Showing posts with label Star Wars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Star Wars. Show all posts

Sunday, 31 July 2022

Jessie's Prints - Episode 22 - Some Stuff For Friends

This week, I are mostly been printing...  Stuff for Friends

Bigby's Sign of the Horns - Thingiverse 4048680

My current DM Mark is a bit of a metalhead and in honour of his awesome DMing I printed him this equally awesome spell effect for the famous D&D spell Bigby's Hand.  I hope I get to see it in play in the not too distant future. 

Bigby's Sign of the Horns

Baby Yoda Lithophane - Thingiverse 4073323

Printing a Lithophane has been high on my agenda for some time and as I was due to meet my 3 old work pals from the Ministry of Defence what better way to celebrate our reunion after Pandemic.

Baby Yoda Lithophane

This has been my biggest resin print to date and I really wanted to push the printer to see what it could do.  I am blown away by the mid bending properties of Lithophanes and how, on a budget resin printer, I can make photorealistic 3D art.  

Amazing and definitely fits into "optical Illusion" territory.

Displacer Kitten and Displacer Beast - Thingiverse 4830184  / My Minifactory

Fellow Dragons Keep member Kat told me that her DM had recently gifted her a Displacer Kitten as a moving-in gift so I quickly sourced this super cute mini and an equally awesome displacer beast to represent the kitten when fully grown.

Displacer Kitten

Displacer Beast

Of course no birthday gift can come without a presentation gift box and my old 3D Printer sacrificed some of it's foam packaging for a custom box.

Displacer Beast Gift Box

Saturday, 4 June 2022

Obi What a Disaster!

I confess I am not a fan of Disney Star Wars.  It has been a car crash right from the first sequel movie (with the exception of the Mandalorian and the Book of Boba Fett) and the latest installment continues that fine tradition.

What The Actual Fuck! 

I'm just a jobbing DM okay, but I understand continuity and if you are going to write a story in a well established universe then there are some rules you have to follow or you are going to fuck it up.

1. Don't rewrite canon!

Established events are exactly that ESTABLISHED.  If it happened in a previous story then it must happen again.  If a character says something which ordains a historic set of actions then any prequel story you write must maintain those actions or events.

For example when Leia contacts Obi Wan Kenobi she refers to him as a Jedi who fought alongside my father in the clone wars.  This intimates that she has never met him herself and has only heard about him through the war stories her father told her.  So don't set up a 6 part prequel TV series with the singular premise of finding and rescuing the kidnapped 10 year version of Leia.

Young Leia Organa
Don't worry farm boy, I got this

Another example would be the meeting of Kenobi and Vader aboard the Death Star in A New Hope when Vader tells him that the last time they met he was but the learner and now he is the master.  This clearly refers to their last encounter on Mustafa when Anakin was Kenobi's padawan.  Don't set up a showdown that breaks the canon and can only end in a standoff because you can't kill either of the main characters.

2. Be consistent with your characters!

The mark of an incompetent writer is to set up an event and then to back out of it when they realise that they have written themselves into a plot cul de sac.  They usually hit reverse with some mcguffin of an idea which further compounds their error and highlights their incompetence.

For example in the quarry standoff between Kenobi and Vader the Dark Lord of the Sith uses his considerable power to drag Kenobi around like a ragdoll and put out flames with a wave of his hand.  But when the writer has realised that Kenobi is going to die (which can't happen right) he is suddenly defeated by flames and cannot force grab the droid rescuing Kenobi.  Pathetic writing which isn't even consistent with the events of a few seconds ago.  

Darth Vader defeated by flames
Can someone call the firebrigade?

A lesser event but no less irritating occurs when the stormtrooper tells Kenobi to tell them his "long story" as it's a long ride and then no more than three minutes later that's it the stormtroopers are at their destination.  Let's be honest, It wasn't a long story and the stormtroopers were a few miles at best away from their destination.  For God's sake was this written by a 10 year old. 

If you are going to make Obi-Wan a shadow of his former self then at least stay consistent.  When he is confronted by the stormtroopers at the laser gate (oh God, the laser gate...) he instantly turns into John Wick and laser blasts them in seconds despite having a known hatred for "uncivilised" blasters.

Kenobi Wick
You killed my dog mother funsta!!

