Star Wars

Ghosts of Christmas Past

/ jstater

When I was a kid in the late 70’s and early 80’s, I was a lucky son of a gun. An intact family, lots of love, food on the table, etc. I also got plenty of toys to play with – legos, Star Wars figures, Hot Wheels, a bike – no complaints.

But there were a few items circled in the annual Christmas catalogs that didn’t appear beneath the tree. As good as I had it, we weren’t rich, so there were a few items that didn’t make the cut. I suppose that’s true with most folks – and maybe more for some than others. I also suppose most folks, when they’re my age, look back with gratitude for all they got, and just a little nostalgia for the ones that got away.

Here are my top three presents I never got … but still kinda want:

#3 – Mouse Trap

A good friend had this one, and it was in the category of stuff I desperately wanted to play with, but which she never wanted to play with. Drat the luck. This thing absolutely fascinated me, but to this day I have never laid hands on it, and have no idea how it actually works.

When I mentioned this to my daughter, she remarked that she remembered seeing one at grandma’s house (i.e. my mother) when she was little. I have no idea how it got there, or where it went … but I know I never saw the darn thing!

#2 – The Millennium Falcon

Another toy that was just across the street at my friend’s house, I at least got to play with this one. I’ll admit that I felt, at the time, that being a boy, and my friend a girl, that it was mildly unfair that she had a Falcon and I didn’t. Now I’m much more mature … I realize that it was unfair that a non-nerd had one, and a big old nerd like me didn’t.

#1 – Mazinga

Or, as I would have called it then – that big shogun warrior with missile fingers that really shoot. If there’s one really expensive piece of nostalgia that I get tempted to buy, this guy is it. I had one chance to see one in real life – a kid that moved in next door for a very short period of time. As usual for my luck, he didn’t want to play with it, preferring to play poker instead. If that sounds weird, keep in mind that my generation were raised on re-runs of M*A*S*H, and while we didn’t have stills in our bedrooms, we were able to imitate all that poker playing the doctors did.

So which Christmas wishes didn’t come true for you? Leave a comment below – misery loves company!

When we’re done crying, let’s be thankful for all our blessings and get ready for a groovy Christmas!

Everybody Loves a Spaceman in Uniform

/ jstater

After drawing those Jason of Star Command uniforms (in Excel, of course) for the post last weekend, I decided to try my hand at drawing some more sci-fi uniforms.

Below is the result of my mania. I chose a bunch of science-fiction TV and movie uniforms – not just costumes, you understand, but uniforms – and with MS Excel in hand cobbled them together as best I could. They are presented in the chronological order in which they appeared in reality – I thought about doing it in order of when the show/movie was set, and may do that one later.

It was a fun exercise, and although it took longer to do than I had planned, it sure helped me mellow out while I worked on it.

What’s your favorite old sci-fi uniform? What’s your favorite that didn’t make it onto my little poster? Let me know in the comments!

Wonderbook 2020, Part I

/ jstater

You know what I used to love? The annnual Christmas catalogs from Sears and Penneys. One fine day, the mailman would deliver these big books with thin pages, all color (well, mostly color) with just about everything those stores had to offer. And in the back was the toy section – the promised land of childhood. I’d lay down on the floor and go through page by page, putting circles around the stuff I wanted – the stuff I might find under the tree Christmas morning. So fun!

There’s a fantastic website – WishbookWeb – that has scans of many of these catalogs in their entirety. Well worth the time to check it out … but hey – this is 2020, and God knows we need some good times, so I’m bringing the wishbook concept back!

No, I’m not printing a catalog. But I am going to try something here where I collect cool products – some new, some old – from around the internet and present them to you as my Wonderbook 2020. Just so you know – I’m not making money off of this, and I’m not connected with the people and stores involved other than as a customer or fan.

Three provisos and a comment:

1) Each of these items will be available for sale when I post the wishbook – whether it still is for sale when you click on it – or whether the link still works – I cannot guarantee.

2) I’m not putting the prices down, but I am using the following code: $ = Less than 10 dollars; $$ = 11 to 30 dollars; $$$ = 30 to 50 dollars. These include shipping on Ebay items.

