FF:VIC The Dag House

My boss came up to me today and said "hey May the Fourth be with you" and asked me if I had heard that phrase before.

Oh the pain of dealing with mere mortals...

 

"Use the fork Luke" I've heard that as a joke plenty of times but not in a real world situation spoken to an actual Luke. I'm surprised he doesn't just use a spoon for everything!

Yes the 4th of May is when all the commoners get to demonstrate just how truly clever they are to us fans.

Instead of calling it the International Star Wars day, it should be the "International Star Wars fans hide from the predictability of the mundane world day".

 

I discovered some new US merchandise floating around, Star Wars cookiee cutters which will cut your "straight out of the oven" bikkies into an X-Wing, TIE Fighter, Death Star and M Falcon.

Now I'm thinking that if you can't get your kids to chow down on a bikkie or two, you'll be able to hold up the Falcon cookiee and go "here comes the Falcon into Bay 327, eeeeeeowwwww"

 

Whoa what was that!!!



I did a check of the forums here a couple of days ago and found that Oceania ... was GONE! Yep, missing, vanished, in absentia! For a couple of days it seems that we were cloaked. Anyone else notice this? (Note: I do find it funny that I'm asking if anyone else noticed this even though for all intents and purposes I'm standing in a room by myself )

In any event, for a moment I thought the Great Lords of the Council had opted to pull the plug on Oceania ... probably due to a lack of posts and activity.

But we're back again and don't worry fans, The Dag House is open for business to keep the spirit of VicFF alive and kicking ... even if we do have the popularity and attendance of a Moroccan Jar Jar convention

 

I saw the coolest thing on the weekend, now normally I'm not a fan on new merchandise but this was pretty groovy.

It was a Chewbacca figure that looked EXACTLY like the original 1978 issue action figure but was 12" in size which admittedly made for a pretty big packet. It looked great, especially as the card itself featured all the original '78 artwork on a 12 back card - even the punch out hole was included in the top which was still intact.

I only saw the Chewbacca one so I'm guessing the other 11 figures are available too in this format, which means the big question is whether the Jawa has a plastic or material cape.

It's a great concept even if as collectables, they're pretty big.

 

I decided to go back to Page 1 to have a look at the history of this thread and found that it turned three years old a week or so back! That's just unbelieveable, I mean it only seems like last month when The Dag House opened its doors.

Never fear fans, while all the other threads in VicFF have been locked, The Dag House is still here to party

 

We had a good Skyforce meeting on Saturday where we showed the really groovy Lego video The Padawan Menace which was really good as well as having a natter about the recent issue in the UK with the Stormtrooper helmet maker vs LFL.

Another presentation was based on SW tattoos. As you'd know there are lots and lots out there, but alas some of them are definately better than others, so we had plenty of pics which were met with a collective groan from the audience.

We also showed the new SW deleted scenes from the upcoming Blu Ray trailer. Some of them were interesting and some of them were ... quick.

I'm sure people will go nuts for seeing all this deleted footage which is all well and good but what do you do after you've watched it?

 

The only problem with the upcoming Blu-Ray release is that you can bet the films will be rereleased on BR for the 3D versions, so people will need to buy them again. After all, how many copies of one film can a person need?

As it stands, AOTC and ROTS should look mega fantastic on BR as they were both shot using Hi Def digital cameras.

 

I hear there maybe some dissention in the fan camp.

Rumour has it the upcoming Blu Ray release of Jedi has been changed YET AGAIN! Yep, someone at LFL (probably Uncle George) has tinkered/tampered with the film and now the Ewoks blink while Uncle Darth gives out a cry of "no" when preparing to literally give the Emperor the shaft.

Now all this is just a rumour but I wouldn't be surprised if there is an element of truth in it.

In the famous words of See Threepio "dear oh dear".

 

The reality is that the blinking Ewoks probably won't be that bad, but unfortunately we're all so used to them NOT doing it that it'll probably be a big distraction for the fans. Furthermore, they look more alien when they don't blink so adding it in will detract from that.

Of all the changes they could make I don't think this is the worst (having Greedo shoot first easily tops THAT list). What this does mean is that if they're prepared to tinker with the films AGAIN, what else are they going to muck around with???

 

Ahhh so the Blu Rays are now out and about and thus Star Wars is in the public eye once again - at least for a short time.

I see there are posts in NSW about fans lining up in front of stores for opening day and all that, who says history doesn't repeat.

So what'll be watched first do you think? The movies themselves or the special features. My guess is that people will pop on ANH and will skip to various bits and pieces to see the improved image quality and that will be it - as for watching all six films again, yeah like that's gonna happen.

Speaking of the six, a cinema in Bendigo of all places is showing the six films (in episode order) this weekend. As to whether they have the rights to do this is anyone's guess. Still if you ever want a SW overload, this will be the place to be.

 

I was going to buy the BluRay box set ... then I realized I don't have a BluRay player. I was a cheapskate and went with a DVD drive for my computer instead.

