August | 2017 | The Blockade Runner

August 29, 2017
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Blockade Runner Pickups: August 21st – August 27

Ryan

The Jedi Master’s Quizbook

After the incredibly entertaining episode of Blast Points, I HAD to get a copy of Rusty Miller’s Star Wars trivia book.

Entertainment Weekly Magazine

I don’t typically buy multiple covers of magazines, but I couldn’t resist with these; they just make such a great pair.

Light week for Star Wars pickups; the calm before the Force Friday II storm…

John

X-Wing MicroKite

My pickups are pretty light this week as I’m mostly waiting in anticipation for Force Friday II, but I did find a couple of little deals at my local Meijer when I went to look for street date-breaking Last Jedi merch (I didn’t find any…). The asking price on this X-Wing MicroKite was slashed all the way down to a buck, so I thought “why not?” Not sure if I’ll ever use it, but if not, it’ll be a fun thing to pull out of a Star Wars bin full of Star Wars-themed magazines, party favors, and school supplies in 10 years or something.

Force Awakens Folders

At least I think these are from The Force Awakens. They’re certainly not Last Jedi product, so I’m guessing they were designed for this season’s Back to School sales window, and hastily so judging by the questionable font/text choices. I actually sorta hate these, but they features Star Wars images, so I was compelled to buy them, especially at sixty cents apiece.

Autographed Star Wars Stern Pinball Machine Flyer

My brother Jason went to the Star Wars Pinball Party and Toy Store event at Logan Arcade in Chicago last Friday night and was nice enough to grab me this Stern Star Wars Limited Edition table info sheet signed by Stern’s Steve Ritchie! You can find more info on the table here, but it looks amazing and I can’t wait to make the trip into Logan Arcade to scope it out.

August 26, 2017
by John Leave a comment

The Power of the 90s – The Blockade Runner Plays The Empire Strikes Back (NES, 1992)

The Empire Strikes Back on the NES is first up for our Blockade Runner Plays video s for covering 1992 for The Power of the 90s. Our play through covers the first 30 minutes or so and features some ice cold 8-bit gameplay in Hoth’s icy caves, battlefields, and bases.

These pages from the March, 1992 issue of Nintendo Power provided some helpful tips to players getting their hands on Empire when it originally released, but I found them pretty helpful all these years later too. Empire didn’t get the Nintendo Power cover for this issue, but Darth Vader does grace the cover of the November, 1992 magazine (more on that in our next Blockade Runner Plays).

Click the image below for a gallery featuring the Nintendo Power images (or open them individually at full size from there if you’d like a closer look).

magazine-nintendo-power-v5-3-of-12-legend-of-zelda_-a-link-to-the-past-1992_3-page-1

I’m also including a pic of the NES cart from Moby Games, but follow the link to their site for more developer and publisher info as well as screen shots, box art, and more.

Unfortunately I don’t have the manual on hand to scan, though I did find an advertisement for the Game Boy game (which Ryan grabbed a copy of recently). This version looks like it was published by Capcom in the U.S. and Ubisoft in Europe, but it was also developed by Sculptured Software and is presumably very similar to its NES counterpart.

NES Empire is definitely worth a look or play if you get the chance, and I definitely enjoyed my time with it, but as far as I’m concerned the Star Wars games main event would follow later in 1992. Stay tuned to our Power of the 90s coverage for 1992 as we’ll be diving into Super Star Wars next!

August 23, 2017
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Blockade Runner Pickups August 14th – 20th 2017

Check out last week’s pickups here.

Ryan

Empire Strikes Back (Game Boy)

Grabbed this Game Boy ESB game (weirdly published by Ubi Soft) for our Power of the 90s: 1992 episode. I haven’t played much, but my first impression is that it’s fairly technically impressive for a Game Boy licensed game, but also has some oddly difficult platforming early on.

Star Wars Galaxy

With their bold artistic visions of the Star Wars universe by a variety of artists (including some of the biggest names in comics), the Galaxy card series showcased the Star Wars universe in ways we’d never seen before in 1993. This book chronicles the first three sets of the cards, which range from gorgeous and detailed to post-modern weirdness. I love it.

