Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9's weekly round up of all the cool toys and merch we’ve spotted on this here internet lately. This week: War Machine suits up for Figuarts’ Infinity War line, an incredibly squishy Super Mario cushion, and perhaps the most inconvenient yet still delightful way to play Ms. Pac-Man ever…
Big reveals from New York Comic Con for fans of Star Wars on the printed page: a Darth Vader-focused comic miniseries from Chuck Wendig; Alphabet Squad, a new novel from Alexander Freed about “Rebel pilots hunting down Imperials;” and gorgeous cover art for the previously-announced Master & Apprentice by Claudia Grey.
Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9's round up of the best toys we’ve seen all week. This time round, a very cool take on the comic book Iron Spider suit, Obi-Wan Kenobi reaches out into the Star Wars figuarts line, Darth Vader’s sinister castle gets a slightly less sinister Lego set, and more. Check it out!
A few years ago, the team at ILMxLAB teased that it was bringing the Dark Lord of the Sith to virtual reality. Now, we’ve got our first look at it in action, and well, it’s more like Vader is bringing you to him.
The galaxy far, far away is having a castle renaissance lately. Reintroduced into the Star Wars canon by Rogue One, the sinister abode of Darth Vader has suddenly become a hot topic, be it through current and upcoming comics, or persistent rumors of its return onscreen. But Vader’s home has a much longer history…
We’ve all received crappy gifts for holidays and birthdays. But maybe none on the level of “this is so bad that one day I will completely defy you, shrug off your magical lightning attacks, lift you over my head, and throw you into the nearest random gaping shaft I can find.”
Within the context of most Star Wars movies, Darth Vader has been a figure that is both tragic and fearsome in equal measure. But in the decades since his first appearance, Vader’s reputation as a terrifying villain has been diminished by the other side of Star Wars: its equally petrifying ability to turn everything…
One of the most striking visuals in Star Wars: A New Hope is that of a man like Grand Moff Tarkin—curt, elderly, and in officer’s gear—flanked by the fearsome, gigantic black armor of Darth Vader. It’s a strange duo made all the more fascinating by the former’s surprising dominance over the latter. It’s a relationship…
Lucasfilm just released a brand new Star Wars book following the adventures of Darth Vader. But this book won’t give you any insight into Jedi mythology or the man once known as Anakin Skywalker. It’s a children’s book and, in fact, the first Star Wars picture book not tied to a cinematic film.
Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn—one of the best new novels to come out of Disney’s rebooted Star Wars canon—gave us some wonderful insight as to how the mysterious Chiss tactician encountered the Empire, rising through Imperial ranks to become the Grand Admiral we saw in Rebels. Now, the follow up is showing us an even earlier…
Over the past few months, both Darth Vader and the main Star Wars comic series have been telling two sides of the same story—the fall and rise of the Mon Calamari, from subjugation to rebellion. And most interestingly, both series have been telling an intertwined tale depicting two crucial moments in time for the…
When October 30th rolls around, you don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars on a memorable, last-minute Halloween costume that will just end up hanging in the back of your closet the rest of the year. A Japanese stationery brand has created a cheap, build-it-yourself cardboard alternative that still looks like you…
Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9's regular round up of the coolest toys and merchandise we’ve seen floating around the internet lately. This week, the Solo deluge continues, SDCC’s 2018 exclusives begin tempting our wallets, and Lego just can’t stop revealing cutesy little BrickHeadz. Check it out!
One of the best things about Marvel’s Star Wars comics is how they bring some of the mysticism and mystery of the Jedi and Sith we’ve seen in other periods of Star Wars history right into the time period of the original trilogy. The latest Star Wars Annual is no exception, pulling Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader into a…
The second iteration of Marvel’s Darth Vader comic is almost as much about the Star Wars galaxy in the years after Revenge of the Sith as it is about the titular dark lord himself. This means, as much as it is a tale of the Sith, it’s also a tale of the Jedi—and what the survivors of the Jedi Order become when the…
Set in the early days of the Empire, Marvel’s current Darth Vader comic has done some excellent worldbuilding to flesh out how the universe of the Star Wars prequels becomes the one we see in the original trilogy. One of the most fascinating ways it has done that has been through splintering what we once knew as the…
Humans need food to survive. Many of the characters of the Star Wars universe, human or otherwise, are depicted eating for just that reason. Despite being mostly human, however, there is no clear way for Darth Vader to get sustenance to the part of his face that accepts food. This is, of course, a mystery easily…
Darth Vader is one of the most fearsome and stoic figures in the Star Wars galaxy. But deep down, under those layers of leather, metal, and charred flesh, he is still Anakin Skywalker. And Anakin Skywalker is nothing if not a petty, petty man.
I never developed a taste for tea, or hot leaf water, as it should be more accurately called. But how else am I going to justify spending $71 on a novelty stovetop kettle shaped like Darth Vader’s helmet? It’s even got a tiny replica of Vader’s lightsaber for its handle. How am I supposed to resist that? I’m only…
The lightsaber of Darth Vader holds great potency, whether it’s as iconic imagery in the Star Wars franchise, or as an actual artifact of great power and importance in the Star Wars galaxy itself. This has been true for both the new and old canons, but now the former has chronicled how Vader gained his red lightsaber,…
