Lego Star Wars Death Star II

The Lego Star Wars Death Star II - The Ultimate Lego Battle Station
By Laura Timberlake

The LEGO Star Wars Death Star II is a great representation of the second Death Star that was seen in the third Star Wars Movie Installment- Return Of The Jedi. It was stationed just off of the atmosphere of Endor where it was being reconstructed from being destroyed after the massive offensive attack from the Rebel Alliance. Like wise, the LEGO version of the Death Star II is built to represent the same reconstructive state.

The box that the LEGO Death Star comes in weighs over 17 lbs. and consist of 3,417 pieces. This isn't your typical LEGO set that I grew up with when I was young. This set is designed for serious LEGO enthusiast who have a knack for a serious LEGO challenge. Many people report taking up to 3 solid weeks of construction building it and that's at a fast pace. I wouldn't recommend getting this LEGO set if you don't have any experience building LEGO's. It's fun but takes time to construct so be sure to pace yourself because many people report having some stumbling blocks along the way.

The cost of the Death Star II ranges from $250-$450 depending on where you get it from and the availability. If you are planning on getting the LEGO death Star II for yourself or someone who you feel is deserving enough for one, then be sure to check out my site for the best price on one because I know where to find one at the lowest price and you can only get one by purchasing it online.

Whether your an admiring Star Wars buff, a LEGO enthusiast, or someone somewhere in between then I highly recommend picking one of these up. I bought one for my cousin about 1 week ago and you'd be surprised at how big this thing is. Be sure to organize your pieces because at over 3,400 pieces to contend with, you better be sure you cover all the organization bases.

This classic LEGO set is the perfect addition to any LEGO universe and would make an excellent gift for anyone brave enough to take on the ultimate Planetary Destroyer. So go ahead and take the LEGO Star Wars Death Star II challenge. I dare you to finish it in one piece.

Laura Timberlake has been writing and reviewing children toys for 3 years now and regularly writes on several other related topics as well. If you would like more information regarding this toy and the best place to purchase one, than please visit here: The LEGO Star Wars Death Star II Ultimate Set.

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Throwing a Star Wars Themed Party

Star Wars Galaxy Party Plan
By Dawn Archibald

A Star Wars party is a classic - it keeps getting bigger and better with age! From age 5 - 50 every little boy wants to have a Star Wars party at some time! So roll up your sleeves and Let the force be with you...

Invitations: You can make your own invitations on black card stock paper. Write with a white gel pen or use your computer to help you using this script - "A LONG TIME AGO IN A GALAXY FAR AWAY A BOY OF DESTINY WAS BORN" "THIS YOUNG JEDI WILL CELEBRATE HIS BIRTHDAY IN A GALAXY NEAR YOU..." A really cool site that has a free download of the the font used in the introduction of the Star Wars movies is galaxyfaraway.com. This site also has free Star Wars music and movie audio clips. Another great site is the official Star Wars website http://www.starwars.com which leads to my next invitation idea. Go to the "Kids" section and then type in the search box "Halloween Masks." What you will find is a variety of printable character masks. Choose one or several of the masks to use as your base for the invitation. Follow the printing instructions and assemble as required. Attach the party details with a request to wear the mask attached to the string or place the 2 items in a large envelop. Mark the envelope TOP SECRET and seal with a Star Wars sticker. You can choose to print the full coloured masks or opt to use black and white and have the kids colour them in for the party - a colouring contest of sorts. Either way - Very Cool!

Decorations: The party table can be adorned with licensed Star Wars tableware and decorations. Other tables like the food table and gift table can be dressed up with black tablecovers, lime green moon rocks(to follow) and those plastic glow in the dark stars that can be found at any dollar store. Put out your child's Star Wars toys and figures around the room for both decoration and play. Give your area an Outer Space feel. Cut out stars from heavy stock tin foil and hang from ceiling with fishing wire. Decorate your walls with funky looking planets made from coloured construction paper with silver & gold glitter to make them look out of this world! Hang posters and pictures of your childs favourite characters. Gather a bunch of ordinary rocks of all shapes and sizes, paint them lime green and place all around party area to resemble moon rocks. And Finally, you can't forget the asteroids. Asteroids can made with pieces of styrofoam cut to shape and painted or by hanging brown, tan or gold balloons from the ceiling with fishing wire. Be sure to draw lots of cracks and crevices on the balloons with a black sharpie before blowing up. In keeping with the licensed partyware, stick with colours like red, orange, black and metallics for the balloons, streamers and any additional decorations.

