The following are all the best feature articles and key news posts of the 2006 year. The goal of the SWNZ website, as well as being to bring you regular Star Wars news and stories, is to establish and evolve an archive of all things pertaining to that Galaxy far, far away, that have particular relevance to the various incarnations of Star Wars fandom in New Zealand. This page is a portal to such content...
Matt G
There were a good few entries in the Reel Collectibles Big Boys Toys competition, despite the fact that it was a short comp, at short notice. The two randomly chosen winners of single day tickets to attend the Big Boys Toys expo are... ...MORE
Matt G
Well, it's only a couple of days late, but I've finally found some time to put together photos and commentary on the 3-day Armageddon convention held in Auckland over Labour weekend. It ended up taking up a little more of my time than anticipated, but, speaking as a Star Wars fan, it was worth it.
In many ways, the format of the convention was the same as previous years. There was a similar mix of traders and commercial stands, TV and movie guests, cosplay competition, voice talent, comic/animation talent, wrestling, and the charming pizza-eating competition ;) Amongst the highlights though were the growing number of enthusiastic Star Wars costumers (including both Outpost-42 members and keen non-member costumers) and the involvement of local Star Wars star Rena Owen, back in New Zealand briefly, on holiday from her Los Angeles home. On Sunday, Rena was originally positioned up with the 501st stand (a set up with a 3m poster backdrop for photos), and on Monday, 501st costumers supported her down in the main guest area once space became available for her. It's always good to see a local Star Wars actor making themselves available to meet NZ fans, and Rena was very down-to-earth and easy to talk to. Hopefully she too enjoyed the support from her audience.
Costumers included a squad of shiny stormtroopers, a brief appearance by a hard-working sandtrooper, the ever-popular Boba Fett, Ordo the ARC trooper captain, Imperial officer, Princess Leia, a Jedi Master, red royal guards - there was even Star Wars representation in the cosplay competition as Senator Padme Amidala made an appearance. As well as characters from the Galaxy Far, Far Away, a six-and-a-half foot tall Predator was the target of many cameras when he showed up, an energetic Batman was seen all over central Auckland... ...MORE
Matt G
The Armageddon weekend proved to be more hectic (in a good way) than anticipated, so it seems everything else got put on hold. Not to worry, a ton of photos have been taken, and we'll be looking to get a report or two online here shortly. In the meantime, check out the growing gallery of images over in the Outpost-42 photo albums (click here).
Matt G
Issue 3 of 'Star Wars: The Official Figurine Collection' brings us an odd coupling of figures - an Imperial Stormtrooper, and Jedi Master Yoda. This appears to be one of the few, if not only, issue to come with a pair of collectible figures. These characters are in near-perfect scale with the earlier releases - the stormtrooper stands a little shorter than his Sith Lord master, while Yoda is appropriately tiny standing next to his metal companions. Yoda's paintjob is superior to that of the stormtrooper, whose handpainted finish doesn't quite live up to the advertised prototypes. While the painted detailing of the trooper may not be spot on, it does have a nice gloss finish, giving it the feel of the metal soldiers that kids of generations past might have played with.
The contents covered in the magazine are as follows... ...MORE
Matt G
The Armageddon website has just confirmed that Rena Owen (bio page) will be making an appearance on two days of the Armageddon convention. Rena will be signing Autographs on level four at the 501st Photo area Sunday Oct 22nd and Monday Oct 23rd from 1pm to 5pm.
Matt G
A couple of people have emailed in further details about the Official Figurine Collection magazine from DeAgostini (issue no.2 is now out in your local bookstore; subscriptions can be made via the DeAgostini website). First, an article on the official Star Wars site (click here) has pictures of a large proportion of the figure collection. Interestingly, they state that no character will be repeated (in a different costume), as the magazines will only give the biography for that character once. This increases the variety within the mix of characters released!
