010. What the new "Star Wars:The Force Awakens" Trailer told us

Disclaimer: All media and materials listed here do not belong to me. It is for educational purposes for the sake of discussion.

Warning: This article might contain spoilers, as we try to piece together what we can of the current information given to us about the movie.

Goosebumps, people...do you feel it?

Star Wars newest full trailer hits our screens not too long ago. And we're in raptures. Sites selling tickets online experienced too much volume that it crashed.

That is the headline. That is the gravity of the situation. That is the phenomena we call: Star Wars.

For those of you who haven't viewed the trailer, here it is:

Did it bring a tear to your eye?

I hope it did, because if it didn't, go watch it again.

There are lots of people theory crafting from all the materials online on the latest upcoming Star Wars film. So I've decided to take in a few sources for my theory-crafting in this article:

Enter, the 2015 Comic Con Panel in San Diego with the Star Wars TFA panel:

Watching the panel, made me think of the guidelines I would need to craft my theory. My theory of Star Wars TFA stars with the questions:Who and what are the characters?(in terms of motivation). We might be rushing headfirst into things by getting into the details without knowing what the bigger picture is. All the more, this movie is a beginning of a new story that has NOT been told to us through any medium about star wars, and if this source is to be believed, "It's an original story".

As we inch(agonizingly) closer and closer to the theatrical release of the movie, there are more telltale signs that TFA is shaping up to be a completely different story.

"The original saga was about the father, the children, and the grandchildren. I don't think that's a secret to anybody--that's in the novels--and the children were in their 20s and everything. But they've(Starwars:TFA has) taken it in a different direction, and I'm excited--they didn't use my story, so I don't know what they're doing." -George Lucas. Source here

Well, isn't that just great? everything we know about the Star Wars expanded universe will not be featured in the movie, instead the movie is moving towards a direction fans wouldn't know what to expect. No more Jaina, Jacen and Anakin Solo. No more Luke and Mara. No more Cade.

*And since episode seven is the start of a sequel trilogy, wouldn't it mean that they'd set up the movie to be an introduction of everything? it also makes more sense since we know the movie doesn't pick off from anywhere, so it's only logical that all the characters and location are given a background check, so that it can set up the stage for episodes 8 & 9.

Alrighty. So...The fundamental question. Who and what are the characters...what are their motivations? The bigger picture?

I know every filmmaker on deck is going to haunt me for this, but here goes.

In the Star Wars SDCC panel, Abrams stated(16:25) that, "It's literally storytelling 101[...] what do the characters want? who are they? what makes this interesting? What's unexpected?"

Okay Abrams, if you say so! Here's what we know:

1. Rey is a scavenger. As seen in the trailer, she is seen looking through the ships interior. She is seen with a staff(probably darth plagueis's?). She's with a droid, she knows how to fix things. But what does she want?
2. Finn used to be a first order stormtrooper who discovers a new purpose and joins the resistance. But really? who is he?why does he want to be a part of the resistance
3. Poe is the resistance's best pilot who gets captured and tortured by Kylo Ren. What is he fighting for? Why is he wearing a jacket instead of the resistance pilot attire?
4. Kylo is a part of the Knights of Ren, not a jedi and he wants to finish what Darth Vader started. Is it the death star? and why is he without his helmet in the trailer when he faces Finn?
5. What is Maz Kanata's part in all this? Is she the one that hands over the lightsaber?
6. Han Solo is still a rogue, and is still pretty much in love with leia...right?
7. Leia is probably a big part of the resistance, is she, like in the comics? already a general after the battle of endor?
8. Where is luke in this trailer? He's not even in the poster! We hear his voice in the second trailer though...

kylo without his helmet in the trailer

Deductions

Well.. Remember the part where Rey asks Han: "There are stories about what happened"

Han simply replies: "Its true..all of it..the dark side...the jedi...they're real..."

I take it at this point in the film, Rey doesn't know about the "stories", she just hears them. From that we can deduce that Rey and Finn are oblivious about events in the star wars world before they got help from Han. What were they running from? and why are they hunted by the first order? if Finn was the cause of it, and we know that he was stranded in the desert planet, why are they still pursuing him? what did Finn do?

Somehow, everything starts with Finn right? Rey was a "no one", her life didn't change, until she helped Finn. Poe was already part of the resistance to begin with, he didn't change.

