Needled

I have to applaud Doug on his latest Star Wars salvo. Most impressive. Almost too good. In fact, could this be you Doug?

Star Wars round up

Lots going on in the world of Star Wars. Thanks again to the Sith Guards of my blog content, Andy and Doug. You're welcome to an afternoon of Sarlacc feeding aboard my pleasure skiff anytime.

This I found highly amusing. Star Wars Toys that were never made:

Music and blasters and old Jedi masters

Many thanks to Doug and Andy for these. Firstly, wookie suits for kids (would that make them Ewoks?) . Then an R2D2 projector- sweet. Time to try and get that ordered for the boardroom.

Padwan Learner

My eldest son, Aidan, has recently got into Star Wars. It's obviously a matter of extreme pride for me, and barely disguised concern for his mother.

He doesn't call it Star Wars, of course. It's Robots (or Robotsch as he endearingly calls it). However, at the age of two he is doing Chewie and Darth Vadar impressions, mock fighting with light sabres and pretending to be a space ship (or schpasche schipschs as he refers to them as they blow each other up into fiery fragments on screen).

What's interesting is that, even as a Youngling, Aidan recognises the new films are of an infinitely lesser quality than the originals. He is less patient and his concentration flags, finding distractions in 2p pieces on the floor and unusual yellow scraps of paper on the sofa which he never would even in the poorer scenes of Return of the Jedi.

And glad that I am, I still feel that it will all end in 18 years time on a wind-swept ziaggurat with me announcing I'm his father in the midst of a light sabre fight...

General Tagge

Until recently I had the pleasure of working with Louise, daughter of General Tagge (left)actor Don Henderson. This was obviously extremely exciting- as my brother Owen commented, only he appreciated the threat the Alliance represented to the Death Star and was quite prepared to vocalise it.

Ok, so he was relatively obscure. But, I hear you all cry, surely not as obscure as the Imperial Stormtrooper who pops up after C3PO and R2D2 have landed on Tatooine in Episode IV: A New Hope and says "Look sir, Droids”? If the length of entries in Wikipedia is anything to go by, think again.

Things George Lucas Might Have Done

I've often wondered how the original Star Wars films would have panned out if Darth Vadar had asked Luke Skywalker to help him remove his mask on their first, rather than last, encounter:

Darth Vader: Luke... help me take this mask off.

Luke: But you'll die!

Darth Vader: Nothing can stop that now. Just for once... let me... look on you with my OWN eyes.

[Luke takes off Darth Vader's mask one piece at a time. Underneath, Luke sees the face of a pale, scarred, bald-headed, old man]

Luke: You're a bit f*cking mad, mate.