And secondly... ...MORE
Matt G
The 'Figure of the Month' is a new semi-regular SWNZ feature, wherein we take an up close look at a selected character collectible, focusing on interesting features of both the toy and its on-screen persona. We don't aim to compile an extensive database about all available Star Wars figures, but make a choice based on elements of interest to hopefully expose readers to different collectibles, or new directions of collecting. Today, we take a look at the Episode 1 Battledroid with STAP, from Hasbro.
This EP1 Battledroid with vehicle came in two packaging variations, but it almost certainly the larger 1998 Sneak Preview box for which it is best remembered. Along with the Mace Windu sneak preview figure, this early release gave us a taste of the still well-protected characters and hardware of 'The Phantom Menace'. It came out at about the time we also had Freeze Frame figures on the shelves, when Hasbro (then still using the 'Kenner' brandname) had started to move away from the overly bulky/muscled sculpts of the earlier years. We still had some unecessarily staunch poses, and gigantic, over-sized weaponry, but both the Battledroid, and its Single Transport Aerial Platform, were amongst the most accurate sculpts of their time. Indeed, the basic Battledroid sculpt has seen only minimal development since then, even in the upcoming Saga Collection releases. The only criticism I have of any significance is that the relative sizes between the droid and his STAP are off - in the movie, the Battledroid is proportionally larger.
The STAP itself is a well engineered collectible... ...MORE
Matt G
We've all probably seen the primetime television advertising for the new DeAgostini Star Wars magazine by now - but what's it all about? I picked up the reduced-price issue one to take a look inside and share the details.
'Star Wars: The Official Figurine Collection' will be a fortnightly publication, available (at least initially) at your local bookstore, or delivered to your door if subscribed. The New Zealand website, through which you can subscribe, is now in action - click here. As we've heard in the advertising, issue one is available for $5.95, but the regular issue price will be $17.95. If you subscribe, you'll receive a nice array of freebies with your first four deliveries (deliveries are monthly, of 2 issues): an Episode III poster, a magazine binder, a 'Dark Side' t-shirt, and a display stand for the figurines that come with each issue.
How is this publication different from DeAgostini's last Star Wars offering, the 'Fact Files'?... ...MORE
Matt G
The following is an entry in the recently closed "What's your favourite collectible?" competition.
My son initially said his faves were his assortment of R2-D2s, then it was his collection of Darth Vaders...in the end I decided to put in MY faves, which is our collection of ships; particularly this '95 TIE Fighter which came with an '82 vintage pilot. TIEs just have the coollest starship noises EVER!!! If only they'd made them electronic like the X-Wings and Millenium Falcon... :(
Sjlstia and Kyle
The following is an entry in the recently closed "What's your favourite collectible?" competition.
My favourite collectable is my Sun Fac because he is my newest collectable. I like him because he has wings that lift up and he has a cool spare and a geonosian gun. At my last count I had sixty-five figures and nine vehicles/beasts in my collection. I also have a collection of star wars lego. I have been collecting since I was three when I bought my dad a clone trooper for fathers day, this figure started my collection as it has been living in my room since I bought it. It was a hard choice to make between all my collectibles but I decided on Sun Fac as he is my only geonosian.
Master G
Star Wars costuming is growing in popularity in New Zealand, both as a hobby and as a spectator sport. The local 501st costuming group Garrison, Outpost-42, has confirmed that it will be appearing at the upcoming Auckland Armageddon convention in October. Building up to that event, the Outpost-42 website is undergoing a content revamp, and the SWNZ article on the group has been updated: It was nearly 30 years ago that Star Wars blazed across the screens of the world. Like many others I was caught in the magic of that movie and the ones that followed.
Jump forward 20 years and the re-release of the Original Trilogy in Special Edition format, that combined with the production of Episode One started a resurgence in popularity for the Star Wars Saga.
1997 was also the beginning of what would become The Fighting 501st Imperial Legion. Albin Johnson started a little website called 'Detention Block 2501' so people could send in photos of their Stormtrooper armour. This was the seed of the Legion. Back then there was maybe 20 members, now there is nearly 3000 members spread over 21 countries!... ...MORE
Matt G & BH-2776
The following is an entry in the "What's your favourite collectible?" competition. Click here for details, and to get your own entry in.