3) All of the pictures are the property of their respective owners – I’m just using them to illustrate the products to help sell them – if any of the image owners want them removed, I will be happy to do so.

4) Finally – I got the idea for this from the Plaid Stallions blog, which posts 5 Awesome Things on Ebay every Friday

So, without further ado … the inagural  Wishbook 2020!

Head-to-Head Sports Action …                   Without the Fresh Air

[A] Tabletop Air Hockey: Battery-operated and loads of fun in a small package. Every year I try to grab something like this to entertain Christmas guests, and this one did not disappoint … $$

[B] Tabletop Foosball: No batteries needed for this miniature foosball table, but assembly is required. This was another Christmas surprise at my house, and proved quite challenging … $$

[C] Tabletop Billiards: I know, you don’t get fresh air playing pool, but I needed a snappy title line for each section. I don’t have this one, but maybe this year! Those miniature pool cues are awesome … $$

 

 

 

You’ll Never be Bored with these Board Games

[A] Star Wars – Hoth Ice Planet Adventure Game: So help me God, I don’t remember this game. This is a reproduction, and comes with a little action figure – what a deal!  … $$$

[B] Star Wars – Escape from the Death Star: Another reproduction, I scored one of the originals at an antique shop recently for a song. It’s a simple game, but fun, and worth it for the box alone … $$$

[C] Silver Hawks: I always thought the Silver Hawks cartoon was cool, but was too old for any of the toys. Still, this box is gorgeous, the board is cool, and you get little standees of the characters … $$

[D] Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea: This show was beautifully bizarre and tons of fun, and the design on the game is beautiful. This one is vintage … $$$

These Figurines Will Liven Up Your Game Table

These beauties are from the Dragonriders of Styx playset and I think they’d make a sweet addition to any fantasy RPG.

[A] Black Demon … $$

[B] Red Demon … $$

[C] Blue Knight with Shield … $$

[D] Blue Knight with Sword … $$

[E] Blue Knight with Halberd … $$

[F] Blue Knight with Pole Axe … $$

[G] Blue Archer … $$

[H] Blue Wizard … $$

[I] Green Viking … $$

[J] Dragonrider … $$

[K] Ogre … $$

Experts Agree – Iron-Ons are the Fashion of the Future!

Join the millions of happy people who have slapped the likes of Nick Nolte or Han Solo on a shirt with nothing buy a towel, a hot iron, and a smile!

[A] Dodge Van: Nothing speaks to the 70’s like sweet, sweet vans … $$

[B] Do Unto Others: Well, nothing speaks to the 70’s like sweet vans except dorky sayings like this one … $

[C] Star Wars Han Solo: I didn’t have this one as a kid, but boy would I have worn it with pride … $$

[D] Star Wars Jawas: A stunning statement … $$

[E] Nick Nolte: This one is so ridiculous I’m tempted to buy it myself, just to know it finds a good home … $$

Stay tuned for more folks – and try to have some fun if you can manage it.

 

Women, Cars and Spaceships … A Retrospective

/ jstater / 4 Comments

While driving to work this morning, I was listening to classical music and musing on the design of cars and spaceships. I don’t mean real spaceships, of course – I mean the kind you see in movies, comic books, pulp fiction and television – the good stuff. I also started thinking about mens’ taste in women, and how the styles of disparate things tend to conflate at different times. With that in mind, I decided I was going to put together some images from different years (or small spans of years) of the top spaceship of that time, the top car of that time and what were considered the top sex symbols of that time to see if they clicked.

Here we go …

We’ll begin with 1929 and Buck Rogers. The spaceship was still in the “could have been designed by lonely housewives” era. Fairly sleek and only a few doodads stuck to the outside of the ship. For our car, we have a 1929 Duesenberg – also pretty sleek, formal and yet also sporty. Whether Buck’s spaceship had leather seats, I don’t know. For our sci-fi beauty, we have Col. Wilma Deering, Buck’s erstwhile companion and drawn as a classic beauty of the era – rounded face and graceful lips.

