April 18, 2025 • 33 mins
Star Wars Celebration is just around the corner, and the hyperspace lanes are buzzing with pre-event news! The hype is reaching critical levels, so join your Escape Pod co-hosts as we blast through the biggest headlines and hottest topics you need to know before the main event. Get ready for our usual mix of insights, laughs, and maybe a few poorly-timed jokes!
- New Star Wars Strategy Game: Ex-Firaxis developers at Bit Reactor, in collaboration with Respawn Entertainment, have unveiled "Star Wars: Zero Company". It's described as a single-player, turn-based tactics game set in the prequel era. More details are expected at Star Wars Celebration Japan on April 19th. (Source: Eurogamer)
- LEGO Star Wars May 4th Reveals: Several new LEGO Star Wars sets have been announced for May the 4th, headlined by the Ultimate Collector Series (UCS) Jango Fett's Firespray-Class Starship (75409). This 2,970-piece set depicts the ship from Attack of the Clones. Other new sets include Kylo Ren's shuttle and helmet, a Jango Fett helmet, a buildable Chopper droid, and more. Most sets are available from May 1st, with the UCS ship having early access for LEGO Insiders on May 1st and general release on May 4th. (Source: Jay's Brick Blog) (Source: Geek Culture)
- YouTini News: Youtini covers a wide range of recent Star Wars news, including the new video game "Zero Company," upcoming books and comics (like a new Darth Vader book and Doctor Aphra series), merchandise reveals for May the 4th (including the LEGO sets and Baylan Skoll/Shin Hati lightsabers), and previews for Star Wars Celebration Japan. (Source: Youtini Articles) (Source: Youtini Merchandise)
- Light & Magic Season 2: The second season of the ILM documentary series "Light & Magic" premieres today, April 18th, on Disney+. Directed by Joe Johnston, this season focuses on the digital era of the 90s, the making of the prequel trilogy, and ILM's technological advancements during that time, covering films like Twister, Casper, and Pirates of the Caribbean. (Source: Star Wars News Net)
- Fortnite at Star Wars Celebration: Fortnite will have a presence at Star Wars Celebration Japan (April 18-20). A special announcement regarding upcoming Star Wars content is expected.
- Star Wars: Beyond Victory (Meta Quest): ILM and Lucasfilm revealed more details about "Star Wars: Beyond Victory – A Mixed Reality Playset", an experience for Meta Quest headsets. Set around the time of Solo: A Star Wars Story, it focuses on podracing and features the character Sebulba. It includes Adventure (VR/MR story mode), Arcade (MR holotable podracing), and Playset (MR figures/vehicles) modes. Attendees at Star Wars Celebration Japan can get a first hands-on look. (Source: ILM) (Source: UploadVR)
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https://www.youtube.com/@SWLaunchPad
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
This is all good content
(00:01):
Can I persuade you to join us for a drink?
(00:21):
It's a tradition
Here, here
Jar Jar, homie, my main man
Quick, before the separatists attack
Get into the escape
Hey, this is escape
Then where's the pod?
This is escape
Welcome back to Star Wars Escape Pod
(00:43):
And another very short episode
As we prep for Star Wars Celebration
This weekend, we have your co-hosts
In the Escape Pod, Blake and Kirk
And we are just going to chat about
Some preliminary Celebration news
And things to look forward to
Before we get into Celebration
Stuff much later through the weekend
So look out for those daily
Lightspeed drops that I'll be putting together
(01:05):
After the day in Japan
As they are a full day
I think ahead or behind
I don't know, whatever it is
But we're going to be
Doing some coverage on that
And in the meantime
Let's get into what we got
(01:29):
Another happy landing
Alright, we're back
Kirk, I don't know if you know
But this is going to be a very special opening
To this podcast episode
Because right before I hit record
(01:52):
I heard you say
This is all good content
And then we just blasted in
So I think I'm going to keep it in there
It's permanent now
If we got the whole thing
I think I'm going to keep it in there
You probably cut off the last word
Hell yeah, that's good
But we are back
And as we record this episode
(02:12):
Celebration has started in Japan
And the Twitter feeds are
Going nuts with stuff
A bunch of stuff has already happened
And we're not going to touch it
We're not going to talk about it
I didn't even realize it was real
All my dreams are coming true
It's true
Guess what everybody?
Kirk went to Japan a week ago
And didn't stick around for celebration
(02:32):
He planned to go
But just got the week wrong
The tide dilation got me
I rocked up to the convention center
And I thought it was that weekend
They're setting up
Yeah, they're setting up
And then, yeah
I arrived two weeks early
I saw the AT-ATs driving in
And the TIE fighters swooping over
(02:53):
You said they're really promoting
The heck out of Star Wars
Over there right now, right?
Yeah, there's so much
Especially the Visions series
Whenever I was walking through
The main streets in Tokyo
Going past the Disney store
They had all this Star Wars stuff
Being played
And a lot of merch available as well
Versus not as much Marvel stuff
(03:15):
As I was expecting
But I definitely saw a lot more
Star Wars material they were pushing
Which is kind of cool to see
I could see that
Just because Star Wars has been
In Japan for a long time
Even the original movie
Had a poster there
Yeah
They're doing Star Wars Nights now too
And
What's the
What's the city they have
At Disneyland over there?
Is it Tokyo?
(03:35):
It's probably Tokyo
Probably Tokyo, yeah
Yeah, Disney Tokyo
If that's the park that has it
They're doing something called Star Wars Nights
I think everyone just calls it Disney Japan
Disney Japan, yeah
Yeah, exactly
Where is it, Kirk?
I think
No, no, it is in Tokyo
You're right
I remember going
Going past it
I think Universal is in Osaka
Like the one with Nintendo World
(03:56):
That's what I'm thinking
I always get confused
Which one's in which part
But yeah
But like
The lines are massive
I've seen so many
Yeah
People
With those things, yeah
Right
Yeah
Yeah, Visions of course
Being inspired by
A lot of anime
Well, it's
(04:16):
It's created by a bunch of anime studios
The first season
Or volume
Was done all with Japanese places
The second one went international
And they kind of outsourced
To other places around the world
There's a volume
Three coming later this year
So, yeah
It's been pretty successful
I mean, people have thought
It's been
You know, it's
It's been interesting enough
(04:38):
To go three volumes
So
Yeah, it's true
There's always been
Really interesting content
And I think
When we've talked about it
There's a handful
Because it's all not canon
There's a handful that
I think were cool enough
And could fit in well enough
That they should try to extend it
And make it canonized
Yeah, or adapt some of them
Yeah, I think that'd be cool
Yeah, that'd be
Maybe that was the plan all along
Because of them just getting
Like
Getting ideas
(04:58):
Free ideas
Free ideas
Yeah, free concept ideas
Yeah, yeah
Well, we got some
You know, I'm sure this weekend
I'm sure we'll hear more about
Visions Volume 3
So, you know
Whether it's a teaser
Or something
I'm sure they'll talk about it
So, you know
I'm sure we'll get to it
In the meantime
There is a few new things
(05:19):
That, you know
We have going into the weekend
Some
One big headline is
X for Axis developers
Are making a Star Wars strategy
Game
And I think I sent word
To you guys about this
The other day
I shot you a text message
With the link
It's called
Star Wars Zero Company
And it's a collaboration
With EA's Respawn Entertainment
(05:40):
And Bit Reactor
Which was a studio
That was founded
In 2022
By veterans of XCOM
And Civilization
Which are two very
Very big
Strategy games
Out there
That, you know
I play Civilization
I know
Our friends
AJ plays XCOM
Quite a bit
XCOM 2
And they're making
(06:02):
A Star Wars game
So, pretty cool
I don't know
If you guys
Looked up the leaks
There were some leaks
Of footage out there
Of some gameplay
And it looks
Pretty cool
I haven't seen any gameplay
It's like a
Squad based
You know
You can tell
Your squad members
What to do
And it's like
I think it'll be
Turn based
(06:22):
So you kind of
Figure out
What you want to do
And then
The enemy takes their turn
Your guys take your turn
And then you see it
Kind of like
Unveil
Very cinematically
Sort of thing
Is that more like
A KOTOR style
Or like a Pokemon style
No, I think KOTOR
KOTOR is not
Turn based
Because it's kind of
You're always live
It is turn based
But it's
(06:42):
Everything's happening
Simultaneously
So you can like
Pause time
Like line up
What you want to do
Or you can do it live
But
That doesn't work
Very well
Okay
Yeah, the MMO
Was not
Turn based
No, the MMO
Is more like Warcraft
Because you can't
Really do that
Gotcha
With everybody
Doing like that
Pausing time
Yeah
Alright, you
This is a game
That you're going to play, Kirk
(07:02):
You're going to check this out
Definitely
Definitely
Always keen to check out
Some new stuff
Yep
Single player
Turn based tactics game
I know you're going to
Try it at some point as well
We'll see
I'm not
Super big
Into RTSs these days
Sometimes I break out
The Stronghold Crusader
(07:23):
Yeah
That's about my limit
Well, the poster features
A
A
, a crew
Of, of
Well, various characters
There's a Jedi
On there
A Mandalorian
A clone trooper
And
What era is this in?
