November 1, 2024 • 33 mins
Hello there! This is episode 236!
A short and sweet episode this week, Star Wars fans. We do have a few news items to chat through including: the uncertain future of the Rey movie, which has faced setbacks; impressive advancements in Hot Toys collectibles, specifically focusing on the stunning new figures like Balen Skull and Darth Sidious; an upcoming "The Art of Star Wars Outlaws" book looks cool and an nice little insight about an unused switch-a-roo involving Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon!
The news stories from around the galaxy that we discussed on this episode...
- George Lucas Cut Obi-Wan Death Twist From 'Star Wars: Phantom Menace'
- Hot Toys Ahsoka Baylan Skoll Figure Unboxing | First Look - Jedi News
- The Art of Star Wars Outlaws from Dark Horse Arrives on July 8th, 2025 - Jedi News
- Andor S2 - Kino Loy Returns?
- Rey Skywalker Movie Loses Writer, The Mandalorian & Grogu Wraps Filming
About Spark of Rebellion:
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Hello there. We would behonored if you would join us. Spark
of Rebellion.
Hello and welcome to Spark ofRebellion. Brought to you from a
galaxy far, far away. This isactually a news episode, believe
(00:25):
it or not. Two of usrecording, doing the news, a little
bit old school. We've got somepretty good stories. We've got a
Liam Neeson thing, we've gotan artwork thing, we've got a hot
toys thing, we've got a ReySkywalker movie thing. Calm yourself.
And of course, we've got abloody andor thing. Oh. Coming out
(00:47):
of our ears today with theStar wars news after complaining
for weeks that there is none.It's gonna be fun. It's gonna be
an interesting one. I'm ofcourse Mark Asquith. And before I
bring on my co host with theco host, I am going to just remind
you that if you want to getsome stickers or if you just want
to show your love for theshow, get involved. Sparkofrebellion.com
(01:09):
support Chuck as a Bob or twoand we'll get a beer or two. We say
it's to put into the show andit is mostly. But we do often get
a Moretti as well. Not goingto lie, so reimbursement thereof.
Always welcome.Sparkrebellion.com/support. Now we
are gonna get to the news.Like I said, calm yourself, calm
yourself, calm yourself. It'sgonna be a lot of fun and we'll make
(01:30):
it fun, even though some ofthe stories are a bit dry. But I
can't do that on my owndespite my inbuilt clear hilarity.
So I'm gonna bring on theChewbacca with the tobacco. It is.
Garry.
Ellen. All right, geese.
All right, geese.
Geez.
Morning. Friday morningrecording with the Moretti. Very
(01:50):
nice.
That'd be nice, wouldn't it?
Yeah. That's like when you seethese companies that go on the big
work retreats, you know, whenthey go to Greece or something for
a week. You don't have to dothe slack meeting or the Zoom whatever.
Just have a beer on the beach,talk about some work.
Yeah, that's all the time.
Yeah. Oh, yeah, we're. We'repros at that stuff.
(02:12):
Sick of doing it.
Happy November, dude.
Isn't it?
First of November. We're aweek closer to having the Ray movie.
My old boss used to say that.Wish him happy birthday all the time.
He's like, piss off. I'm ayear closer to death. Thank you very
(02:32):
much. That's the outlook,mate. That's The. That's the spirit.
Glass half empty there, shag.Yeah, but we're not the boss anymore,
is he?
Well, not anymore he ever wasthe boss, but I let him think that.
Yeah. I covered some news lastweek about some Star wars movie stuff,
but there is another storythat was overlapped. I want to get
(02:55):
your thoughts on that. Beinteresting, mate. So, yeah, we've
only got one more thing,haven't we, to close out 2024, which
is skeleton crew. Be lookingforward to that.
Do you know what? Actually Iam, because I'm like a sucker. I'm
an absolute twat for beinghooked in by the Star wars bullshittery
and not real. So I am lookingforward to it. I read an interview
(03:16):
yesterday with like JohnWatson, Bryce, Dallas Howard in Empire
and all the other directors.We've got some really good directors
and it actually sounds good.It's just an ambling thing, which,
you know, I'm all right withthat. A bit of a Stand by Me Goonies,
you know, whatever. I'm sortof willing to give anything a try
at this point. So I'm. I'mlooking forward to it and I just.
(03:36):
You know what I mean? I'm justlooking forward to Jude Law's All
Saints look. Know what I mean?With his Diesel jeans on and his
distressed leather jacket andhis little scarf.
Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah. And hislittle. Do you reckon he have any
rips in his. He's not wearingjeans, is he?
I bet he has boots on. Youknow, like when people did boots,
even with T shirts and sortof. I could never pull that off.
(03:58):
But like, your celebs can pullthat off.
I like your Harry Styles andall that vibe, you know, with the.
The long coat with the T shirtand the boots and.
Yeah, yeah. Like back intolike 2004. Adam Levine sort of. Adam
Levine sort of stuff where,you know, that Robbie Williams sort
of vibe. Do you know what Imean? Everything's a bit distressed,
(04:20):
but it's not. It's just beendistressed because it's been been
put through Latila all since.No, I mean.
Yeah, and when he says AllSaints, he means the shop. Also,
if you're. If you're from theUS or anywhere else. Listener. There
is a band, isn't there, calledAll Saints?
All Saints is a US shop aswell. You know, I bought a jacket
in LA from there because I wascold and I was like, oh, so then
(04:40):
what do I want to look liketoday from Skeleton Crew? What? A
jacket.
Nice. Did you get a scarf as well?
No, I was in that vibe though,back in the day. But the thing is
as well, mullets are comingback in. Like the mullets from like
2001, 2003. We all had one.But now it's all the muscle guys
that are getting them with themustaches and the tattoos and the
(05:03):
BMWs on the drive and you knowwhat I mean, they're all selling,
they're all selling likeHerbalife and you know, trying to
get you into their, well, lifementality. You know, you only, you
only miss the shots that youdon't take. That's right. That is
true. Someone should havementioned that when you got your
mullet shagger. That's sort ofunderstand the All Saints vibe coming
(05:24):
back in. I think it surprisesme to see that.
Yeah. And I'm serious. Yeah. Ithink on a serious note, I think
Skeleton Crew is going to bethe most human, like Earth. How do
I put this? You know what I'mtrying to say?
It's got the suburbs. Exactly.
It's got high school, it's gotthe burbs, it's got the All Saints
(05:46):
vibe. I think it's going to bethe most Earth related in comparison
to, you know, real life.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know what I mean?
And I like John Watts as well.You know, John Watts is good. I do
like John Watts. He's. He'shad, you know, he's all. What he's
done for Spider man is great.I really, really enjoy his Spider
man stuff. Regardless of whatyou think of, you know, it's, you
(06:10):
know, Tony Stark, Spider man,whatever, any of that. But I just
really like the films. Lighthearted, decent pacing, everything's
pretty tied in. Yeah. A fewplot holes, who gives a crap? So
yeah, if, if this is more thesame and Bryce Dallas Howard is there
a few of the fantasticdirectors, so why not, man? It's
done on the volume. Just giveus a bit of fun, man. I. We said
it before, it'd be almost coolif it just didn't link to anything.
(06:35):
Just leave it, leave it out. Yeah.
Yeah. I am looking forward toit because it's. I like these shows
that have got influences fromother things and when the ingredients
are there and it's done well,I like it. You know, one of my favorite
descriptions of StrangerThings is it's like the Goonies meets
(06:57):
the X Files with a bit ofStephen King sprinkled over the top.
Yeah, that's sound.
Yeah, I love that. And when itcomes together really well, it's
really cool. So I think ifthis is the Goonies, meet Star Wars.
We just need to see what thatsprinkling is, if you know what I
mean. Are they gonna go like aserious undertone with it? Like.
Yeah, it's mainly for thekids, but this has got some. Some
(07:18):
serious darkness to it. Or ifit's just an isolated fun, don't
give a. It's Star Wars. Let'shave a laugh, you know? You know?
Yeah, I'm looking for.
