Lego Update: Ghostbusters and Star Wars

With its first theatrically released movie debuting in a few days and more licensed merchandise on its way, Lego is doing extremely well for itself. Here’s an update on two geek-centric licenses that Lego has in its ample portfolio:

Ghostbusters: While a third Ghostbusters movie remains stuck in development hell, Lego is moving ahead with its first Ghostbusters Ectomobile kit in honor of the first movie’s 30th anniversary. The kit was designed by Brent Waller as part of Lego’s CUUSOO project, a project that allows fans to submit their own designs to Lego for possible release. The kit will include minifigs of all four Ghostbusters and the ghost Slimer. Waller’s original design included flashing lights and working sirens, although it hasn’t been determined if these features will be part of the official kit. The kit will be released later this year.

Another Lego fan, Alex Jones (a.k.a. Orion Pax), also designed a playset based on the Ghostbusters’ firehouse headquarters. Although this playset is not scheduled at this time be a Lego-licensed Ghostbusters kit, you can click here to see the incredible amount of detail that Jones put into his brick-based recreation of Ghostbusters HQ.

Busting ghosts, Lego style.

Star Wars: As part of its ever-expanding line of Star Wars kits, Lego has been providing previews for its summer 2014 line of new licensed kits. While most of these kits are based on vehicles and locations from the original trilogy, two are based on vehicles from the upcoming Star Wars: Rebels animated series: The Ghost and Phantom. According to details that have been released about Rebels, the Ghost is a ship that will serve a similar purpose in the series as the Millennium Falcon did in the original trilogy--namely, as the ship the heroes use to go on missions and transport cargo that’s crucial to the Rebel Alliance.

The Phantom looks to be a smaller vehicle than the Ghost, with a smaller crew and lesser transportation capabilities. It looks like a Y-Wing fighter that has been stripped down and repurposed to function as a shuttle.

Republics, Empires and Rebellions that Might Have Been: A Star Wars Art: Concept Book Review

With 2014 just beginning, I'm going to kick off this year’s posts the only way a geek like me knows how: by talking about some of the swag I got for Christmas. For now, I’ll be taking about Star Wars Art: Concept which was recently published by Abrams Books. Read on for my complete review.

Star Wars Art: Concept provides a historical cross section of Star Wars concept art, from the pre-production years of the first movie during the mid-70s up to the present day over three decades later. As such, it is not a comprehensive archive of concept art but a concept art sampler, providing glimpses into the conceptual work behind the movies, animated series and video games.

To understand why this book was assembled and published in such a way, you have to consider that Concept is part of a larger series of Star Wars art books published by Abrams, a series that also includes Star Wars Art: Illustration, Star Wars Art: Comics, Star Wars Art: Visions and Star Wars: Frames. Each of these books covers different visual aspects of the franchise as a whole, instead of focusing on a single title within the franchise. If you want a complete set of concept art for a specific Star Wars movie, animated series, comic book series or video game, you’ll have to look elsewhere.

The opening essays in Concept by Star Wars movie vets Joe Johnston, Ryan Church and Doug Chiang, as well as a concluding interview with Erik Tiemens, who worked on Revenge of the Sith, do a great deal to explain how essential visual art has been to the success of the franchise, so much so that there probably wouldn't be a franchise without it. Indeed, having a clear understanding of what the audience should see on the screen is crucial to building fantastic, fictional worlds; if special effects-driven movies fail to impress--either practical effects or CGI--it’s because their makers didn’t think creatively enough ahead of time before using the effects.

Star Wars Art: Concept does have some unusual choices made by the publisher. The movies are well-represented, as is The Clone Wars animated series; however, concept art from only a handful of video games appear in Concept. Concept art from video games released during the '90s is conspicuously absent, and not a single example of concept art from the popular Knights of the Old Republic series appears within the book’s 176 pages. Curiously, artist Hajime Sorayama gets four pages for his private commission work, even though none of the work in question had anything to do with the development of any Star Wars title; thus, why his work is in Concept and not Star Wars Art: Visions is a mystery to me.

Star Wars Art: Concept is a great purchase for fans who appreciate the franchise's lengthy history and understand where each of the pieces featured in the book belong in its chronology. As someone who grew up with Star Wars and remains fascinated by it, I love Concept and I look forward to picking up some of the other Abrams Books publications to see more perspectives on a galaxy far, far away.

Kenner's Imperial Troop Transporter Gets Lego-ized

As I mentioned in a previous post, the upcoming Star Wars: Rebels animated series will incorporate some of Kenner's classic Star Wars toy designs as part of the series' selection of vehicles and weaponry, such as Kenner's Imperial Troop Transporter toy. Thus, it makes sense for avid Lego hobbyist BaronSat (a.k.a. Eric Druon) to make a Lego version of the Troop Transporter that's in scale with official Lego Star Wars minifigs. Check it out:

BaronSat's Lego Imperial Troop Transporter (above) and Kenner's original toy (below). 

