New Documentary About Star Wars Toys!

So... I mentioned that I've got some big news, and now it's finally time to share it.

I'm currently in production on a documentary called Plastic Galaxy: The Story of Star Wars Toys. It is, as the title suggests, a movie about... Star Wars toys!

The film will explore the history and pop cultural impact of the action figures, play sets, space ships, and props that we all know and love -- all through conversations with fellow collectors, former Kenner and Hasbro employees, toy experts, and more. And, of course, there'll be a lot of cool toys!

The film will be released on DVD in August, 2012, at Celebration VI -- it'll also be available for purchase through many brick-and-mortar stores and through an online shop. Besides the film itself, I plan on including all sorts of extras... but for now, I'm keeping them secret!

Check out the teaser trailer!



For more information and updates, you can check out Plastic Galaxy's official web site, www.plasticgalaxymovie.com. You can also follow us on Twitter (@Plastic_Galaxy) and friend us on Facebook. If we can get this telepathy thing to work, you can follow us with you mind, too.

And for those who like to keep things within the blogger community, we've got another blog set up that you can follow: plasticgalaxymovie.blogspot.com. We'll try to update it every time we update the main news feed on the official site, but just in case, you might want to check both every once in a while.

So that's it -- that's why both this site and the Attic of Astounding Artifacts have kind of dried up of late. I've been extremely busy with the film -- and I anticipate many more months of work ahead of me. But it'll be worth it... I hope!

Original Death Star Panel (ca. 1975/1976-ish)

So... long time, no blog. Sorry! I've been having a really busy couple of months, but trust me, it's been worth it. I'll be making a doozy of an announcement in about a week, and hopefully you'll all be as excited by what I've got to say as I am. But enough rumor and innuendo... I've got something cool to show you!



This is an original, production-used panel from the Death Star. Yep, an actual piece of the shooting model from Star Wars. (None of that "A New Hope" junk for me -- the first will always be, simply, Star Wars.) It was part of the model used for long-range shots, where detail wasn't as important. Larger panels appeared in the close ups of the Death Star, while a large, spherical model was used for the really wide shots.

This came, via a dealer, from the collection of Richard Edlund, the Chief Special Effects Photographer for the film. Talk about provenance! It's 3 x 3 inches, and made from a rigid foam. It's painted grey, with a kind of rough texture to it.



As a huge -- huge! -- Star Wars nerd, owning a piece of the original Death Star model is a dream come true. It's an iconic part of the film, an instantly recognizable symbol of science-fiction bad-assery. And now, this tiny square is one of the crown jewels of my collection. I'm positively over the moon about this. ("That's no moon, Doc. It's a space station!")

Okay, back to my secret lair. Stay tuned for a killer, killer announcement.