This, this era
Like, okay
To me, this looks like
Dark times
(07:43):
Like between
Episode 3 and 4
There's an Umbaran
Like, we saw
Umbarans on the
Umbara arc
In the Clone Wars
So he's chilling
Out of the back
There's
Kind of like a smuggler
Like rogue guy
Like just front and center
You know
He's got a big trench
Jacket on
He's got a mustache
He looks like
So what you're saying is
They got all the tropes
For Star Wars
(08:03):
Yeah, they got the
Astromech in there
The clone trooper
A Mandalorian
Yeah, they've got
You know, it's like
It's like the whole array
Of like
You know, variety
Yeah, and of course
The Jedi is also like
A crazy alien
That we've
Not seen in a long time
He's the same species
As Saw Gerrera's
Like
You know, like that guy
Who like captures Bodhi
(08:25):
Yeah, I think I know
His face
Because he had the cool tubes
Yeah, yeah, yeah
He's one of those guys
I just have no idea
What he's called
Yeah, yeah
Oh, Tubes
That's his name
Is it really?
Yeah, it is
It is
Oh my gosh
I guess I can't be surprised
When a character's named
Pruneface
How original
Yeah, so EA says
They will be sharing more
(08:46):
This weekend
Saturday
On the 19th of April
At 8.30 a.m.
I don't think
I don't know if that's
Local time
Or if that's
In general
Japan
So
That could be
Saturday
Could be our Friday
So, you know
Stay tuned
We're gonna drop
This episode tonight
So, you know
(09:07):
Stay tuned tomorrow
If you're listening
To this in time
Yeah
Cool, cool stuff
Did you guys see
Those crazy new
Lego announcements?
For May 4th
I just saw the
Jango Fett
Maybe you wanna
Talk about that?
I mean
I just kinda
Browsed it quickly
I haven't looked at it
Too in depth
But they're gonna do
A massive Jango Fett
Slave 1
(09:27):
Which
I don't know the exact scale
But it looked ginormous
Yeah
And the last time
They did this scale
Was
Boba's
Slave 1
Like years ago
Is it the same
As that one?
Yeah, yeah
Same scale
Same size
It's just the exact same
They just changed the color
The same parts
There's some different parts
Cause there's a
Side by side
There's some different parts
(09:48):
Here and there
And the plaque is different
Of course
And now they've done
The whole stupid renaming
Of the ship
To Jango Fett's
Starship
Lame
So
Yeah
But they've got
Lego versions
Of the
Of the minifigures
Of naturally
You know
Yeah
Cause they haven't done
Jango since the original
Yeah
Well actually
Sorry
(10:08):
No
They did do one
I think they've done
Like maybe one
Maybe two
Yeah
But
Very few
Very very few
Yeah
Yeah
Was there any other
Cool ones?
I didn't
I only saw the big one
So they have a little
Battle pack
What I stole them
Called battle packs
The Camino
Training facilities
Training facilities
So you can get clones
In their like
Red garb
(10:29):
Like with the patch
On the shoulder
Oh
So they're not in armor?
They're like
No
They're like
Yeah like
It's a really
Civvies
I think they call it
It's a really weird set
You get three figures
That is so weird
Yeah you get three figures
In there
It's got some sort of
Like training tower
What the heck
And like a pod
That is on like a still
I don't even know
What's happening in this
(10:49):
Yeah it's kind of weird
Set art
Yeah it's kind of weird
But what's cool
Is you get clones
In their training garb
So that's kind of
It's neat
But you're not gonna
Make an army
Out of that
Yeah
I don't know
If you're looking
At these photos
Kirk
It's on the podcast
Outline doc
There's a link in there
You can take a look
For yourself if you want
Is it so you can make
The full
Camino experience
From Attack of the Clones?
(11:09):
I think so
But you know
What would be really cool
Is if like
People did go ham
On these things
And like recreate that scene
Like that would be
That would be awesome
Do they wear red in that?
Or are they all wearing blue?
Yeah they do
So like the cadets
Are wearing blue
But like when they get older
They wear red
So it's in that scene
Where Obi-Wan's walking
Through the hallway
With
Yeah
Yeah
And they're looking down
To the
Hallways
(11:29):
Yes
Where do I
Where do I find that
Outline doc again?
I want to have a look
Just go to Google Docs
And it should be
Should be on there
They should do
Battle Pack next
That's all them
Like the
Embryo
Clones that are
Not entirely born yet
They're like in those
Capsules
Right
That should be
The next one
Yeah yeah yeah
(11:50):
Like infants
Oh man
Yeah
So that's another cool one
They're also
I don't know if you saw
Recently but they made
Like a Marvel logo
That just says Marvel
It's just made of bricks
The logo for Marvel Studios
This is something
They're selling
They've made one
That just says
Star Wars now
And
(12:11):
Oh wow they did
Yeah wow
Yeah
Yeah I don't know why
It's
It's cool
But like I don't
I don't really know
There's so many cool
Ships and stuff
They haven't done yet
Yeah I don't really know
Who this sets for
Do you know what's kind of cool?
Maybe if you have
Like a display case
Yeah
Like all these
Star Wars legos
And you put that there
(12:31):
I kind of see that
Yeah
Yeah I can see that
Being kind of neat
Maybe they realize
All these YouTubers
And stuff for the back
Of their camera
Yeah yeah
It'll make money
I mean what the heck
Like they can do anything
They'll make money
Yeah
Okay they've got
A big chopper
Kind of like how they did
Like a big R2D2
So just like
The R2D2
(12:52):
You can get a little
Chopper with the big chopper
And it has the plaque
So you know
It's in that lineup
Of sort of
Ultimate collector series
Characters that you can build
So it's kind of neat
To see chopper in there
The next helmet
They're doing
Is Kylo Ren's helmet
Yeah the chopper
Yeah
Are you going to get that?
I don't know
Do you buy a lego?