I'm very pleased with my collection of astromech droids. A long time waiting and a fair few dollars to group these "off the shelf" boys together. My main interest is R2-D2, but once I got the bug to collect all the other "forgotten", background droids, there was no turning back. I think as a group, they're unique, so I've entered them together. I would like to hear from any other R2 fans out there!
Shane Y
The following is an entry in the "What's your favourite collectible?" competition. Click here for details, and to get your own entry in.
I originally had 5 of these Lukes which I got about 7 years ago. I found them at a model shop and they were on sale only $3.00 each for the Lukes. Wow, what a bargin - I should have been smarter and brought the lot, but I brought 5. I sold one last year on Trade Me so now I only have 4.
I had a bit of a Luke production line going on when I was putting them together - once I had put the top and bottom halves together I filled them with plaster to give them some weight and also to give them better strength because the vinyl models don't really like sunlight or much heat and they can wilt over time. I got a bit creative and painted 2 black to resemble a turning to the dark side Luke. I painted 2 the same as the box and 1 White thats the full-on-Good-side-of-the-Force Luke. I had alot of fun putting them together and the lesson here is "when you see a bargain like this one buy out all they've got and hold on to them for a few years".
Daniel R
From the most recent Farmers mailer (valid until 4th September): Star Wars standard action figures are on sale for 20% off. Regular price = $16.99, now $13.59 each.
Anaria
Welcome to the 'Figure of the Month' for August. Although this is only the second instalment of this regular feature, the rules are going to be broken already, as we take a look at not one, but two vintage figures - the 3.75" and 12" scale Boba Fetts.
Little Fett
If you're over 30, you should have a 1979 edition 3.75" Boba Fett figure in your collection. Out of all the vintage figures, he's one of the most accessible of the best Kenner had to offer at the time. In an era when we knew very little about this mysterious bounty hunter, the tantalising teasers in Kenner advertising and on the packaging of other figures were a stroke of marketing genius to pump the popularity of a character who played a central role in 'The Empire Strikes Back', despite his minimal screen time.
Compared to today's figure tooling, the vintage rendition is a simple interpretation, but all the detail is there, suggesting the sculpt was based on a good selection of reference photos (unlike the cantina creatures of the first 20 figures). He has only 5 points of articulation, and a staid pose, but these attributes characterise the vintage style and in no way detract from his class and charisma... ...MORE
Matt G
Coming soon - a spectacular New Zealand Fan Film trailer, Predator versus TK, put together by skilled local talent, including the hard work of a number of Outpost-42 members.
Click on the thumbnails above to check out a couple of teaser pics, and stay tuned...more details soon.
Related link: Outpost-42 website
Matt G
1983. The year McDonalds introduced the Chicken McNugget. The year Microsoft Word for MD-DOS was released. Swatch watches are born; IBM XTs came with 128kB of memory and a 10MB hard drive; M*A*S*H ends after 10 years, becoming the longest running TV series of its time. The year Luke Skywalker learns Princess Leia is his twin sister.
A couple of newspaper clippings conclude our trilogy of monochrome flashback articles. New Zealand Herald archive research confirms the NZ opening date for 'Return of the Jedi' as being 25th November, 1983... ...MORE
Matt G
Here's a flashback to Pepsi's Episode 1 promotion of 1999... the Pepsi Episode 1 article in the New Zealand Collection section has been updated with a collection of Pepsi posters. They use fairly common character images, blended with the Pepsi and "Ask for more" branding. Quite a nice little set, when assembled together. ...MORE
Matt G
Following up on the Star Wars Premiere article, we take a look here at the first screenings of 'The Empire Strikes Back', which hit our cinema screens for the first time on the 5th of December, 1980 (newspaper scan). It was a little less of a disrupted debut, without the projectionist strikes that plagued Star Wars in 1977, and it entered our theatres a little earlier in the holiday season. Consequently, we see a bit of a double advertising launch in the newspapers - once for the actual release, and a second time to pump it for the school and public holidays. The entertainment section of the 16th November edition of the New Zealand Herald had not only a full-page advert for the titles screening at the Civic in Auckland... ...MORE
Matt G
For today's instalment, I'd like to direct you over to the blog of a friend, as he tells tales of Star Wars soundtracks through the eyes of a 12 year old, and its subsequent influence. Click on through, and reminisce about the first time you heard a recording of that incomparable theme: STAR WARS and the Tears of Disappointment - part 1, part 2.
