Tag Archives: star wars

star wars origami

Posted on by November 11, 2012
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Martin Hunt invents great origami models depicting things out of the star wars universe and shows them off at ↑starwarigami. Unfortunately he withholds most of his diagrams as he wants to publish a book in which all of them are collected. But there are countless links to ↑diagrams by others at a subpage of starwarigami. If all those are too complex for you at the moment, try Chris Alexander’s simpler designs at ↑star wars origami. Chris already has published a book, hence at the moment, as far as I can see, ↑only the diagrams for his rendition of the Millenium … Continue reading →

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star wars 1313

Posted on by June 17, 2012
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Somewhen I read a quote by George Lucas which I can’t find again—little wonder in the face of the tons of quotes of him published. It might have been in connection to the ephemeral sequel trilogy or the then upcoming ‘The Clone Wars.’ Anyway, if I remember correctly he stated that he wanted further material in the franchise to follow darker, grittier storylines. Immediately I thought that finally ‘the ↵mellow fairy tale mythology of this space operas disguised as science fiction’ are subjected to the cyberpunk discourse, too. Well, now it indeed may happen—at E3 LucasArts demonstrated a new Star … Continue reading →

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at tannhaeuser gate

Posted on by June 9, 2012
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  At boingboing they currently have ‘a ↑series of essays about movies that have had a profound effect on our invited essayists.’ The day before yesterday it was ↑Gareth Branwyn’s turn. From his ‘Like Tears in the Rain:’ I can’t really say what made such a fundamental impact on me. The dark noir mood of the film, certainly, and the questions it raises about the nature of life, memory, what constitutes humanity, and whether “androids dream of electric sheep…” What I didn’t know I was looking at was a cyberpunk aesthetic that I would soon become completely immersed in, through … Continue reading →

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ralph mcquarrie

Posted on by March 6, 2012
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Last Saturday ↑Ralph McQuarrie died age 82 in Berkeley, California. What ↑Syd Mead ↵is for ‘Blade Runner’ (Scott 1982), Ralph McQuarrie was for ‘Star Wars’ (Lucas 1977)—the decisive conceptual designer. McQuarrie gave us the whole look and feel of Star Wars and e.g. the now since long globally recognized iconic figures C-3PO, R2-D2, and of course Darth Vader.     As a kid I was blown away by his early sketches of these characters, and I still am today. To my eye they have a somewhat darker quality than the versions finally to be seen in the movies.     … Continue reading →

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flying sphere

Posted on by November 17, 2011
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Star Wars fans (like me) will get a vague sense of deja vu when they see this flying sphere in action. Weighing in at about 12 ounces (350 g), the 16-inch (42 cm) diameter flying ball can launch and return vertically, maintain a stationary hover and zip along at up to 37 mph (60 km/h). Coupled with the ball camera we reported on earlier this month, it could become a valuable reconnaissance platform. Who knows? In time, more advanced autonomous versions might actually be used to train would-be Jedi knights. Once again, life imitates art.     Announced last summer … Continue reading →

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tie rendering

Posted on by September 20, 2011
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It seems like I can’t resist the gravity of the vast ↵moc- and afol-scene. And thick participation means, among other things, sharing practices. So I followed the comprehensive tutorial ↑Converting LDR Files to POV Files for Rendering by Jeroen de Haan and Jake McKee and then ran my rendition of a ↑TIE Interceptor (which I built first in the flesh, and then with the ↑LDraw-based ↑MLCad) through ↑POVRay. All that reminded me very much of ye olde days of game modding. Here’s how my model (every single part of it stems from the 1970s!) looks in meatspace:  … Continue reading →

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moc quality

Posted on by August 9, 2011
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Just having hailed the professional standards of ↵artefacts stemming from the mod world, I now feel like presenting analogues from the ↵moc world. Just recently SAS voiced the opinion that, despite of their ingenuity and fabulous looks, mocs always are recognizable as mocs. Meaning, that they somehow lack a quality commercial Lego sets do feature. What this quality exactly constitutes remained elusive, even after further probing enquiry from my side. My opinion is that this may stand true for some mocs, but ain’t an absolute rule. Quite to the contrary. Here is the moc-version of the ↑TIE/In Interceptor, which first … Continue reading →

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moc styles

Posted on by July 21, 2011
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The cultural production of the ↵moc world features an amazing richness—in several dimensions. There is the vast range of scales to which the artefacts are made. But there also is a beautiful wealth of styles. Not to mention the incredible number of artefacts. And this although I for now almost exclusively have limited my scope to ‘Star Wars’ related mocs. But then again this was to be expected when dealing with aspects of the fandom of the biggest intellectual property franchise around.     Here are two examples. Both interpretations of the same subject, an imperial ↑AT-AT walker, are by … Continue reading →

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