starwars.com makes it official: eFX is new licensee

Putting an end to speculation on collectors' message boards and blogs, starwars.com announced that eFX is a new licensee, partially picking up where Master Replicas left off.

eFX will manufacture scaled and full-size prop replicas, replicas of ships and vehicles, helmets, and die-cast vehicles and ships.

Hasbro will from now on manufacture Force FX lightsabers, which are pretty much the same as the Master Replica ones.

http://www.starwars.com/collecting/news/misc/news20080110.html

Comics: Vector preview

Darth Pipes linked to this preview of Dark Horse's big fat Vector extravaganza that ties in four time periods:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=92159514&blogID=346217141

Review: Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide To The Force

I finally finished it last night. The deal with the essential guide books, ever since they started putting them out in the mid-1990s, is that they are more like guides to the expanded universe than they are to the movies themselves. Sure, info from the movies is always included but a good chunk of the material are sourced from the books, comics, roleplaying games, and videogames. Part of the reason is volume; there's just a lot more characters, locations, and so forth mentioned in the expanded universe than the films. Part of it is good ol' fashioned synergy. It makes sense for the company that publishes the other books to cross-promote them.

This particular essential guide is no different. The conceit is that you are reading entries collected by Jedi scholar Tionne, who is a creation from the expanded universe. 90% of the material references books, comics, and games, all in an effort to collect the histories of both the Jedi and the Sith.

The design and layout of the book is beautiful and the art is incredible. If there's any reason at all to buy this book, it's the amazing art. Where else will you see a pic of a young Sidious training under his master or Shmi arriving on Tatooine with a toddler-aged Anakin? The material is exhaustive and detailed, with every attempt made at smoothing over inconsistencies that inevitably come up after a publishing program that's lasted this many years.

There is one problem with it however that will likely ruin the whole thing for some fans. As you know, I'm hunky dory with the EU. There are a lot of things I'm willing to forgive and overlook if the story is a good one. But one thing the EU should never, ever do is undermine what's in the films. I was enjoying the book and eagerly looking forward to reading the chapter on The Chosen One, which by the way, has some great passages in it. However, the guide's author decided to nuke Anakin's claim on being The Chosen One. He didn't destroy the Sith like the prophecy says, so he can't be the guy!

Aaaaaagh!!! *Headdesk.* *Barf.*

The reason is simple: if Anakin's not The Chosen One, then there's no inconsistency with having armies of post-ROTJ Sith Lords running around, an EU plot staple.

Thanks a lot, Del Rey!