Click below to see more pictures of BaronSat's Lego version of the Imperial Troop Transporter, along with a new Lego Hoth playset that he recently produced that draw inspiration from Kenner's short-lived Star Wars Micro Collection line.

BaronSat does incredible work with Legos and his interpretation of the Imperial Troop Transporter is no exception. As you can see in the photos below, his Troop Transporter includes almost all of the features as the original toy, such as opening front and rear panels and six side compartments that can hold minifigs.

BaronSat has also produced another minifig-scaled Star Wars playset that represents the Rebel base on Hoth, as seen in Empire Strikes Back.

If you look closely at the Lego Hoth playset, which includes the Rebels' ion cannon, blast door and shield generator, you'll notice that it bears some similarities to two play sets from Kenner's Star Wars Micro Collection line: the Hoth Ion Cannon and the Hoth Generator Attack playsets. (Photos below provided courtesy of RebelScum.com.)

While BaronSat's new Lego Hoth playset isn't a scale-accurate replica of the Micro Collection Hoth playsets, it nevertheless includes some of the features of the original playsets (such as an observation tower and an opening blast door) and it is complementary to BaronSat's previous Lego re-creation of Kenner's Imperial Attack Base playset.

Check out BarsonSat’s official site and Flickr pages for more examples of his work. You can also order custom Lego kits and custom kit instructions from him on his site.

Imperial Items I'd Like to See in the Star Wars: Rebels Animated Series

This year's New York Comic Con (NYCC) came and went last weekend, and it had the usual geeky fanfare: panel discussions, celebrity appearances, cosplay, and previews of upcoming films, TV shows, and merchandise. From this particular NYCC event, the one event that really stood out from the others was the preview presentation of the upcoming Star Wars: Rebels, a CGI animated series that will debut in the fall of 2014 on Disney XD. The presentation was given by Lucasfilm’s Pablo Hidalgo, and it gave many tantalizing glimpses into the series that will show fans what the Star Wars universe was like during the rapid growth of the Empire after the Clone Wars and the early days of the Rebel Alliance.

Of the many details that were revealed during the presentation, one in particular caught my attention: the inclusion of vintage Star Wars toys as part of the series' vehicles and weapons. In particular, the Imperial Troop Transport, a vehicle toy that was released by Kenner as part of their toy line in the late 70s, will be used by the Imperial characters in Rebels.

The original Imperial Troop Transporter toy by Kenner ... 

... and the Imperial Troop Transporter that will be seen in Star Wars: Rebels.

With that in mind--and the fact that toy companies love to reissue old toys to save on production costs--Rebels could bring back many previous toy designs into official Star Wars canon. Read on to see some additional Imperial vehicles and Stromtroopers that could be returned to the spotlight through Rebels.

Mini-Rigs

Shortly after the release of Empire Strikes Back in 1980, Kenner began releasing smaller vehicle toys for its action figures called "Mini-Rigs". None of these vehicles appear in any of the Star Wars movies, but their smaller size and cheaper price made them ideal products for Kenner to squeeze a few more dollars out of the Star Wars license.

Of course, some Mini-Rig designs were better than others. The two that I would like to see in Rebels are the CAP-2 Captivator, which looks like a vehicle than can be used for both space combat and repairs, and the INT-4 Interceptor, a scout craft with retractable wings that looks like a legless AT-ST and was designed to fit inside of Kenner's AT-AT toy.

The INT-4 Interceptor.

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The Imperial Outpost Playset

Kenner's line of Star Wars toys began to wind down during the mid-80s, but it wasn't ready to let go of such profitable series just yet. It put together a binder of conceptual ideas to keep the toy line running through 1985 and 1986, although none of the toys suggested in the binder made it to production. One of the toy ideas is conceptual artwork for an Imperial Outpost Playset. It looks like a modified version of the Imperial shield generator base in Return of the Jedi, and I think it would be great if this idea could be dusted off for use in Rebels.

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The TIE Defender

Galoob was one of the toy companies that picked up the Star Wars license during the 90s, and it is largely remembered for producing miniatures of many Star Wars vehicles as part of its Micro Machines line. Most of the Micro Machines vehicles were from the first three Star Wars movies, although a handful were from Star Wars novels and video games. A replica of the TIE Defender, which first appeared in the Star Wars: TIE Fighter video game, was released in the Micro Machines Action Fleet line, a line of vehicle toys that were bigger than the regular Micro Machines toys and came with tiny figures that could fit inside the vehicle. Even though the Extended Universe stories place the first appearance of the TIE Defender just before the events in Return of the Jedi, it would be nice to see this or some other alternate design appear alongside standard TIE Fighters in the Rebels series.

