect that.  

But today, an instant message ticks in from my good friend, Runar.

"They have 6" Black series in a store here!"

And it's on. For real. My friend goes on a toy hunt all over the city, while keeping me updated in messages. And it's fun. It's toy talk, anticipation and enthusiasm. Because finding toys in stores is so much more rewarding and satisfying than buying them online. We haven't experienced this in years.

The Black Series looks good. 

I could of course just buy these toys on ebay, or through any of the other online stores.
But the feeling of finding a toy you like, holding it in your hand, skim through the rest of the toys to see if there are more. I miss that feeling. The toy hunt.

Apparently, each store got four figures - one single case of 6" Black series. It's almost hilarious, you'd think that with our economy, the position Star Wars has in our society, and the constantly growing mass of enthusiasts, that one of the biggest toy store chains in the country were smarter than this.
At the same time, this limited stock intrigues me. Am I not a collector after all? Do I not appreciate the toy hunt?

I really do, even today, when the toy hunt is done trough another person, in real time.

Well, at least they were smart enough to price them correctly - at around the same price Hasbro sold them for in their very own store. I appreciate that.

My friend picked up a Darth Maul for himself, and a Jumpsuit Luke Skywalker for me - thanks buddy. Can't wait to get this in hand!

And I suddenly have a reason to visit local toy stores again.

The Top 10 Greatest Toy Lines Ever!

This is a list I've been thinking of for a good while, and now is as good a time as ever. If you read my stuff, you would think this list could be named "Top ten action figure lines", but that would actually not work. Sure, it's mostly dominated by action figures, but there may be a few entries that just happens to fall in a different category.

I have collected, played with - and ultimately considered a huge selection of toys for this list. Some of the toy lines were rather difficult to leave out, and I feel like mentioning a few of them (but not all, because that would ruin eventual surprises).

 I did consider the original, 1/6 scaled G.I. Joe, for historical reasons, and the great variety of accessories. They were before my time, but I enjoy them whenever I see them today. In the opposite category, when talking about toys that predate the 80s, are the Mego dolls. I just can't see understand attraction. 

A powerful contender was the Real Ghostbusters line. Creative monsters, solid build quality, all over fun toys. There have also been many great superhero lines, like Toy Biz' X-Men, and the various DC Direct lines. I'm also impressed with many of the contemporary toys, whether they're based on movies, like the Avengers figures, or the toys from the smaller, more independent toy companies, like Four Horsemen.

Japanese toys I considered included the various Valkyries based off the Macross shows (like the Bandai VF-25 in my banner), and the range of anime robots in the mighty Soul of Chogokin line.

While the top ten may be familiar to most of you, and in many ways be "obvious" choices, they were the toys that has impressed me the most and given me the most joy.  Essentially, these are my top ten toy lines. 

Agree, disagree, want to share your own list? Leave a comment below!

A Different, but Similar Perspective on Nostalgia

Every once in a while, I go on various quasi-philosophical rants. I guess it comes with the territory of finally growing up. You see, there is nothing that says adults can't enjoy playing with toys just as much as kids. It's just that we play differently. One of my students (the same who made this one for me) asked me today how long it was since I last played with toys. I had to admit, I played with toys almost every day. When ever I pose my action figures, sort my collection, or even just look at my toys - am I not playing? And in the broader sense, am I not playing with toys when I goof around with my smart phone, installing various apps, playing candy crush, and so on. Is this not play? When I get together with friends to play board games or cards, can't this too be considered playing with toys? 

We play different than the kids, but we absolutely play. 

The biggest difference seems to be that kids dare to admit that they are playing, but adults tend to camouflage it behind fancy words. "Us, playing? No, we're just having an 80's theme party, and the He-Man cartoon looping in the background is just to be authentic". "Me? I'm not playing, I just had to get the Back to the Future Lego for my bookshelf". "These are not toys, these are expensive cars/porcelain dolls/model trains/bicycles/fishing poles/etc..." 

Another difference is of course that we tend to analyze our interests. I did that a month ago, in an article on nostalgia. I'm not sure I thoroughly got to express what I actually felt, but the essence of it is that the 80s were such special times for plastic toys that they more or less created the modern toy collector/pop culture nerd. 