(13:12):
I haven't bought
I haven't bought a lego set
In years
But someone just gifted me
A Grogu lego set
Like the budget one
Not the
Not like the really expensive one
Oh yeah
And it's
It's the thing
I looked at it
And it's kind of like
The thing of nightmares
Yeah
I don't know
It just
It doesn't look like
Grogu
It just looks
It's just like
It's still in the box
(13:33):
I don't think he's going to
Listen to this podcast
But I don't know
If I want to build it
It's too scary
I've seen that
Maybe that's the source
Of the red lightsaber
At night
It gets out of the box
Goes under your bed
Turns on your saber
The spirit of block
Grogu
That's what happened
That's what
That must have been it
I think that was it
(13:53):
I haven't built it yet
It
Like
I mean
It'll put a
A photo of it
In the chat here
But it's not
It's not the one
With the cradle
It's the one
Where he's kind of
Standing on his own
And it just looks
It just looks
Like atrocious
I don't know
What they were doing
When they were
Designing
Designing that
But it's like
The budget one
I think it's like
A hundred dollars here
But that's the only
Star
(14:13):
I mean
That's a budget
Lego
That's crazy
Yeah
Budget one's
A hundred bucks
All right
The next helmet
They're doing
Is Kylo Ren
And Jango Fett
So those are
Neat
Oh man
Means it might do
A Jango
Black series helmet
I really hope so
(14:34):
That would be cool
They're getting back
Into clones now
With the release of
You know
Slave 1 again
But Jango's version
They got the Jango helmet now
I like
I like the love for Jango
Yeah
Yeah
It's cool right
I love how
Like
You know
How pop the blue is
The blue looks really good
On Jango's helmet
Yeah it does
They've got
(14:54):
Kylo Ren's command shuttle
Which is
Which is like
A miniaturized version of it
On a little stand
So
Okay
Because the original came out
Back when
Force Awakens came out
I think
Yeah
I don't know if this is
Maybe a new
I don't know if there's
Like a new series
That they're doing
Or what
But to me it seems like
That one looks quite good too
Yeah
Like it's like
A mini version
(15:15):
Like I don't
It's 386 pieces
It's like
They've done this
I feel like they've done
This ship before
Like when Force Awakens
Came out
But like a
Like a play set version
This one's
Like
I thought it was pretty big
This one's very small
Yeah the original one was
Oh yeah
You know what
They had one from episode 8
And I think that one was
That's the one I'm thinking of
(15:35):
Is that one
And they got a new play set
For the U-Wing
Which features
Characters from
Andor season 2
They've got
Dedra Miro
As well as an
ISB tactical agent
They've got
Cassian Andor
In a costume
From season 2
As well as
K2SO
Now being
I think the only
(15:56):
Second set
That you can buy him in
So
So that's kind of cool
Like anyone who missed
The U-Wing
When Rogue One came out
You can
You can buy it again
So
So that's
That's all very exciting
That's me
And you know
For all the losers out there
That buy brick heads
They're doing
Don't insult our audience
I know
(16:17):
I'm just kidding
So they're doing
They're doing more brick heads
They're doing the
Luke Skywalker pilot
As well as
Leggo the Shire
A box set
Of a bunch of characters
In there
I don't
Honestly these look creepy
Is that like a pack
Of five of them
I think so
I think so
That's such an odd
That's such an odd selection
Like
Rey
Anakin
Grievous
Palpatine
(16:37):
And Mace Windu
What an
What an odd bunch
Of people
Yeah
Oh no it's Amidala
No no it's Padme
I was about to say
Is that Rey
It looks
It looks like Rey to me
Oh it's Padme
In her
Pregnant dress
Padme
Yeah
The dress that she
Like chats to
I think
It's just the one
That you see
The baby bump
I've always wanted
To have that
(16:58):
As a
Leggo brick head
Heck yeah
Those brick heads
Are kind of
Kind of
I think they're like
Legos version of
Funkos
You know what I mean
100%
That's exactly what it is
And it looks like
You can change the eyes
Out on Anakin
And you can make him look
You know
(17:19):
Give him his Sith eyes
Yeah 100%
That's true
Little things
Yeah
Crazy
Alright
Cool I know we're
Blasting through here
But we only got a few
Minutes left
Alright so
I got an email
From UT&E
Which is a great
Spot to hit
On the web
UT&E
(17:39):
Yeah you can read
All about
The books
You can find
Anything you need to know
About comic books
Novels
Reviews
Anything like that
They've got good
Reading guides in there
For people who are
Interested and jumping in
So you know
I have subscribed
To their
Monthly
Newsletter
And they just had
A bunch of
Interesting things to say
But one of the
(18:00):
Biggest things
That stuck out to me
Was Delray
Slash Random House
World's
New announcement
Of Adam Christopher's
Next Star Wars novel
It's called
Master of Evil
He is the author
For those of you
Who don't know
That wrote
What's that book
We've read with
Luke and Lando
And the weird
Sith character
I always forget
(18:20):
The name of
Yeah
Because I know
What one you're
Talking about
Anyway
Yeah
That one
I think it had
Like an obscure name
Yeah it was
It was like
It was something weird
It's pretty recent though
So this one though
Features
Features a crazy
Looking cover
Of Darth Vader's
(18:41):
Helmet
And
It will cover
Vader's descent
Into evil
Immediately after
The events of
Revenge of the Sith
As he tries
Shadow of the Sith
Shadow of the Sith
That's the one
Yeah
As he tries to
Uncover the secrets
Of the Sith's ability
To elude death
So yeah
It just dives right into
The reason that he
Turned to the dark
In the first place
This is the book
To follow up on that
(19:02):
Story thread
Which is
Kind of neat
Still chasing after
Plagueis then
Yeah
Yeah yeah yeah
Exactly
So this hits
Shells
November 11th
This year
Also
I don't know if you guys saw
But Matthew Stover's
Revenge of the Sith
Novelization
Is getting this
Crazy new
(19:23):
Like luxury edition
With like this
Slugger
Slipcase cover
And it looks
Insanely awesome
So you know
Just a heads up there
Do you think it's
Appropriate to launch
A Descent into Evil
Novel on
Remembrance Day?
It's like our
Veterans Day in Canada
Oh shoot
Yeah
Oh man
(19:43):
Well it isn't
In Australia
So you know
There you go Kirk
Happy days
Happy readings
I remember it was
Like a big thing
Because they launched
Like a Call of Duty game
On 11-11-11
Which was Remembrance Day
Yeah I remember that
That was awful
You guys liked
Light and Magic
The Disney show
(20:03):
Disney Plus show
Kirk you saw
Documentary
Yeah documentary
About Industrial Light and Magic
The six part one
Yeah
Yeah it was good
It was good
Yeah yeah
Awesome
Season two is coming out
This year
Almond Best returns
And they're gonna be
Getting into the 90s
The rise of the
Digital era
Digital effects
Modern VFX
Specialities
And season two
(20:25):
Starts off
I think they kick things off
With Jurassic Park
And they kind of go from there
They get into things
Probably the likes of
When did season one
Finish up?
Oh season one came out
Like two years ago
I think
No but like
What time period
Did it finish up?
So I
For some reason
I thought that it covered
Like up until today
(20:45):
But obviously it didn't
I actually don't know
I don't think they had
Like a designated area
But it was very much
Covering
The old
Kind of
Analog
Like
Visual effects
Department
Which was
Industrial light and magic
I think that was
Their main focus
Of that season
So with this season
They're kind of
They're focusing on
A different
Phase of the company
(21:06):
And a lot of the
Innovation that went into
Those very early
Things like
You know
With like
Motion capture
Jar Jar
You know
Like no one had ever
Done a
Character like that before
In such a scale
You know
Across a whole movie
So
Yeah
There's gonna be
Some
Probably some footage
Of you know
George in there
(21:26):
And
You know
We should do
You should reach out
To Mark Anthony Austin
And get him back
Back on here
Yeah
Actually yeah
Actually yeah
That's a good point
They might even
Feature the special
Editions in there
As part of the
Experimenting
I mean I hope
They talk about it
Because
You know
That'd be cool
I also read
Somewhere
Somewhere
I think in London
(21:46):
I think
One of the film festivals
I'll have to find which one
But they're
Doing like
Original screenings
Of the
Of the
Um
Uh
Original trilogy
Not the special edition ones
But like the
Oh the theatrical
Release
I saw that
Yeah
Yeah
And apparently
It was like
Officially endorsed as well
By um
Uh
(22:06):
By Lucasfilm
Which I thought was
I didn't expect
I have to find out
Where it was
But I did read up on that
Oh that's cool
That's awesome
This is very surprising
I guess
I mean George was really
The one who made that decision
Yeah
Yeah
So
The grip is getting
Loosened I guess
Right
Yeah
Yeah
Well uh
Season 2 premieres
(22:27):
On Disney Plus
On April 18th
Uh
I believe
Well that is uh
This weekend
So
Make sure you
Yeah
Check it out
Today for me
Alright
Uh
We got uh
Let's see
Two more things
Um
I don't know if anyone
Plays Fortnite out there
I know a few people
Listening probably do
Uh
Fortnite is gonna be
(22:48):
At Star Wars Celebration
This weekend
And they have got
A big announcement to make
So
I assume that means
Another Star Wars season
The last Fortnite
Star Wars season
That came around
You could get skins
For like
Anakin
Clone Troopers
Padme
Um
I think
Is it pregnant
I think Mandalorian
No it wasn't
I hope they do
Uh
That would have been
(23:08):
Really funny though
Old fat Rex
Yeah
That would be cool
Uh
Yeah so I don't know
What they have in store
But um
But yeah
You
Probably more
Skins
More
Themed stuff
You know
Yeah
So
More things like that
Um
Okay
Pre-Celebration news here
(23:29):
Um
Check out
Star Wars Launchpad
Uh
AI show
And you want to talk about that
Very briefly
Uh
We just put our new episode
Definitely worth checking out
Yep
Pretty cool
If you just want
Some streamlined news
To listen to
While you're
In the car
Some Star Wars news
It's the
It's the place to be
That's right
(23:49):
And we'll be uh
Piping those
But make sure to listen to this podcast first
Yeah
Yeah
You are listening to this podcast
Yeah
If you're listening to us right now
Yeah don't turn it off
Just
You know
Put it in the playlist
Yeah
Don't forget to
Finish this episode first
Then go listen to that
And then come back here
And listen to this episode again
And like and subscribe
To everything
And like and subscribe
All the things
Yeah
All the things
(24:10):
Uh
We had some of our
Legacy VIP members
Of the Discord
Because as
As many
You all
I mean
Our closer listeners
Will
Will
Will notice already
That we shut down
Public access
To the Discord server
Uh
We had a few of you reply
And
And want to
Stick around
Which was really cool
And so you guys
Have a special role
Called uh
VIP
Or Legacy
Or one of the two
And um
(24:31):
We appreciate the feedback
Uh
They gave us
For
For Launchpad
So
Um
You know
It's not going to replace
The main show
Uh
But uh
It's just something
We're doing on the side
As a bit of an experiment
And you know
We'll see it improve
As time goes by
As AI gets better
And creepier
And all those things
So uh
You know
You can let it bring you
Some Star Wars joy
On every uh
(24:52):
Every two or three weeks
You know
We'll pipe some
Headlines in there
And don't forget
To check the sources
You're going to have
A lot to cover
In the next few days
Yeah
There is
There is going to be
And that's why
That's why it's going to be great
You know
Putting in all those headlines
Boom
Just let the robots
Do the talking
And it doesn't sound
As bad as you think
So
Yeah
Part of me still thinks
(25:12):
You did this side project
Just so you can listen
To your own news
In the car
No
I much prefer
The sound of my own voice
Uh
Okay
Last thing I got
On the menu here
Is Beyond Victory
Um
You guys don't really do
VR do you?