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Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and its sequel were two video games that took place in the same era as Rebels. While it hasn't been confirmed as of yet if Force Unleashed is still part of Star Wars canon and if any of its characters and events will be involved in Rebels, it would be a shame to let the alternate Stormtrooper and Imperial Guard designs created for the games go to waste--especially since these designs have already been released as action figures and could be re-released with Rebels packaging. The designs include an EVO Trooper, Jump Trooper, Incinerator Trooper, and Shadow Guard.

Toy Collecting Reaches a New Level of Excess with Gentle Giant's Six Foot Kenner Stormtrooper Action Figure

Last year, I posted two rants (click here and here) about Gentle Giant's release of "Jumbo" 12 inch replicas of 3 and 3/4 inch figures from Kenner's Star Wars toy line that was released during the late 70s. I couldn't--and still can't--comprehend the appeal of buying a larger scale replica of an action figure at a price point that's ridiculously higher than the original.

Of course, leave it up to me to underestimate the power of the toy collectors market. Since my 2012 rants, the 12 inch Jumbo line has expanded to include replicas of many Kenner figures from Empire Strikes Back (including the Wampa) and it looks like it will go on to include many Kenner Return of the Jedi figure replicas as well. With the Jumbo series proving to be a hit, Gentle Giant has decided to get even giant-er by releasing a limited edition six foot tall replica of Kenner's Stormtrooper action figure (complete with removable blaster), which will be released in 2014 for $2,300. To put it in another perspective, Gentle Giant is making an expensive six foot version of a toy that was originally less than four inches high and sold for a few bucks. The original Stormtrooper action figure can sit in Kenner's Star Wars vehicle toys; the giant Stormtrooper action figure can sit next to you on your couch.

Yes, really. (Photos courtesy of Galactic Hunter.)

If anything, the giant Stormtrooper action figure replica is a textbook example of geek exorbitance. I can understand releasing Alien action figures based on the scale of Kenner action figures, or releasing classic Battlestar Galactica action figures based on the scale of Mego action figures. But an action figure replica that literally towers over the demographic group for which the figure was originally designed and costs more than most home appliances? Seriously?

Yes, This Almost Happened: The Car Game--for Kids!

When looking back at the history of the American toy industry, it’s amazing to consider some of the toys that the industry thought would be “appropriate” for kids. Take Kenner, for example: After making boatloads of cash from Star Wars toys, it hastily picked up the toy license for Alien simply because it was a high-profile space movie without giving a second thought about how horrifying the film actually was. Along those lines, Kenner did something else based on movie popularity, with likewise questionable results. It created a game for kids based on the 1977 horror movie, The Car, about a possessed, driverless car that loves to run over people. I had no idea that this game was even an idea in someone’s head, let alone something that Kenner thought about releasing to toy stores, until I found a post about it on the Plaid Stallions site.

With Kenner's The Car game, kids can get run down by

a demonic vehicle in the privacy of their own homes.

(Photo courtesy of Plaid Stallions.)

From licensing and design perspectives, The Car game sort of makes sense. Ideal released a similarly-themed game based on Jaws that proved to be quite popular, so someone at Kenner probably thought that a game based on a Jaws rip-off would be almost or just as popular. Furthermore, toy cars and motorcycles that could be propelled from a launcher base had been reliable sellers during the 70s and 80s, so I could see Kenner utilizing such a design as part of a game, possibly based on a preexisting launcher design that could be modified and relabeled for the game at minimal cost. Nevertheless, just reading the description of the game in the picture above makes it pretty clear that the players who lose the game are killed by the monster car, thus making the winning player the survivor. Candyland this isn’t.

I’m not sure why Kenner never actually produced the game, although I suspect that it was scrapped after The Car failed to live up to expectations at the box office. It should be noted that the movie went on to become a cult classic and that ERTL released a die-cast replica of the titular vehicle back in 2003. Those replicas now go for a few hundred dollars on the collectors' market.

ERTL's replica of The Car.

Remembering Return of the Jedi

This last weekend marked the 30th anniversary of the theatrical release of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, which was released on May 25, 1983. Being a life-long Star Wars fan, it would be wrong for me not to do some kind of retrospective about this moment in modern geek history.

