Say what you will about George Lucas and his merchandising empire, but I have to give them credit for realizing how important their fans are and not always having a knee-jerk lawsuit reaction to every single Star Wars homage. Like this custom ‘Han Solo frozen in carbonite’ desk created by Tom Spina Designs. While there’s not a terrible amount of information on their site about it, I’m pretty sure it’s not an officially licensed Star Wars product since it was actually created as a custom one-off design for one of their clients.

Oh and FYI, while it’s a nice design and all, I’m not a fan of glass top desks because there’s always the chance of this happening.

[ Tom Spina Designs - Han Solo Frozen In Carbonite Desk ] VIA [ Make ]

Who needs gnomes guarding their flower beds and gardens when you can have those hard working little scavengers from Tatooine protecting your daffodils? Available from the StarWarsShop.com starting December 9th, this fully painted Garden Jawa is crafted in solid resin and stands almost a foot tall. And instead of holding a restraining bolt to tame a wayward droid, it’s got a garden hose in hand and appears to sport a pair of stylish gardening gloves. $34.99 available for pre-order now.

[ Garden Jawa ] VIA [ Boing Boing ]

This post is syndicated with permission from GamerFront.net

I’ve played a number of PSP titles, and it’s always interesting to see how a developer gets around the limitation of having only a single analog stick to work with. It can provide some significant obstacles, but generally they overcome them. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for LucasArts and Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron.

This latest installment in the Battlefront series places you in the boots of a clone trooper who was created from the DNA of a Jedi Master. I’ll admit that playing a cloned Jedi does have its appeals, but the game never really follows through on this. You’re simply another trooper with skills moderately better than the rest. There’s also a story of two brothers on separate sides of the battlefield, which doesn’t end up being nearly as interesting as one would hope.

The game takes you through a number of battles seen in the movies and other Star Wars canon. Yet again you’ll see battles from a slightly different point of view. This time you’ll be rotating through a series of scenarios that include a ground battle, space battle and firing some sort of large gun at the surface of the planet, or a ship. At first this seems to liven up the gameplay, however, you quickly realize that every single level will have you doing these exact same things. Give it three or four levels and you’ll have pretty much played the entire game. The rest is just a re-hashing of the early levels with a new face painted on them.

Speaking of the missions themselves, most of them are a complete joke. You’ll have a number of objectives to complete before you progress. Usually they consist of going to a location, sometimes an action has to be carried out once you get there (pull a lever, blow something up, etc.). The funny thing is that if you aren’t specifically ordered to kill anyone, you can breeze through many parts of the game by running past all of the enemies until you hit the next checkpoint. Talk about taking the ‘battle’ out of Battlefront.

I would usually be disappointed to find out that I can simply run past all of the enemies. Unfortunately the controls are so abysmal in this game that I found it to be a saving grace. With your single analog stick you control player movement, camera and aiming. I don’t mean to say that the stick controls these things individually in combination with another button. No, it does all of these things at the same time, which makes it difficult to do anything at all.

Movement is clunky at best, since the camera is situated directly behind you at all times. There is no strafing, so if you want to shoot an enemy around a corner, you have to walk out there, slowly turn, lock on to them, wait for the auto-aim to kick in, then fire. I say that the auto-aim is a necessity because it truly is. Your crosshairs remain in the same spot on the screen at all times. It is a rare occurrence indeed when an enemy is squarely in your sights. You can zoom in with your weapons, at which time you are free to aim, but I rarely recommend this. It takes a precious few seconds to pull it up, then even longer to actually move the crosshairs where you want them. Oh, and don’t worry about targeting a specific enemy. Even if there’s someone right in front of you, there’s no guarantee that it will be the one you’ll end up targeting.

You do have a variety of weapons to choose from, unfortunately these are restricted to a few predefined sets. You can stop at stations setup throughout the game and switch these out, and occasionally you are forced to do so. For instance, you need to equip the ‘Pilot’ loadout so that you can use the fusion cutter to repair a turret. (How cutting at a pile of rubble turns it into a fully-functional turret is beyond me, but that’s another matter entirely.) Thankfully you can switch loadouts as often as you like, so when you’re done, you can equip something useful.

The storyline had some potential, but overall the game felt clunky and uninspired. The controls were miserable and the gameplay too repetitive. If you’re looking for your next Star Wars fix, I wouldn’t suggest picking this one up.

Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron is currently available for the PSP and DS.

[ LucasArts ] VIA [ GamerFront ]

Remember the Tauntaun sleeping bag from April 1st? If so, you probably remember this from April 3rd:

ATTN Tauntaun Fanatics! Due to an overwhelming tsunami of requests from YOU THE PEOPLE, we have decided to TRY and bring this to life. We have no clue if the suits at Lucasfilms will grant little ThinkGeek a license, nor do we know how much it would ultimately retail for. But if you are interested in ever owning one of these, click the link below and we’ll try!