Should probably buy one and join the 21st century at some point ...

 

Yeah there's a bit of a price war going on with it. Now that it's been a couple of weeks and the big fan spending flurry is over, I wouldn't be surprised if it starts coming down further.

What I find amazing about this is that no matter how many releases of the trilogy they have, they always seem to find new extra features to include. So either they just make a point of digging this stuff up as needed or they deliberately hold off releasing all of it. In time you'd have to think they'll eventually run out of material - remembering that the 3D Blu Ray release will probably be in a couple of years.

What's funny of course is that the Luke in Tosche Station scene with Biggs, Fixer et all which is on the Blu Ray release was only previously made available on the Making Magic CD in the early 90s - yep even this didn't make it to the previous DVD incarnations.

 

I wouldn't be too keen to rush out and get one just yet - even though they've become affordable. Blu Ray has been out for a couple of years and it has yet to show any sign of market dominance. Even when you go to JB the Blu Ray section is tiny compared to the massive DVD titles on offer.

I think the reason for this is that even though Blu Ray offers better picture quality over DVD and usually more extra features, for the average person that's not enough of a reason to upgrade - as opposed to the DVD vs VHS scenario where the quality jump was enormous. It'll be interesting to see how many people buy a Blu Ray player simply because of the SW release.

Furthermore, if you're a big fan of classic 1950s films like I am (see my sci-fi collection listing here)then going to Blu Ray is pointless as the DVD version is already high quality.

The time Blu Ray will start to take over is when they stop producing new DVD titles.

Funnily enough there was a song in the early 80s called "Video Killed the Radio Star", yet when you think about it.

- Video killed the radio star
- DVD killed the video star
- Blu Ray killed the DVD star
- Downloading killed the Blu Ray star
and yet the radio is still as popular as ever!

 

ATTENTION EVERYONE!!!


I just love saying that knowing full well there is no one else here.

I've announced this pretty much everywhere else but I haven't made a point of mentioning it here so here I am ... mentioning it ... here

On Saturday October 29 I, The Dags, will be retiring from the committee of Star Walking Inc.

"Star Walking what?" I hear you ask, *sigh* Star Walking Inc, the Star Wars Appreciation Society of Australia established in 1988.

"Oh OK, so what's the big deal about that?" I hear you ask again. Well Star Walking was established in 1988 right, but I joined in 1987. Yep, I'm one of the co founders of the club and after 23 years of service to the Star Wars fan community, I'm finally hanging up my red bladed sabre.

*insert crickets chirping*

Anyway my final day will be at our Skyforce meeting on the 29th, which will also be the last meeting for the year and our last at the Whitley College venue too. Not that anyone else here cares, but if you want to come along to the meeting for my final send off then that'd be groovy. Whatdaya reckon!!!

*insert sound of wind blowing tumbleweed*

 

I was born in 1987.

Just wanted to make you feel old.

How'd it go - did you do anything special? Are you leaving the club entirely, or just stepping down from the committee?

 

I've always felt old. Remember it's not the years, it's the mileage.

What month were you born? If it was later than June 1987 then I've been a part of SWI longer than you've existed!

How did it all go? Yeah pretty good, some people came along for my last auction and my final panel which was really neat. There were some noteable absences which is a shame but I can't complain with how things ended up. One way or another though I'm sure I'll be missed.

As for what happens now? Well I'll still go to the club meets as an ordinary attendee. Strangely enough it is a notorious fact that when someone leaves a committee position they leave the club entirely - as to why I don't know - so I don't intend to do that 'cause they can't get rid of me that easily.

 

Don't you hate it when you see something you reall want, only to find there's nowhere to put it! We had that problem at Armgeddon in October where I saw this fanastic picture of Uncle Darth kneeling down thinking of Padme and Obi Wan (you can see it here (look for Ruminations about two thirds of the way down the page)

It looked fantastic, it was magnificently framed ... and it cost $945! OUCH! In another time and place we would've bought it right there and then, but the problem was "where to put it?" The only room that would've housed this pic already has framed Star Wars posters adorning the walls so it would mean replacing something with this one - probably my framed Uncle Darth photomosaic poster which is bit of a fave.

So alas we've had to let this pic go through to the keeper.

 

Heard the classic comment the other day.

People were raving about the look of the TPM 3D trailer saying "this looks good" and "this looks great" when at the end someone simply said...

"It doesn't matter 'cause it's still a crap film"

It makes you wonder how many general mundane public people will see the movie? Chances are it might only be the fans giving it the once over and that's it.

 

I see they've finally released the Darth Plagueis novel which is awesome news as I think the "tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise" is the best bit of writing/story telling in all six of the films.

When you have the line "the Dark Side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural", you know it's gonna be special.

Anyway I have to consider whether I plan to make an effort to read the book as I haven't read a SW novel since the mid 90s. I just hope they've done it all justice as I can image Plagueis and Sidious together would be the ultimate partnership.