At the time of its release, Return of the Jedi marked the end of an era for me. Star Wars wasn’t just my gateway drug into all things geeky; it was a rehab-worthy addiction that began with Star Wars in 1977 and ended in 1983 with Jedi. That’s six years of toys, books, comics, posters, bubblegum cards, board games, magazines, t-shirts, Underoos, pajamas, bed sheet sets, window curtains, towels, wallpaper, drinking glasses, vinyl records, and dozens of other licensed items that I cannot recall at the moment. That list doesn’t include the release of Empire Strikes Back in 1980 and the subsequent theatrical re-releases of both Star Wars and Empire before the arrival of Jedi; each of these trips to the movie theater helped to spur the anticipation for anything and everything connected to the Star Wars franchise.

What might have been: Revenge of the Jedi poster

After spending so many years being obsessed with one franchise--a lifetime in the eyes of a child--things just weren’t the same after Jedi. At the time, George Lucas and Lucasfilm didn’t seem interested in continuing the Star Wars franchise (at least on the scale of another movie trilogy), so a pervasive feeling of finality had set in quickly after Jedi left the theaters. Marvel kept publishing issues of their non-canonical Star Wars comic until 1986 and Star Wars would appear every now and then on TV with the Ewoks and Droids cartoons and the Ewok TV movies, but the fan enthusiasm that permeated the years of the original trilogy had evaporated. There were no new movies on the horizon, so kids my age sobered up and moved on to other things.

Looking back, I don’t recall anything else like what the original Star Wars trilogy brought to pop culture, or any other series that provided the kind of final act that Jedi was. There have been plenty of fantasy and sci-fi trilogies since then, as well as noteworthy third movie installments in other film franchises, but none of them could match the mood of Star Wars. Sure, Lord of the Rings was a popular movie trilogy, but you could always read the novels if you couldn’t wait for the next movie installment; in contrast, you couldn’t read ahead in the Star Wars trilogy, so you had to wait three years at a time with everybody else for the next movie. There were also other movie-only trilogies such as the Back to the Future and The Matrix trilogies, but their mediocre second installments and overall lack of kid appeal quelled whatever excitement those series could muster.

George Lucas and R2-D2, surrounded by the original Star Wars trilogy in miniature.

Between its overall quality and uniqueness, as well as its significance both within the original trilogy and to the prequel trilogy, I think that Jedi is a gem of a film that deserves much more respect than it gets. At its heart, the Star Wars series is sci-fi pulp serial along the lines of Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers and the visual sophistication of Jedi is a celebration of that kind of storytelling. It featured a huge selection of new aliens (Jabba the Hut, Admiral Ackbar, the Rancor monster, etc.) and action sequences that pushed the envelope of what practical special effects were capable of during the early 80s. While these dazzling visual treats flashed by on the silver screen, story arcs came to an end, an empire lost its emperor, the Jedi were beginning to return, and a cast of characters who matured over the course of three movies made their final curtain call. If another movie trilogy provided a better ending than Return of the Jedi, I can’t think of one.

Star Trek Boldly Goes Where Its Merchandising and Licensing Rights Say It Can Go

Star Trek 2.1: The Wrath of CumberKhan

I've been a Star Trek fan for a significant portion of my life-spanning geekhood, although my overall enthusiasm for the franchise has waned considerably during the last decade. It's not that Star Trek is a bad franchise as a whole; I just think that its potential has been squandered time and time again due to the absence of a strong, central leadership figure at the helm to guide the franchise through its various incarnations and effectively capitalize on its successes. As a result of this lack of leadership, Trek has been subject to Paramount's whims, which has largely resulted in competently made yet frequently bland Trek content and products. Whether it was using Trek to prop up a fledgling TV network (as was the case of Voyager and then Enterprise for Paramount's now-defunct UPN) or pushing one of the more successful Trek spinoffs onto the big screen just to makes some extra dollars (the underwhelming and uninspired Next Generation movies), Paramount's decisions concerning Trek appear to be made mostly by its accounting department and no one else.

With that in mind, I've been paying attention to the media coverage of Star Trek Into Darkness, the second movie in Paramount's reboot of the franchise that debuts here in the U.S. this weekend. The reboot started back in 2009 with a movie directed by J.J. Abrams, who has returned to direct the sequel. Most of the coverage of the new movie has been routine promotional stuff: articles reviewing the long history of Trek, fans discussing which Trek iterations were their most and least favorite, interviews with the reboot movie cast, and so on. But with director Abrams recently being hired by Disney to direct the first film in the next Star Wars trilogy, speculation has run rampant about what will become of Trek in the near future and whether Abrams will stay on with Trek or, if he leaves, who will continue the Trek reboot effort when Abrams is gone.