I'm keen for it, man. I'm keenfor it. Do you want to do your Ray
thing first, then? Tell usabout that.
Oh, tell us about your ray andyour kung fu and all that. So, yeah,
it was last week I spoke aboutthe Rey movie losing its writer.
(07:41):
And it was like I did thiskind of good news, bad news thing.
So on one hand, I didn't speakabout this bit we've got coming up
with the Mandalorian Grogu,but the other film, the Mangold film,
is going ahead, which is good.So that was the good news, but the
bad news was the Ray film.That just seems to be going downhill
pretty quick, dude. It's the.At one point it was like, yeah, all
(08:05):
steam ahead. Daisy Ridley wasinterview saying, yeah, it's all
good. Looking forward to it.It's gonna be cool. And then all
of a sudden, the wheel seemedto have fallen off. So it was. It
was paused, wasn't it? Becauseof. The script wasn't right. They
weren't happy. So they neededto go back to the. Not about the
drawing board, but they neededto work on the script that was paused.
And then, yeah, last week orthe week before this, the. The lead
(08:27):
writer for it was like, I'vehad enough. I've just had enough.
I'm off. See you later. Andthen they tried. I think Daisy really
tried to try to get some goodvibes going amongst fandom because
she was like, I'm reallyexcited still. There's gonna be an
announcement soon. It's allgood. And then the. The rug was pulled
from under her. And theannouncement was not what they were
hoping for, that their leadwriter has gone. So, yeah, dude,
(08:50):
it's. I don't know what'shappening with that film now. It's.
A lot of people have said it'sdone. You can't believe Phantom too
much. But a lot of people havesaid that film's just forget about
it. But I don't think that'sthe case. But, yeah, not good, man.
Not good.
Just weird, isn't it? Yeah,it's weird. Like you said, the Mangold
one. And again, I like JamesMangold, you know, he does some really
(09:11):
good stuff. But I'm sort of.I'm just a bit non plussed by it.
We say it all the time, don'twe now? It's just. It's a shame that
we say it all the time. Thisis now the default. We just can't
get excited about the moviesbecause everything. It keeps getting
binned and cancelled andshifted. It just seems a bit pointless.
We've got the good newsthough. Mando and Grogu has finished
filming. I mean, that's thebankable stuff. We know that. That's
(09:33):
the bankable stuff. Like lowrisk bankable people know about.
I still think it's a weirddecision to take it to a movie theater.
You think so?
Yeah, I mean, I get it, it's acash in, isn't it? But I don't know,
man, it just. I just don'tknow how it's going to transpose.
Like my mum likes it becauseit's on tv. She can watch a bit of
(09:55):
new Star wars on TV and itfalls into that, ooh, what new series
shall we watch? You know, thatcycle. Whereas is she gonna go out
to the movie theater? No, Imean, I'm gonna go because it's Star
wars, but I don't like herother general casual fans gonna go
out or they're just gonna waittill it comes on Disney plus. Is
(10:16):
this. Do they think that theywill get as many people streaming
it? Like, are we going torewatch it on Disney plus? And we'd
watched it anyway. So willthey get a similar number on Disney
plus? But then the movie stuffis just like the extra bank. It feels
like that's probably the caseand maybe sets up like heir to the
empire and some other stuff perhaps.
(10:37):
Yeah, it's a, it's a big risk,isn't it? Because you hear that saying
loads these days where you asksomebody if they're going to watch
something that's coming out inthe cinema. And quite often the reply
is I just catch it when itlands on in search streaming service
here. Do you know what I mean?So I think that could be. And also
(10:58):
the time frame between landingin the cinema and coming to streaming
is getting less and less these days.
So even if it was like 25days, mate.
Dude. Yeah, like even if youmiss it at the cinema. So don't worry
about it, just watch it. Nextmonth it'll be on be on the Telebox.
So it is a risk defo. And I'mnot sure if the pull is there because
(11:18):
they've lost the momentum alittle bit. I can't even remember,
mate, most of the things thathappened in season, what, three?
Was that the last one? Three? Yeah.
Yeah.
I can't even. I can. Iremember the key moments. You know,
I remember. I can pull out thekey bits, but I can't remember a
lot of the. The minutiae ofit. So, you know, the momentum's
(11:39):
lost a little bit. So goinginto the film, it's like. I don't
know. Yeah. You know, I mean,it's. You know, it's. You want to
sort of capitalize on the. Onthe hype that's coming out of it,
you know, so it was. It wasover a year before they even started
filming the thing, since the.The end of season three. So.
Yeah, crazy. Yeah, it's true.There's a little bit of a little.
An error somewhere as well inthe. So the Superhero High Particle
(12:01):
is. Has been the reportingoutlet that we're looking at here.
And it just says scheduled tohit. Mando and Grogu scheduled to
hit theater May 26. But thenaccording to Puck via X has wrapped
filming and it says with sevenmonths until its release date, Fav
and the rest of the postproduction team should be able to
get it ready. So is it May 26or 25? Who knows? I think it's 25,
(12:24):
innit?
I. I think so. I was under theimpression it was 25.
Can we Google it?
Go on the goog.
No, it says 22nd of May 26th.
Huh.
So that's a year. And so now that.
That can't be.
So they've got a year andseven months to do the effects and
the marketing. It. I. I mean,25 seems a short anyway. Would have
(12:46):
got. Would have needed atrailer by now.
True. Yeah. So why would they have.
I think it's just a typo.
You could be a typo. Yeah.
I think that's all it is, butgood news nonetheless. We'll see
what happens with that. Yeah,the movies we're just gonna have
to see what go. I'm reallyjust out of that whole, like, excitement
phase for it all. Just sort ofwhen it. When we get it. I've said
(13:08):
it before. When we get atrailer, man, that's when I'll start
thinking about it. Same stillsor whatever. So what else we got?
Well, back to the TV stuff.There's a rumor flying around and
I'm. It's from. Right. So it'sfrom a Twitter account called My
(13:29):
time to shine. Hello. Now,this Twitter account recently has
been spouting all sorts ofstuff. Now, I'm not saying it's not
accurate. I don't know thisperson's track record whatsoever,
but I am telling you straightthat every third or fourth story
on all the big outlets likeSuperhype have been scoops from this
account, right? Spider manstuff, everything. Marvel, all the
(13:53):
doomsday stuff, everything.It's like they're just making it
up, right? I'm not saying theyare, but they've just come out of
nowhere recently with just aspate of things and this is one of
them. Right. I suspect a lotof it is just for clickbait, if I'm
totally honest with you. Isuspect could be very accurate. Who
knows? But the scoop is KinoLloyd, Andy Circus, of course, played
(14:18):
the. The character of Kino Loyon the Nikina 5 episodes. Poor lad
couldn't swim. And he reckons.Reckons that he's back for season
two.
So he didn't drown then? Hedidn't drown.
I don't know what happened. Hejust sort of stayed there, I don't
think. Did we see him jump in?
He jumped in there, yeah.
(14:42):
Someone's gonna help Demando,let's be honest.
Yeah. So the rumor is he'sback then? Yeah. Interesting. Okay,
so what is he? They recruitedhim into the rebellion or something?
No idea, mate. Or whetherthey've captured him as a bit of
a prisoner. I. I honestlydon't know. But it is just a rumor.
It was sort of. It's worthmentioning because Andy Serkis is
(15:05):
just continuing to take overHollywood slowly but surely, like
he's in everything and he'snow directing more. He's playing
a lot more mainstream. I mean,I don't want to say more because
he's done absolutely shedloads already, but he's just. It
just seems to be continuallythere. I would be all right with
this. I liked him. I thoughtit was all right. I just. If the
(15:26):
story's all right, then I'd bepretty good because there's a big
time jump. So it could bequite interesting. What about you?
Do you think he's actuallyback? Is this just clickbait? Are
you keen for it? Do you notcare? What's the. What's the gas
scoop on this?
Yeah, I think it'd be cool tohave him back because those scenes
where we. Where it was likethat sort of production line and
he was a bit of a hard ass. Itwas. He was quite a cool character.