Mixed reality?
Uh
Just when
You get a new
Star Wars game
Yeah
Kirk you done VR before?
(25:34):
I think the only
Star Wars VR experience
I've done
Was like that
Old Lenovo
Like collaboration
Thing with um
Star Wars
Like the
We could
We could attach it
To your phone
And then
Oh wow
Different heroes and stuff
Yeah dang
That's the only thing
I've ever done
Yeah
Oh man
I should have
Should have brought
My VR headset
When I came over
To see you
(25:54):
Uh
Yeah I um
Uh
I saw another announcement
Um
From
The uh
The masters behind
Vader Immortal
And
Tales from the Galaxy's Edge
Uh
They're working on
Another
Uh
Quest
Uh
Exclusive
VR
Game
Called Beyond Victory
And this is a
(26:16):
Uh
I think it takes place
Between
Episode 3 and 4
Or something like that
Uh
This is a
Pod racing
VR game
It's what
That sounds cool
But it's not what
We've always wanted
Um
It's
It's very
It's very unique
Uh
It's
You're not
It's mixed reality
It's designed to
Kind of cater to the
Mixed reality headsets
(26:36):
Which have good
Cameras that you can see
Your room around you
So like
So you put it on
When you're in the car
So I'm saying
When characters talk to you
When you have the cutscenes
And everything
You're kind of
In the cutscene
And these characters
Form around you
In your existing environment
Um
Weird
Yeah
It kind of makes you
Think floating heads
Well it's the full character
(26:56):
But like it knows
Where the floor is
It knows where the walls
You call that driving
Yeah
I don't know how good
It's going to be
But from what I saw
In the cutscenes
And you can look it up
Right now
There's like a trailer
For Beyond Victory
And um
I think this was done
By
Uh
I think it was the
ILM
X Labs
YouTube channel
You can find on
IGN has it as well
There's a trailer for
(27:16):
Beyond Victory
Mixed in with the other
VR games
That this studio has done
Um
But you can get some footage
Of what it looks like
And
When you race
The pod racers
You're kind of
Top down views
You're looking on it
As if it's like
A tilted off
Map of Mario Kart
Or
I guess you can kind of
Stand wherever you want
But it's basically like
Mario Kart
(27:37):
But you only see like
You know
Maybe
A hundred meters
Down the road
And it's a bit like
Playing one of those
Classic arcade games
Where you're like
Steering the bike
You know
Down the
You know
And you're just avoiding
The obstacles
And stuff like that
Oh okay yeah
It looks like it could be
Something like that
Or
Or it looks like
Or like a
Crash Bandicoot
Some level
You just gotta jump
Yeah something
Something like that
(27:58):
Yeah so it's not
What I would envision
For a VR pod racing game
Like I want to set up
A fan on a table
In front of me
Sitting in a chair
Wind blowing
In my face
Yeah yeah
Full max
You know
Just go full on
You know
Like full sand
You know what would be cool
If they actually
You know how people
Get really into
Like their Formula 1
Simulators and stuff
Like if
Like someone made
Like a
Like a
(28:18):
Like a
Seat thing
That has
Moved on hydraulics
And everything
That was specific
To like
A Star Wars
Star Wars pod racing game
That'd be
That'd be good fun
Yes
I'm sure you could like
Retrofit a racing sim
And do something like that
Oh well I mean like
And you can get your fan as well
You can get flight
You can get flight controls
Like as it is
For a lot of the
You know the flight
Flight games out there
Like you know
Some people have wicked
Like virtual
(28:39):
Pod racers
Plane setups
Oh okay
But if you were to like
Actually
Do it in a way
That those could work
Like that would be
That would be crazy
Yeah
That would be cool
In Japan
Like I can't
You probably know
What game it is
But I stumbled across
Like this
They have like
These massive arcade centers
Battle pod
Six stories high
Whatever
It's called
Star Wars Battle Pod
Right
Star Wars Battle Pod
(29:00):
Yeah
It was like this
Like VR
But it was kind of like
From like the 2000s
Yeah
Oh cool
So you know what's a choker
Is I recently went on a cruise
And they had one
In the arcade
Oh man
And it was busted
Someone was playing too hard
Well
Yeah I couldn't play it
I was like
I've seen pictures of these
Like there's like
I've seen like YouTube shorts
Where someone like
Buys one for like 10 grand
(29:21):
For their Star Wars collection
And I'm like
Oh my god
And it's like
Those things look insane
Like I'd love to try one
And I'm standing right next to one
And it's broken
It's like the only thing
That was broken
Couldn't believe it
Oh you missed out
Security
It was actually a lot of fun
Yeah
It was actually
You tried it
But I just
Yeah I tried it
It was great
And it was like working
And like
(29:41):
It kind of felt like
It was something that was made
Like a long time ago
But like it wasn't made
A long time ago as well
Right
Just because the graphics
Were so bad
Yeah
Like the projection
Was like really
Like kind of dimly lit
But like the gameplay
Was still good fun
And like
Had a good time
There was a bit of a line
To actually get into it as well
But then I just waited around
And then
And had some fun
(30:03):
But it was also
In Japanese as well
That's what I was wondering
Text and everything
Because you have no idea
What the
What's going on
Or what you're supposed to do
Just clicking random buttons
Just pressing a bunch of stuff
Yeah
Alright
We are running short on time
And also we got a pizza
That's going to knock at the door
In five minutes
So we should probably
Wrap things up
(30:23):
Celebration stream pizza
Celebration pizza
Kirk you got any
Last minute things
You want to bring up
Before we close here
I don't think so
I'm just looking
Through all of the
Twitter feed now
But I think we're saving that
For a future episode
So I don't think
There's anything else
That needs to be said
Alrighty
Blake any
(30:43):
Anything
Anything to fill
The last 30 seconds
Anything you're looking forward to
Stay tuned
Apologies for listening
To this podcast
If you want to listen
To the celebration
That's the next one
That's right
Because this is coming out
After celebration has started
For some reason
You have been deceived
That we'll title this accordingly
The deceived trailer
(31:03):
We'll call this
Random stuff
No maybe not
No one's going to click on that
Alright
So yeah
So stay tuned
For those recaps
I don't know if we're going to
Make a big thing out of them
But you know
If anyone does want to join
Those recaps
We can totally do that
Last year
And the year before
I think I just
Didn't buy myself
Because
(31:23):
I came on for some
You did come for
That's right
Yeah yeah you did
So but definitely
100%
After celebration's over
Next week
We're going to do
A full
Sort of sit down
Everything that was
You know announced
We'll just kind of
Have a heyday with
Whoever wants to join us
You know
Kirk and
Maybe Darian
Or Kyle
Or whoever
(31:43):
I don't know
I don't know who's going to be here
But we'll do a chat
And I'm sure everyone's
Going to have a lot to say
About the new announcements
There's going to be a lot
To talk about
There will be
There will be
This is the busiest
Star Wars weekend of the year
It is
Yeah
Yeah it's crazy
And then in a week's time
I think it's Andor season 2
Coming out on Disney Plus
Oh dang
So yeah
That's so soon
That's awesome
(32:04):
Yeah
I lost track of time
It's crazy man
This is going to be a blur
And then May 4th
Star Wars
Begin
Alright
We'll catch you later
See you out there
Keep flying
Alright thank you so much
(32:27):
To our audience for tuning in
As always we love
Having you share the show
With your friends out there
And so many things
Like and subscribe
And thank you so much
To Kirk for joining in
And we got Blake
Our co-host
Thank you so much to him
And thank you so much
For myself
(32:48):
Being such a great host
For you
You're welcome
So
We will catch you
In the next one
And don't forget
To catch up on
Andor
Revenge of the Sith
Comes back in the theaters
Next week
Pick up your tickets
If they're not already gone
That's in 4DX
That'll be cool
Alright
May the force be with you
This is all good content
(00:01):
Can I persuade you to join us for a drink?