After reading dozens of reviews, articles and discussion boards, I finally found one article that sheds a considerable amount of light on the future of Trek and why Abrams signed on to a rival sci-fi franchise even though his last Trek film was a box office smash and the sequel looks to be equally profitable. Read on to learn more about how this Star Trek reboot might not live long and prosper after all.

According to The Wrap, Abrams' vision for the Trek reboot were much grander than what the fans actually got. This may have led Abrams to abandon ship for Disney, which recently acquired ownership of Star Wars franchise from creator George Lucas. As stated in the article:

"Competing ambitions between Paramount, CBS and Abrams' production company Bad Robot over merchandising surrounding the first film in the rebooted "Star Trek" franchise led the director to curtail plans to turn the series into a multi-platform experience that spanned television, digital entertainment and comic books, according to an individual with knowledge of the dispute. ... "Star Trek's" licensing and merchandising rights are spread over two media conglomerates with competing goals. The rights to the original television series from the 1960s remained with CBS after it split off from Paramount’s corporate parent Viacom in 2006, while the studio retained the rights to the film series. CBS also held onto the ability to create future “Star Trek” TV shows. ... (CBS) was making roughly $20 million a year on that merchandise and had no incentive to play nice with its former corporate brother ... In response, (Bad Robot) scaled back its ambitions to have "Star Trek's" storylines play out with television shows, spin-off films and online components, something Abrams had been eager to accomplish." (Click here to read the full article.)

Q: How much are Kirk and Spock worth?

A: It depends upon which ones you're talking about.

The Wrap concludes that Abrams left Star Trek for Star Wars largely because Disney has much more control over the Star Wars franchise than Paramount does over Trek and is thus more likely to work with Abrams' grand ambitions, and I'm inclined to agree. A major difference between Star Trek and Star Wars is that Trek's creator Gene Roddenberry never had nearly as much control over his creation as Lucas did over his, and I think that this difference is going to work in the favor of Star Wars in the long run. I'm still miffed that Disney discontinued production of the animated Clone Wars series, but it is obviously much more organized than Paramount when it comes to nurturing franchises.

(For another comparative example of Disney's prowess with building franchises, just look at how Marvel is doing under Disney and compare it to how DC is doing under Time-Warner. As of now, Marvel is starting on "Phase Two" of its movie adaptation plan and is set to release two new cartoons and a live-action TV show, while DC is still struggling with what to do with its characters that aren't named Batman.)

With the ongoing conflict of interest between CBS and Paramount and Abrams's frustration over it, I suspect that this particular Trek reboot will sputter to an end within a few years regardless of what Into Darkness does at the box office. I've said it before and I'll say it again: The worst thing that has ever happened to Star Trek was Paramount. That's been true for a long time and the fact that it's still true doesn't bode well for the franchise no matter how loyal its fan base is.

Kenner Star Wars Toys Strike Back: BaronSat's Lego Imperial Attack Base Playset

A few months ago, I published a post about BaronSat (a.k.a. Eric Druon), a devoted Lego hobbyist who made two Lego replicas of playsets from Kenner's short-lived Star Wars Micro Collection line. I just heard from BaronSat again, and he's made another impressive Lego replica from Kenner's Star Wars toy line: the Imperial Attack Base playset from Empire Strikes Back, which Kenner released for its 3 and 3/4 inch Star Wars action figures. Just as he did before, BaronSat took everything about the original playset and re-scaled it for Lego's Star Wars minifigs and the results are outstanding. Read on for more details and pictures of BaronSat's latest work.

The way I see it, the name "Imperial Attack Base" for this playset is one of the goofs made by Kenner during its run with the Star Wars toy license. (See also the blue Snaggletooth action figure and the 4-LOM/Zuckuss naming mix-up.) It's obvious that it was modeled after the trenches that the Rebel Alliance used to defend its Hoth base from the Imperials' assault in Empire Strikes Back. Yet between the playset's name and the images printed on the box, it looks like this Hoth base is for Darth Vader and his Snowtroopers, not the Rebels.

BaronSat is not lost on Kenner’s goof either. As he puts it on one of his Flickr pages, “(P)eople at Kenner, in the early 80's, saw a different movie (than Empire), so let me tell you the story: The peaceful Empire has set up an Imperial base on the sweet planet Hoth. They enjoy skiing, building snowmen and throwing snowballs at Wampas. But one awful day, the Rebel scum land on their planet and savagely attack the base. It follows a very fierce battle, known as the ‘Battle of Hoth’. Finally the Rebels are driven out of the planet and the Imperials resume their winter holidays.”