One of my fellow enthusiasts, G.I. Jigsaw, wrote a comment that I felt was worth reposting in its entirety:

I often ask myself, why am I still collecting toys in my 40s. 

I was 6 when Star Wars and it’s Kenner lineup was released, 11 when GI Joe – ARAH was released. These were fantastic toys, and I spent many hours playing with them. A year or so later, I gave up on buying toys, though I still loved them, and eyed them at the store. 

I think you hit the nail on the head – it was a convergence of forces that make the 80s toys so beloved. Quality, story, sheer numbers, and technology. Though the 12 inch GI Joe is loved by many, the size of the Kenner Star Wars line really allowed kids to “buy them all!” As for GI Joe, I had read that the strategy of the first few waves was to allow families to get the entire series for under $100. It worked.
I do like the new as much as the vintage, mostly because they didn’t have those toys when the movies came out (Predator, Alien), but also like the creativity of new stories (Gears of War (left), Walking Dead).

I love the craftsmanship of toys. They are works of art in my opinion. The sculpting and detailing are phenomenal. I still enjoy the simplicity of the Star Wars Kenner line.

Like you, “I collect vintage toys because I have potent, and delightful memories of playing with these toys as a kid.” My family didn’t have a lot of money growing up, but my parents somehow managed to get me some of the toys I loved, because they saw my brother and I playing with them all the time.

I even specifically remembering when and how I received most of them. Those memories carry over to the new Gentle Giant Jumbo Kenner figures (example to the right). The ones I loved as a kid (Death Squad Commander, Jawa) were the first ones I purchased. Interestingly, I never like Death Star Droid or Walrusman and to this day, I still haven’t purchased those GG equivalents. I remember going to Child World on a Friday night when my dad bought me the Kenner TaunTaun and Hoth Han. It is the reason I preordered the GG Hoth Han so quickly.

Around the time I was moving away from toys, I already had an Atari 2600. It didn’t overwhelm me but I can see how today, video games and the internet capture the attention of kids faster these days. They are also a great babysitter by parents, unfortunately. There are two years olds that can navigate an iPad better than me. 

I still think the quality is here today, the same as back then. I do think some of today’s toys are very original – but the larger figures (6 inch Gears of War) and cost of plastic puts a price tag on toys where parents couldn’t buy them all.


I am also “glad I was invited to the main show - as a child in the 80s - to experience it first hand, and I'm glad to be around now, for the after party.”

Make sure to check out G.I. Jigsaw's blog. He writes about toys, comic books, and has made some really cool dioramas. 

Thanks for the comment, G.I. Jigsaw.

The Top 10 Female Action Figures of the 80s

I felt a bit like an outsider, because my peers certainly didn't share my opinions, but as a kid, I loved the female action figures. They were rare, they were something different, and most importantly, they were usually extremely pretty. I guess I was a victim of... biology.

Looking back at these toys now, as an adult toy collector, I realize three things: The female action figures were severely  under-represented, to the point where it's actually offensive. Secondly, the toy makers struggled to translate the characters' beauty from cartoons and movies. And lastly, I realize that I still absolutely love these action figures. So much that I want to share a list of the ten best female action figures of the 80s. Skip a lot of paragraphs for the list, or simply read on! Either way, click in to read more, and leave a comment if you feel like it. Agree, disagree, how would your list look like?

New York Toy Fair 2013 winner: Lego

Toy Fair has came and went this past weekend. Mostly for the various companies to show off their plans for the future, I'd say this year was decent. Scratch that, it was monumental. I'll not get into detail with the various reveals, as they are easily available at places like toynewsi, toyark. The various specialized forums like seibertron, he-man.org, eurobricks, yojoe all had representatives running around the floor, tweeting their preferred toy news. And reporters like Pixel Dan has made thorough videos that I recommend you checking out.

I'll be brief about what interested me the most:

Mattel is moving along with their Masters of the Universe Classics line, and showed a painted prototype of Castle Grayskull. Undersized, but gorgeous. I'm still on board. Upcoming characters like Clamp Champ, Mantenna and New Adventures He-Man are all looking good.