(15:50):
Not Hugely memorable. But hewas quite a cool character in those
parts of it. So, yeah, I thinkit'd be cool. It would be cool to
see him. To see what the nextmove if he is back. Because I think
he was. Although he was a coolcharacter, he was quite a simplistic
character. Right. So I thinkhis M.O. was just, I just want to
get this shit done so I canget out of here, you know, that was
(16:10):
his whole schtick, I think. Soit'd be cool to see where they take
that, where he's like, okay,well, you know, my job's done. That's
clearly done. You know,there's no more of that, so what
do I do with life? You know?So it'd be cool to see him back.
Yeah, it would, it would. Andhe can pull most things off as well,
Andy Circus. So I think healways adds a bit of a gravitas as
well to anything. And I thinkseries and movies are generally better
(16:33):
with him in it just because hehas got that gravitas. You know what
I mean? He was the. If you hadlike the Robert Pattinson Bruce Wayne,
like, he wasn't the fullyformed Bruce Wayne yet. He was sort
of. He didn't have the screenpresence of a Ben Affleck as Bruce
Wayne. But Andy Circus alwaysbalanced that. Like, he brought the
presence in the Batman readyfor. To step up. So, yeah, and Snoke
(16:54):
as well.
Yeah, he was good. Snoke.
Yeah. So, yeah, we could be upfor that. All right. We're keen for
that one. We are keen. Weshall see. I suspect maybe just a
little bit of bluster, but whoknows? Who knows? And we know that
Andor is only two seasons. Youknow, this is no. There's no scope
for anything after that. Sothat's pretty cool, right? Star Wars
Outlaws. Dude, you've played that.
(17:15):
I've played that.
You've played that. Now you'vegot it. One of these art books has
been released. The Art of StarWars Outlaws. So it's. It's by Dark
Horse randomly. I didn'texpect that, to be honest with you.
Looks really nice, to be fair.224 pages, July 8, 2025. And it's.
(17:40):
Yeah, it just looks kind ofcool. These things are generally
quite expensive. I don't thinkwe've got a price point on this yet,
according to Jedi news.
40 quid.
Is it 40 quid? Yeah.
Well, 38 technically. I say 40 quid.
Oh, there we go. Yeah, yeah,yeah, yeah. Sorry, mate. Yeah, it's
on the Amazon Link, isn't it?This looks really nice, man. I'm
not, I'm not a guy that getsthese until they're in like, you
(18:02):
know, the works for nine quidin 12 years time. But, and, and I,
I always find that I like, Iread them once and they become like
these coffee table things thatgather dust or they go on a shelf
and you pull them out everynow and again. But I, I do see the
appeal of these things, dude.Like, you know, from a, from an art
perspective, designperspective. Are you more into these
(18:22):
than me? Do, do you pick these up?
I do occasionally. I, I, I'vegot some of the older Star wars ones.
They went through a phase ofdoing these big hardback books that
were like all the posters andthen they did the, these other, you
know, the art of or whatever.They were quite cool. But I've not
picked up any of the newerones of any. I know they did these
(18:43):
for the Jedi, Fallen Order andSurvivor games. They looked, I didn't
pick them up, but they lookpretty cool. But I do like these
ones because it shows thatit's mostly concepts, art and then
a few screenshots of how thatended up in the game and stuff in
Engine and all, all that, allthat jazz. But I do like these books
because I feel like the, theconcept artists, they really do,
(19:07):
you know, pretty much shapethe entire game, you know, of how
it ultimately ends up lookingand feeling and stuff. So it's good
to, it's good to pick it upto, to back up those guys if you
like, because not to get toopolitical, but with gaming, the,
the gaming industry, there's alot of, that goes on with like the
top execs at people like EAand Ubisoft and all that lot, and
(19:28):
they tend to screw over, youknow, a lot of people, they'll, they'll
say with this game needs toachieve this. And then all the developers
and designers are like, nah.And they're like, nope, we're definitely
doing this. And when itdoesn't work, it's those guys that
get laid off and all that lot.So yeah, so if you can throw a bit
of money their way to showsome support for the concept artists,
(19:48):
I think that's a good thing.So, but I mean the art of the game
itself, it does look, it's,it's not anything too abstract. It
definitely falls into thatvibe of if you didn't see the COVID
but you were looking throughthe pictures, you'd definitely say
straight away, oh, that's aStar wars thing. They've got that
whole in universe vibe goingon, which is really nice. But yeah,
(20:09):
I just don't know if I want topay 40 quid like you, man. It's probably
a WH Smith, the works thing.
Yeah.
You know. Yeah.
Decent run though. 224 pagesfor a book of this size is actually.
Yeah.
It's a lot of content inthere, so I sort of understand why
it's that price. But yeah, Imean this is going to be 20 quid
in a year, isn't it? Let's behonest. That's when it's, that's
the time to pick it up. So.Yeah, yeah. No, it does look nice
(20:33):
and I like. It's funny becauseI just like scouting through these
when you're in the works andthen you stick it back on the shelf,
you know. It's a once and donefor me with this sort of thing, so
it's rare that I would pick itup and reread it. Which sort of feels
like a bit of a wasted spendon this kind of thing, you know.
Yeah, same. Yep.
(20:53):
And I think you gotta love thething, you know, like I really enjoyed
Jedi Fallen Order, but I'mnot, it's. It's not my be all and
end all from Star wars, youknow, I mean, whereas like say the
prequels or the ot, I'd belike, do you know what, maybe I'll
have a look at that.
Yeah, that's. Yeah. I wasgonna say you have to really be into
this kind of thing. I knowthere's a lot of like digital artists
(21:16):
and concept artists. All thoseguys, they'll have like a library
of all these type of booksbecause they'll use it for, they'll
use it for reference materialand inspiration and whatnot. So for
those guys, you know, be allover it. The only other sort of books
I've got along this kind ofilk is I've got a few Lord of the
Rings books because absolutelylove that, that style of, you know,
(21:36):
that fantasy stuff. Like thosetype of books. I love those. But
I don't know if I love thisgame enough to buy it. That's the
only thing. It's a good game,good style, good art style.
But yeah, not a world changinggame. So. Yeah, not anything you're
gonna be desperate to pick up.Yeah, I get that, man. I get that.
(21:57):
We're gonna, we're gonna do alittle bit of Star wars prequel news
in a second. A little bit ofsome interesting to finish with,
but we're just gonna do aLittle bit of toy stuff because Hot
Toys have released a raft ofnew things, which is actually quite
interesting. There's. There'sa lot of Star wars stuff in the dark
(22:19):
side going on. As we saw awhile ago, there was. There was a
fair bit of dark side stuffannounced. We covered this a little
bit ago, but we've got alittle bit more, I suppose, a bit
more news on this one. So thefirst thing is we've got over at
hot toys on YouTube, they'vedone the Balen skull unboxing. And,
dude, it looks absolutelyfantastic. Like, you know, we've
(22:45):
said recently that just theseface molds have just taken another
step. They've just gone up alevel recently, starting with probably
with the Ahsoka stuff,actually absolutely insane. So good.
And this Balen skull unboxingjust looks great. It looks like if
I was enough of a fan of thischaracter to want to spend that kind
(23:06):
of money on it. It looksstunning. It just looks fantastic.
And the way that they'vecaptured Ray Stevenson and everything
alongside it, it just. Itlooks mega, dude. It just looks really
good.
It does, doesn't it? And it'sinteresting that they've really advanced
the, like you were saying, theface sculpt the. The tech for that
(23:27):
at the entry level range for,For Hot Toys and sideshow, because
typically you'd. You'd need topay a bit more to get. What's it
called? I think the premiumformat stuff and you know, like the
slightly larger statues andwhatnot. Those. Those ones are the.
Typically where you get thereally detailed stuff. But this,
I know I say entry level, it'sstill expensive. You know, we're
(23:48):
still talking a couple ofhundred bucks at least. But yeah,
it's just bang on, like. And Iknow they, for marketing purposes,
they really ham up the promoimages. You know, you've got the
lightsaber with the glowaround it and the background effect.