By 1936, Flash Gordon has burst onto the scene in the first of his film adaptations. The spaceship isn’t much different than Buck Rogers’ craft, though perhaps a bit sportier (check out the chrome!). Dale Arden, as played by Jean Rogers, conforms pretty closely to the earlier beauty standard, and the car isn’t terribly different from the 1929 Duesenberg, though you’ll note the nose is slanted back a bit.

1950 brought the film classic (?) Destination Moon. Destination Moon at least played at being hard sci-fi, though the design was definitely of the moderne period, with the sleek spacecraft. The beauty of 1950, Erin O’Brien-Moore was pretty sleek herself, and shows how tastes were changing at the dawn of a new decade. The car is a bit more compact than in the 1930’s, but in this case it looks like the spaceship designs are beginning to presage developments in automobiles.

In 1956, Forbidden Planet put earthlings in a flying saucer (guess those captured German scientists were finally earning their keep). Beauty isn’t much changed from 6 years ago, and the car, a 1956 Chevy Bel Air, is not yet exhibiting the giant fins that will grace vehicles in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s.

By 1966, Star Trek has premiered. The Enterprise is unlike any spaceship audiences have seen before, and also notable is that the sole beauty of the cast (unless you include Sulu) is a black woman! Nichelle Nichols typified late ’60s beauty – curves and tall hair. The cars are becoming more slick as well – away from the tail-fins and into the muscle car era.

The next big leap, in this case back in some ways and forward in others, was 1977’s Star Wars (you might have heard of it). For the first time on film, we get a real sense of the “starfighter” – fighter aircraft in space. Yeah, the Star Destroyers were pretty iconic as well, but you really can’t beat the X-Wings and TIE Fighters for capturing the imagination of kids in that era. Our beauty is, of course, Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), who really found herself thrust into unfamiliar territory in her slave girl costume. The 1977 Ferrari pictures seems to have a similar profile to those X-Wings.

One last stop, and a leap forward to one of my favorite sci-fi series – Red Dwarf. Not American, and played for laughs, it introduced a completely utilitarian (and grandiose) spacecraft in the eponymous Red Dwarf. By 1994, we had maybe my favorite of all the sci-fi beauties introduced on this post – Chloë Annett as Kristine Kochanski (I like my women smart, beautiful and with a wry sense of humor) and the fairly utilitarian Rover. Substance over style in 1994 sci-fi.

Okay, there’s many more I could do – various incarnations of Star Trek, Alien, etc. I’ll leave further explorations to others.

Deviant Friday – jimmymcwicked Edition

/ jstater / 2 Comments

Today, I peer uncomfortably at jimmymcwicked. He makes fun drawings of fun stuff that are cool and fun. He also sells his wares HERE. Go visit, won’t you?

COMMANDO

 

 

Yes – he’s a commando. Not a freaking trite, overused ninja.

 

BOSSK

 

 

Generic Future Soldier Girl

 

 

Teela

 

Wonder Woman vs. Cheetah

 

Sgt Rock

 

 

Blobby Guy

 

Hawkeye and Black Widow

 

 

O’Hara, Shana M.

 

 

Deviant Friday – Grant Gould Edition

/ jstater

Grantgoboom is your one stop shop for geek nostalgia, as well as items for the modern geek. Though mostly movie tie-in material, he also has a neat project called “The Wolves of Odin”. Check it out!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Think, if you will, about how you can put more Twain into your fantasy or sci-fi gaming. Thanks! And speaking of Mark Twain, I’ll be riding on his namesake around the River of America in a few days – yay Disneyland!

 

 

 

Yes, the first reveal was pretty cool back in the day. And no, the FX didn’t look any better then that now, but who cared – FX are not the point of sci-fi and fantasy. Someone please give that memo to Lucas and Spielberg, who seem to have forgotten.

 

 

 

Yeah, I’m pandering with this one. Sue me.

 

 

 

 

 

Perhaps the best translation of comic book to movie ever. Great casting as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Probably as close as Saturday morning cartoons ever got to Cthulhu (except for the Real Ghostbusters episode that actually had Cthulhu and probably a dozen other things I’ve forgotten or never heard of …)

 

 

 

 

 

And, after a terribly long absence from Deviant Friday ..

 

 

Dark Lord of the Sith for Mystery Men!