(00:21):
It's a tradition
Here, here
Jar Jar, homie, my main man
Quick, before the separatists attack
Get into the escape
Hey, this is escape
Then where's the pod?
This is escape
Welcome back to Star Wars Escape Pod
(00:43):
And another very short episode
As we prep for Star Wars Celebration
This weekend, we have your co-hosts
In the Escape Pod, Blake and Kirk
And we are just going to chat about
Some preliminary Celebration news
And things to look forward to
Before we get into Celebration
Stuff much later through the weekend
So look out for those daily
Lightspeed drops that I'll be putting together
(01:05):
After the day in Japan
As they are a full day
I think ahead or behind
I don't know, whatever it is
But we're going to be
Doing some coverage on that
And in the meantime
Let's get into what we got
(01:29):
Another happy landing
Alright, we're back
Kirk, I don't know if you know
But this is going to be a very special opening
To this podcast episode
Because right before I hit record
(01:52):
I heard you say
This is all good content
And then we just blasted in
So I think I'm going to keep it in there
It's permanent now
If we got the whole thing
I think I'm going to keep it in there
You probably cut off the last word
Hell yeah, that's good
But we are back
And as we record this episode
(02:12):
Celebration has started in Japan
And the Twitter feeds are
Going nuts with stuff
A bunch of stuff has already happened
And we're not going to touch it
We're not going to talk about it
I didn't even realize it was real
All my dreams are coming true
It's true
Guess what everybody?
Kirk went to Japan a week ago
And didn't stick around for celebration
(02:32):
He planned to go
But just got the week wrong
The tide dilation got me
I rocked up to the convention center
And I thought it was that weekend
They're setting up
Yeah, they're setting up
And then, yeah
I arrived two weeks early
I saw the AT-ATs driving in
And the TIE fighters swooping over
(02:53):
You said they're really promoting
The heck out of Star Wars
Over there right now, right?
Yeah, there's so much
Especially the Visions series
Whenever I was walking through
The main streets in Tokyo
Going past the Disney store
They had all this Star Wars stuff
Being played
And a lot of merch available as well
Versus not as much Marvel stuff
(03:15):
As I was expecting
But I definitely saw a lot more
Star Wars material they were pushing
Which is kind of cool to see
I could see that
Just because Star Wars has been
In Japan for a long time
Even the original movie
Had a poster there
Yeah
They're doing Star Wars Nights now too
And
What's the
What's the city they have
At Disneyland over there?
Is it Tokyo?
(03:35):
It's probably Tokyo
Probably Tokyo, yeah
Yeah, Disney Tokyo
If that's the park that has it
They're doing something called Star Wars Nights
I think everyone just calls it Disney Japan
Disney Japan, yeah
Yeah, exactly
Where is it, Kirk?
I think
No, no, it is in Tokyo
You're right
I remember going
Going past it
I think Universal is in Osaka
Like the one with Nintendo World
(03:56):
That's what I'm thinking
I always get confused
Which one's in which part
But yeah
But like
The lines are massive
I've seen so many
Yeah
People
With those things, yeah
Right
Yeah
Yeah, Visions of course
Being inspired by
A lot of anime
Well, it's
(04:16):
It's created by a bunch of anime studios
The first season
Or volume
Was done all with Japanese places
The second one went international
And they kind of outsourced
To other places around the world
There's a volume
Three coming later this year
So, yeah
It's been pretty successful
I mean, people have thought
It's been
You know, it's
It's been interesting enough
(04:38):
To go three volumes
So
Yeah, it's true
There's always been
Really interesting content
And I think
When we've talked about it
There's a handful
Because it's all not canon
There's a handful that
I think were cool enough
And could fit in well enough
That they should try to extend it
And make it canonized
Yeah, or adapt some of them
Yeah, I think that'd be cool
Yeah, that'd be
Maybe that was the plan all along
Because of them just getting
Like
Getting ideas
(04:58):
Free ideas
Free ideas
Yeah, free concept ideas
Yeah, yeah
Well, we got some
You know, I'm sure this weekend
I'm sure we'll hear more about
Visions Volume 3
So, you know
Whether it's a teaser
Or something
I'm sure they'll talk about it
So, you know
I'm sure we'll get to it
In the meantime
There is a few new things
(05:19):
That, you know
We have going into the weekend
Some
One big headline is
X for Axis developers
Are making a Star Wars strategy
Game
And I think I sent word
To you guys about this
The other day
I shot you a text message
With the link
It's called
Star Wars Zero Company
And it's a collaboration
With EA's Respawn Entertainment
(05:40):
And Bit Reactor
Which was a studio
That was founded
In 2022
By veterans of XCOM
And Civilization
Which are two very
Very big
Strategy games
Out there
That, you know
I play Civilization
I know
Our friends
AJ plays XCOM
Quite a bit
XCOM 2
And they're making
(06:02):
A Star Wars game
So, pretty cool
I don't know
If you guys
Looked up the leaks
There were some leaks
Of footage out there
Of some gameplay
And it looks
Pretty cool
I haven't seen any gameplay
It's like a
Squad based
You know
You can tell
Your squad members
What to do
And it's like
I think it'll be
Turn based
(06:22):
So you kind of
Figure out
What you want to do
And then
The enemy takes their turn
Your guys take your turn
And then you see it
Kind of like
Unveil
Very cinematically
Sort of thing
Is that more like
A KOTOR style
Or like a Pokemon style
No, I think KOTOR
KOTOR is not
Turn based
Because it's kind of
You're always live
It is turn based
But it's
(06:42):
Everything's happening
Simultaneously
So you can like
Pause time
Like line up
What you want to do
Or you can do it live
But
That doesn't work
Very well
Okay
Yeah, the MMO
Was not
Turn based
No, the MMO
Is more like Warcraft
Because you can't
Really do that
Gotcha
With everybody
Doing like that
Pausing time
Yeah
Alright, you
This is a game
That you're going to play, Kirk
(07:02):
You're going to check this out
Definitely
Definitely
Always keen to check out
Some new stuff
Yep
Single player
Turn based tactics game
I know you're going to
Try it at some point as well
We'll see
I'm not
Super big
Into RTSs these days
Sometimes I break out
The Stronghold Crusader
(07:23):
Yeah
That's about my limit
Well, the poster features
A
A
, a crew
Of, of
Well, various characters
There's a Jedi
On there
A Mandalorian
A clone trooper
And
What era is this in?
This, this era
Like, okay
To me, this looks like
Dark times
(07:43):
Like between
Episode 3 and 4
There's an Umbaran
Like, we saw
Umbarans on the
Umbara arc
In the Clone Wars
So he's chilling
Out of the back
There's
Kind of like a smuggler
Like rogue guy
Like just front and center
You know
He's got a big trench
Jacket on
He's got a mustache
He looks like
So what you're saying is
They got all the tropes
For Star Wars
(08:03):
Yeah, they got the
Astromech in there
The clone trooper
A Mandalorian
Yeah, they've got
You know, it's like
It's like the whole array
Of like
You know, variety
Yeah, and of course
The Jedi is also like
A crazy alien
That we've
Not seen in a long time
He's the same species
As Saw Gerrera's
Like
You know, like that guy
Who like captures Bodhi
(08:25):
Yeah, I think I know
His face
Because he had the cool tubes
Yeah, yeah, yeah
He's one of those guys
I just have no idea
What he's called
Yeah, yeah
Oh, Tubes
That's his name
Is it really?