3. Things don't happen instantly

We know that time is a tricksy thing.  You have to allow a certain amount of time to elapse between establishing a thing and then that thing having a consequence.  Travel between worlds takes time even using hyperspace.  You can't just despatch probe droids one minute and them turn up conveniently in the next scene at exactly the right place.  That my dear writer is a mcguffin.

This was an entirely unnecessary element which only served as the backdrop to a power struggle between the two inquisitors.  Do the garrison on Daiyu not have communication with Inquisitor HQ?  Does the notion of sending a photo not occur to them?

Oh my the force is weak with this one. 

Thursday, 21 May 2020

The Empire Strikes Back is 40 Today

My Star Wars relationship began with The Empire Strikes Back.



Whilst I am assured that I was taken to see Starwars at the tender age of 4, I don't really have any recollection of the actual trip to the movie.  However, I spent days watching and rewatching a VHS copy of the movie which had been taped from a Yorkshire Television broadcast one christmas, complete with The Two Ronnies advertising the Atari 2600.

The summer holiday highlight that year was going to the cinema in Filey to see the movie.  I had already been primed as a few days earlier I had begged for a copy of the comicbook novel.  I won't go into detail about what a mind blowing experience that was.  Later that year I got a couple of action figures (the only ones I ever owned).

Empire Strikes Back Marvel Comic Novel
Comic Paperback
Empire Strikes Back Han Solo Hoth
Han Solo Hoth

Empire Strikes Back IG-88
IG-88

Monday, 4 May 2020

Star Wars Day 2020 - May The Fourth Be With You!

This years #StarWarsDay finds us in lockdown and whilst The New Trilogy is still a festering sore in it's cinematic legacy there is still much to be celebrated.

 Enjoy your holiday and fill yourself with A New Hope.




Tuesday, 24 January 2012

My 10 Favourite Sci-Fi Posters

Thanks to Davis Chenault for his post highlighting the IGN 25 Top Sci-FI Posters.

Here's my top 10 (in no particular order) with some alternate versions thrown in for good measure:


1. MAD MAX


Original Theatrical Poster

UK Poster
I love the graphic simplicity of the original release, but the UK poster (which I remember from my childhood) makes me wanna see the movie NOW!.

2. DUNE


UK Poster

Japanese Poster
The haunting alien vista of the UK poster is infinitely preferable to the car crash of bad airbrush art that is the Japanese version.  Who is Paul Atreides supposed to be kissing, cos it sure doesn't look like Sean Young.

3. BLADE RUNNER

Original Poster
Directors Cut Poster
The crazy angles and harsh edged look to the original composite are given a more sympathetic and dreamlike treatment for the directors cut.  Much better poster IMHO.

4. THEY LIVE


Original Poster

Marc Palm Homage Poster
Rowdy Roddy Pipper eyeballs your "alienness" in the original, but there's a nice subversive edge to Marc Palm's "Hope" version.

5. STAR WARS


Original Poster

Olly Moss Homage
The original is a masterpiece of both composition and oil painting, even if the blasters seem to be firing light-sabre beams.  The Olly Moss homage is an elegant piece of graphic design genius.  I'm officially torn between the two.

6. ALIEN

Original Poster
Polish Poster
The minimalist original has it all, black for space, weird cracked egg with green glowy yolk, scary byeline and alien eggbox landscape.  The poor poles have no idea what they're letting themselves in for with their bizarre blood vessel drawing of what I can only presume is a facehugger?

7. ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK

Original Poster
Special Edition Poster
The Big Apple has gone all to hell in the iconic (if a little cliched) original as the characters are caught in a spot of mid escape terror.  The Special Edition looks like one of Snake Plisken's holiday snaps, posed right after he's brought down the Statue of Liberty in some sort of explosive mayhem.

8. SCANNERS

Original Poster
Italian Poster
In the definitive original, Michael Ironside's about to explode!!!.  But I love the comic book style and vivid fiery reds in the Italian version.

9. GODZILLA VS MEGALON
Original Poster
Alternate Poster
Godzilla is kicking Megalon's butt in the original and classic poster.  In the alternate version The Lost Continent of Mu has been given the boot in favour of a battle on top of the Twin Trade Towers which due to the exaggerated scale makes both these Kaiju look a bit puny by comparison.  Nice idea, poor execution (and the typeography lets it down as well)

10. THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN


Original Poster
Ken Taylor Mondo Poster
The arthouse style original with its dirty steampunk qualities are eschewed by Ken Taylor for a heavily inked composite illustration evocative of a Hammer Horror movie poster.