/ jstater / 1 Comment

I’m finally finished editing NOD 7 and should have it up for sale tomorrow. To celebrate, I figured I’d take a crack of statting up the villain that loomed largest in my pre-teen years …

Darth Vader
Adventurer Lvl 10

STR 10 | DEX 12 | CON 4 | INT 5 | WIL 6 | CHA 3
HP 75 | DC 20 | SPD 2 | XP 15,000 (70,000)

Powers: Catfall [P], Force Hand II [L], Haste [S], Jump [L], Mind Fog [L], Mind Reading [L], Precognition [L], Shield [P], Suggestion I [L], Super Dexterity (+6) [P], Telekinesis [P]

Gear: Lightsaber (sword + energy blade power and potent weapon), light armor (super strength +6), helm with respirator, black cloak

And since he’s right there in that image above, I might as well stat out the dark lord of Latveria as well.

Doctor Doom
Scientist Lvl 8, Sorcerer Lvl 8*

STR 14 | DEX 3 | CON 3 | INT 18 | WIL 5 | CHA 5
HP 43 | DC 25 | SPD 2 | XP 22,600 (70,000 XP)

Powers: Super Intelligence (+12) [P]

Armor Powers: Armor [P], Energy Ray (Electricity) [L], Force Missiles [P], Shield [P], Super Strength (+12) [P]

Sorcery Pool: 10,000 XP

Science Pool: 15,000 XP

Gear: Heavy armor (invested with several powers – see above), green hooded cloak

* Multi-classing isn’t baked into the MM! rules, but I figured they made sense with Victor. Essentially, I just split the XP remaining after powers between the two classes

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Darth Vader versus Doctor Doom by Jim Califiore (TM Marvel Comics & LucasFilm Ltd.)

Read more: http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/geek-to-me/2010/07/fantasy-face-off-darth-vader-vs-superman.html#ixzz1E5u54TX7

Ruminations on Doctor Who and the Failings of the Imperial Office Corps

/ jstater / 6 Comments

Over Christmas, the fam and I bought a router so I could be productive on my new laptop. As an added bonus, we discovered how ridiculously easy it was to hook the Wii up to the internet. I now have access to Netflix via the Wii on the TV, which brings me to Doctor Who.

A while back, I briefly got into watching the new Doctor Who series on BBC America, and I almost enjoyed them. They were okay, I guess, but didn’t totally click with me. This tends to be the case with me and new sci-fi – it’s not a matter of dislike (well, sometimes it is), but more often a case of “meh”. Strangely enough, I like sci-fi but I’m not that big on special effects, and I’m really bored with computer generate effects. Anyways … with the Netflix hook-up, I’ve started watching old Doctor Who episodes, specifically the ones starring Tom Baker. I’ve never seen them before, but I instantly fell in love with them – right up my alley. I just finished watching “City of Death” and that brings me to the Imperial Office Corps.

The villain in “City of Death” is Julian Glover, who played General Veers in Empire Strikes Back. As with most people my age who are into sci-fi and fantasy (and science-fantasy), I’ve probably spent a tad more time thinking about Star Wars than is healthy, and in those ruminations it occurred to me that Veers was really the only Imperial in all the movies who ever succeeded at, well, anything. Grand Moff Tarkin and all his little moffs failed to destroy the rebellion with their technological terror, the various admirals were like the Keystone Cops (clumsy and stupid) and even Vader was a big failure – never caught Luke, never turned Luke, eventually got his ass kicked by Luke. The Emperor also failed in his attempts to turn and kill Luke, undone by his earlier (and maybe only, for all we know) success of turning Vader and establishing the Empire. Veers alone, in true British bad-ass style, didn’t screw up – he took out the force field on Hoth and his forces over-ran the secret base.

Now, most students of military history will not be surprised about this. Totalitarian states tend to have crappy officer corps because the ruling elite fear putting competent people in charge of their military – that’s a recipe for a coup. Incompetence among the overlord’s minions isn’t just a Hollywood invention.

So here’s to Veers, the finest officer in the clown college of evil incompetence that was the Galactic Empire!

HUZZAH!

 

And Boba Fett doesn’t count, he was an independent contractor.