Hasbro revealed their new Tomahawk in the contemporary G.I. Joe line, now called... Eaglehawk. Looks awfully similar to the 1986 version, doesn't it? Except the vintage one is vintage. Hasbro's Transformers department does it better- They don't just replicate the vintage toys, they do something more. The upcoming Metroplex is far from being a replica of the vintage one. In fact, the new one is the largest Transformer robot ever made. Think about that for a second. It's bigger than Fortress Maximus, over two feet tall, where the vintage Metroplex was barely a foot, if that even.

Someone are making Big Bang Theory Mego-style dolls, all though I can't remember who. I'm interested, not necessary as a customer, but to see them on the show in one way or another. Last episode even featured dolls of some of the characters. Maybe it was planned?

The Lego Group can do nothing wrong. Almost everything they showed at Toy Fair was gold. The upcoming Galaxy Squad line has me salivating. It's the perfect mix between Starcraft, Gundam and vintage Sci-Fi movies.

But the absolute highlight of Toy Fair 2013 was the new Jabba's Barge in the Star Wars line. Obviously, I'm not ignoring the fact that we get an amazing Lego Slave Leia, but the blue orchestral leader Max Rebo, like the little show man he is, completely stole the show for me. Look at him! Look how cute and blue he is. You know those stumpy fingers will play right into your hearts. Not the first time he's being made in toy form, but certainly the best.

Figure Friday: Lego/Star Wars Anecdotes

Kids today have it easy, but at the same time I feel sorry for them. Part of what was fun about Lego was that you could build anything you wanted, and since we never got the movie specific sets, we had to use our imagination - and any bricks we had access to. Sure, the specific sets, like the $3000, 5000 pieces Millennium Falcon set Lego released three years ago is a cool one, but I can imagine it felt just as good to build our own, as it is to get a ready made set. I built Star Wars Lego as a kid, I built the Landspeeder, the Speederbikes, I made Tie Fighters, X-Wing fighters. I made Luke, Darth Vader. I tried my skills on a Star Destroyer. And of course the Millennium Falcon.

A fellow Redditor who calls himself xerxes_fifield stumbled upon a creation from his childhood, and shared with the rest of us, over at http://www.reddit.com/r/lego/ . A magnificent recreation of the Falcon. Far more impressive than the sets we're treated to these days, simply because this was made by a kid, using what ever bricks the kid had access to. Here's several more images of the creation, along with some comments. It's really worth checking out.

It left me wondering if kids these days actually use Lego the way we used to? We built what ever we could imagine. I suspect kids these days - because the insane amount of cool sets available - simply have it too easy, and forgets that you can actually build anything in Lego.

I wish I could find my proudest creation from my childhood, but there are two good reasons why that won't happen. The first being that all my Lego is right now safely accounted for in my closet. The second reason is that my proudest creation was destroyed by a kid my sister was watching.
I had built the mighty Predaking in Lego. It was a perfect recreation, it was huge, with wings, and it was totally bad ass.

Not toy bad ass... it was comic version bad ass.

And this kid, he could have been around 6, at least a few years younger than me. He found my model, and destroyed it. Admittedly, he was slow... That's me being kind. He was the kind of kid that ended up eating sticks of glue, and painting his face with permanent markers. But still... that Predaking, it was the coolest Lego set ever made. They don't make Lego like that these days, and kids have a very different approach to Lego.

I found a Star Wars Lego set in my closet I had forgot I owned. In fact, just last weekend, I saw the set in the stores and thought for my self "hmm, I should buy that set before it runs out of production". Admittedly, I have quite a few unopened Lego sets, but not nearly enough that I should forget what I actually have. The weird thing is that I can't even remember buying it.

It's Luke's Landspeeder, and it really feels like this set has been available for years. It's been around for at least 5 years, and it's noticeable by the old, outdated hairpieces on Luke and Ben Kenobi. Still, I've always wanted this set, it represents memorable scenes from ANH, and like I said, I ended up building my own Landspeeder back when I was a kid. This one is almost just as cool.