Matt G
A black & white update today... the NZ Womans' Weekly Comic Strips article in the New Zealand Collection section has had a monochrome scan of the cover of the first Womans' Weekly magazine (the issue dated August 20, 1979) that contained the famous vintage Star Wars comic strips (I plan to upgrade this to a colour scan soon). You'll notice that it makes reference to the contained Star Wars pull-out on the cover... ...MORE
Matt G
The following is my 'Favourite Collectible' post. It's not a competition entry...just a reminder to get your entries in! Click here for details.
You know you've got the collecting bug bad when someone asks..."What's your favourite collectible?" and it's impossible to name just one! This item holds particular personal value, as it's quite rare, but also relates to a memorable event.
I'm a big fan of Star Wars trading cards, and even more so, am pleased to have a few uncut sheets in my collection. This one is an uncut sheet of the 21 card set available at Celebration 3 - the uncut sheets were given out to those that gave presentations in the 'Toy Track' collectibles seminars.
Matt G
When did Star Wars first screen in New Zealand? It's a question that I've heard a few times now, so I decided to undertake some research in the Auckland Library microfiche archives to verify my memory of the premiere. For the Auckland region (and upper north island), the first opportunity to see it was on Christmas eve of 1977, at the Cinerama theatre in Queen Street, Auckland (newspaper scan). Almost 7 months after its USA debut! This was before the time of multiplex cinemas...only one screen was showing Star Wars, with 4 shows daily: 10.45am, 2pm, 5pm and 8.15pm. The booking details for the listing read: "Feature occupies entire programme. Book at theatre only. No phone reserves. 8.15pm reserves 6 days ahead [!!] Tomorrow's 10.45pm session tickets on sale at Theatre from 3pm today".
Also on the big screens at that time were... ...MORE
Matt G
The following is an entry in the "What's your favourite collectible?" competition. Click here for details.
I really enjoyed the Clone Wars animated series - the style of animation, the new characters - I started collecting what I could from the series. When I saw the 'Anakin vs Asajj' animated cel, I had to have it. It's a limited edition of 350, hand painted, matted animation cel - the characters are hand painted on a cel mounted above the giclee background, the depth really adds to the artwork. It is larger than I anticipated, which is great. I haven't had it framed yet, but I'm really looking forward to displaying it with my other Clone Wars series collectibles.
Anaria
The following is an entry in the "What's your favourite collectible?" competition. Click here for details.
My favourite collectible would be the Atari Star Wars sit-in arcade game that I was fortunate enough to win on trademe early in 2005. Winning the game in the first place was exciting enough, being locked in a bidding war with another trader for what seemed like ages. Then when it arrived I was on cloud 9 for days. The desire to get the game was borne from a desire to relive the hours that I'd spent playing the game during my mis-spent youth, and the belief that they didn't come up for sale very often. I'm still not sure if that belief is accurate or not, but I had to have some kind of excuse to try and justify it to the missus!
TK-102
The Bluebird Multipack Episode 1 Cards article in the New Zealand Collection section has been updated with an interesting piece: a snapshot from a roll of a plastic, repeating banner that could be cut to length to be used in a variety of displays... ...MORE
Matt G
The 'Figure of the Month' is a new semi-regular SWNZ feature, wherein we take an up close look at a selected character collectible, focusing on interesting features of both the toy and its on-screen persona. We don't aim to compile an extensive database about all available Star Wars figures, but make a choice based on elements of interest to hopefully expose readers to different collectibles, or new directions of collecting. Today, we start with a more recent figure, the 'Revenge of the Sith' Mustafar Sentry, from Hasbro.