Despite the naming and publicity shot errors, the Imperial Attack Base was the most entertaining of Kenner's Hoth action figure playsets. It came with a snow bridge and command post that would collapse at the touch of a button, and its scale was complementary to the AT-AT, AT-ST and Snowspeeder vehicle toys. Kenner even molded little action figure-sized footprints into the playset's base to suggest that heavy foot traffic had moved through the snowy trenches. Curiously, the Hoth Rebel laser gun turret was not included in this playset; that would later be released as part of the awkward Turret and Probot playset.

Given his keen attention to detail, BaronSat included all of the features from the original Imperial Attack Base playset into his Lego replica. Lego made a few Hoth-themed Star Wars sets before but none of them recreated the Rebel's snow trenches, so it’s great to see BaronSat’s Lego version of a Kenner playset that did. The pictures below provide examples of everything the replica does, including a clever nod to the deleted Wampa attack scene from Empire Strikes Back. Sith happens, indeed.

Check out BarsonSat’s official site and Flickr pages for more examples of his work. You can also order custom Lego kits and custom kit instructions from him on his site.

Attention All Star Wars Fans: Act Now to Support The Clone Wars!

In my last post, I looked at what has been revealed to be the last episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, since it ended its run on Cartoon Network and Disney has no plans to continue it on any of their TV channels. As I was drafting the text for that post, I came across a message from Supervising Director Dave Filoni about the future of Clone Wars, a message that hinted at further Clone Wars adventures in the future (not as a TV series but in some other unspecified format) and it included new animated footage.

Unfortunately, the news I read yesterday took a more dire turn: According to several sources, the creative team behind Clone Wars is being disbanded and its members are either being assigned to new projects or are being let go. Along those lines, rumors have surfaced that Disney is severely downsizing Lucasfilm Animation and handing all future Star Wars TV projects over to an existing TV operation, thus further reducing the likelihood of Clone Wars ever seeing a proper resolution to its many storylines.

I think that Disney is doing a tremendous disservice to Star Wars fans by leaving the Clone Wars series unfinished. It added a significant amount of depth to the saga as a whole, and it served as a prime example of how good TV animation can be with the right amount of talent and effort. If you would like to contact Disney to express your support for future seasons of Clone Wars, go to the Save the Clone Wars site for more information on what you can do. You can also check out the Alliance To Restore The Clone Wars page on Facebook. May the Force be with The Clone Wars!

Three Curtain Calls at Cartoon Network: Green Lantern, Clone Wars, and Young Justice

This month marks the end of three major series from the Cartoon Network: Green Lantern: The Animated Series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and Young Justice. As a horror and sci-fi fan, I've gone through may fair share of TV series cancellations; nevertheless, between these three shows and Disney XD's recently departed Tron: Uprising, I've never seen so many genre show cancellations within such a short time frame. Click below for some additional thoughts and observations about the final episodes of Cartoon Network's latest cancelled series.

Green Lantern: The Animated Series

With no plans for another live-action Green Lantern movie, the odds of the Green Lantern cartoon staying on the air were probably very narrow--only blockbuster ratings and/or toy sales could have saved it. However, Cartoon Network's decision to cancel it does not reflect on the quality of the show itself. Like the 90s era Batman: The Animated Series before it, Green Lantern was light years ahead of its live-action counterpart in terms of quality, so much so that it's downright criminal that Time-Warner regards this cartoon with such little respect.

Green Lantern ended with a spectacular conclusion of the Anti-Monitor story arc, although the heart and soul of the story belonged to the supporting characters of Razer (voiced by Jason Spisak) and Aya (Grey DeLisle). Their roles in this arc brought the cartoon to a touching conclusion filled with both heartbreak and hope. As the ancient Greeks knew quite well, an heroic epic needs epic levels of tragedy to make it meaningful and memorable, and the writers and voice actors of Green Lantern expertly demonstrated their understanding of this dramatic rule in the end of their series. With such talent on display, it's frustrating to know that this creative team's exploration into the Green Lanterns' vast mythology has come to an end.

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Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Since its debut in 2008, Star Wars fans have been speculating how Clone Wars was going to impact the events connecting Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith and its implications for the saga as a whole. The good news is that the series' last story arc involving Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein) provided some tantalizing glimpses into the growing tension between the Jedi Order and Chancellor Palpatine (Tim Curry, taking over the role from the late Ian Abercrombie) and the beginnings of Palpatine's notorious Order 66. The bad news is that Disney has no plans to continue Clone Wars as a television series, so when, how and if this series will reach its proper conclusion remains unknown. Even worse is that the last story arc is an example of how great this series is in terms of writing and production quality and a reminder of what both fans of Star Wars and TV animation are losing after five seasons.