Crafts: Make your own Light Saber. This is a pretty easy craft if you do not mind some pre-party planning. All you need are pool noodles believe it or not. Cut a full length in half giving you 2 Sabers. Because they are so wide you will need to carve in a handle with an exacto knife. Make T shaped cuts 4 inches in and 1 inch deep all around one end and then very carefully remove the pieces. The handle does not have to be perfectly smooth because on party day it will be up to the kids to choose their colour, decorates the shaft with multi coloured markers and wrap their handles with coloured electrical or hockey tape to give their Light Saber a good grip. Make sure their names are written on their creation! If you have a crafty bunch, set up a table where they can build their very own planet. The supplies needed are Styrofoam balls, paint and brushes, glue and some decorations like glitter, beads and sequins. First have them paint their planets. During drying time have them name their planets by taking the first 4 letters of their first name and the last 4 letters of their last name and placing them together. What would yours be? My son's would be Sethbald! Have them write their planets name on small pieces of paper and then staple on to a toothpick. Now its time to embellish the planets with decorations of their choice. When all is dry and they are off to the next adventure, be sure to push the toothpick into the Styrofoam and attach a piece of fishing wire with a thumbtack so the guests can hang their very own planet in their very own room!

Games: Now that each child has their very own light saber, play "Keep Up The Meteor." Tell guests that the evil Darth Vador has set off a meteor shower to destroy planet earth and it is their duty to to prevent the meteors from hitting earth. The prep for this is simple; blow up a bunch of balloons, turn on the Star Wars soundtrack and have the kids form a circle. Start with one balloon, and then another and another until you have thrown in 1 balloon for each kid. If they can keep up just 1 balloon for the length of a song or a timer set to 3 minutes - they will save the Earth! A really fun thing to do is have an adult dress up as Vader with a mask, cape and light saber. Have the young Jedi Knights battle Darth Vador with their very own light sabers. It may get a little rowdy but the kids will love it! If you have an older group, Star Wars trivia is always a big hit but if the group is a bit younger try playing "Shapeshifting." Shapeshifters are dark side creatures that can change into different forms or characters. You will need - Star Wars music and 2 large bag filled with funny clothes, costumes and accessories. Gather the guests around in a circle, turn on the music and ask the kids to pass the bags around. The players holding the bags when the music stops must reach in, pull out an item and put it on. Game ends when all items are gone. Very silly and very funny! "Galaxy Hunt" - The villanous Darth Vador has stolen all the Galaxies treasure and hidden them within Star Clusters scattered around the Galaxy. It is up to each young Jedi to search and find 5 star clusters and report back to mission central. If even 1 Jedi is unable to complete his mission it is up to all young Jedi's to help out their fellow trainee. When all missions are complete the Star Clusters may be opened to reveal their treasure. The Prep for this game is to wrap different pieces of candy with tin foil making odd shaped balls. Hide around the "hunt area" only 5 clusters for every player. Make it a little difficult - you want the young Jedi's to have to work for their treasure! A good idea is to give each child a loot bag with their name on it to hold their treasures when they return to mission central.

Lootbags: If you have played the Galaxy Hunt its likely you already have a bag filled with candy. Complete the guest loot bags by throwing in some Glow Sticks, Pop Rocks, Silly Putty, Glow in the Dark Stars and some Star Wars favors. Ebay is a great place to find large lots of Star Wars favors and trinkets at really reasonable prices. Finish off the loot bags with a Jedi Knight certificate letting the guests know the have passed their training and completed all their missions. A free printable certificate like the one shown on the left can be found at the website 123certficates.com in the "sci-fi" section. You can easily dress it up by printing it on blue paper and filling in the symbol with colour and silver glitter.

http://www.partydepot.ca - purchase party supplies in canada

http://www.partycanada.blogspot.com - more great party planning ideas!