The basic 'Revenge of the Sith' line of action figures had approximately 10 droids, 30 humans/humanoid heroes, 13 clones, but only about half-a-dozen really interesting aliens (give or take a few, depending on how you classify them). Personally, I think we could have done with a few more that fit into that alien category. Worse though - New Zealand managed to get most of the RotS figure range, but we did miss, or get in low numbers, a couple of waves that included some of the best bug-eyed monsters. The Mustafar Sentry is one such insectoid creation we saw in few numbers from a few distributors only.
Two Mustafarian subspecies toil on the volcanic planet, largely oblivious to the turmoil of the ongoing Clone Wars... ...MORE
Matt G
The third birthday of SWNZ in its current format almost caught me by surprise. Time flies - it seems like only yesterday we were in the middle of the Episode 3 flurry. Things have slowed a little in this arm of the Star Wars galaxy, ranted, but there is still plenty of fan interest in the multitude of Star Wars-related hobbies, and its great to still have a steady flow of contributions to the SWNZ website. I think we'll find plenty to participate in and report on over the coming year - rumours have it, for instance, that the Armageddon convention associated with the 30th anniversary of Star Wars (next year) will have a particularly strong original trilogy flavour. And back here at SWNZ central, a few changes have been made, and a few new ideas put into place, to make sure the momentum persists to carry the website on through the 2007 celebrations, to the anticipated TV series, and beyond. Not least of all, expect to see a good run of SWNZ competitions over the next few months, with plenty of opportunity for reader contribution (check out competition 21 to win Commander Cody and Utapau Clonetrooper figures).
And, as per usual for editorial entries such as this one, I'd like to highlight and thank the SWNZ sponsors: AriseSirToy.co.nz, ReelCollectibles.co.nz, Fishpond.co.nz, and GPStore.co.nz. Your support of these sponsors when making Star Wars and related purchases not only indirectly assists SWNZ's longevity, it ensures the ongoing availability and accessibility of such Star Wars products in the New Zealand marketplace. That's a win-win situation for everybody!
Matt G
SWNZ celebrates its 3rd birthday today. To mark the occasion, competition number 21 features a prize pack with a bit of New Zealand flavour - a mint-on-card Commander Cody figure (Saga collection no.24) paired with a mint-on-card Utapau Clone Trooper (Saga collection no.26). Both of these characters were played by New Zealanders (I'm sure everybody here knows that Temuera Morrison played Commander Cody, and the clone troopers were played by both Tem and Bodie Taylor). These two republic soldiers also feature in one of the assorted SWNZ logos (which are selected randomly each page load).
How do you enter for these excellent prizes? Simple... ...MORE
Matt G
Got a particular theme to your Star Wars collection? Or, a unique way of displaying it all? Show it off to other New Zealand fans, on SWNZ, as a Collector Spotlight. Click here to email a few pictures and a couple of paragraphs describing your collection and passion for Star Wars.
Hi, my name is Shane. I was 10 years old when Star Wars first showed here - my dad took me and when I looked up and saw that star destroyer take up all the screen...I was blown away and hooked forever. The years have come and gone, but when 'Revenge of the Sith' came to our shores, my passion for collecting was reignited. So much to collect! ... but I decided to focus on one of my favourite characters: R2D2.
So, I have been steadily building my R2 collection... ...MORE
Shane Y
Queenstown Winter Festival Report from Reel Collectibles.
501st invades Queenstown Winter Festival.
Owning and operating Reel Collectibles, and being New Zealand's premier source of Star Wars Collectibles, means we have quickly formed great friendships with many of the New Zealand 501st Garrison, Outpost 42. So when we invited them to come down and represent the 501st and Reel Collectibles at the Queenstown Winter Festival, it didn't take much arm twisting to convince them! 8 members came down, plus we had a spare costume, so we ended up with Boba Fett, a Scout Trooper, a Royal Guard, 5 Stormtroopers and fittingly, NZ's first 501st Snowtrooper.
