Dear Readers,

If you’re Star Wars fans than you know this question well. If you find yourself wondering why I am asking than you must know that I shot first. By shot I mean I photographed the latest Han Solo UQS figure to come in. This is the anticipated Mos Eisley Han Solo, he comes with his trusty blaster and is completed by his cocky smile. I took a ton of pictures and I clipped them all for a great blog gallery. Go check it out for yourself, there are tons of close ups and action shots for your viewing pleasure. Be on the lookout for the Mos Eisley Han Solo Ad in previews and in some of the Star Wars publications, he should be making an appearance very soon!

And just for fun…

The Top 10 Other Things Han Shot That Didn’t Shoot Him First: (more…)

While I normally work on Minimate projects, I thought I would write this time about one of the non-block-based pieces I have worked on.

I’m a huge Star Wars fan. I have been for some time, so it was a great pleasure to be able to design the Jedi Council Yoda bank. Being a huge fan, I had no shortage of reference available. I gathered what I had and set to work with the soundtrack to Attack of the Clones cheering me on.

While Yoda’s shown in the Prequels as a fairly active fellow, he still manages to have his moments of tranquility that we all know him for. With this bank being of his Jedi Council chair, there was no place for a drastic springing-into-action pose. I wanted to make sure that while he had to be sitting quietly, he was still interesting to look at.

I started with some roughs of his traditional cross-legged pose, and went with the arms crossed pose of him at rest or in contemplation. Instead of having Yoda look directly forward, I wanted to make him a little more part of a scene by moving his head to one side. It’s as if he’s listening to another Council member, waiting to make his own comments or decisions.

In most of the reference I looked at, Yoda seemed to look somewhat upset during the Prequel era. While those times are fraught with the Clone Wars and impending dark times, I wanted to give Yoda a calmer look. I though it would be better for him to look contemplative rather than distraught.

I probably ended up doing a bit more on the colouring than I had to, but I got caught up in the work. I pretty much knew what colours I would use based on the many drawings of Yoda I had drawn for myself in the past. One thing I did have to look up though was the colour of his nails. I paused for a moment, thinking “are they green…?” but found myself wrong. Hey, I may be a huge fan, but sometimes the tiny details need to be double-checked.

I only saw the painted sculpt the other day, and I have to say I’m really impressed with it. Had someone told me I would work on a Star Wars product back when I got into the Saga, I would have said they were crazy. I usually sum up my blogs with this type of sentence, but it’s always a true statement: I really cannot wait to add it to my own Star Wars collection.

Dear Readers,

Is there anyone more trustworthy than the most powerful Jedi Ever?  Hold your change he will!

In case you couldn’t tell from the blog title, we are definitely making an awesome Yoda Rotocast bank for the masses.  It’s Yoda in his council chair ala Episode 1.  The colors are great and the likeness is just as good.  What’s even better: The price.  These guys are supposed to retail pretty cheap and for collectors in tough times this can be an item that “won’t break the bank”, pun intended.  So start saving your galactic credits up for when you add this bank to your collection.   Display him next to the previously released Darth Vader bank and tell all your friends that this is a must have for sure!

Signing off I am,

DST-Jen

Dear Readers,

I can’t tell you how many times I have heard or even seen the question (from our Q & A) what’s with this horrible figure and is it really going to look like that.  The answer is always no, followed by: that is an early production piece and it has to go through tons of revisions before it gets to the store or is shipped to your house.  Sometimes I feel like we shouldn’t show anyone early pieces, because it seems that everyone is always afraid of the toys after seeing a prototype.  I think I have said in posts past that you have to look past prototypes and see the potential that each piece will have after sculpt changes, tooling, paint etc…

That all being said I started to take pictures of the Star Wars production pieces.  That means that the pictures are of the actual piece, straight from the factory and removed from the box.  Ahh, smell the fresh plastic!  They normally replace any older pictures so that all the product you see on the web site is as up to date as possible.  I think that way you’ll be asking us less questions like “is it really going to look like that” and dropping more praise into the Q & A’s.  I think I got some great shots of Obi Wan and Hoth Han Solo and they should be hitting the blog gallery soon.  Check them out and let me know how you think my posing abilities are (said in my best comic book guy voice).

DST-Jen

No, that’s not a joke about the economy. I’m talking about the Darth Vader Rotocast Bust Bank! We just got our first finished sample from the factory, and it is very cool. If you haven’t ordered yours yet, do so now. Lord Vader commands it. Yeah, that was corny, but the fact of the matter is: I don’t have a need for banks but, after I saw this one, I decided to keep it for myself (shhhh, don’t tell DSTChuck - he thinks it’s his).

Dear Fellow Star Wars Fanatics!

Oh my gosh, oh my gosh , oh my gosh… He’s here he’s really here! The UQS Anakin has made his way to my desk and I took lots of great photos of him for the blog gallery. Keep your eyes peeled because he is just as awesome as the others have been. I couldn’t wait to get this guy, although in the movies Hayden Christensen doesn’t really do it for me, the character himself is really deep and super involved, I love the twisted and tortured one’s! The eyes are great on this sculpt, I kept catching myself really focusing in on them when taking the pictures. The hair is also spot on, I was skeptical that the hair would come out perfect but it did and I almost with it were real hair and not resin. Enough gushing, Anakin is here and he is awesome, I can’t wait to share him with all of you!

DST-Jen

Dear Readers,

It’s me, DST-Jen, back again with some more Star Wars news, don’t you just love it! I got Mace Windu on my desk this week and by god he is incredible. I had not one but two people come over and comment on how awesome the likeness was and how they plan to buy one to turn it into either a custom Pulp Fiction figure or a snakes on a plane figure. This doesn’t bother me any, I mean common it’s Sammy Jackson! Everyone knows Mace Windu is low on the list of awesome Sammy “J” roles. None the less he is still amazing and you will be blown out of the water when you see his face and how close the likeness is, I mean really I kept seeing him out of the corner of my eye on my desk and it was a little freaky, I was waiting for him to come alive and start yelling about snakes on a plane or ask me what counrty I am from. I shot him and got him all clipped out so expect to see a gallery up soon with lots of great pictures!

getting excited for the UQS!

DST-Jen

Dear Readers,

This is a two part blog post, I want to talk about the Ultimate Quarter Scale Box for a minute and I also want to shout out to the Star Wars fans and giggle about our Q&A this week.

(more…)

Dear Readers,

I am not sure how many of you guys are actually here every day reading and keeping up with the new UQS line of Star Wars figures, but I am going to imagine it’s the first thing you do every morning before brushing your teeth. I will also picture all of you in bantha slippers and Jedi bath Robes, okay? Early this week you may have read about finishing up the packaging and having some issues with it. You may also remember me mentioning a bit of a surprise and leaving a big blank out of the posted picture as to keep you on the edge of your seat. Well sit on the edge no longer!!!

(more…)

Dear Readers,

The UQS box is making a lot of headway this week. It has been through two rounds of corrections with Lucas and is looking like more and more of a possibility to get this to the factory this month which I believe would put us dead on for our schedule for the line. It’s very exciting to get these moving, for me at least because the sooner they get made the sooner I get mine! The box will have the Clone Wars style guide art, as we have gone over before, we are approving some special art work as well, that is top secret but will make the box a nice collector piece in itself. If you were wondering at all about any of the problems we were facing with the box itself, I did have a problem with the window size and the factory not thinking it would hold up in transit and the bottom of the box was not strong enough to hold the figure in, all those problems have been fixed and are looking perfect at this time, so YAY. go us!

DST-Jen