Now, a friend of mine are these days getting his Indiana Jones costume ready for a convention over in England. It's amusing how nitpicky he is about the details, but according to him, his peers have a vicious attention to detail. That's fair. I'm excited to see how his costume turns out, and how expensive it will become. But I noticed something really amusing. Surely enough, this convention - your typical fanboy convention - had the usual amount of guests. There was some actors and actresses from obscure tv-shows, and your usual suspects of Star Wars actors that had minor roles. Harrison Ford doesn't show up these places, nor do they ever get Carrie Fisher. I suspect you could find your Billy Dee Williamses and Mark Hamillses (how Gollum was that?) at Comic Con. But this wasn't SDCC, this was England. Who do they get?
The guest of honor at this convention is the guy playing the Stormtrooper that repeats "These are not the droids we're looking for!".
Really.
Enjoy your weekend, people!

And then this happened...

It will be interesting to see where toy licenses end up, and it will be interesting to see what kind of toy collaborations we'll be getting. Assuming it goes like last time, when Marvel was assimilated by Disney, we'll probably hardly notice it, and certainly not in a negative fashion. Anyway, continue with you daily tasks, and stay safe.

Figure Friday: Lego 9500 Sith Interceptor Review

For all my Lego articles, I haven't really made any proper reviews. Well, that's not entirely true. But if we're talking about sets with a certain size, I have yet to do a review where I talk about the build, the parts, the design, playability and display quality. I'm not sure this will be such a review either, and honestly if you want that kind, do a search over at eurobricks.com. But I'll try anyway.

Read on for my thoughts on the Lego Star Wars 9500 Sith Fury-class Interceptor.

Figure Friday: Expensive announcements

I'm on the road, and unable to write something major. But take comfort in Wednesday's article on Top 10 Minifigures.

Yes, Takara announced Masterpiece Soundwave. The upcoming MP versions of Sideswipe, Red Alert (and hopefully Sunstreaker) already has Transformers fans - me included - drooling. Admittedly, I have passed on several of the Masterpiece robots, for various reasons. I do have the MP04, which is Optimus Prime with trailer, and I have a couple of the Seekers - Thundercracker and Skywarp. Why I never got Starscream, I couldn't tell you. Maybe I'm just not into repaints costing $100-200. MP Megatron has a rumor for being extremely difficult to transform, and very fragile, so I have passed. MP Rodimus/Hot Rod looks amazing, but it never was a favorite character of mine.

Soundwave on the other hand. I'm sold. The prototype pictures show us an extremely detailed sculpt, yet it's remarkably close to the G1 design. Obviously he's bigger, has more articulation, and looks a lot closer to his cartoon/comic version in robot mode. There are already pictures floating around the internet of a painted version shown in a Japanese toy show. But the high resolution pictures of the prototype can be seen on Seibertron.

He looks to be coming with Lazerbeak. Expect more cassettes in the future. We can also assume there will be a Soundblaster repaint.

In other news, we also saw Hot Toys release an images of their stunning Black Widow. We have already seen Loki, Thor, Iron Man, Nick Fury and Hawkeye. For those of you who don't know, these are extremely detailed 12" action figures. Hot Toys is famous for getting the face sculpts right, and for being expensive. But most fanboys out there would say they are more than worth their price at around $200.
What do you think?

Masterpiece Sideswipe/Red Alert/Sunstreaker, Masterpiece Soundwave.
Hot Toys Avengers.

It will be an expensive fall for a toy collector.

"OMG I'M SUCH A GEEK!"

Geek culture, nerdery, geekdom, fanboyism. Call it what ever you want, we all know what you're talking about. It's sci-fi, fantasy, superheroes, video games, movies, books, tv-shows, comics, toys, gadgets, technology, collectible everything, enthusiastic about anything.

I collect comics, among other things. What does that make me, but a comic book collector?