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Star Wars Toys: Lego Sets

Lego Star Wars Toys - A Successful Partnership
By John Mowatt

The familiar Lego block has been a very popular toy for several decades. Very versatile and fun to build with they have many adult devotees as well as kids.

The company was very far sighted in obtaining the license from Lucas films to manufacture Star Wars toys. Popular movies come and go but Star Wars remains ever popular with a worldwide cult like following. This series of toys was introduced in 1999 and has had many additions since then.

The Lego line of Star Wars toys started with figures and vehicles from the trilogy(Episodes IV-VI). At a later date new sets and releases were introduced to cover the earlier prequel trilogy (Episodes I-III).

All the main themes of the series of movies have been recreated. The characters are typical Lego style figures with the usual square heads and bodies. Slight differences in color and the headwear and clothing distinguish them from one another.

Star Wars characters have a wide variation in the head type, size and shape. Lego decided to make special molds for the heads which are true to these characters. Unique and completely original molds were created for these figures. Darth Vader is a good example of this special treatment. Light sabers were also added to the line since it would not be complete without these very well known weapons.

All of the well known star ships and assorted other vehicles are included in the series. The Millennium Falcon is likely the most popular vehicle. The X-wing fighter, the Imperial AT-ST, speeders and TIE fighters were all included. A series of location sets from several of the movies is also included to accompany the vehicles that were in the movie.

Lego has produced a huge variety of Star Wars paraphernalia. Their Technic line includes several of these items. The Technics line has more complex parts which are capable of movement and are more realistic than the well known Lego figures.

The Ultimate collector series has large and very complex designs in Star Wars material. The Millenium Falcon in this series for instance has over 5000 pieces and is the biggest Lego set ever produced.

This series of video games is definitely the best selling Lego product ever made. These video games were hugely popular and were a hit with both Star Wars devotees and video gamers. The first of the video games was based on the prequel trilogy, and the second game was based on the original trilogy. The two games were later packaged and sold together as one complete Star wars edition.

Lego Star Wars toys, figures and other items are extremely popular with both adults and children. This is one of the really great success stories in toy production history.

Looking for the best in Star Wars and Lego toys? You will find much more free information and a great selection of toys at our website=> Star Wars Lego

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Star Wars Fabric and Costumes

Star Wars Replica Ultimate Star Wars Costumes
By John Allsop

I never viewed them as replicas of Star Wars. To me, they were just simple toys. In spite of everything, Star Wars was just one of the best games that we knew. Nearly every day after school, we would gather to play out the scenes. While cowboys and Indians, cops and robbers, and other typical childhood games got boring - Star Wars never seemed stale. I ask you, what kid doesn’t dream about saving the world from powerful, evil forces?

Toys are funny in many ways. As you get older, you either completely let them go or start to gain a more serious interest. For me, I became almost obsessed. The assortment of Stars Wars replicas that I owned grew without measure and over the past couple of years, I became more intense with the creations of episodes one through three. While I enjoy the new Star Wars, nothing beats the original classics. This is why it is nice to see Lucas films rereleasing a variety of Star Wars replica models associated with the original movies. At the present time, I possess a scaled-down x-wing fighter pilot helmet that matches my Darth Vader helmet and storm trooper costume. I have no clue if one day my replicas will be worth something. I am positive that the older Star Wars toys that I own are, but this is not why I collect. These items represent the passion I feel for the Star Wars movies.

When it comes to epic fantasies, nothing compares to Star Wars. People have penned epics dealing with good versus evil, but none were turned into movies of this magnitude. This is why many followers of the movies are crazy about Star Wars replica models, as the story is so well known and popular. The evil of the dark side is powerful enough to eliminate planets on a whim, as the rebellion courageously fights to save the rest of the universe from chaos.

