The Black Series STINKS.  Until now that is.  Head on over to our friends at Jedi Temple Archives to see what new figures we can expect in the line.

It’s been a slow stretch lately, but here’s a bit a news.  Wave one of both the 6” and 3.75” Black Series figures are available for pre-order at Big Bad Toy Store.

I was first alerted to this bit of news via this posting by our friends at Yakface. I’ve taken a vow to keep this front page of Bantha Skull family friendly, so for that reason I had to refrain from re-posting here in the immediate aftermath.  Now that I’ve counted to 10 (500 times), I’m sufficiently composed to comment without working blue.

So the Angry Birds line gets to keep the Vintage Collection styled packaging, but the figure line, where the style was neither tired nor complete, gets the ultra bland Black Series packaging.  Awesome.  Awesome.

Entertainment Earth is having a buy one get one half off Lego sale.  Never too early to stock up on holiday gifts!

The site io9.com comments on the book Star Wars Storyboards which shows…well…storyboards that reveal what may have been a darker and less terrible Prequel Trilogy.  Bear in mind that the Prequel Trilogy still would have been terrible, just slightly less so. Some gems include a younger mowhawk bedecked Qui-Gon and Darth Maul borrowing a page from Loki.

My buddy, Paul Harrison, from Jedi Temple Archives is on site in New York City covering the LEGO Times Square event.  Head over to check out his pics of the world’s largest LEGO model with more pics coming later.

If you follow Marvel comics at all, you’re surely familiar with the highly popular Merc with a Mouth otherwise known as Deadpool.  Our own Darth Dre alerts us to this page in which good old Wade give us a commentary on the Prequel trilogy in classic Deadpool style. When you click through, be sure to click on the full sized image link.

According to a press release, “‘Star Wars Rebels’ takes place in a time where the Empire is securing its grip on the galaxy and hunting down the last of the Jedi Knights as a fledgling rebellion against the Empire is taking shape.”  The hour-long pilot will premiere on the Disney channel, with the series airing on Disney XD. Dave Filoni (the Clones Wars animated series), Simon Kinberg (X-Men: First Class, Sherlock Holmes) and Greg Weisman (Young Justice and The Spectacular Spider-Man) are Executive Producers on the series.

Kaplan signed on last week to do costume design for the new Star Wars film. He worked with Abrams on both Star Trek films, as well as Armageddon, I Am Legend, Pearl Harbor, and all of David Fincher’s early films. These all came after cutting his teeth on Blade Runner.

For your reading and viewing pleasure, check out our review and full gallery of VC - AT-AT

Hasbro has shared some hi-res pics of the upcoming exclusive SDCC Boba Fett and Han Solo in Carbonite.

Click through for the FULL STORY>>

Like many of you, I check out most of the fan sites on a daily basis.  My morning cup of coffee is usually downed while surfing, Jedi Temple Archives, Yakface, Galactic Hunter, Sandtroopers, Imperial Shipyards, etc. etc. etc. (to any good folks I missed, the omission was not intentional, but the byproduct of a middle aged memory).  It’s easy to get a quick sense of the community mood which everyone knows has been getting increasingly pessimistic for over two years.  Recently, Paul from Jedi Temple Archives and Justin from Yakface posted entries that seem to indicate that the pessimism is continuing on an upward swing.  Here are those entries:

Jedi Temple Archives:  How Much Longer Will Star Wars Collecting Be This Abysmal?

Yakface:  Remember when collecting was a blast?

The increased negative commentary on the state of the hobby my has me feeling like a viewer of the Truman show wondering “How’s it going to end?”.  Given the fact that the early Black Series 3 3/4” assortments spell certain doom at retail in my opinion, I fear the answer is “not well”.

The Vintage Collection Endor AT-AT is available at toysrus.com.

Thanks to DarthDre for the heads up.

Electronic Arts has announced a mutl-year licensing agreement with Disney to publish Star Wars video game.  The announcement includes what I’m hoping is a vague hint that the grotesquely overdue Battlefront 3 might be in development.

Burk is the producer on Star Trek Into Darkness, as well as many of Abrams other projects. He indicates that Abrams and screenwriter Michael Arndt are working on a final draft, with production likely to begin early next year.