So I get that it does make itlook, you know, I mean, like it's
meant to be out of a scenefrom the TV show, whatever. But you
(24:12):
can still see, like these arenot sort of distant shots or, you
know, just in a glass cabinetat a toy fair or something. These
are actual close ups and theyjust bang on the beard, the hair,
even, like when you pose it.And when you get the pose just right,
you know, it's like that couldbe. At first glance, at least, that
could be a photo of a race.So, yeah, I love these, man. Very
(24:37):
cool.
So good. They aren't.
They.
They're so so nice, man. Andto take that just a little bit further
as well then. So if you lookover at Hot Toys, they did this dark
side stuff and they've done.They've done a couple of different
things. So the first thingthat they've done is Star Wars Celebration
2025 over in Japan thatthey're doing a Galen Erso 6 scale
(25:01):
collectible which has not beenreleased yet. There's no images.
It's a tease. But that, Imean, that's going to be fun if they
get the head sculpt right.Like Mikkelsen's face just is perfect
for this kind of thing. Youknow, it's just he's got contours
and things. He's not. He's notgot a boring face as he that lad.
So that's going to lookfantastic. But they've done. The
reason I wanted to bring thisup is they've done outside the T1000,
(25:25):
which is epic. They've done aclone Commander, which is fantastic.
And that's from the bad batchstuff. So it's kind of the follow
up armor, you know, that kindof transitional to stormtrooper armor,
which is quite fascinating.They've done the Sage Oppress, which
looks really good as well. Andagain, the skin texture, everything,
(25:47):
the armor texture looksamazing. Looks really, really good.
Big fan of that character.They've done a chopper again, looks
fantastic. But the one thatthey've done that really stands out,
man, is they've done a DarthSidious. Basically an actual Darth
Sidious, but the PalpatineRevenge of the Sith version. Okay,
(26:11):
so he's got the robes fromRevenge of the Sith, he's got the
hood, he's got the kind ofClone wars era sort of vibe. He's
got just the way it's set up.It's not the Sidious from Return
of the Jedi. It's not thedisfigured Sidious. It's the late
Clone wars, early Revenge ofthe Sith Sidious. And it looks mint.
(26:36):
It's almost like that theSidious. It's almost like when you
see Anakin as Vader in thattiny little bit of time where he
was Vader on the dark side butnot in the armor. You know, it's
that kind of little pinch oftime that they've done for Sidious
as well, where he's, he's.He's fully formed human form, complete
wanker. Looking great in hissenatorial robes and his, his chancellor
(26:58):
robes. But he's D. Sidious.He's got the facial expressions,
he's got the lightsabers, youknow, so this is badass, man.
Let me have a look. Justquickly. Oh, this one. Hold on. Oh,
yeah, that looks badass, dude.
Yeah, even with the lightninghands and stuff, mate, it's fantastic.
Yeah, that looks really good.Oh, that's a really good move as
(27:19):
well for that, because thatface sculpt could have been like
every other Palpatine.
Right.
You know, like you weresaying. But it's got that pre Mace
Windu scrap.
Yeah.
But it's still got thetwisted, evil sort. Yeah, man, that
looks really good.
Well, one of the heads thatthey've chosen with the little smirk,
(27:41):
like, it's prop, like, that'sproper. Proper Ian McDermid job that,
you know, that littleprobably, you know, the sly little
bugger looks. He's got you.You know what I mean? It's that look.
He's got you.
Yeah, that looks really good.Oh, man, that's a good play as well.
It, isn't it?
Yeah. Because I imaginethere's a lot of people who own Darth
(28:01):
Sidious figures alreadywishing that they had that kind of
like, you just want to punchhim in the face. Little smirk, sort
of spare head that you want topop on the figure. Yeah, that looks
really good. Yeah.
So I wish they'd done the Sitheyes on one of their heads. That's
the only thing I'd say is,like, do the Sithis, but, you know,
(28:22):
that's a very picky thing. Andit's only from the Clone wars episode.
But, dude, this is badass.Like, it's. They're getting you,
right? This the Anakin fromthe Clone wars, the two versions
of that. But you'd get thelater one for the better head sculpt,
and then the Obi Wan from theClone wars as well. Like, I would
get them. I would. I would getthem without a shadow of a doubt.
(28:44):
Despite all the. I've not gotroom for it. I would still get them
because I think they lookmint. And I'm glad I pulled the Obi
Wan order from Obi Wan Kenobi,because I. You know, they redid the
head sculpt after the ordershad shipped, I think. So just some
good stuff coming out of hottoys, dude, you could spend all day
wages.
Oh, you could, yeah.Especially on figures like one for
(29:06):
Christmas, one for Crimbo,perhaps. No, down.
Get it written down for theboss. Get it written down. All right,
we're gonna wrap up. We've gota short episode today. My fault.
Busy at work and all that. Youknow, the day job. But a little twist.
(29:29):
Oh, according to Zach Shaftfrom Variety, a bombshell Star wars
twist that was cut. So IanMcC, who, anyone that's read the
archives, you know, the Starwars archives books, or just you
knows anything about, likethe, the prequels will know that
Ian McC was heavily involved,heavily involved in the concept,
(29:50):
in the storyboarding for theprequels and to mark the 25th anniversary
of the Phantom Menace. IanMcCaig actually said that Qui Gon
and Obi Wan originally had theexact opposite names. Ewan McGregor
was going to be Qui Gon andLiam Neeson was going to be Obi Wan.
(30:13):
But the twist, the bombshelltwist, is that when Liam Neeson,
AKA as we know him, Qui Gon,but in this script, Obi wan dies,
Ewan McGregor's character, QuiGon, takes on the Obi Wan name as
a marker, respect, which isTheoretically, according to McCaig,
(30:36):
is why in A New Hope, it'sthat I've not heard that name for
a long time, you know, becauseBen Kenobi sounds really much like
fucking Obi Wan. So, yeah, itfeels like they sort of had this
line in A New Hope and Lucaswas like, oh, better sort that actually,
yeah, let's go and do this.And that's sort of the logic for
it. And you saw, you could seewhy it would then link to the Clone
(31:01):
wars and whatever else. Youknow, he'd not heard that name since
the Clone Wars. Maybe it wentback to using a different name. So,
like, story wise, I totallyget it. I totally get why they went
down this path. And it wouldhave been fascinating to see that.
But as we know, you know, it'sdifficult now to look back and think
that would have been a goodmove. But that's just because that's
what we know. Had we knownthis version of it, maybe we would
(31:24):
have loved that as well. Sonot much of a story. Just. I thought
it was quite an interestingthing to wrap up on, dude. A little
bit of trivia, a little bit ofsomething fun there, man.
Yeah, it's a fun little,little tidbit of, of insight, isn't
it? I love those sort of thoselittle stories that we're still getting
from these films in 25 years.Like, I feel so bloody old when you
(31:45):
hear that. Like 40 years ofthe Terminator, 25 years of this.
It's like, Jesus Christ. Butyeah, it's. It's an interesting little
tidbit. I'm glad they didn'tgo with it because I think there
are more interesting ways youcould explain that line that he has
in A New Hope. But it's cool,man. Like it?
Yeah. Nice little wrapper. Ireally recommend those Star wars
archives. You can get these inplaces like the Works. Now I saw
(32:07):
one the other day, the, thebig archive books that they do. These
big, big, big ass ones. Theydo the black one which is the original
trilogy and I think is it thered one that's the, the prequels
or vice versa? I forget. Yeah,really, really interesting. So in
a lot of these tidbits, I'mnot even sure this is in there actually
I would have remembered that.I'm sure I would have randomly read
(32:28):
them this year. So yeah,highly recommend those as well. But
interesting little way to wrapup the episode. Now, apologies it
is a slightly shorter episode,but we wanted to get together and
make sure we were recording.Gas flew solo last week, so I appreciate
that, dude. And yeah, toeveryone listening, we'll see you
next week. Thank you fortuning in. Let us know on Twitter
sparker rebellion.com Twitterlet us know what do you think of
(32:52):
that twist? What do you thinkof some of the hot toys? You're going
to pick them up. And much loveof course to all of our supporters
that, that enjoy supporting usevery week. Big fans of what you
do as you are big fans of whatwe do and we appreciate that. So
you can join that crew@sparkrebellion.com support Gaza. See you
next week, old stone, old geezer.
