Dynamic Subspace

Tag: Star Wars

  • DIY LEGO Display Stands for Kenner’s 1979 Millennium Falcon and 1981 Slave I Vehicles in Flight

    I wanted to display my Kenner Millennium Falcon, which I’ve had for awhile, and my recently acquired Slave I on a shelf above my desk at home. While I liked seeing them on the shelf above my desk–Falcon with gear down and Slave I resting on its base–I thought displaying them in flight would look a lot cooler. There are aftermarket displays, including some nice ones that are clear acrylic, but since I have so much LEGO on-hand, I figured I should use what I have instead of purchasing something new. Below, I’m including detailed photos of each stand in case you are interested in building your own.

    LEGO Flight Display Stand for Kenner Millennium Falcon (1979)

    The Falcon display stand presented an interesting problem. Due to its asymmetrical design (with cockpit stuck off on its forward right quadrant), getting it to balance from the center gunner platform was difficult. Also, I didn’t want to build the stand with a wider width so that I could avoid putting any weight on the fragile loading ramp piece. A very simple solution presented itself when I ran out of single-stud wide tires. Putting a two-stud wide tire on the front support arm in the direction of the cockpit substantially balanced the Falcon so that it doesn’t wobble or move on the stand at all even while I’m typing on my keyboard below it on my desk.

    LEGO Flight Display Stand for Kenner Slave I (1981)

    Slave I’s unique design presented its own unique challenges for building an in-flight display stand. It is designed to be in flight mode by someone grasping the handle on the back of its base. The straight forward approach would be to build a long arm with a hook or some assemblage to “grasp” around the handle. When I was testing this out, I didn’t have enough long black 1 x n Technic bricks to construct a stable and supported arm (needing at least a sandwich of Technic bricks over and under a 2 x n plate).

    I opted to build a shorter support arm that would contact with Slave I in three places–hook around the bottom of the handle for stability, 4 x Technic, Axle Connector Double – Flexible Rubber holding the weight under the two bottom engine exhausts, and two 1-stud wide tires under the screw assembly that holds the base at the loading ramp together.

    Due to its center of gravity, I angled the arm back a couple of degrees and built the display stand’s base wide, short in the back, and long in the front.

  • Star Wars Kenner Speeder Bike Vehicle and Biker Scout Action Figure

    kenner speeder bike toy with a biker scout sitting on top holding the handles and a blaster pistol, 3/4 view

    The speeder bike chase on the Moon of Endor is one of the most exciting sequences in Return of the Jedi (1983). Kenner captured that excitement in the speeder bike vehicle and Imperial Biker Scout action figure. There are some ingenious elements to this vehicle. First, when one picks up the speeder bike, the stirrups descend and the engine flaps on the back lift up and open. Second, when a speeder bike is hit by a laser blast, struck by a lightsaber, or runs into something, one can press on the blanket on the back to trigger the speeder bike exploding into three separate parts. This was one of my favorites in my Star Wars action figure collection, but it is now entrusted to someone else.

    kenner speeder bike toy with a biker scout sitting on top holding the handles and a blaster pistol, front view
    kenner speeder bike toy with a biker scout sitting on top holding the handles and a blaster pistol, right side view
    kenner speeder bike toy with a biker scout sitting on top holding the handles and a blaster pistol, rear view
    kenner speeder bike toy with a biker scout sitting on top holding the handles and a blaster pistol, right side view
    kenner speeder bike toy with a biker scout sitting on top holding the handles and a blaster pistol, lifted with engine flaps open

  • Working on the Millennium Falcon

    droid, man, and a wookie inside a spacecraft making repairs

    While the Millennium Falcon is prone to problems and breakdowns, Han Solo never gives up on her. There’s a lesson there about how we treat and take care of all of our technology.

  • Han Solo and Chewbacca Birthday Cake from Yesteryear

    Young boy wearing a Hercules baseball cap and Georgia Bulldogs shirt sitting behind a Star Wars themed Han Solo and Chewbacca birthday cake.

    This Han Solo and Chewbacca decorated birthday cake was one of many Star Wars themed cakes I’ve enjoyed over the years.

  • Ahsoka

    LEGO miniature build of the Ghost starship from Star Wars Rebels and Ahsoka.

    Despite being woefully behind on the Star Wars transmedia juggernaut, I decided to watch the live-action Ahsoka series this week. While I haven’t seen the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars or Star Wars Rebels, which provide the major narrative threads for Ahsoka, I’ve kept up enough with the plot points tangentially (sometimes via LEGO) to respect the characterological mining and intertextual connections that make Ahsoka an interesting story that also does a lot of fan service.

    And, I don’t mean fan service in a negative way. The animated stories that provide the foundation for this new live-action series are what kept the Star Wars universe alive for a lot of fans and introduced that universe to a new set of fans. Star Wars might not have have needed an animated lifeline in the same way that Star Trek did in the 1970s, but the animated stories and the fact that it was created forthrightly as canon shows how live-action and animation can both do the heavy lifting of transmedia storytelling of such an important cultural franchise as is Star Wars.

    It’s been awhile since Sean Scanlan and I edited a issue of New American Notes Online (NANO) on transmedia storytelling in Star Wars. Maybe it’s time for a new installment!