Yeah, it is
It is
Oh my gosh
I guess I can't be surprised
When a character's named
Pruneface
How original
Yeah, so EA says
They will be sharing more
(08:46):
This weekend
Saturday
On the 19th of April
At 8.30 a.m.
I don't think
I don't know if that's
Local time
Or if that's
In general
Japan
So
That could be
Saturday
Could be our Friday
So, you know
Stay tuned
We're gonna drop
This episode tonight
So, you know
(09:07):
Stay tuned tomorrow
If you're listening
To this in time
Yeah
Cool, cool stuff
Did you guys see
Those crazy new
Lego announcements?
For May 4th
I just saw the
Jango Fett
Maybe you wanna
Talk about that?
I mean
I just kinda
Browsed it quickly
I haven't looked at it
Too in depth
But they're gonna do
A massive Jango Fett
Slave 1
(09:27):
Which
I don't know the exact scale
But it looked ginormous
Yeah
And the last time
They did this scale
Was
Boba's
Slave 1
Like years ago
Is it the same
As that one?
Yeah, yeah
Same scale
Same size
It's just the exact same
They just changed the color
The same parts
There's some different parts
Cause there's a
Side by side
There's some different parts
(09:48):
Here and there
And the plaque is different
Of course
And now they've done
The whole stupid renaming
Of the ship
To Jango Fett's
Starship
Lame
So
Yeah
But they've got
Lego versions
Of the
Of the minifigures
Of naturally
You know
Yeah
Cause they haven't done
Jango since the original
Yeah
Well actually
Sorry
(10:08):
No
They did do one
I think they've done
Like maybe one
Maybe two
Yeah
But
Very few
Very very few
Yeah
Yeah
Was there any other
Cool ones?
I didn't
I only saw the big one
So they have a little
Battle pack
What I stole them
Called battle packs
The Camino
Training facilities
Training facilities
So you can get clones
In their like
Red garb
(10:29):
Like with the patch
On the shoulder
Oh
So they're not in armor?
They're like
No
They're like
Yeah like
It's a really
Civvies
I think they call it
It's a really weird set
You get three figures
That is so weird
Yeah you get three figures
In there
It's got some sort of
Like training tower
What the heck
And like a pod
That is on like a still
I don't even know
What's happening in this
(10:49):
Yeah it's kind of weird
Set art
Yeah it's kind of weird
But what's cool
Is you get clones
In their training garb
So that's kind of
It's neat
But you're not gonna
Make an army
Out of that
Yeah
I don't know
If you're looking
At these photos
Kirk
It's on the podcast
Outline doc
There's a link in there
You can take a look
For yourself if you want
Is it so you can make
The full
Camino experience
From Attack of the Clones?
(11:09):
I think so
But you know
What would be really cool
Is if like
People did go ham
On these things
And like recreate that scene
Like that would be
That would be awesome
Do they wear red in that?
Or are they all wearing blue?
Yeah they do
So like the cadets
Are wearing blue
But like when they get older
They wear red
So it's in that scene
Where Obi-Wan's walking
Through the hallway
With
Yeah
Yeah
And they're looking down
To the
Hallways
(11:29):
Yes
Where do I
Where do I find that
Outline doc again?
I want to have a look
Just go to Google Docs
And it should be
Should be on there
They should do
Battle Pack next
That's all them
Like the
Embryo
Clones that are
Not entirely born yet
They're like in those
Capsules
Right
That should be
The next one
Yeah yeah yeah
(11:50):
Like infants
Oh man
Yeah
So that's another cool one
They're also
I don't know if you saw
Recently but they made
Like a Marvel logo
That just says Marvel
It's just made of bricks
The logo for Marvel Studios
This is something
They're selling
They've made one
That just says
Star Wars now
And
(12:11):
Oh wow they did
Yeah wow
Yeah
Yeah I don't know why
It's
It's cool
But like I don't
I don't really know
There's so many cool
Ships and stuff
They haven't done yet
Yeah I don't really know
Who this sets for
Do you know what's kind of cool?
Maybe if you have
Like a display case
Yeah
Like all these
Star Wars legos
And you put that there
(12:31):
I kind of see that
Yeah
Yeah I can see that
Being kind of neat
Maybe they realize
All these YouTubers
And stuff for the back
Of their camera
Yeah yeah
It'll make money
I mean what the heck
Like they can do anything
They'll make money
Yeah
Okay they've got
A big chopper
Kind of like how they did
Like a big R2D2
So just like
The R2D2
(12:52):
You can get a little
Chopper with the big chopper
And it has the plaque
So you know
It's in that lineup
Of sort of
Ultimate collector series
Characters that you can build
So it's kind of neat
To see chopper in there
The next helmet
They're doing
Is Kylo Ren's helmet
Yeah the chopper
Yeah
Are you going to get that?
I don't know
Do you buy a lego?
(13:12):
I haven't bought
I haven't bought a lego set
In years
But someone just gifted me
A Grogu lego set
Like the budget one
Not the
Not like the really expensive one
Oh yeah
And it's
It's the thing
I looked at it
And it's kind of like
The thing of nightmares
Yeah
I don't know
It just
It doesn't look like
Grogu
It just looks
It's just like
It's still in the box
(13:33):
I don't think he's going to
Listen to this podcast
But I don't know
If I want to build it
It's too scary
I've seen that
Maybe that's the source
Of the red lightsaber
At night
It gets out of the box
Goes under your bed
Turns on your saber
The spirit of block
Grogu
That's what happened
That's what
That must have been it
I think that was it
(13:53):
I haven't built it yet
It
Like
I mean
It'll put a
A photo of it
In the chat here
But it's not
It's not the one
With the cradle
It's the one
Where he's kind of
Standing on his own
And it just looks
It just looks
Like atrocious
I don't know
What they were doing
When they were
Designing
Designing that
But it's like
The budget one
I think it's like
A hundred dollars here
But that's the only
Star
(14:13):
I mean
That's a budget
Lego
That's crazy
Yeah
Budget one's
A hundred bucks
All right
The next helmet
They're doing
Is Kylo Ren
And Jango Fett
So those are
Neat
Oh man
Means it might do
A Jango
Black series helmet
I really hope so
(14:34):
That would be cool
They're getting back
Into clones now
With the release of
You know
Slave 1 again
But Jango's version
They got the Jango helmet now
I like
I like the love for Jango
Yeah
Yeah
It's cool right
I love how
Like
You know
How pop the blue is
The blue looks really good
On Jango's helmet
Yeah it does
They've got
(14:54):
Kylo Ren's command shuttle
Which is
Which is like
A miniaturized version of it
On a little stand
So
Okay
Because the original came out
Back when
Force Awakens came out
I think
Yeah
I don't know if this is
Maybe a new
I don't know if there's
Like a new series
That they're doing
Or what
But to me it seems like
That one looks quite good too
Yeah
Like it's like
A mini version
(15:15):
Like I don't
It's 386 pieces
It's like
They've done this
I feel like they've done
This ship before
Like when Force Awakens
Came out
But like a
Like a play set version
This one's
Like
I thought it was pretty big
This one's very small
Yeah the original one was
Oh yeah
You know what
They had one from episode 8
And I think that one was
That's the one I'm thinking of
(15:35):
Is that one
And they got a new play set
For the U-Wing
Which features
Characters from
Andor season 2
They've got
Dedra Miro
As well as an
ISB tactical agent
They've got
Cassian Andor
In a costume
From season 2
As well as
K2SO
Now being
I think the only
(15:56):
Second set
That you can buy him in
So
So that's kind of cool
Like anyone who missed
The U-Wing
When Rogue One came out
You can
You can buy it again
So
So that's
That's all very exciting
That's me
And you know
For all the losers out there
That buy brick heads
They're doing
Don't insult our audience
I know
(16:17):
I'm just kidding
So they're doing
They're doing more brick heads
They're doing the
Luke Skywalker pilot
As well as
Leggo the Shire
A box set
Of a bunch of characters
In there
I don't
Honestly these look creepy
Is that like a pack
Of five of them
I think so
I think so
That's such an odd
That's such an odd selection
Like
Rey
Anakin
Grievous
Palpatine
(16:37):
And Mace Windu
What an
What an odd bunch
Of people
Yeah
Oh no it's Amidala
No no it's Padme
I was about to say
Is that Rey
It looks