Yes, we'll see you next week.Thank you very much. That was 236
(33:14):
and as Mark said, thank you toour supporters. You guys are cool.
We'll see you next time for237. Until then, take care of yourselves
and may the Force be with you always.
Hello there. We would behonored if you would join us. Spark
of Rebellion.
Hello and welcome to Spark ofRebellion. Brought to you from a
galaxy far, far away. This isactually a news episode, believe
(00:25):
it or not. Two of usrecording, doing the news, a little
bit old school. We've got somepretty good stories. We've got a
Liam Neeson thing, we've gotan artwork thing, we've got a hot
toys thing, we've got a ReySkywalker movie thing. Calm yourself.
And of course, we've got abloody andor thing. Oh. Coming out
(00:47):
of our ears today with theStar wars news after complaining
for weeks that there is none.It's gonna be fun. It's gonna be
an interesting one. I'm ofcourse Mark Asquith. And before I
bring on my co host with theco host, I am going to just remind
you that if you want to getsome stickers or if you just want
to show your love for theshow, get involved. Sparkofrebellion.com
(01:09):
support Chuck as a Bob or twoand we'll get a beer or two. We say
it's to put into the show andit is mostly. But we do often get
a Moretti as well. Not goingto lie, so reimbursement thereof.
Always welcome.Sparkrebellion.com/support. Now we
are gonna get to the news.Like I said, calm yourself, calm
yourself, calm yourself. It'sgonna be a lot of fun and we'll make
(01:30):
it fun, even though some ofthe stories are a bit dry. But I
can't do that on my owndespite my inbuilt clear hilarity.
So I'm gonna bring on theChewbacca with the tobacco. It is.
Garry.
Ellen. All right, geese.
All right, geese.
Geez.
Morning. Friday morningrecording with the Moretti. Very
(01:50):
nice.
That'd be nice, wouldn't it?
Yeah. That's like when you seethese companies that go on the big
work retreats, you know, whenthey go to Greece or something for
a week. You don't have to dothe slack meeting or the Zoom whatever.
Just have a beer on the beach,talk about some work.
Yeah, that's all the time.
Yeah. Oh, yeah, we're. We'repros at that stuff.
(02:12):
Sick of doing it.
Happy November, dude.
Isn't it?
First of November. We're aweek closer to having the Ray movie.
My old boss used to say that.Wish him happy birthday all the time.
He's like, piss off. I'm ayear closer to death. Thank you very
(02:32):
much. That's the outlook,mate. That's The. That's the spirit.
Glass half empty there, shag.Yeah, but we're not the boss anymore,
is he?
Well, not anymore he ever wasthe boss, but I let him think that.
Yeah. I covered some news lastweek about some Star wars movie stuff,
but there is another storythat was overlapped. I want to get
(02:55):
your thoughts on that. Beinteresting, mate. So, yeah, we've
only got one more thing,haven't we, to close out 2024, which
is skeleton crew. Be lookingforward to that.
Do you know what? Actually Iam, because I'm like a sucker. I'm
an absolute twat for beinghooked in by the Star wars bullshittery
and not real. So I am lookingforward to it. I read an interview
(03:16):
yesterday with like JohnWatson, Bryce, Dallas Howard in Empire
and all the other directors.We've got some really good directors
and it actually sounds good.It's just an ambling thing, which,
you know, I'm all right withthat. A bit of a Stand by Me Goonies,
you know, whatever. I'm sortof willing to give anything a try
at this point. So I'm. I'mlooking forward to it and I just.
(03:36):
You know what I mean? I'm justlooking forward to Jude Law's All
Saints look. Know what I mean?With his Diesel jeans on and his
distressed leather jacket andhis little scarf.
Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah. And hislittle. Do you reckon he have any
rips in his. He's not wearingjeans, is he?
I bet he has boots on. Youknow, like when people did boots,
even with T shirts and sortof. I could never pull that off.
(03:58):
But like, your celebs can pullthat off.
I like your Harry Styles andall that vibe, you know, with the.
The long coat with the T shirtand the boots and.
Yeah, yeah. Like back intolike 2004. Adam Levine sort of. Adam
Levine sort of stuff where,you know, that Robbie Williams sort
of vibe. Do you know what Imean? Everything's a bit distressed,
(04:20):
but it's not. It's just beendistressed because it's been been
put through Latila all since.No, I mean.
Yeah, and when he says AllSaints, he means the shop. Also,
if you're. If you're from theUS or anywhere else. Listener. There
is a band, isn't there, calledAll Saints?
All Saints is a US shop aswell. You know, I bought a jacket
in LA from there because I wascold and I was like, oh, so then
(04:40):
what do I want to look liketoday from Skeleton Crew? What? A
jacket.
Nice. Did you get a scarf as well?
No, I was in that vibe though,back in the day. But the thing is
as well, mullets are comingback in. Like the mullets from like
2001, 2003. We all had one.But now it's all the muscle guys
that are getting them with themustaches and the tattoos and the
(05:03):
BMWs on the drive and you knowwhat I mean, they're all selling,
they're all selling likeHerbalife and you know, trying to
get you into their, well, lifementality. You know, you only, you
only miss the shots that youdon't take. That's right. That is
true. Someone should havementioned that when you got your
mullet shagger. That's sort ofunderstand the All Saints vibe coming
(05:24):
back in. I think it surprisesme to see that.
Yeah. And I'm serious. Yeah. Ithink on a serious note, I think
Skeleton Crew is going to bethe most human, like Earth. How do
I put this? You know what I'mtrying to say?
It's got the suburbs. Exactly.
It's got high school, it's gotthe burbs, it's got the All Saints
(05:46):
vibe. I think it's going to bethe most Earth related in comparison
to, you know, real life.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know what I mean?
And I like John Watts as well.You know, John Watts is good. I do
like John Watts. He's. He'shad, you know, he's all. What he's
done for Spider man is great.I really, really enjoy his Spider
man stuff. Regardless of whatyou think of, you know, it's, you
(06:10):
know, Tony Stark, Spider man,whatever, any of that. But I just
really like the films. Lighthearted, decent pacing, everything's
pretty tied in. Yeah. A fewplot holes, who gives a crap? So
yeah, if, if this is more thesame and Bryce Dallas Howard is there
a few of the fantasticdirectors, so why not, man? It's
done on the volume. Just giveus a bit of fun, man. I. We said
it before, it'd be almost coolif it just didn't link to anything.
(06:35):
Just leave it, leave it out. Yeah.
Yeah. I am looking forward toit because it's. I like these shows
that have got influences fromother things and when the ingredients
are there and it's done well,I like it. You know, one of my favorite
descriptions of StrangerThings is it's like the Goonies meets
(06:57):
the X Files with a bit ofStephen King sprinkled over the top.
Yeah, that's sound.
Yeah, I love that. And when itcomes together really well, it's
really cool. So I think ifthis is the Goonies, meet Star Wars.
We just need to see what thatsprinkling is, if you know what I
mean. Are they gonna go like aserious undertone with it? Like.
Yeah, it's mainly for thekids, but this has got some. Some
(07:18):
serious darkness to it. Or ifit's just an isolated fun, don't
give a. It's Star Wars. Let'shave a laugh, you know? You know?
Yeah, I'm looking for.
I'm keen for it, man. I'm keenfor it. Do you want to do your Ray
thing first, then? Tell usabout that.
Oh, tell us about your ray andyour kung fu and all that. So, yeah,
it was last week I spoke aboutthe Rey movie losing its writer.
(07:41):
And it was like I did thiskind of good news, bad news thing.