My version of what's going to happen

A theory I've developed is that Finn discovers that the First Order is behind a world-destroying weapon, much like the death star(as seen in the poster).

We see the death star here, don't we? but the death star already blew up didn't it?

 So Finn discovers this and decides he is not the man to be involved in such a disastrous plan. That he shall not be a part of ending the lives of others. That's when he plans to leave the star destroyer. On his way he gathers allies and those of the First Order who are reluctant to participate in the treacherous plan. A fight ensues, and they have a battle at the hangar of the star destroyer.

Could this be the tie fighter that Finn and some FO renegades use to make his escape?

Or it could be that word got around that Finn knew too much and had a change of heart. His ship was sabotaged.

Which leads Finn to end up in Jakku. Which sets up his meeting with Rey.

Either way, Finn ends up in Jakku. Perhaps the star destroyer crashed into jakku while trying to chase Finn.

Rey the scavenger decides to scavenge the remains of a star destroyer

 

In the new trailer we see Rey in the interior of a battleship so big, it could possibly be a star destroyer. Rey the scavenger mustve seen the opportunity to scavenge a ship wreckage that she would've seen crashed the night before. She wants to investigate too.

 

While she leaves the wreckage with her loot, she bumps into a disoriented Finn. And they find themselves running away from the impending FO forces.

And that's where their adventure begins. They both want to pass on this information to people who can stop the First Order.

Phew.. So that solves our initial problem of Finn and Rey's purpose right? Rey is Finn's first step to getting the information about the death star in the correct hands. Finn ditches his FO suit and dons a jacket(couldn't be Poe's one, could it?)

Rey and Finn somehow finds Han(and it's not too hard to find him, if you're a scavenger, right?) because she has traded supplies with all the travelling mercs of the land. Now they end up in Han's Millenium Falcon. But it must've took a lot for them to convince Han. Knowing his nature, he would've been reluctant to let renegades on his ship.

But...something must've led Han to agree to bring them to meet the resistance, because in the trailer, Han affirms Rey's theory by saying; "It's true...all of it...The dark side...the jedi..."

And why do I believe in this theory? because the whole of episode VII is to establish and set up the stage for the later episodes, right? and don't forget that Han, Rey and Finn are in the chamber with the holograms of all the planets in the galaxy, so it must be a part in the movie whereby, our heroes gather to share information so that audiences inch closer to the truth. Again, I have to say, Han affirms this(whatever it is), to the shock of our heroes. This mustve been a momentous scene, one cant deny that.

So the answer to why Han is involved in the show, is because our heroes, Finn and Rey, leads the audiences to him. Some people might ask why he's in Jakku, but the thing is, Finn and Rey could've found him in another place entirely. What's important is that our heroes meet Han, which brings them a step closer to resolving their predicament.

Han brings them to another world in the galaxy...to help our heroes--


Enter Lupita Nyong'o character: Maz Kanata.

This is the concept art

 

A close up of the poster shows Maz Kanata

 

The comic con panel revealed a minor character called Papajoe which bears a resemblance to Maz Kanata

 

So Han takes our heroes to Maz Kanata's planet. Why? What answers can she give? who is she?
Maz Kanata is a pirate whose castle is a place for stragglers, smugglers and travellers to seek refuge. That's her background. But why would she help our heroes?Han must've owed her something.

Han leads Finn and Rey to meet Maz Kanata

Or it could be as simple as Han trying to find parts for his Millenium falcon so that he can make the jump into hyperspace(due to the fighting with the tie fighters along their journey or something).

In any case, they end up at Maz Kanata's Castle, which is in Mandalore. Many of you might scream that this could be a meetup with Boba Fett(which could possibly be) but I don't think our heroes would want to meet him, they have no reason to.

Anyways, Annie Leibovitz took pictures of Maz Kanata's castle which had the same stone walls as the above picture of the castle exterior.

In the trailer we hear Maz Kanata's voice asking: "Who are you?", "The force...it's calling out to you...just let it in..."

I'm pretty sure that if she(Maz Kanata) can sense that, she's force-sensitive. Another thing I'm sure of, she has luke's lightsaber...and she gave it to General Leia Organa.