It looks like Rey to me
Oh it's Padme
In her
Pregnant dress
Padme
Yeah
The dress that she
Like chats to
I think
It's just the one
That you see
The baby bump
I've always wanted
To have that
(16:58):
As a
Leggo brick head
Heck yeah
Those brick heads
Are kind of
Kind of
I think they're like
Legos version of
Funkos
You know what I mean
100%
That's exactly what it is
And it looks like
You can change the eyes
Out on Anakin
And you can make him look
You know
(17:19):
Give him his Sith eyes
Yeah 100%
That's true
Little things
Yeah
Crazy
Alright
Cool I know we're
Blasting through here
But we only got a few
Minutes left
Alright so
I got an email
From UT&E
Which is a great
Spot to hit
On the web
UT&E
(17:39):
Yeah you can read
All about
The books
You can find
Anything you need to know
About comic books
Novels
Reviews
Anything like that
They've got good
Reading guides in there
For people who are
Interested and jumping in
So you know
I have subscribed
To their
Monthly
Newsletter
And they just had
A bunch of
Interesting things to say
But one of the
(18:00):
Biggest things
That stuck out to me
Was Delray
Slash Random House
World's
New announcement
Of Adam Christopher's
Next Star Wars novel
It's called
Master of Evil
He is the author
For those of you
Who don't know
That wrote
What's that book
We've read with
Luke and Lando
And the weird
Sith character
I always forget
(18:20):
The name of
Yeah
Because I know
What one you're
Talking about
Anyway
Yeah
That one
I think it had
Like an obscure name
Yeah it was
It was like
It was something weird
It's pretty recent though
So this one though
Features
Features a crazy
Looking cover
Of Darth Vader's
(18:41):
Helmet
And
It will cover
Vader's descent
Into evil
Immediately after
The events of
Revenge of the Sith
As he tries
Shadow of the Sith
Shadow of the Sith
That's the one
Yeah
As he tries to
Uncover the secrets
Of the Sith's ability
To elude death
So yeah
It just dives right into
The reason that he
Turned to the dark
In the first place
This is the book
To follow up on that
(19:02):
Story thread
Which is
Kind of neat
Still chasing after
Plagueis then
Yeah
Yeah yeah yeah
Exactly
So this hits
Shells
November 11th
This year
Also
I don't know if you guys saw
But Matthew Stover's
Revenge of the Sith
Novelization
Is getting this
Crazy new
(19:23):
Like luxury edition
With like this
Slugger
Slipcase cover
And it looks
Insanely awesome
So you know
Just a heads up there
Do you think it's
Appropriate to launch
A Descent into Evil
Novel on
Remembrance Day?
It's like our
Veterans Day in Canada
Oh shoot
Yeah
Oh man
(19:43):
Well it isn't
In Australia
So you know
There you go Kirk
Happy days
Happy readings
I remember it was
Like a big thing
Because they launched
Like a Call of Duty game
On 11-11-11
Which was Remembrance Day
Yeah I remember that
That was awful
You guys liked
Light and Magic
The Disney show
(20:03):
Disney Plus show
Kirk you saw
Documentary
Yeah documentary
About Industrial Light and Magic
The six part one
Yeah
Yeah it was good
It was good
Yeah yeah
Awesome
Season two is coming out
This year
Almond Best returns
And they're gonna be
Getting into the 90s
The rise of the
Digital era
Digital effects
Modern VFX
Specialities
And season two
(20:25):
Starts off
I think they kick things off
With Jurassic Park
And they kind of go from there
They get into things
Probably the likes of
When did season one
Finish up?
Oh season one came out
Like two years ago
I think
No but like
What time period
Did it finish up?
So I
For some reason
I thought that it covered
Like up until today
(20:45):
But obviously it didn't
I actually don't know
I don't think they had
Like a designated area
But it was very much
Covering
The old
Kind of
Analog
Like
Visual effects
Department
Which was
Industrial light and magic
I think that was
Their main focus
Of that season
So with this season
They're kind of
They're focusing on
A different
Phase of the company
(21:06):
And a lot of the
Innovation that went into
Those very early
Things like
You know
With like
Motion capture
Jar Jar
You know
Like no one had ever
Done a
Character like that before
In such a scale
You know
Across a whole movie
So
Yeah
There's gonna be
Some
Probably some footage
Of you know
George in there
(21:26):
And
You know
We should do
You should reach out
To Mark Anthony Austin
And get him back
Back on here
Yeah
Actually yeah
Actually yeah
That's a good point
They might even
Feature the special
Editions in there
As part of the
Experimenting
I mean I hope
They talk about it
Because
You know
That'd be cool
I also read
Somewhere
Somewhere
I think in London
(21:46):
I think
One of the film festivals
I'll have to find which one
But they're
Doing like
Original screenings
Of the
Of the
Um
Uh
Original trilogy
Not the special edition ones
But like the
Oh the theatrical
Release
I saw that
Yeah
Yeah
And apparently
It was like
Officially endorsed as well
By um
Uh
(22:06):
By Lucasfilm
Which I thought was
I didn't expect
I have to find out
Where it was
But I did read up on that
Oh that's cool
That's awesome
This is very surprising
I guess
I mean George was really
The one who made that decision
Yeah
Yeah
So
The grip is getting
Loosened I guess
Right
Yeah
Yeah
Well uh
Season 2 premieres
(22:27):
On Disney Plus
On April 18th
Uh
I believe
Well that is uh
This weekend
So
Make sure you
Yeah
Check it out
Today for me
Alright
Uh
We got uh
Let's see
Two more things
Um
I don't know if anyone
Plays Fortnite out there
I know a few people
Listening probably do
Uh
Fortnite is gonna be
(22:48):
At Star Wars Celebration
This weekend
And they have got
A big announcement to make
So
I assume that means
Another Star Wars season
The last Fortnite
Star Wars season
That came around
You could get skins
For like
Anakin
Clone Troopers
Padme
Um
I think
Is it pregnant
I think Mandalorian
No it wasn't
I hope they do
Uh
That would have been
(23:08):
Really funny though
Old fat Rex
Yeah
That would be cool
Uh
Yeah so I don't know
What they have in store
But um
But yeah
You
Probably more
Skins
More
Themed stuff
You know
Yeah
So
More things like that
Um
Okay
Pre-Celebration news here
(23:29):
Um
Check out
Star Wars Launchpad
Uh
AI show
And you want to talk about that
Very briefly
Uh
We just put our new episode
Definitely worth checking out
Yep
Pretty cool
If you just want
Some streamlined news
To listen to
While you're
In the car
Some Star Wars news
It's the
It's the place to be
That's right
(23:49):
And we'll be uh
Piping those
But make sure to listen to this podcast first
Yeah
Yeah
You are listening to this podcast
Yeah
If you're listening to us right now
Yeah don't turn it off
Just
You know
Put it in the playlist
Yeah
Don't forget to
Finish this episode first
Then go listen to that
And then come back here
And listen to this episode again
And like and subscribe
To everything
And like and subscribe
All the things
Yeah
All the things
(24:10):
Uh
We had some of our
Legacy VIP members
Of the Discord
Because as
As many
You all
I mean
Our closer listeners
Will
Will
Will notice already
That we shut down
Public access
To the Discord server
Uh
We had a few of you reply
And
And want to
Stick around
Which was really cool
And so you guys
Have a special role
Called uh
VIP
Or Legacy
Or one of the two
And um
(24:31):
We appreciate the feedback
Uh
They gave us
For
For Launchpad
So
Um
You know
It's not going to replace
The main show
Uh
But uh
It's just something
We're doing on the side
As a bit of an experiment
And you know
We'll see it improve
As time goes by
As AI gets better
And creepier
And all those things
So uh
You know
You can let it bring you
Some Star Wars joy
On every uh
(24:52):
Every two or three weeks
You know
We'll pipe some
Headlines in there
And don't forget
To check the sources
You're going to have
A lot to cover
In the next few days
Yeah
There is
There is going to be
And that's why
That's why it's going to be great
You know
Putting in all those headlines
Boom
Just let the robots
Do the talking
And it doesn't sound
As bad as you think
So
Yeah
Part of me still thinks
(25:12):
You did this side project
Just so you can listen
To your own news
In the car
No
I much prefer
The sound of my own voice
Uh
Okay
Last thing I got
On the menu here
Is Beyond Victory
Um
You guys don't really do
VR do you?