I like that last word: Enthusiastic. A person needs a passion or two. Not excessive passion, which can be unhealthy. But I prefer to be around people who are passionate and enthusiastic, almost regardless of what the subject is. A person who collects vintage tea spoons? I love it! A person who's heavily into paranormal activity? Awesome! A person who watches obscure Italian sci-fi movies? Tell me more!

The last years, Nerd Chic has become a thing, a fashion, being a nerd has become cool - to a certain point.
Not too much, just enough to be in the loop with the most mundane terms and the absolute basics of the culture.

You totally recognized Thanos. Show some enthusiasm!

And I'm not sure why, but it rubs me the wrong way. It's popular to ironically associate with enthusiasts such as myself, but these "hipster geeks" only scrape the surface of what they consider to be the fanboy/girl culture.

In essence, the term "geek" has become cool, but only for extremely popular aspects of the culture (reading Lord of the Rings = cool. Reading amazing comics like Smith's run on Green Arrow = Lame), and threading past those limits (like LOTR cosplay) are still considered "lame". Maybe I'm a bit indignant over the fact that the hipster geeks doesn't dare to show their true colors.

So you went and saw The Avengers, and laughed ironically afterwards over what you described as a "kid's movie"? No. You loved it. Now go home and dig up your old comics.

Don't get me wrong, my best friends are all collectors, gamers or true enthusiasts of some sort, and the girls who are legitimately into "geekdom" can be cool. 

But every once in a while, I run into people like the "Idiot Nerd Girl".

I get the idea of labeling yourself, it's an important part of identifying with specific groups of people.

But more often than not, it's painfully obvious that the self-diagnosis is a way to ironically distance themselves from being who they truly are, and being legitimately proud - and most importantly - relaxed about their interests.

So, I'm sorry, but if you read Harry Potter you're not a nerd. You just happen to read an extremely popular fantasy book. If you like Star Wars, you're not a geek, you just happen to like the most popular movie franchise ever. You played a video game? Good for you, but does it really make you a geek? Are you sure now? 
You think toys are only for kids?

Anyone who are even remotely into Lego - or superheroes - should have these sets and be proud. You won't get a label from me, apart from "awesome!"

I must admit, I don't like labels, because we all have such a specific set of interests. But for all I know, "geek" may have a completely different meaning than the connotations that seem to be the consensus.
I guess people can call themselves what ever they want. But I'm not impressed by the guys and girls out there who are simply following the latest trend, instead of being honest about their interests and what they actually like.

A good example of that honesty is my sister. She's heavily into novels (books without pictures!) and movies, she likes the occasional superhero and watches an imperial ton of British TV-shows. She doesn't make a fuzz about her enthusiasms, nor does she brag about being a geek, even though I assume she would be considered one. Why would she? She's just a girl who loves cool stuff. I categorize her as enthusiastic, with a healthy amount of awesome interests. Does she engulf herself in very particular subjects from time to time? Oh yeah, but it's usually a phase.
She's proud of her passions and regularly share her enthusiasm for her - as well as others' hobbies.

For my birthday, recently, my sister finished some needlepoints for me. I had drawn the pattern, and she uhm.. stitched them. I'm really pleased with how they turned out, and I'm going to frame them individually. I'm sure she would argue that this is something out of the ordinary, that anyone making – or owning such needlepoints has to be enormous geeks, but it really isn't so. There are few guys my age in the western world who doesn't recognize these symbols.

Finally, do I consider myself a nerd or a geek? Well, let me put it this way, I barely even know what the words mean, what the difference is, of if there is a difference. Read through my blog and you'll probably have a better idea of who I am than I do myself.
I'm consider myself an enthusiast. I have many interests, all which are awesome. (And my sister is kind of awesome too for making me Transformers needlepoints)

Figure Friday: Avengers will be Assembled

The first two sets arrived today by mail. It's the smallest of the Marvel Superheroes sets, featuring Captain America on a bike, and Iron Man chasing Loki and Hawkeye. And I'm very excited. In fact, I'm saving these for a special occasion: my summer holiday which starts in two weeks.

