After the runaway success of their wildly popular building sets, video game collaborations and animated shorts, The LEGO Group and Lucasfilm will join forces once again for an all-new adventure – their first-ever original television special. Premiering on Cartoon Network on Friday, July 22 at 7:00 p.m. (ET, PT) in high-definition computer animation, the 30-minute original standalone special – LEGO® Star Wars: The Padawan Menace – will feature the charm, action and irreverent humor that have become the signature style of LEGO Star Wars animation collaborations.

For the second year-in-a-row, actress and HER UNIVERSE^TM Founder, Ashley Eckstein, will be sponsoring and hosting a very special panel at San Diego Comic Con on Thursday, July 21st from 6pm to 7pm in room 25ABC. Entitled, “Her Universe: What Women Want in Their Female Sci-Fi Heroes,” the panel will feature an all-star group of panelists including Dave Filoni, Supervising Director of Star Wars^TM: The Clone Wars.

The Vader Project has been nominated in the category of Most Influential Event by the Designer Toy Awards. You can register and vote now by clicking here! Curated and produced by Dov Kelemer and Sarah Jo Marks of DKE Toys (www.dketoys.com), The Vader Project features 100 of the best underground artists and designers working today. For this unique project, each artist customized a 1:1 scale authentic prop replica of the actual Darth Vader helmet featured in the STAR WARS™ films.  

The latest TOY PALACE newsletter include TCW Vehicles Wave 4 and the Unleashed Starkiller 2 Pack Exclusive minibusts from Gentle Giant. Pre-orders are now also being taken for the Star Wars Blueprints book and the C-3PO Life sized bust!

KRE-O Transformers are finally in stock!  Pick up these awesome transforming building blocks that will work with other leading brands. New Marvel Universe pre-orders are up as well, which include some new characters and new molds. Check out the Brian's Toys newsletter over at http://www.brianstoys.com/nl

Here is a quick update from http://www.bigbadtoystore.com about a variety of new arrivals and more cool new preorders. The clearance sale also continues with thousands of items remaining!

Oh, here's a neat one. Mostly neat due to the accessory, as the figure mold is showing its age, this Star Tours Darth Vader just hit a month and change back, reusing the 2005 "500th" Vader mold with a nifty new floating platform.

Screw naming conventions!  The astromech droid CB-3D looks like several other astromech droids... but he's slightly different.  Is he worth tracking down?  He is if you want a Dark Trooper!  Read on!

Since you've just had some good news, saddle up for some bad.  Rather than go to clearance, the oft-raised-and-lowered 2009 Target-exclusive Geonosis Arena 2-packs have seemingly returned but with a much higher price tag-- pennies north of $16.  If you waited on these... keep waiting.

Hasbro sent us another exciting batch with a mix of new images of things we've seen and new stuff. The newest of the new is the Target Exclusive Star Wars The Search for Luke Skywalker set, which sports a retooled vintage Hoth Han Solo (hood not up, dagnabbit) alongside a newly-tooled Tauntaun and a Hoth Rebel Trooper. All this and Vintage Ponda Baba on card, plus more, after the break. CLICK IT.

Hasbro sent us a whole mess of pictures today, so let's get started with the sharing. The Comic-Con Exclusive Revenge of the Jedi Action Figure Boxed Set is (so far) the only 2011 exclusive for this brand, and it sports mostly repacks. Of note, a variant Rebel Commando is introduced, and exclusive-to-this-set mini reackaged versions of Salacious Crumb and a Mouse Droid are included. More pics? After the break, of course!

It took a year and change, but Hasbro put out this original Gungan Warrior after the big shake-up that followed the Episode I line being changed to Power of the Jedi.  Despite having only 6 joints, he's pretty good-- and has great detail on his skin, too!  Read on!

It's not a major character, or a very popular one-- but it's a nice figure!  The Neimoidian Warrior has a huge gun and an action feature, plus a removable helmet and good articulation.  Should you buy a few?  Maybe!  Read on!

It's Barriss Offee!  The Jedi hasn't received a new figure in years, but now we got two of her in a few months.  How about that!  This animated version is pretty slick, plus includes Geonosian Brain Worms.  Should you track her down, now that she's showing up in stores?  Read on!

Happy July 4th, everybody! This week we look at if we should blame Marvel and the Transformers for a lack of Star Wars. I wish I could say yes. Is there a correct color for the carbonite block? Let's discuss! And do you have a problem that new vehicles are tweaked versions of old vehicles? Pull up a chair, and read on!