Mixed reality?
Uh
Just when
You get a new
Star Wars game
Yeah
Kirk you done VR before?
(25:34):
I think the only
Star Wars VR experience
I've done
Was like that
Old Lenovo
Like collaboration
Thing with um
Star Wars
Like the
We could
We could attach it
To your phone
And then
Oh wow
Different heroes and stuff
Yeah dang
That's the only thing
I've ever done
Yeah
Oh man
I should have
Should have brought
My VR headset
When I came over
To see you
(25:54):
Uh
Yeah I um
Uh
I saw another announcement
Um
From
The uh
The masters behind
Vader Immortal
And
Tales from the Galaxy's Edge
Uh
They're working on
Another
Uh
Quest
Uh
Exclusive
VR
Game
Called Beyond Victory
And this is a
(26:16):
Uh
I think it takes place
Between
Episode 3 and 4
Or something like that
Uh
This is a
Pod racing
VR game
It's what
That sounds cool
But it's not what
We've always wanted
Um
It's
It's very
It's very unique
Uh
It's
You're not
It's mixed reality
It's designed to
Kind of cater to the
Mixed reality headsets
(26:36):
Which have good
Cameras that you can see
Your room around you
So like
So you put it on
When you're in the car
So I'm saying
When characters talk to you
When you have the cutscenes
And everything
You're kind of
In the cutscene
And these characters
Form around you
In your existing environment
Um
Weird
Yeah
It kind of makes you
Think floating heads
Well it's the full character
(26:56):
But like it knows
Where the floor is
It knows where the walls
You call that driving
Yeah
I don't know how good
It's going to be
But from what I saw
In the cutscenes
And you can look it up
Right now
There's like a trailer
For Beyond Victory
And um
I think this was done
By
Uh
I think it was the
ILM
X Labs
YouTube channel
You can find on
IGN has it as well
There's a trailer for
(27:16):
Beyond Victory
Mixed in with the other
VR games
That this studio has done
Um
But you can get some footage
Of what it looks like
And
When you race
The pod racers
You're kind of
Top down views
You're looking on it
As if it's like
A tilted off
Map of Mario Kart
Or
I guess you can kind of
Stand wherever you want
But it's basically like
Mario Kart
(27:37):
But you only see like
You know
Maybe
A hundred meters
Down the road
And it's a bit like
Playing one of those
Classic arcade games
Where you're like
Steering the bike
You know
Down the
You know
And you're just avoiding
The obstacles
And stuff like that
Oh okay yeah
It looks like it could be
Something like that
Or
Or it looks like
Or like a
Crash Bandicoot
Some level
You just gotta jump
Yeah something
Something like that
(27:58):
Yeah so it's not
What I would envision
For a VR pod racing game
Like I want to set up
A fan on a table
In front of me
Sitting in a chair
Wind blowing
In my face
Yeah yeah
Full max
You know
Just go full on
You know
Like full sand
You know what would be cool
If they actually
You know how people
Get really into
Like their Formula 1
Simulators and stuff
Like if
Like someone made
Like a
Like a
(28:18):
Like a
Seat thing
That has
Moved on hydraulics
And everything
That was specific
To like
A Star Wars
Star Wars pod racing game
That'd be
That'd be good fun
Yes
I'm sure you could like
Retrofit a racing sim
And do something like that
Oh well I mean like
And you can get your fan as well
You can get flight
You can get flight controls
Like as it is
For a lot of the
You know the flight
Flight games out there
Like you know
Some people have wicked
Like virtual
(28:39):
Pod racers
Plane setups
Oh okay
But if you were to like
Actually
Do it in a way
That those could work
Like that would be
That would be crazy
Yeah
That would be cool
In Japan
Like I can't
You probably know
What game it is
But I stumbled across
Like this
They have like
These massive arcade centers
Battle pod
Six stories high
Whatever
It's called
Star Wars Battle Pod
Right
Star Wars Battle Pod
(29:00):
Yeah
It was like this
Like VR
But it was kind of like
From like the 2000s
Yeah
Oh cool
So you know what's a choker
Is I recently went on a cruise
And they had one
In the arcade
Oh man
And it was busted
Someone was playing too hard
Well
Yeah I couldn't play it
I was like
I've seen pictures of these
Like there's like
I've seen like YouTube shorts
Where someone like
Buys one for like 10 grand
(29:21):
For their Star Wars collection
And I'm like
Oh my god
And it's like
Those things look insane
Like I'd love to try one
And I'm standing right next to one
And it's broken
It's like the only thing
That was broken
Couldn't believe it
Oh you missed out
Security
It was actually a lot of fun
Yeah
It was actually
You tried it
But I just
Yeah I tried it
It was great
And it was like working
And like
(29:41):
It kind of felt like
It was something that was made
Like a long time ago
But like it wasn't made
A long time ago as well
Right
Just because the graphics
Were so bad
Yeah
Like the projection
Was like really
Like kind of dimly lit
But like the gameplay
Was still good fun
And like
Had a good time
There was a bit of a line
To actually get into it as well
But then I just waited around
And then
And had some fun
(30:03):
But it was also
In Japanese as well
That's what I was wondering
Text and everything
Because you have no idea
What the
What's going on
Or what you're supposed to do
Just clicking random buttons
Just pressing a bunch of stuff
Yeah
Alright
We are running short on time
And also we got a pizza
That's going to knock at the door
In five minutes
So we should probably
Wrap things up
(30:23):
Celebration stream pizza
Celebration pizza
Kirk you got any
Last minute things
You want to bring up
Before we close here
I don't think so
I'm just looking
Through all of the
Twitter feed now
But I think we're saving that
For a future episode
So I don't think
There's anything else
That needs to be said
Alrighty
Blake any
(30:43):
Anything
Anything to fill
The last 30 seconds
Anything you're looking forward to
Stay tuned
Apologies for listening
To this podcast
If you want to listen
To the celebration
That's the next one
That's right
Because this is coming out
After celebration has started
For some reason
You have been deceived
That we'll title this accordingly
The deceived trailer
(31:03):
We'll call this
Random stuff
No maybe not
No one's going to click on that
Alright
So yeah
So stay tuned
For those recaps
I don't know if we're going to
Make a big thing out of them
But you know
If anyone does want to join
Those recaps
We can totally do that
Last year
And the year before
I think I just
Didn't buy myself
Because
(31:23):
I came on for some
You did come for
That's right
Yeah yeah you did
So but definitely
100%
After celebration's over
Next week
We're going to do
A full
Sort of sit down
Everything that was
You know announced
We'll just kind of
Have a heyday with
Whoever wants to join us
You know
Kirk and
Maybe Darian
Or Kyle
Or whoever
(31:43):
I don't know
I don't know who's going to be here
But we'll do a chat
And I'm sure everyone's
Going to have a lot to say
About the new announcements
There's going to be a lot
To talk about
There will be
There will be
This is the busiest
Star Wars weekend of the year
It is
Yeah
Yeah it's crazy
And then in a week's time
I think it's Andor season 2
Coming out on Disney Plus
Oh dang
So yeah
That's so soon
That's awesome
(32:04):
Yeah
I lost track of time
It's crazy man
This is going to be a blur
And then May 4th
Star Wars
Begin
Alright
We'll catch you later
See you out there
Keep flying
Alright thank you so much
(32:27):
To our audience for tuning in
As always we love
Having you share the show
With your friends out there
And so many things
Like and subscribe
And thank you so much
To Kirk for joining in
And we got Blake
Our co-host
Thank you so much to him
And thank you so much
For myself
(32:48):
Being such a great host
For you
You're welcome
So
We will catch you
In the next one
And don't forget
To catch up on
Andor
Revenge of the Sith
Comes back in the theaters
Next week
Pick up your tickets
If they're not already gone
That's in 4DX
That'll be cool
Alright
May the force be with you
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