So on one hand, I didn't speakabout this bit we've got coming up
with the Mandalorian Grogu,but the other film, the Mangold film,
is going ahead, which is good.So that was the good news, but the
bad news was the Ray film.That just seems to be going downhill
pretty quick, dude. It's the.At one point it was like, yeah, all
(08:05):
steam ahead. Daisy Ridley wasinterview saying, yeah, it's all
good. Looking forward to it.It's gonna be cool. And then all
of a sudden, the wheel seemedto have fallen off. So it was. It
was paused, wasn't it? Becauseof. The script wasn't right. They
weren't happy. So they neededto go back to the. Not about the
drawing board, but they neededto work on the script that was paused.
And then, yeah, last week orthe week before this, the. The lead
(08:27):
writer for it was like, I'vehad enough. I've just had enough.
I'm off. See you later. Andthen they tried. I think Daisy really
tried to try to get some goodvibes going amongst fandom because
she was like, I'm reallyexcited still. There's gonna be an
announcement soon. It's allgood. And then the. The rug was pulled
from under her. And theannouncement was not what they were
hoping for, that their leadwriter has gone. So, yeah, dude,
(08:50):
it's. I don't know what'shappening with that film now. It's.
A lot of people have said it'sdone. You can't believe Phantom too
much. But a lot of people havesaid that film's just forget about
it. But I don't think that'sthe case. But, yeah, not good, man.
Not good.
Just weird, isn't it? Yeah,it's weird. Like you said, the Mangold
one. And again, I like JamesMangold, you know, he does some really
(09:11):
good stuff. But I'm sort of.I'm just a bit non plussed by it.
We say it all the time, don'twe now? It's just. It's a shame that
we say it all the time. Thisis now the default. We just can't
get excited about the moviesbecause everything. It keeps getting
binned and cancelled andshifted. It just seems a bit pointless.
We've got the good newsthough. Mando and Grogu has finished
filming. I mean, that's thebankable stuff. We know that. That's
(09:33):
the bankable stuff. Like lowrisk bankable people know about.
I still think it's a weirddecision to take it to a movie theater.
You think so?
Yeah, I mean, I get it, it's acash in, isn't it? But I don't know,
man, it just. I just don'tknow how it's going to transpose.
Like my mum likes it becauseit's on tv. She can watch a bit of
(09:55):
new Star wars on TV and itfalls into that, ooh, what new series
shall we watch? You know, thatcycle. Whereas is she gonna go out
to the movie theater? No, Imean, I'm gonna go because it's Star
wars, but I don't like herother general casual fans gonna go
out or they're just gonna waittill it comes on Disney plus. Is
(10:16):
this. Do they think that theywill get as many people streaming
it? Like, are we going torewatch it on Disney plus? And we'd
watched it anyway. So willthey get a similar number on Disney
plus? But then the movie stuffis just like the extra bank. It feels
like that's probably the caseand maybe sets up like heir to the
empire and some other stuff perhaps.
(10:37):
Yeah, it's a, it's a big risk,isn't it? Because you hear that saying
loads these days where you asksomebody if they're going to watch
something that's coming out inthe cinema. And quite often the reply
is I just catch it when itlands on in search streaming service
here. Do you know what I mean?So I think that could be. And also
(10:58):
the time frame between landingin the cinema and coming to streaming
is getting less and less these days.
So even if it was like 25days, mate.
Dude. Yeah, like even if youmiss it at the cinema. So don't worry
about it, just watch it. Nextmonth it'll be on be on the Telebox.
So it is a risk defo. And I'mnot sure if the pull is there because
(11:18):
they've lost the momentum alittle bit. I can't even remember,
mate, most of the things thathappened in season, what, three?
Was that the last one? Three? Yeah.
Yeah.
I can't even. I can. Iremember the key moments. You know,
I remember. I can pull out thekey bits, but I can't remember a
lot of the. The minutiae ofit. So, you know, the momentum's
(11:39):
lost a little bit. So goinginto the film, it's like. I don't
know. Yeah. You know, I mean,it's. You know, it's. You want to
sort of capitalize on the. Onthe hype that's coming out of it,
you know, so it was. It wasover a year before they even started
filming the thing, since the.The end of season three. So.
Yeah, crazy. Yeah, it's true.There's a little bit of a little.
An error somewhere as well inthe. So the Superhero High Particle
(12:01):
is. Has been the reportingoutlet that we're looking at here.
And it just says scheduled tohit. Mando and Grogu scheduled to
hit theater May 26. But thenaccording to Puck via X has wrapped
filming and it says with sevenmonths until its release date, Fav
and the rest of the postproduction team should be able to
get it ready. So is it May 26or 25? Who knows? I think it's 25,
(12:24):
innit?
I. I think so. I was under theimpression it was 25.
Can we Google it?
Go on the goog.
No, it says 22nd of May 26th.
Huh.
So that's a year. And so now that.
That can't be.
So they've got a year andseven months to do the effects and
the marketing. It. I. I mean,25 seems a short anyway. Would have
(12:46):
got. Would have needed atrailer by now.
True. Yeah. So why would they have.
I think it's just a typo.
You could be a typo. Yeah.
I think that's all it is, butgood news nonetheless. We'll see
what happens with that. Yeah,the movies we're just gonna have
to see what go. I'm reallyjust out of that whole, like, excitement
phase for it all. Just sort ofwhen it. When we get it. I've said
(13:08):
it before. When we get atrailer, man, that's when I'll start
thinking about it. Same stillsor whatever. So what else we got?
Well, back to the TV stuff.There's a rumor flying around and
I'm. It's from. Right. So it'sfrom a Twitter account called My
(13:29):
time to shine. Hello. Now,this Twitter account recently has
been spouting all sorts ofstuff. Now, I'm not saying it's not
accurate. I don't know thisperson's track record whatsoever,
but I am telling you straightthat every third or fourth story
on all the big outlets likeSuperhype have been scoops from this
account, right? Spider manstuff, everything. Marvel, all the
(13:53):
doomsday stuff, everything.It's like they're just making it
up, right? I'm not saying theyare, but they've just come out of
nowhere recently with just aspate of things and this is one of
them. Right. I suspect a lotof it is just for clickbait, if I'm
totally honest with you. Isuspect could be very accurate. Who
knows? But the scoop is KinoLloyd, Andy Circus, of course, played
(14:18):
the. The character of Kino Loyon the Nikina 5 episodes. Poor lad
couldn't swim. And he reckons.Reckons that he's back for season
two.
So he didn't drown then? Hedidn't drown.
I don't know what happened. Hejust sort of stayed there, I don't
think. Did we see him jump in?
He jumped in there, yeah.
(14:42):
Someone's gonna help Demando,let's be honest.
Yeah. So the rumor is he'sback then? Yeah. Interesting. Okay,
so what is he? They recruitedhim into the rebellion or something?
No idea, mate. Or whetherthey've captured him as a bit of
a prisoner. I. I honestlydon't know. But it is just a rumor.
It was sort of. It's worthmentioning because Andy Serkis is
(15:05):
just continuing to take overHollywood slowly but surely, like
he's in everything and he'snow directing more. He's playing
a lot more mainstream. I mean,I don't want to say more because
he's done absolutely shedloads already, but he's just. It
just seems to be continuallythere. I would be all right with
this. I liked him. I thoughtit was all right. I just. If the
(15:26):
story's all right, then I'd bepretty good because there's a big
time jump. So it could bequite interesting. What about you?
Do you think he's actuallyback? Is this just clickbait? Are
you keen for it? Do you notcare? What's the. What's the gas
scoop on this?
Yeah, I think it'd be cool tohave him back because those scenes
where we. Where it was likethat sort of production line and
he was a bit of a hard ass. Itwas. He was quite a cool character.
(15:50):
Not Hugely memorable. But hewas quite a cool character in those
parts of it. So, yeah, I thinkit'd be cool. It would be cool to
see him. To see what the nextmove if he is back. Because I think
he was. Although he was a coolcharacter, he was quite a simplistic
character. Right. So I thinkhis M.O. was just, I just want to
get this shit done so I canget out of here, you know, that was
(16:10):
his whole schtick, I think. Soit'd be cool to see where they take
that, where he's like, okay,well, you know, my job's done. That's
clearly done. You know,there's no more of that, so what
do I do with life? You know?So it'd be cool to see him back.
