Really Micro Machines

A few weeks ago, I had a geek swap via mail with the owner of Nerd Out With Me (name held to protect the innocent). He commented on the Grip-It controller caps in last month's Loot Crate and since I had a spare set, I offered to send them to him.

Totally unexpected by me, he said he had something Star Wars to send to me as well. You can't really tell from this blog but Star Wars takes up a large piece of my fandom pie. Here's what he sent...

In the enclosed letter, he told me that he worked at a movie theater back in 1997 when the Special Editions were released. The theater got this special Micro Machine set as a promo for customers and he happened to snag a few. Let's be honest, if you work anywhere that gets cool stuff for its patrons, you're gonna sneak a few for yourself!

I don't know if I forgot about this set or was never aware of it, but I don't think I've seen it before. As you can see from the LEGO minifig robot, they are very micro Micro Machines! In case you're squinting at your monitor, the box has the Millennium Falcon, Boba Fett's Slave I and the Death Star II, one ship representing each movie of the trilogy. I almost typed original trilogy but at the time these were made, there was only THE trilogy.

The sides of the box sport the gold ingot trilogy logo and the back says how Galoob is doing this set to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Star Wars and the Special Editions being released. It's a fantastic little set but I suspect it's going to remain in its sealed bag for now.

So thanks to (name withheld)! If you haven't go check out Nerd Out With Me. He puts up some fun movie challenges every week.

Comic Review - Disney Kingdoms Seekers of the Weird #1

This week brings the debut of the first Marvel-Disney joint comic book, Seekers of the Weird. The book is under the banner Disney Kingdoms and while they haven't announced any other Kingdom titles yet, I can't imagine we'll have to wait long to see some.

The story starts off introducing us to sibling teens Maxwell and Melody Keep. (I almost think the title should have been Keepers of the Weird but maybe that would be too on the nose?) They're your average kids, one a nerd and the other a jock respectively, worried about reporting mid-term grades to their parents.

Only the parents seem to have other things on their mind and leave the kids in charge of the family business, a curio shop on the bottom floor of their home called Keep It Weird. When the kids go to talk to them again, they find their parents under attack from bizarre, mismatched taxidermy animals. They try to help but the senior Keeps are spirited away by the creatures.

Preview image from CBR

The kids continue to put up a fight but a quickly rescued by the black sheep of the family, Uncle Roland. They receive a ghostly message demanding the "coffin clock" in return for the kidnapped Keeps. Roland leads the kids into their parents secret study and unlocks a door leading into the Museum of the Weird.

Roland tells them he has to collect a few things from the cavernous museum and it shouldn't take him more than three days! Max and Melody start exploring and encounter a few unusual objects and living statues. Before they can find too much trouble, a wounded Roland reappears telling them it's up to them to retrieve the coffin clock before passing out.

I really enjoyed the book so far, especially the "weird" visuals. I read a lot of Young Adult fiction and this falls right in that territory. There's plenty of hints dropped at a deeper back story that I'm sure will be uncovered in future issues. It feels a little Doctor Who in spirit at times as Roland is spouting off things that are meaningless to the kids as he drags them into danger. Or adventure depending on how you look at it!

There is a final page in the book that talks about the first meeting between Marvel and Disney staff to talk about doing a joint comic based on park attractions. This is why I'm pretty sure this is only the first Disney Kingdoms series. Just please, no Small World comics!

More importantly, it talks about the origins of the Museum of the Weird and the man behind it, Disney Imagineer Rolly Crump. The short version is that it was to be a companion attraction to the Haunted Mansion, collecting strange and mystical artifacts from around the world. You can read the long version over at Doombuggies.com. If you're a Disney-phile or just a fan of the Haunted Mansion, I highly recommend checking it out. Quite a few of Crump's concept designs can be found in the comic if you know what you're looking for.

Star Worriers

The past couple weeks have seen some Big News coming out of the House of Mouse regarding the future of Star Wars: 

Comic book publishing rights will be going back to Marvel in 2015.

Probably the least surprising of the recent revelations. I think most of us knew it was coming before the ink even dried on the purchase since Disney also owns Marvel. It only makes sense for them to take the reigns back before the next movie hits. The big question though, is whether or not Marvel will count the 20+ years of stories Dark Horse put out as being canon. Which leads to the next announcement...

Star Wars Expanded Universe will pretty much be a thing of the past.

This has just as much bad potential as good. The best thing that will come from this is getting rid of the ridiculous levels of canon. I've always found it a little odd that some books, comics, video games, etc. are "more valid" than others and that basically anything Lucas didn't have a hand in (or want to admit to) was second tier at best. The biggest fallout from this won't be known until they figure out what to do with everything that has come before now. Whether or not they make any fan-favorite characters/stories non-canon, I don't care. The stories will always be there if you want to return to them, much like the original movies.

The reported changing focus of Episode VII to have the original characters front and center.

I've seen arguments against this siting Crystal Skull as evidence it won't work. There are so many other things I would blame for Skull's failures before the actors. But how will they do? I'm sure Hamill is game for it, he's a fanboy at heart. I can't believe Ford is returning given how he loathes to talk about the franchise at all and Fisher...who knows? I'm not expecting any metal bikinis but will she be able to pull off what we want in Leia?

I've seen very little positive reaction online to all of these stories. Maybe I'm not looking in the right places but I'm seeing lots of frowny faces. I suspect most of these reactions are coming from "old guard" fans like myself that grew up along side the original Star Wars. And of course, that's fine. Everyone has their opinion and the right to voice it. But if you're poo-poo'ing a Disney TV ad using Star Wars, I think you're going to have a rough time for...well, probably the rest of your time as a Star Wars fan.

Chris Hardwick has been touting a new philosophy on recent podcasts suggesting people actually experience the thing they say they hate before hating it and I'm putting my tent in that camp going forward. Although a recent Nerdist News video found host Jessica Chobot making a crack about "ruining our childhood enough" after talking about Disney's plan to add more Star Wars to its parks. Haven't we all be asking for this since Star Tours opened?

It seems like the "cool thing" to do now is bash Disney's decisions for Star Wars. And I'd bet George Lucas is glad to be rid of that target finally.

No matter what Star Wars is "your" Star Wars, I say enjoy what you like and ignore the parts you don't. Heck, I even know people that refuse to believe the prequels happened. On the other hand, respect the fact that other fans may like what you don't and vice versa. In the end, we all found something in this shared galaxy that ignited some passion within us to make us love it so much. Nothing new coming out will change the memories you have from childhood, it just might make them a little harder to relive in hi-def.