If you saw the latest Avengers movie, you obviously see that these sets are based (if somewhat loosely) on the movie. I'm ok with this. When I first heard about Lego doing Marvel, I was a bit annoyed that they would be based on the movie - because what if the movie sucked? It would have been a minor problem, because it's still Lego after all. But there's a reason I prefer Original Trilogy Lego over Prequel Lego.

You know how it is though, the movie was amazing, definitely better than most Avengers comics ever made (which I talk a bit about here), and almost to the point where I consider the movie to be canon for anything Avengers. And the result today, this last Friday in May, is that I have to restrain myself from opening these boxes. And it's really no point in doing so. I can probably build Lego and do my real work at the same time. But I like to save them for that moment when I have no other distractions.

And distractions I have, which is why this Figure Friday article will be slightly shorter than what you are used to. I will leave you with a few impressions based on the unopened boxes of these Lego Superheroes sets:

• Iron Man wasn't chasing Loki, it was Maria Hill and Nick Fury. Would you be excited for minifigures of the SHIELD directors? I would.

• Loki is featured in three of the five Avengers sets. I don't mind, he looks to be a fantastic figure. Cape, helmet, staff, great detailed print.

• There are two versions of Iron Man, this is the Mk.6 he had in the first half of the movie.

• The Cosmic Cube is a standard, translucent 1x1. I like that. Iron man's repulsors are round, flat 1x1 in translucent blue.

• TLG (The Lego Group) have gone with stickers for the vehicles. AFOLs (Adult fans of Lego) seems to be torn on this matter. I'm in the camp that would prefer printed bricks instead of stickers, but I can see how it's convenient if you plan on using the bricks for something else.

• "Comic Adventure Included". Interesting. Makes me wonder if we'll also see a Marvel Lego videogame.

• The two aliens chasing Captain America have different faces, and are actually kinda creepy for minifigures. Well creepy in a cute way of course. They are still minifigures after all.

• Captain America has maroon colors, just like in the movie. But here, with his maroon bike, maroon shield, maroon gloves. It's all very obvious how red it should have been, and how very maroon it actually is.

• And regarding the motorcycle... Doesn't it vaguely look like a scooter? Something that teenagers or old men would drive? Technically, Capt. Steve Rogers could fall into both those categories, so I guess it makes sense. But I'd liked to have seen him on something like this instead:

Enjoy your weekend people.

Lego Hawkeye

I had initially planned for an exciting recipe today, but since we're actually celebrating the 80th anniversary of Lego (the 22nd), I felt it was more appropriate to do an article on Lego.

Most of my readers know I really like the superheroes. Even if I don't collect that many superhero action figures, they're my main interest. It also goes without saying that I like the bricks. So when Lego decided to start the Superheroes theme, you can imagine how excited I was.
I have a few of the bigger sets on their way from Lego's online shop, so I can't show those yet. But I managed to get hold of a promotional sample of Hawkeye. I felt this was very adequate, as Hawkeye has been featured a few times before here in this blog, and he's probably my favorite Avengers character.

Read on for a few more pictures.

The Avengers - A review, among other things

I have returned from the premiere of The Avengers (in 2D yay), and I would like to share my thoughts. While I know there already are several reviews out, this will perhaps be slightly different. Because this is a big deal. Marvel has stepped outside the comfort zone, and courted their loyal fans, yet done it with the elegance, action and humor that will please the casual movie goer.

I have tried to keep the review spoiler-free, but obviously you should be careful if you want to go into The Avengers without any prior knowledge.

Either way, read on for my thoughts on The Avengers!

Figure Friday: Luke Skywalker (again)

Luke Skywalker. Such a monumental (and underrated) character. People are always talking about Darth Vader, Han Solo, R2D2. But Luke is a magnificent protagonist and a hero in the truest meaning of the word! And recently, there have been made some nice action figures of him as well.

People weren't satisfied with my last article on Luke. Understandably. It was just some pictures I snapped on the go, while playing with my Star Wars Lego. But the fact is that I have both several toys of Luke... and strong opinions on the character and his role in the Star Wars Universe. I do have more to say.

So read on for a much longer article on the Hero of the Rebellion, the Balance of the Force, the Last of the Old, and the First of the New Jedi. Luke Skywalker.