After Disney acquired Lucasfilm at the end of 2012, it was a foregone conclusion that the Time-Warner-owned Cartoon Network would stop running new episodes of Clone Wars at the end of its fifth season. Thus, Disney's refusal to continue the series into a sixth season (which was already in production with finished footage at the time of the cancellation announcement) took me and many others by surprise. Honestly, I would much rather see the sixth season of Clone Wars than any of the stand-alone, single character-centric Star Wars movies that are rumored to be in development. It should also be noted that between this and the cancellation of Tron: Uprising, 2013 marks Disney's discontinuation of two ambitious TV animation projects that are based on sci-fi franchises that it owns--a rather baffling development for a company that built its reputation on innovative animation.

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Young Justice

Young Justice wrapped up its second and final season storyline with the team defeating the Reach, a race of alien invaders that has been working with DC super villains to conquer Earth. If anything, the writers at Young Justice certainly knew how to keep the plot twists and cliffhangers coming so that viewers would be interested in seeing what happens next. Unfortunately, most of the plot twists seemed to exist just to move the plot along and to accommodate as many cameos from the DC universe as possible.

The ending of Young Justice reflects the sizable change that was made to the series between its first and second seasons: It shifted its focus from a set of recurring characters that learn and grow over time to a gigantic cast in a purely plot-driven story, thus sacrificing any meaningful character development in the process. As a result, the series' final episode felt like a shrug instead of a conclusive ending. Even the death of one of the major characters felt like yet another plot twist with no real emotional weight; that death's irrelevancy was emphasized by the character's replacement being revealed just minutes later, followed by two concluding scenes where characters literally say that events will go on in a "business as usual" manner. It also didn't help that the Reach aliens weren't very interesting as villains, so their invasion of Earth ends with less of bang and more of a prolonged fizzle.

Criticisms aside, there are aspects of Young Justice that I will miss. I enjoyed its approach to the superhero team concept, portraying it as a kind of well-coordinated special forces team assigned to tactical missions. I also enjoyed the multi-layered interactions between the Young Justice team and the more established Justice League. I'll particularly miss this series' versions of Aqualad, Miss Martian, Superboy and Artemis--the most interesting characters in Young Justice--as well as the friendly banter between Blue Beetle and Impulse.

R2-D2 and C-3PO: Kenner vs. Hasbro

Anyone who has paid attention to the toy industry over the last few decades will tell you that when it comes to toys based on pre-existing creative properties (e.g., comic books, TV shows, movies and video games), the amount of features and details present in such toys has skyrocketed. Nowhere has this change of quality has been more evident than in the toys for Star Wars, a franchise that has been producing toys by the ton ever since it first arrived back in 1977.

Kenner found itself with a huge cash cow on its hands when it secured the toy license for Star Wars during the original trilogy, but the toys produced by Hasbro during the subsequent years are much more movie-accurate than their predecessors. This post will look at two popular Star Wars characters, the loyal droids R2-D2 and C-3PO, how they were represented as 12 inch scale figures by both Kenner and Hasbro, and the MPC Star Wars model kits played a part in these figure designs. Read on ...

The 12 inch figures produced by Kenner didn't last long in comparison to their 3 and 3/4th inch figures, and they had vanished from toy store shelves shortly after the release of Empire Strikes Back in 1980. I've read varying accounts as to why Kenner released a 12 inch scale line in the first place and the most plausible theory I've seen is that up until the release of Star Wars in 1977, it was a common practice in the toy industry to make action figures that were somewhere between 8 to 12 inches in height. Kenner’s action figures for The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman were in this size range, as were licensed action figures produced by legendary toy company Mego. The way I see it, Kenner probably produced the 12 inch line of Star Wars figures as a contingency plan in case the smaller action figures didn't sell as well. Regardless, what the larger figures lacked in popularity they (almost) made up for in terms of detail in comparison to the other Star Wars figures that were available at that time.

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Kenner's R2-D2

The large scale R2-D2 figure from Kenner is a major upgrade from its smaller version. The smaller R2-D2 had an oddly sculpted head and only a sticker to provide details for the body. In contrast, the larger R2-D2 has a body and head sculpt that captures most of the details from the movie.

Curiously, the head of R2-D2 figure seems oddly proportioned, with his main radar eye looking unusually small in comparison to the rest of the domed head.

Kenner's R2-D2 has movable legs with wheels underneath that allow the figure to roll and like its smaller counterpart, the head makes clicking noises whenever it is turned. The only other feature that this feature has is a rear panel that opens to reveal what looks like two circuit boards. The box that this figure came in identified these boards as "the Death Star plans", even though Princess Leia is never seen in Star Wars loading two pizza box-sized panels into R2's back. Interestingly, the rear panel in the large R2-D2 action figure is in the same place where the battery compartment is located for Kenner's remote controlled R2-D2 toy.