Yeah, it would, it would. Andhe can pull most things off as well,
Andy Circus. So I think healways adds a bit of a gravitas as
well to anything. And I thinkseries and movies are generally better
(16:33):
with him in it just because hehas got that gravitas. You know what
I mean? He was the. If you hadlike the Robert Pattinson Bruce Wayne,
like, he wasn't the fullyformed Bruce Wayne yet. He was sort
of. He didn't have the screenpresence of a Ben Affleck as Bruce
Wayne. But Andy Circus alwaysbalanced that. Like, he brought the
presence in the Batman readyfor. To step up. So, yeah, and Snoke
(16:54):
as well.
Yeah, he was good. Snoke.
Yeah. So, yeah, we could be upfor that. All right. We're keen for
that one. We are keen. Weshall see. I suspect maybe just a
little bit of bluster, but whoknows? Who knows? And we know that
Andor is only two seasons. Youknow, this is no. There's no scope
for anything after that. Sothat's pretty cool, right? Star Wars
Outlaws. Dude, you've played that.
(17:15):
I've played that.
You've played that. Now you'vegot it. One of these art books has
been released. The Art of StarWars Outlaws. So it's. It's by Dark
Horse randomly. I didn'texpect that, to be honest with you.
Looks really nice, to be fair.224 pages, July 8, 2025. And it's.
(17:40):
Yeah, it just looks kind ofcool. These things are generally
quite expensive. I don't thinkwe've got a price point on this yet,
according to Jedi news.
40 quid.
Is it 40 quid? Yeah.
Well, 38 technically. I say 40 quid.
Oh, there we go. Yeah, yeah,yeah, yeah. Sorry, mate. Yeah, it's
on the Amazon Link, isn't it?This looks really nice, man. I'm
not, I'm not a guy that getsthese until they're in like, you
(18:02):
know, the works for nine quidin 12 years time. But, and, and I,
I always find that I like, Iread them once and they become like
these coffee table things thatgather dust or they go on a shelf
and you pull them out everynow and again. But I, I do see the
appeal of these things, dude.Like, you know, from a, from an art
perspective, designperspective. Are you more into these
(18:22):
than me? Do, do you pick these up?
I do occasionally. I, I, I'vegot some of the older Star wars ones.
They went through a phase ofdoing these big hardback books that
were like all the posters andthen they did the, these other, you
know, the art of or whatever.They were quite cool. But I've not
picked up any of the newerones of any. I know they did these
(18:43):
for the Jedi, Fallen Order andSurvivor games. They looked, I didn't
pick them up, but they lookpretty cool. But I do like these
ones because it shows thatit's mostly concepts, art and then
a few screenshots of how thatended up in the game and stuff in
Engine and all, all that, allthat jazz. But I do like these books
because I feel like the, theconcept artists, they really do,
(19:07):
you know, pretty much shapethe entire game, you know, of how
it ultimately ends up lookingand feeling and stuff. So it's good
to, it's good to pick it upto, to back up those guys if you
like, because not to get toopolitical, but with gaming, the,
the gaming industry, there's alot of, that goes on with like the
top execs at people like EAand Ubisoft and all that lot, and
(19:28):
they tend to screw over, youknow, a lot of people, they'll, they'll
say with this game needs toachieve this. And then all the developers
and designers are like, nah.And they're like, nope, we're definitely
doing this. And when itdoesn't work, it's those guys that
get laid off and all that lot.So yeah, so if you can throw a bit
of money their way to showsome support for the concept artists,
(19:48):
I think that's a good thing.So, but I mean the art of the game
itself, it does look, it's,it's not anything too abstract. It
definitely falls into thatvibe of if you didn't see the COVID
but you were looking throughthe pictures, you'd definitely say
straight away, oh, that's aStar wars thing. They've got that
whole in universe vibe goingon, which is really nice. But yeah,
(20:09):
I just don't know if I want topay 40 quid like you, man. It's probably
a WH Smith, the works thing.
Yeah.
You know. Yeah.
Decent run though. 224 pagesfor a book of this size is actually.
Yeah.
It's a lot of content inthere, so I sort of understand why
it's that price. But yeah, Imean this is going to be 20 quid
in a year, isn't it? Let's behonest. That's when it's, that's
the time to pick it up. So.Yeah, yeah. No, it does look nice
(20:33):
and I like. It's funny becauseI just like scouting through these
when you're in the works andthen you stick it back on the shelf,
you know. It's a once and donefor me with this sort of thing, so
it's rare that I would pick itup and reread it. Which sort of feels
like a bit of a wasted spendon this kind of thing, you know.
Yeah, same. Yep.
(20:53):
And I think you gotta love thething, you know, like I really enjoyed
Jedi Fallen Order, but I'mnot, it's. It's not my be all and
end all from Star wars, youknow, I mean, whereas like say the
prequels or the ot, I'd belike, do you know what, maybe I'll
have a look at that.
Yeah, that's. Yeah. I wasgonna say you have to really be into
this kind of thing. I knowthere's a lot of like digital artists
(21:16):
and concept artists. All thoseguys, they'll have like a library
of all these type of booksbecause they'll use it for, they'll
use it for reference materialand inspiration and whatnot. So for
those guys, you know, be allover it. The only other sort of books
I've got along this kind ofilk is I've got a few Lord of the
Rings books because absolutelylove that, that style of, you know,
(21:36):
that fantasy stuff. Like thosetype of books. I love those. But
I don't know if I love thisgame enough to buy it. That's the
only thing. It's a good game,good style, good art style.
But yeah, not a world changinggame. So. Yeah, not anything you're
gonna be desperate to pick up.Yeah, I get that, man. I get that.
(21:57):
We're gonna, we're gonna do alittle bit of Star wars prequel news
in a second. A little bit ofsome interesting to finish with,
but we're just gonna do aLittle bit of toy stuff because Hot
Toys have released a raft ofnew things, which is actually quite
interesting. There's. There'sa lot of Star wars stuff in the dark
(22:19):
side going on. As we saw awhile ago, there was. There was a
fair bit of dark side stuffannounced. We covered this a little
bit ago, but we've got alittle bit more, I suppose, a bit
more news on this one. So thefirst thing is we've got over at
hot toys on YouTube, they'vedone the Balen skull unboxing. And,
dude, it looks absolutelyfantastic. Like, you know, we've
(22:45):
said recently that just theseface molds have just taken another
step. They've just gone up alevel recently, starting with probably
with the Ahsoka stuff,actually absolutely insane. So good.
And this Balen skull unboxingjust looks great. It looks like if
I was enough of a fan of thischaracter to want to spend that kind
(23:06):
of money on it. It looksstunning. It just looks fantastic.
And the way that they'vecaptured Ray Stevenson and everything
alongside it, it just. Itlooks mega, dude. It just looks really
good.
It does, doesn't it? And it'sinteresting that they've really advanced
the, like you were saying, theface sculpt the. The tech for that
(23:27):
at the entry level range for,For Hot Toys and sideshow, because
typically you'd. You'd need topay a bit more to get. What's it
called? I think the premiumformat stuff and you know, like the
slightly larger statues andwhatnot. Those. Those ones are the.
Typically where you get thereally detailed stuff. But this,
I know I say entry level, it'sstill expensive. You know, we're
(23:48):
still talking a couple ofhundred bucks at least. But yeah,
it's just bang on, like. And Iknow they, for marketing purposes,
they really ham up the promoimages. You know, you've got the
lightsaber with the glowaround it and the background effect.
So I get that it does make itlook, you know, I mean, like it's
meant to be out of a scenefrom the TV show, whatever. But you
(24:12):
can still see, like these arenot sort of distant shots or, you
know, just in a glass cabinetat a toy fair or something. These
are actual close ups and theyjust bang on the beard, the hair,
even, like when you pose it.And when you get the pose just right,
you know, it's like that couldbe. At first glance, at least, that
could be a photo of a race.So, yeah, I love these, man. Very
(24:37):
cool.
So good. They aren't.
They.