Some of the troops had never visited Queenstown before, and Queenstown really turned it on for them, with stunning crisp, clear days (albeit freezing!) and typical Queenstown hospitality, and Winter Festival fun... ...MORE
Hugh Clark
Well it all started for me when I was eight and my dad took me to see 'Return of the Jedi' at the pictures, I was hooked straight away, and from then on all I wanted was Star Wars toys.
I built up a little vintage collection which I still have today. When EP1 'The Phantom Menace' was released, my interest was rekindled and I started collecting EP1 figures. I obtained the set of EP1 figures and as each new episode was released, I tried to keep up with the onslaught... ...MORE
TK-4574
The appearance of costumed Imperials at the Queenstown Winter Festival was a huge hit last weekend. The troopers from Outpost-42 were parading in conjunction with SWNZ sponsor ReelCollectibles.co.nz, who are based in Queenstown. Click here to check out an image gallery containing the first wave of photos from that event.
Matt G
Check out Star Wars Action News' latest podcast (number 43) from about 36m:30s. The topic is 'Collecting in the Outer Rim: New Zealand '.
Cory
Lake Retreat & Secret Wedding
A significant part of the impact of the Star Wars movies stems from a deliberate attention to detail. This is reflected in the appearance of props, costumes, sets and locations. A diverse multitude of planets are represented across the six Star Wars movies - careful scouting and selection of unique filming locations has formed the backdrop in this rich and convincing fictitious galaxy. In the original trilogy we saw Tatooine based on the Tunisian desert (reprised in the prequel films); the battlegrounds of Hoth based on snowfields of Norway; and the forest moon of Endor, based on the redwood forests of northern California; amongst other worldwide destinations. One of the new planets seen in the prequel trilogy, Naboo, acquires its natural and engineered style and tone from locations in Italy and Spain. Over the last few days we have been lucky enough to visit a region of Italy that is home to the lake region of Naboo - Lago di Como (Lake Como), north of Milan... ...MORE
Matt G & Anaria
Doing my part for the war effort.
Part III
I was owed a favour by a buddy who is an auto-sprayer so I was able to have the white professionally applied. I was pretty shocked when I saw it come out of the spray booth - it was perfect! But I was about to be shocked even more... The next day I awoke to find the paint had reacted! There was nobody to blame, it was just one of those things, but that didn't make me feel any better. Heh. This screwed up the timetable I had to finish this project, I was going home to Wellington from my holiday the next day so I couldn't have my "Obi-Wan of FX", Alister, weather it for me... But on a positive note, this did let me go back (albeit one final time!) and do a tiny bit more reshaping... ...MORE
Callum F
Armageddon Wellington Report from Reel Collectibles.
Whilst running the Reel Collectibles stall we don't get much of a chance to explore the rest of the expo (this always seems to be the case!), but by all accounts the 2006 Wellington Armageddon Pulp Culture was another highly successful and fun event.
The 501st had a great turnout with a number of troopers, Boba Fett, a Royal Guard and Darth Maul all trooping at one time or another, and more impressively, all together! The highlight was Dean in Darth Maul costume being handed the brand new double bladed Maul FX saber by Reel Collectibles to run about the expo with, which he did very successfully, even disrupting Richard Taylor of Weta's talk - Sorry Richard!
Whilst a couple of the celebrity signings dropped out due to work commitments, arguably the main celebrity John Schneider of Smallville and Dukes of Hazzard fame more than made up for it with friendly enthusiasm and just being a generally down to earth nice guy... ...MORE
Hugh Clark, ReelCollectibles
(with thanks to Dean B for additional photos)
A quick reminder that Hasbro have now set up a localised Star Wars website that will feature Star Wars product available in New Zealand. The website encompasses the main Star Wars line, Titanium Series and Star Wars Attacktix.
This is also the last week that the current Hasbro Star Wars Attacktix competition will be available on the site. If people enter, they go into the draw to win a prize pack that contains a Star Wars Attacktix figure, a Interactive CD ROM that teaches you how to play and a Star Wars 2006 product catalogue.