I'd totally understand why Kanata would've had that saber, she's a pirate! What I don't understand is why would she give it away? We now know who she is, but we don't know her motivations. Could she be a jedi in hiding? This I cannot solve. Anyone has ideas?

 

Moving forward, we know that Han successfully got Finn and Rey safely to the resistance home base.

 

Just in time as the resistance gets ready to foil kylo's plan before its too late

Han and Leia are safe too

We see the millennium falcon in the background behind Finn.

The resitance forces decide to act on the new information of an impending death star as all our heroes are now engaged in the battle.

 

Mystery surrounding Kylo Ren

 

 Kylo Ren according to Abrams is not a finished article yet. So I expect him to be a character who turns around to be good in the end.

 

"We didn't really have a lot of conversations about 'bad' or 'evil' actually when we were shooting it. It was more, erm..what do you think it. is..the difference being bad and being right. I think there's a huge difference, someone who thinks they're bad is kind of like a selfish thing and it's mostly about them and hurting somebody else, you know, taking what they want, but, (someone) thinking that they're right is something different. Like a...that's almost like more evil. A group of people who decided that they're morally right in behaving a certain way. And I think that's kind of the way we approached it. In a less bad person(way)."

 

That's what Adam Driver says in the SDCC panel about his character. To which Donald Gleeson(General Hux) says: "That's what I am though, I am evil".

 

This conversation highlights Adam's character as 'more than meets the eye'. He might have started of as the bad guy but realises in the end, that he has a code which he lives by and that he's not necessarily pure evil.

 

Is killing, everything kylo? Or is there more to you?

Why I propose this theory is because darth Vader whom Kylo worships ended up being good. Not discounting the fact that he takes off his helmet to reveal his face in the trailer. When a bad guy turns good, he usually takes off his helmet,no? Or at least it's signalled that he's nothing to hide anymore.

 

 

Some of you may scream that Kylo with the helmet off is still trying to hit at Finn, but consider this. Maybe, Finn reveals to Kylo that the cause he's(Kylo) been leading is a lie, and in that moment of confusion, Kylo lashes out at Finn.

 

 

 

Mystery surrounding Luke Skywalker

 

Strangely, Luke has been left out of the latest trailer.And we keep wondering why. My spider senses suggest Luke might actually exile himself to live a recluse life after seeing his father die like that and knowing that he is the only jedi left in the whole galaxy. He might have resumed his self training in the ways of the jedi.

 

One thing we do know though, is that he's still a jedi(picture source:http://epicstream.com/news/First-Star-Wars-The-Force-Awakens-Photo-of-Luke-Skywalker-As-A-True-Master-Jedi)

 

...and that he's still in the movie.

 

In the end, that's just my theory. I hoped you have enjoyed reading my post. Do let us all know on your theories based on all the Star Wars TFA trailers in the comments section below:)

Oh, and do visit my ebay store for more cheap star wars or superhero goodies!http://stores.ebay.com/Confaderal

2015©Confaderal

 

 

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008. Hot toys: literally the hottest toys

Disclaimer: All media and materials listed here do not belong to me. It is for educational purposes for the sake of discussion.

It is what it is. Hot toys are literally the hottest posable 12" toys on the market. There's no doubt that on the front of actual likeness, these toys by them beats everyone else down to the details. For new figurines or toy collectors, there are reasons why hot toy products are sought after. But before we go there, let's figure out what makes some toys sought after...

1. Exclusivity:  Collectors hold high value on rarity of item(as you've already figured out). This is straight forward. A toy that is released in limited quantities are rare items. A common toy autographed by say, Stan "the man" Lee is a rare item. A toy that has a manufacturing defect is a rare item. A toy that has it's production discontinued is a rare item. 

The story of the Kenner boba fett: this toy was produced originally with the rocket launcher. One day they received complaint that the rocket is a hazard, which Kenner then discontinued production of the rocket on it's boba toy. Nowadays, Star Wars fans highly regard the discontinued version of the boba. Even more so if it has been kept pristine in an acrylic casing. Up the value further if the card on the product is unpunched and mint!(picture taken off eBay)

2. Likeness: This is a factor that most would pay the price for. It makes sense right? And not just the face, nowadays, competition is stiff, so it can even boil down to if the figure is wearing a fabric in likeness or not. One should also keep in mind the context of how much the collector is going to pay for a toy. If a collector wants to spend on a Kylo Ren in the range of 20-50 USD, then a Disney die cast elite version is better than a black series, although both are 6+". 