However, if you are just beginning to collect Star Wars replicas, then the best place to start is with the rereleases of original toys. After all, what is a Star Wars collection without the likes of Luke Skywalker, Hans Solo, Chewbacca, and R2-D2? Before we ever saw Yoda in a lightsaber battle, he was combating evil by showing the young Luke Skywalker how to effectively use the force.

Visit our general article website for the latest articles covering a broad range of information articles And read our star wars replica article.

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Collecting Star Wars Vintage Action Figures

How to Collect Action Figures
By Colin Dorman

This short guide will help you decide what you want to collect, how to start collecting and the best places to look for action figures.

The information is particularly aimed at the action figure collector but much of the advise is applicable no matter what you are thing of collecting, whether it's stamps, postcards, toys or even kitchen sinks!

Ok, let's get on with it.

You have some important decisions to make.

First ask yourself...

Why do I want to collect action figures?

Is it :

 
• For financial gain

 

 

• For enjoyment

Most people collect for one of these two reasons. The answer will affect many of your choices and decisions over the course of this guide so it is important for you to decide now before you continue.

If your primary goal is to make money then make sure you read my "How To Make Money Collecting Action Figures" guide after reading this.

If it is for the pure fun and enjoyment of collecting, then great, this report will help you keep your costs down.

What Should I Collect?

How do you decide what to collect?

And

What to buy?

Hmm, good questions.

Have you decided yet?

Not sure?

Take your time, think carefully about your choice.

If you don't you'll end up with nothing more than a box full of miss-matched figures. All unrelated, incomplete and without any uniformity or consistency.

This may seem an obvious but so many times in the past I've seen collectors who don't think about exactly what they want to collect first.

The result?

They end up trying to collect everything.

If you're a card collector decide WHAT cards you want to collect?

Trading cards, card games, science fiction, cartoon, TV, Star Wars, Star Trek, Fire engines.....

If you're a stamp collector WHAT stamps do you want to collect?

Animals, trains, Thai, French, 1800's, planes, George Washington, civil war....

If you're a coin collector WHAT coins do you want to collect?

Gold, silver, bronze, Roman, Greek, British, American Civil War......

If you're an action figure collector WHAT action figures?

Movies, Star Wars, wrestling, baseball, cartoons, TV, Simpsons, PC Game figures......

Get the picture?

OK, so what's the answer?

Before we start you will need a pen and some paper and a cup of coffee, or tea (or a beer if you prefer, mines a Bud ).

Now we're going to do some brainstorming.

How To Choose A Subject

Think about the following questions:

What movies do you like?

Who is your favourite movie star?

What sports do you like?

What are your favourite teams?

Who is your favourite baseball star?

What are your favourite TV programs?

What cartoons do you like?

Do you like Action, Horror, Sci-Fi, or Fantasy?

Write down your answers and build a list of subjects that you like and enjoy to watching, reading about or playing. Make sure they're things you really like or enjoy something that grabs your imagination and is close to your heart. Something you are passionate about and care about.

There's nothing worse than collecting something that you have no passion for. That becomes a business, or worse still WORK. I know some people who collect purely for monetary reasons and they have no enthusiasm for it and get no pleasure from it.

Now take a look at your list and choose between 1 to 3 unrelated subjects.

Why?

Because:

 
• If one is to narrow (more on this in a minute) you can start on one of your other choices.

 

 

• To give your collection, and you, some variety.

Good, now you need to: Decide On A Niche

Ok, so what's a niche?

A niche is like a sub-topic of a larger topic, it is more concentrated and specialist.

For example a main topic or subject in action figure collections, and probably one of the most popular, would be Star Wars figures. But that is a HUGE market, so a niche here would be R2D2 figures or Darth Vader.

Get the idea?

Personally though I would not recommend anyone starting a collection based on Star Wars figures for the same reasons I NEVER stocked any in my shops or sold them on my website.

 
• The market is too big.

 

 

• There are too many.

 

 

• The competition is fierce.