All those that indicate they are happy to receive further information will receive a Star Wars 2006 product catalogue .
The website address is www.star.wars.net.nz (it can always be accessed from the right-hand menu here at SWNZ).
Hasbro NZ
Photos from the Armageddon convention in Wellington over the weekend will be available here shortly. In the meantime, check out the gallery of 501st photos over on the Outpost-42 costuming and prop collecting forums: click here.
Matt G
Doing my part for the war effort.
Part II
Thanks in part to the Episode III EPK (electronic press kit) I had a large amount of reference - so much that I almost went crazy deciding what had to be changed to keep my OCD compulsions in check! First up was the visor area which needed the interior edge trimmed back to be the same depth all the way round. So out with the Dremel! I took the chance to clean up the resin on the interior of this area so the visor would sit flush once installed. I also decided to reshape the whole visor opening, mainly the bridge of the nose, to be symmetrical... ...MORE
Callum F
Doing my part for the war effort.
Part I
Ah, the Prequels - complete symmetry. Not only in a narrative sense, but also the props and costume design... Most notably the Clone and Vader helmets. And that's what is so much fun about recreating them; but without a rapid-prototype mill or the "screen-used" 3d files this is easier said than done! It seems I'll try anyway.
But if all all else fails I do have the MR lids to fall back on (but who am I kidding? I'll get 'em anyway!). This Clone helmet came to me as a raw resin cast, untrimmed and pretty rough around the edges (quite literally), but it's a really beautiful sculpt by a very talented artisan (and one of the more accurate around)... ...MORE
Callum F
'The Tem Show' at 1:30pm, this Sunday, on PrimeTV, is the Star Wars episode described here.
Matt G
Toltoys (NZ) Ltd, the New Zealand subsidiary of Toltoys Proprietary Ltd, manufactured and distributed a wide range of licensed and original toys, games and models in New Zealand over a period of a number of decades. The dominant bulk of famous Toltoys product originated through a wide network of licensing relationships with other well-known toy companies, including the likes of Airfix, Parker Brothers, Atari, and, well known to Star Wars fans, Kenner Products (owned by General Mills, hence the reference to this parent company on many Toltoys products). Despite this significant role, a comprehensive archive of their history, particularly in relation to their Star Wars license, is hard to come by. Many aspects of their tale make for interesting storytelling. For the sake of completeness, I'll start at the beginning... ...MORE
Matt G
The Confection Concepts Postacards (ANH) article in the NZ Collection section has been updated with an image of a mid-sized cardboard point-of-sale advertisement. "Collect alll 50 Star Wars: A New Hope postacardz to form your very own Star Wars: A New Hope Glo in the Dark poster". ...MORE
Matt G
The Confection Concepts Postacards (ANH) article in the NZ Collection section has been updated with an image of a great piece of rare Star Wars Kiwiana - an uncut sheet of the full 'A New Hope' postacards set. The flipside displays the Drew Struzan ANH poster in its uncut splendour. I was very pleased to recently stumble across this great collectible; it goes well with its partner ESB uncut sheet, also shown above. ...MORE
Matt G
The 'Battle of Hoth' wave has been spotted at Warehouse stores. This wave of the Saga Collection includes General Veers, Major Bren Derlin, R2-D2, Snowtrooper, General Rieekan, Dark Vader, AT-AT Driver and Power Droid + Treadwell. Each comes with an exlusive bonus hologram figure. Check out the images above to tempt you to rush out and check your local The Warehouse branch.
Matt G & Anaria
After well over 4 years of work, here he is...my lifesize R2-D2. The work-in-progress story started way back with Part One, Life-Size R2-D2, but the full story has a much longer span than that. Indeed, although he is finished to a displayable level now, I will eventually return to retrofit motion sensors, motorised dome rotation, lights and sounds, as well as weathering in the style seen in the 'A New Hope' sandcrawler scenes.