Well, they did it. For reals. It’s an official, fully licensed Lucasfilm™ Collectable Tauntaun sleeping bag with a built-in embroidered Tauntaun head pillow, a plush Lightsaber zipper pull, and a printed intestines pattern on the inside of the bag that smells just as good as the outside, thank you very much. For $99, this is definitely the sleeping bag that you’re looking for. Congrats, ThinkGeek, on making it happen.

[ ThinkGeek ]

They won’t slash, cut or burn anything, but these Star Wars themed laser pointers will do a damned good job at directing your co-workers’ attention to important points on your PowerPoint presentation at your next business meeting. They’re each just 4 inches long and modeled after the sabers carried by Vader and Darth Maul, making the red laser beams color-accurate for you particularly anal Star Wars fans, and they’re available from ThinkGeek for just $14.99 each.

[ Star Wars Lightsaber Laser Pointer ] VIA [ Craziest Gadgets ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Don’t you hate walking into a store, only to realize that they’ve already got Christmas decorations lining the shelves? I was in one store last month that had them out. I generally don’t try to think about that holiday until Thanksgiving is over. However, I think I know exactly what I want sitting on top of my tree this year.

Some people like angels, some people like stars, but this year I think a Jedi Master is what my tree needs. This is an actual tree topper that is currently being sold, complete with an LED lightsaber. At $39.99, buy it you must!

[ Star Wars Shop ] VIA [ Technabob ]

Marc Ecko’s no stranger when it comes to Star Wars, and Star Wars themed apparel, as is evident by his line of hoodies inspired by that galaxy far, far away. But it looks like he’s recently teamed up with Timex as well to produce a series of Star Wars themed watches that so far only look slightly dorky.

This post on The Marc Ecko Blog actually dates back to July, but it shows off a couple of watch designs including a Stormtrooper model and a Boba Fett one, which each feature a mixture of metals, rubber and nylons as well as sounds and light-up ‘Indiglo’ features. Pricing and availability info is still scarce, though the blog post does mention “Holiday 2009″ so if there’s a Star Wars fan on your Christmas list you might want to keep an eye out for them.

[ The Marc Ecko Blog - Exclusive: Star Wars x Marc Ecko Watches: Holiday 2009 ] VIA [ aBlogtoRead ]

When it comes to Star Wars it’s usually the visual effects that get all the attention, but the films’ sound design and foley work are just as impressive. So it’s cool to see a new book from becker&mayer that specifically takes a look at the sounds created for the ’science fiction’ saga.

The Sounds of Star Wars illuminates the audio universe of Star Wars by exploring the vision for an “organic” sound that George Lucas and sound designer Ben Burtt brought to the movies’ sound effects, as well as how these distinctive sound effects were achieved. The book features a state-of-the-art audio module that will easily allow readers to hear the sounds while learning the stories behind those sounds. Lavishly illustrated pages will include clear markers directing readers to listen to specific tracks as they view and read about the scenes.

There’s no release date or pricing info available just yet, but the 304 page book does include an embedded audio module loaded with more than 200 sounds from the films.

[ Star Wars: Sounds - The Stories Behind The Effects ] VIA [ TheForce.net ]

As if having to stick a sensor bar atop my TV to play the Wii wasn’t bad enough, Lucas and company now want you to perch this cast resin Darth Vader bust up there as well. His light saber is cleverly designed to support the Wii’s sensor bar, while not limiting its range, but even if this was $5 I still wouldn’t consider it, let alone $49.99. But don’t let me stop you from pre-ordering one now from StarWarsShop.com since these won’t ship until November.

[ Darth Vader Nintendo Wii Sensor Bar Holder ] VIA [ Chip Chick ]

By Chris Scott Barr

I’m a guy that likes to grab a robe and wear it when I first get up, or sometimes when I get out of the shower. They’re comfortable, and allow you to walk around pants-free without displaying your underwear to everyone. My robe is rather dull looking, as it’s just plain gray with a belt. If you’re looking for something a little more geeky to walk around in first thing in the morning, look no further than this Jedi Dressing Gown.

This awesome homage to the defenders of the Star Wars universe will not make you one with the Force. It will however keep you nice and comfortable in its cotton velour fabrics. The robe is designed to look like something your average Jedi might wear until he’s had his his morning cup of Joe. The hood and Jedi insignia definitely complete the look. It is currently available for pre-order, and will ship on November 27th for $96.

[ Find-Me-A-Gift ] VIA [ GearFuse ]