Caption: look at the top two figures, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why the second figure costs more, yes?(both images are taken off eBay)

3. Scale: this is not necessarily true though, most of the time, this is the case. The two most common types are 6" and 12" or known as 1/6 scale...and then there's funko...but that's another story. Haha. Aaaaanywaaays...bigger is better...usually. 

4. A trending character: I have to use a Twitter term here. Okay okay, most collectors get obscure items(refer to point one). This usually applies to what casual buyers would usually get. Still, a hardcore collector does want to get his hands of the latest movie villain toy when it comes around. That's where casual buyers can sometimes turn into scalpers, selling their toys at a marked up price. Urghhh

5. Special edition: This pointer could be under rare, but sometimes, a special edition, doesn't mean it's rare. For example, if one is into Greg capullo's art, one would highly value his "batman" figure. If one is into Dave Cortes' sculpting work then you'd get his work.

Dave Cortes's sculpting work

I digress. We're here to talk about hot toys right?

Enter hot toys...

Based on it' page here,from Hong Kong, Hot toys started it's journey in the year 2000, at first producing 12" military figures. It then went on to "[expand] its product scope to specialize in 1/6th scale collectible figures from popular movies, video games, comics as well as world renowned celebrities.". Boy, are we all glad they expanded!

In terms of likeness, there are very few who can match it. I personally prefer 6" toys because it's not as hard to photograph as 3.75" toys and the biggest benefit is that 6" toys are usually very articulated. Not forgetting they take up a smaller space. But dayyymmm...hot toys are so tempting. Take a look at the pictures below taken off their site:

Visit http://www.hottoys.com.hk/product.php to check out more of their marvellous stuff. 

I don't believe I need more to convince you of the high value of these figures. They are highly sought after, but they're not rare per se. Maybe Loki ver 01 is. Haha....but you already know that don't you?

Hot toys patented their one of a kind, "Parallel Eyeball Rolling System" or PERS for short which allows for the eyeballs of the figures to roll around the  eye sockets, allowing for more playability of it's figures. Video shown below:

Amazing isn't it? But wait there's more! They also have the "Interchangeable Faces Technique" for its DX series. For those of you who don't know, the company's deluxe series is an abbreviation for DX. They also have the "Movie Masterpiece Series", short for MMS. Any ways, the IFT is just basically this(refer to picture below)

Yep. Quite easy to figure out huh. 

So....

In almost all its figures(all actually), one gets a few pairs of alternate hands, mostly in the following stances: relaxed, clenched, or character specific. 

As you can see in the reference picture above, the Hot Toys' Captain America has a couple of different hand poses. The last picture taken of the Hot Toys: Friend has a "character specific" hand pose.

Who else liked "20th century boy"?:)

Besides the hands, you have other toy paraphernalia like weapons and alternate faces.(picture reference below)

Okay, let's talk about articulation. 

I love this topic. Hot toys doesn't disappoint. Like seriously, besides the interchangeable parts, you have articulation on the common areas, neck, chest, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hip, knees(no ankles though). 

There are restrictions on the neck articulation on the old hot toys' necks as opposed to the new ones as shown in this video below.

Caption: give a huge thanks to the youtuber who posted this.

 I do hope you understand more about what the interchangeable heads actually allows you to do...it allows for unprecedented mashing of movie characters, that's what! Don't like Robert Downey Jr. as ironman, change him into an Arnold Schwarzenegger ironman instead of some other robot known as T-800! Plus a whole lot of other posibilities when you do a kitbash(mixing other characters' clothes and paraphernalia). 

Conclusion(for lack of a better word)

Therefore, I don't want to blatantly promote, but it is plain for people to see why, like my article title suggests: Hot Toys is literally the hottest toys...have a great day everybody. And if you think I may have left out an important bit of Hot Toys that's great, do comment below:)

Do add us on Twitter if you haven't, to get the latest in news that's happening in the toys, games, comics and trading cards world! Also, by following us, you'd allow yourself to keep updated on our latest offers on our reasonably priced toys,comics and cards on eBay!: If that's not enough, send us an offer!:D

http://stores.ebay.com/Confaderal

2015©Confaderal

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