 

 

• The market is saturated.

But that said if your mind's set on collecting Star Wars figures then choose your niche carefully. Make sure it's small enough to be affordable and collectible. For example you could specialize in collecting Luke Skywalker figures. Or you could specialize in figures from any one of the movies (although this topic is probably also a bit too broad).

Another good example of choosing a niche would be instead of collecting McFarlane's Baseball figures choose your favourite team or a couple of teams or players, and stick with them.

You'll be thankful you did because there is nothing worse than having all the figures in set or series "except for...".

It leaves you feeling incomplete and with a need to fill the space

The main objective of this exercise is to find a niche that is tight enough to enable you to:

 
• build your collection

 

 

• complete each release/series

 

 

• keep costs down

 

 

• increase your enjoyment and satisfaction

 

 

• take pride in your collection

 

 

• give your collection uniformity

 

 

• build on a theme

So, in conclusion take your time in deciding on your niche now, then stick with it. If you find it's too narrow a niche you can always broaden it later or move onto one of your other choices.
But by being selective in choosing your niche now you will get more enjoyment and satisfaction out of your collection and probably save time and money later.

OK, so you've chosen your subject and your niche.

What now?

Now you need to decide...

Collect 'em All?

You are probably thinking, "Of course I do"

But wait a minute...

...and think it through before committing yourself.

This decision will greatly influence how much you are going to spend on your collection and it will give you a better focus on what to look out for.

Most lines of action figures include regular figures, variant figures, chase figures, collectors editions, limited editions and exclusives etc.

Each "level" of rarity becomes more expensive than the previous level. The cheapest being the regular figures but at the same time these are the ones that are the most common and mass produced so rarely have any secondary value.

Again it is important to decide now because if you change your mind later you may have a hard time getting some of the figures you've missed.

Not sure what a variant, chase, or exclusive figure is?

Then read my "What Is A Variant Figure Report" article.

Good, almost done.

New Or Secondhand?

Do you want to collect new or secondhand?

Carded or uncarded?

Mint, near mint or...?

Do you want to keep them boxed?

Or display them?

All these decisions again will affect the final price you will have to pay for your figures.

If you're a budget collector then your best bet would be to go for second-hand figures and save buying the new ones for special figures or ones that you particularly like.

If you're into customizing your figures then second-hand figures is also an obvious choice. But if you have the spare cash and want your figures in pristine condition to display then new figures is the way to go. But if you're a perfectionist and wish to ensure they stay in absolute mint condition and retain their value you will probably want to buy two of each.

Why?

Many purist collectors will often opt to purchase two figures so they can keep one carded and in Mint condition and open the other to display.

Which you decide to do will of course depend on how much money you can afford to spend on your hobby, and the actual value of the figure.

Generally second-hand non-mint figures have very little to no value whereas Gem-Mint carded figures will often increase in value over time, particular the variant figures or limited production runs.

My personal recommendation would be to keep any chase, variant, exclusive or Super Chase figures carded or buy two if you want to display one.

This is what I usually do, or I buy a good condition second-hand figure for display and a carded one to be kept.

Many toy stores or hobby shops will sell there own ex-display figures or items with damaged cards at a cheaper price.

Make sure if you're putting any on display, particularly any rarer ones, that they are displayed and protected properly.

Beware of massively overproduced mass market figures, as these, even in Gem Mint Carded condition are unlikely to increase in value for a long time.

I enjoy having most of my figures on display and I used to have a huge diorama of a wilderness landscape with dragons and monsters displayed that looked awesome and was hugely popular.

But unfortunately since moving I've not had time to make another...

Yet...

But I will talk about building dioramas and displays some other time.

I discuss the topic of customizing your figures in greater detail on http://www.mcfarlanes-figures.com and it will be the subject of a future report.

Colin Dorman

New to collecting? Want to find how to save money buying action figures? How to store, protect and clean the? Then click here

McFarlane Toys are the fifth biggest action figure manufacturer in the States and the Best! Checkout these ultra cool and realistic collectibles HERE

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