It doesn’t matter what the Casuals say, the real Star Wars Day – the Orthodox Star Wars Day – has always been the 25th of May. So today is just as good a time to launch this project as any! (Okay, apart from maybe CreatureCantina.com’s actual 25th Anniversary, but I didn’t have enough of the bits & pieces to make this work, at that time.)
I’ve always loved “The Cantina.” Hells, I was submitting story ideas for it long before I officially joined the staff! But as anyone who doesn’t turn to A.I. for everything knows, drawing is a work-intensive endeavor that requires real talent. I haven’t got the kind of talent that can produce results that are good AND fast – you can have good, or you can have fast. But not both. Thankfully, the talented people who make “Star Wars” action figures and such have the “Good” part handled, so I can focus on the “Fast.”
Buckle up, buttercups, because WE’VE GOT MOVIE SIGN!!! Or something like that . . . .
”But wait!” you exclaim. “Didn’t Bill’s strip end with Tatooine getting disintegrated?!” Yes. Yes, it did. But after a brief confab with Bill, we sorted that out, and it doesn’t involve Momaw Nadon waking up to find Greedo in the shower, and it was all a dream.
Tune in next week for the second installment of “The Cantina” to see how we solved that!
Oh, and if you enjoyed this, or if you have a comic idea you’d like to share (and get credit for, if it’s adapted!), please feel free to click on over to our Facebook page to join the discussion!
Last Saturday I attended western Pennsylvania's premiere toy show, ToyPaLooza. With nearly 400 vendor tables, it's the biggest show west of NYC and east of Columbus. And it's entirely focused on toys, so it's not all arts-and-crafts BS like Steel City Con has become. There was only one single ...
The stripping of the figures continues... I have maybe 5 more that still stubbornly hold onto their chrome. After almost THREE WEEKS soaking! But I see progress each time I start scrubbing.
As I was scrubbing one of them I noticed a problem that I'd overlooked when I bought it. The ...
Wa tetu dat uta, gang! Here’s some fun that’s akin to the old The Wizard of Oz and The Dark Side of the Moon trick, but with droids and classic Looney Tunes cartoon music:
When you're watching Attack of the Clones, cue up the little tune embedded below on your phone (or device of your choice) and start it playing between the 93:51 / 1:33:51 mark and the 93:52 / 1:33:52 mark. (Just as soon as Anakin steps through the door and the Droid Factory scenes start.) Stick with it to the end of the tune. You will love it.
Time it JUUUUUUSSST right, and it synchs up BEAUTIFULLY.
Oh, and Certified Awesome Fact: the drummer in Raymond Scott’s group is Johnny Williams. His son, John, wrote a bunch of music for some movies and TV shows that quite a few people seemed to like . . . .
After verifying it was safe to use aluminum with DOT3 brake fluid, I lined up my figures to give them a bath. When I filled the tray, I discovered a small problem...
It turns out action figures float in brake fluid. This was something that hadn't occurred to me. So I was really lucky I'd purchased a foil tray 2-pack, which allowed me to do this:
I figured that'd make sure the figures were mostly submerged. I left them to soak overnight, then tried to use a toothbrush to scrub off the chrome. And I discovered 12 hours of soaking wasn't super effective...
On some of the figures the chrome blistered nicely. On others, nothing happened at all. I gave it another 24 hours and had a bit more success. To my surprise, the figures that weren't just plain off-white were the easiest ones to strip. The chrome fell right off the two I had that have darker plastic bodies. But even after 72 hours some of the figures were just barely stripping.
So this is going a lot less well than I'd hoped. My hands cramped from scrubbing the last time. This chrome is stubborn...
I'm gonna take another crack at the rest later today. Here's hoping another 72 straight hours of soaking does the trick!
My next Droids Custom is gonna be an adventure - exploring new things I've never tried and hoping I don't fail miserably. It'll be most similar to my Droids R5-D4 where I repainted a bunch of old figures so they'd be in the Droids style. But with R5-D4 the sticker did most of the heavy lifting. A Droids-style Death Star Droid will need to be completely hand-painted. And I worry about the eyes. I tried to paint R5-D4's dome and it went terribly, so I abandoned that and used vinyl stickers instead. There's not option for that here. I either paint them right or the custom looks awful...
So I'm gonna research how those Warhammer dudes do it.
But first I gotta prep the figures for their base color. It'll be blue... I still need to shop for the spray paint. But you can't just spray chrome cuz it won't stick. That's where the brake fluid comes in...
We've finished processing our invoices, and have placed the order for our 2026 medallions with the manufacturer. We expect to ship out the medallions in early June.
We tried something completely different this year, and it succeeded beyond our expectations. We ended up producing a run of 715 medallions, far more than the minimum 500 we needed to make the fundraiser happen. And that was only possible thanks to the efforts of the volunteers who agreed to publicize the fundraiser within their communities. PSWCS.org would like to extend a special thank you to these selfless individuals!
Brian Angel - SW 12 Backs and Early Vintage Collectors
David Carr - Star Wars Friends, Fans and Collectors
Matt Erickson - Ohio Star Wars Collectors Club
Alexander Gates - Hawaii Star Wars Collectors Club
Mark Huber - California Vintage SW Collectors' Club
Stephen Kaarbo - Minnesota Star Wars Collectors Alliance
Vinny Tricomi - NorthEast Star Wars Collectors Club
Narayan Naik - Georgia Alliance of Star Wars Collectors
Chuck Paskovics - Jedi Temple Archives
Josh Phillips - Tennessee Star Wars Collectors Club
Michael Ritter - Empire State Star Wars Collectors Club
Martin Thurn - D.C. Star Wars Collecting Club
Gary Wines - SoCal Star Wars Collectors
New Regal Robot Indiana Jones Wall Decor Available!
Add more adventure to your space with Regal Robot's 1:1 prop-style wall decor!
Today the company released their third Temple Trap Wall Decor, inspired by the incredible Chachapoyan Temple set from the opening of Indiana Jones and The Raiders of the Lost Ark.
At 15" tall, this heavy resin recreation is incredibly detailed and hand-painted by the FX artists in the company's NY studio. The high-relief stone-look sculpture feels like it came right out of the movie and this one even comes with a removable resin dart to enhance the display.
You can reserve yours now and take advantage of their payment plan option to get the cost to only $60 a month!
Happy 25th Anniversary to CreatureCantina.com! Let's break out some beer and celebrate!
Now, this beer makes me a little miffed that I already used the Decepticon Pirate, Cannonball, for my review of The Bluebeard’s Revenge, but Hasbro made another good partner for this brew, so that’s ...