In the meantime, click on the thumbnails to view him in his "fresh off the production line" state. ...MORE
Matt G
The Uncle Tobys 'Revenge of the Sith' promotion began way back in April of 2005. It was a Star Wars promotion that took place in both New Zealand and Australia, but, unfortunately, it never hit full speed in all areas of New Zealand...many of us only saw a partial selection of the 'Fruit Roll-Ups' packaging variants, and hence struggled to get a full set of the collectible cards that came with that product. Interestingly, however, these are still on the shelves, and, although seem to still be limited to the apple-and-blackcurrant and strawberry flavours, variations on the card assortments seem to be showing up. ...MORE
Matt G
Longstanding SWNZ friend Gerald Home, who is the actor behind Squid Head/Tessek and the Mon Calamari Officer in 'Return of the Jedi', has provided great prizes for this SWNZ competition. Check out Gerald's website at www.GeraldHome.com. The prizes should be especially attractive to autograph collectors - in a break from tradition this competition will be open to SWNZ visitors worldwide. First prize is an autographed Official Pix/Celebration III photo of Squid Head and a full set of 4 collectible key-rings; second prize is an autographed Official Pix/Celebration III photo of Gerald as the RoTJ Mon Calamari Officer. The Official Pix photos are the same high-quality glossy versions, measuring 8" x 10", distributed at Celebration III. The collectible Gerald Home key-rings are otherwise only available when Gerald makes appearances at conventions/events. As an added bonus, we'll even throw in, to each prize package, an autographed Gerald Home celebrity card from the Chicagoland Entertainment Collectors Expo (2004).
A large number of entries were received - in approximately equal numbers from Ne Zealand and abroad. From the correct entries, the randomly drawn winners are... ...MORE
Matt G
Damien Garrett sent in his review of the recently released Battlefront II PC/console game: Star Wars Battlefront II is a "must have" game for all Star Wars fans. It is a first-person shooter, and expands on Battlefront I by including the planets from 'Revenge of the Sith', as well the Original Trilogy locations of BF1 such as Hoth. I found Battlefront 2 to be a very addictive game - I enjoy playing as the Rebels or Stormtroopers, BattleDroids or CSI. My favoured weapons are the rifle and the rocket launcher.
One tip I would pass on is for space battles - fly into the Imperial Star destroyer or Rebel ship; go into the control room, then go into the room that has life support and place few time bombs. This saves lots of time trying to shoot the life support from outside. Two things I don't like about Battlefront 2 is they didn't include the Cloud City location (present in BF1) - it would have made a great mission; and it does get a bit repetitive when you have to do the same planet three or four times after you beat the planet such as Endor or Hoth. Despite this, I would give Star Wars Battlefront 2 a score of 10 out of 10.
Damien Garrett
Welcome back to SWNZ of 2006.
'05 was a big year for Star Wars, with the hype of Episode 3, and the associated product releases and other events. Next year sees the 30th anniversary of 'A New Hope', and we can anticipate another relative push to get Star Wars merchandise back into public awareness. Where does that leave 2006? Well, we may find it a little more quiet compared to the year immediately past, but for the more die-hard of fans, that matters little. There will still be Star Wars news to be chased, Hasbro has plenty of great toys lined up for release (from all 6 movies), and specifically here in New Zealand, we continue to see fan groups such as Outpost-42 grow in numbers and become an established and expected presence at events such as the 6-monthly Armageddon conventions. And with 'Revenge of the Sith' out of the bag, license-holders finally have some permission to explore the events between Episodes 3 and 4 - I'm particularly looking forward to reading the likes of books such as Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader.
Stay tuned to SWNZ for plenty of interesting competitions throughout the coming year, as well as up-to-date product release announcements from our sponsors: AriseSirToy.co.nz, ReelCollectibles.co.nz, Fishpond.co.nz, and GPStore.co.nz. And if you want to make a contribution yourself, SWNZ welcomes for consideration all local news, store reports, and even book/toy/game reviews. Send them through via email.
All the best for 2006!
Matt G
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