They're so so nice, man. Andto take that just a little bit further
as well then. So if you lookover at Hot Toys, they did this dark
side stuff and they've done.They've done a couple of different
things. So the first thingthat they've done is Star Wars Celebration
2025 over in Japan thatthey're doing a Galen Erso 6 scale
(25:01):
collectible which has not beenreleased yet. There's no images.
It's a tease. But that, Imean, that's going to be fun if they
get the head sculpt right.Like Mikkelsen's face just is perfect
for this kind of thing. Youknow, it's just he's got contours
and things. He's not. He's notgot a boring face as he that lad.
So that's going to lookfantastic. But they've done. The
reason I wanted to bring thisup is they've done outside the T1000,
(25:25):
which is epic. They've done aclone Commander, which is fantastic.
And that's from the bad batchstuff. So it's kind of the follow
up armor, you know, that kindof transitional to stormtrooper armor,
which is quite fascinating.They've done the Sage Oppress, which
looks really good as well. Andagain, the skin texture, everything,
(25:47):
the armor texture looksamazing. Looks really, really good.
Big fan of that character.They've done a chopper again, looks
fantastic. But the one thatthey've done that really stands out,
man, is they've done a DarthSidious. Basically an actual Darth
Sidious, but the PalpatineRevenge of the Sith version. Okay,
(26:11):
so he's got the robes fromRevenge of the Sith, he's got the
hood, he's got the kind ofClone wars era sort of vibe. He's
got just the way it's set up.It's not the Sidious from Return
of the Jedi. It's not thedisfigured Sidious. It's the late
Clone wars, early Revenge ofthe Sith Sidious. And it looks mint.
(26:36):
It's almost like that theSidious. It's almost like when you
see Anakin as Vader in thattiny little bit of time where he
was Vader on the dark side butnot in the armor. You know, it's
that kind of little pinch oftime that they've done for Sidious
as well, where he's, he's.He's fully formed human form, complete
wanker. Looking great in hissenatorial robes and his, his chancellor
(26:58):
robes. But he's D. Sidious.He's got the facial expressions,
he's got the lightsabers, youknow, so this is badass, man.
Let me have a look. Justquickly. Oh, this one. Hold on. Oh,
yeah, that looks badass, dude.
Yeah, even with the lightninghands and stuff, mate, it's fantastic.
Yeah, that looks really good.Oh, that's a really good move as
(27:19):
well for that, because thatface sculpt could have been like
every other Palpatine.
Right.
You know, like you weresaying. But it's got that pre Mace
Windu scrap.
Yeah.
But it's still got thetwisted, evil sort. Yeah, man, that
looks really good.
Well, one of the heads thatthey've chosen with the little smirk,
(27:41):
like, it's prop, like, that'sproper. Proper Ian McDermid job that,
you know, that littleprobably, you know, the sly little
bugger looks. He's got you.You know what I mean? It's that look.
He's got you.
Yeah, that looks really good.Oh, man, that's a good play as well.
It, isn't it?
Yeah. Because I imaginethere's a lot of people who own Darth
(28:01):
Sidious figures alreadywishing that they had that kind of
like, you just want to punchhim in the face. Little smirk, sort
of spare head that you want topop on the figure. Yeah, that looks
really good. Yeah.
So I wish they'd done the Sitheyes on one of their heads. That's
the only thing I'd say is,like, do the Sithis, but, you know,
(28:22):
that's a very picky thing. Andit's only from the Clone wars episode.
But, dude, this is badass.Like, it's. They're getting you,
right? This the Anakin fromthe Clone wars, the two versions
of that. But you'd get thelater one for the better head sculpt,
and then the Obi Wan from theClone wars as well. Like, I would
get them. I would. I would getthem without a shadow of a doubt.
(28:44):
Despite all the. I've not gotroom for it. I would still get them
because I think they lookmint. And I'm glad I pulled the Obi
Wan order from Obi Wan Kenobi,because I. You know, they redid the
head sculpt after the ordershad shipped, I think. So just some
good stuff coming out of hottoys, dude, you could spend all day
wages.
Oh, you could, yeah.Especially on figures like one for
(29:06):
Christmas, one for Crimbo,perhaps. No, down.
Get it written down for theboss. Get it written down. All right,
we're gonna wrap up. We've gota short episode today. My fault.
Busy at work and all that. Youknow, the day job. But a little twist.
(29:29):
Oh, according to Zach Shaftfrom Variety, a bombshell Star wars
twist that was cut. So IanMcC, who, anyone that's read the
archives, you know, the Starwars archives books, or just you
knows anything about, likethe, the prequels will know that
Ian McC was heavily involved,heavily involved in the concept,
(29:50):
in the storyboarding for theprequels and to mark the 25th anniversary
of the Phantom Menace. IanMcCaig actually said that Qui Gon
and Obi Wan originally had theexact opposite names. Ewan McGregor
was going to be Qui Gon andLiam Neeson was going to be Obi Wan.
(30:13):
But the twist, the bombshelltwist, is that when Liam Neeson,
AKA as we know him, Qui Gon,but in this script, Obi wan dies,
Ewan McGregor's character, QuiGon, takes on the Obi Wan name as
a marker, respect, which isTheoretically, according to McCaig,
(30:36):
is why in A New Hope, it'sthat I've not heard that name for
a long time, you know, becauseBen Kenobi sounds really much like
fucking Obi Wan. So, yeah, itfeels like they sort of had this
line in A New Hope and Lucaswas like, oh, better sort that actually,
yeah, let's go and do this.And that's sort of the logic for
it. And you saw, you could seewhy it would then link to the Clone
(31:01):
wars and whatever else. Youknow, he'd not heard that name since
the Clone Wars. Maybe it wentback to using a different name. So,
like, story wise, I totallyget it. I totally get why they went
down this path. And it wouldhave been fascinating to see that.
But as we know, you know, it'sdifficult now to look back and think
that would have been a goodmove. But that's just because that's
what we know. Had we knownthis version of it, maybe we would
(31:24):
have loved that as well. Sonot much of a story. Just. I thought
it was quite an interestingthing to wrap up on, dude. A little
bit of trivia, a little bit ofsomething fun there, man.
Yeah, it's a fun little,little tidbit of, of insight, isn't
it? I love those sort of thoselittle stories that we're still getting
from these films in 25 years.Like, I feel so bloody old when you
(31:45):
hear that. Like 40 years ofthe Terminator, 25 years of this.
It's like, Jesus Christ. Butyeah, it's. It's an interesting little
tidbit. I'm glad they didn'tgo with it because I think there
are more interesting ways youcould explain that line that he has
in A New Hope. But it's cool,man. Like it?
Yeah. Nice little wrapper. Ireally recommend those Star wars
archives. You can get these inplaces like the Works. Now I saw
(32:07):
one the other day, the, thebig archive books that they do. These
big, big, big ass ones. Theydo the black one which is the original
trilogy and I think is it thered one that's the, the prequels
or vice versa? I forget. Yeah,really, really interesting. So in
a lot of these tidbits, I'mnot even sure this is in there actually
I would have remembered that.I'm sure I would have randomly read
(32:28):
them this year. So yeah,highly recommend those as well. But
interesting little way to wrapup the episode. Now, apologies it
is a slightly shorter episode,but we wanted to get together and
make sure we were recording.Gas flew solo last week, so I appreciate
that, dude. And yeah, toeveryone listening, we'll see you
next week. Thank you fortuning in. Let us know on Twitter
sparker rebellion.com Twitterlet us know what do you think of
(32:52):
that twist? What do you thinkof some of the hot toys? You're going
to pick them up. And much loveof course to all of our supporters
that, that enjoy supporting usevery week. Big fans of what you
do as you are big fans of whatwe do and we appreciate that. So
you can join that crew@sparkrebellion.com support Gaza. See you
next week, old stone, old geezer.
Yes, we'll see you next week.Thank you very much. That was 236
(33:14):
and as Mark said, thank you toour supporters. You guys are cool.
We'll see you next time for237. Until then, take care of yourselves
and may the Force be with you always.
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