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Hasbro's R2-D2

Hasbro's large R2-D2 action figure was released during the 90s and it is smaller than Kenner's R2. In fact, Hasbro's R2 almost matches the dimensions of the MPC R2-D2 model kit.

Even though it's made with a much more durable plastic, Hasbro's R2 doesn't have any of the opening panels that MPC's R2 has: MPC's model features a hinged front panel that opens to allow for the extension of R2's computer linkage arm and a removable rear panel to reveal R2's inner circuitry, but Hasbro's figure has neither of these features. Nevertheless, both Hasbro and MPC released an R2-D2 that has a retractable third leg, something that Kenner never got around to producing in any of its R2-D2 figures.

Comparing Kenner and Hasbro's R2-D2 figures side-by-side reveals which figure is more faithful to the movie version of the droid. Then again, Kenner's large-sized R2-D2 was the most movie-accurate replica of the droid that Kenner released when it had the Star Wars license, which just goes to show how affordable toy replicas of movie characters have improved in terms of detail during the last few decades.

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Kenner's C-3PO

Of the figures reviewed in this post, Kenner's large-sized C-3PO is the lightest of the group. Even though the plastic itself is sturdy, it feels hollow and only weighs a few ounces. Most of Kenner's large-sized non-costumed action figures weighed less than the others; a childhood friend of mind had a large-sized Stromtrooper that weighed about the same as the large-sized C-3PO.

As with Kenner's R2-D2, the large-sized C-3PO is much more detailed than its smaller version. For example, the large-sized sculpt includes the restraining bolt that the Jawas attached to the droid shortly after he arrived on Tatooine.

Kenner's C-3PO features joints in the neck, shoulders and hips, and that's it; there are no panels to open or accessories to add. The hip joints are cut at an odd angle so that he can only sit with his legs splayed outward. (From what I remember, Kenner’s large-sized Stormtrooper had hip joints cut the same way.)

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Hasbro's C-3PO

I got my Hasbro C-3PO as part of the C-3PO: Tales of the Golden Droid box set, which was part of the short-lived Star Wars Masterpiece Edition series of box sets. These sets--of which there are only three that I know of--were released to coincide with the release of The Phantom Menace in 1999. The sets included a 12 inch figure of a particular Star Wars character and a hard cover book devoted to that character: how the character was created, the history of the character within the Star Wars universe, and all of the merchandise that was produced between 1977 and 1999 that bears the character's likeness.

Hasbro put a lot of details into its C-3PO figure, including blaster residue on his gold plating, wires as part of his exposed midriff, and his mismatched silver plated leg. He has joints in his neck, shoulders, waist and hips, as well as limited movement hinge joints in the knees and ankles. Oddly, the hip joints in this figure are cut the same was as the Kenner version.

An added feature to this particular version of C-3PO is that it can be disassembled into various parts, so fans can recreate all of the times that the droid was damaged during the saga. The figure also comes with a netted backpack similar to the one used by Chewbacca to move the damaged droid around Cloud City in Empire Strikes Back. (I couldn't tell you if the backpack actually fits on a Hasbro Chewbacca figure, since I don't have one.)

Comparing the two C-3PO figures reveals how much closer Hasbro's sculpt is to the original movie version than Kenner's. The dimensions of Kenner's C-3PO sculpt makes it look bulkier than the droid should be, with a wider torso and broader shoulders. I suspect that, for the sake of convenience, Kenner based its C-3PO sculpt along the same dimensions used for the large scale Stormtrooper and Darth Vader figures.

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Putting the droid figures together into their respective pairs shows that Hasbro did a better job at recreating the droids' details, except for one glaring error: Hasbro's R2-D2 is not to scale with its C-3PO figure. In contrast, Kenner's large-sized versions of R2-D2 and C-3PO are in scale with each other in spite of all the other details that were missed, which makes them a better complementary set than Hasbro's.

After getting so many details right, it seems odd that Hasbro would get this scale issue wrong. All I can conclude is that Hasbro really did base its R2 on MPC’s R2 model kit, because it would be easier and cheaper to base an R2 figure from a pre-existing design than to create a new one from scratch. As you can see from the comparison pics below, the MPC R2 was designed to be in same scale with the MPC C-3PO model kit, which is not 12 inches high. Thus, Hasbro’s R2 is in scale with MPC’s C-3PO but not with any of Hasbro’s 12 inch Star Wars figures.

From left to right: Hasbro's R2-D2 figure and MPC's R2-D2 model kit.

From left to right: Hasbro's C-3PO figure and MPC's C-3PO model kit.