Weird 6″ figures

I’m really digging these 6″ 5POA figures I grabbed at Big Lots. Not bad for $6; they can almost hang with 6″ Black Series figures!

Star Wars: The Magic of Myth, Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu, RotJ Illustrated Edition

We have an awesome bookstore here in Denver called Kilgore Books that specializes in zines, weird literature, and sci-fi. Not only is their focus totally in my wheelhouse, but their prices are great too- I was able to grab these three books for about $16 total. Really stoked to find out what the heck a mindharp is!

John

Hassk Thug #2

I grabbed my first long-sought-after Hassk Triplet (or “thug” as the Hasbro packaging refers to him) a few weeks ago when Target initially started their Force Awakens toys clearance sales, but everyone knows that Takodana werewolves travel in threes, so I jumped at the opportunity to grab my second figure when I saw him swinging from the pegs the other day. Two dollars and thirty cents!

Glad Star Wars Sandwich Bags

I’m assuming these first released with The Force Awakens, but I’ve never noticed them in stores until now. The bags and packaging are super fun and this is the kind of stuff that is super fun to pull out of a storage box twenty years later. Plus, I figure these will double as handy weapons/accessories bags for my Last Jedi figures!

Darth Vader Backpack

A thoughtful coworker grabbed this for me from the Duty Free shop on the Canadian/U.S. border recently. I guess it was in a clearance bin, but her intuition served her well when she thought, “if it features Star Wars art, he’ll love it.” I do!

August 21, 2017
by John Leave a comment

Star Wars: The Power of the 90s – 1992 – The Blockade Runner Podcast, August 21st, 2017

Join Ryan and John as they discuss all things Star Wars from 1992. We cover the Star Wars books, comics, games, toys, and home video releases from 1992 in this episode, including Dark Empire Rising, The Glove of Darth Vader, The Empire Strikes Back on NES, Super Star Wars on SNES, the letterbox release of the original trilogy, and much, much more! Find more Blockade Runner Power of the 90s coverage by subscribing to our YouTube page or our podcast on iTunes or your favorite podcast app.

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August 20, 2017
by ryan Leave a comment

The Last Jedi Hot Wheels Starships found at my local Korger

Well this was a pleasant surprise when grocery shopping.

(I’m guessing the $9.99 is Kroger’s price point for 3.75″ 5POA figures. Oops.)

Continue reading →

August 15, 2017
by ryan 2 Comments

Blockade Runner Pickups: August 6th – 13th

Ryan and I (John) have been having a blast over the past few weeks texting each other hot tips about good sales on Star Wars march and photos of any stuff we’ve been able to pick up. Ryan suggested we put together a weekly or bi-weekly post for the blog showcasing all of the stuff we add to our collections and I think the Force is very much with that idea, especially considering Force Friday II and The Journey to The Last Jedi is just around the corner! Check out pics and quick descriptions of the items we’ve recently acquired below and stay tuned to the blog for more Blockade Runner Pickups posts to come! We’d also love to hear about any good pickups or deals you may have found recently either in the comments below or by emailing us at blockaderunnerpodcast@gmail.com.

Ryan:

Uniqlo Chewbacca shirt

Uniqlo is pretty much my favorite clothing store ever, and the fact that they occasionally have exclusive Star Wars shirts only amplifies that love.

Complete Rogue Squadron

Grabbed this for $15 at a local game store. Still super fun, and one of the best looking and sounding games on the N64.

Ezra Bridger + Speeder Bike

$5.98 at Target, heck yeah

Thrawn ebook

While I love the character, Thrawn hasn’t hooked me like other recent SW reads like Inferno Squadron and Rebel Rising. Still, it’s incredibly well-written and I’m curious to see how and where the story ends.

Doctor Aphra Issue #10

Not really a pickup per se (I have a mailorder subscription), I’m always stoked to get a new issue of Aphra. She’s just the best.

John

Jedha Revolt and Base Malbus/Stormtrooper 3.75″ Hasbro Toy Bundles

Wal-Mart (along with Target and may other retailers) is clearancing out most of their Force Awakens and Rogue One toys, so I got some incredible deals on these figures. The Jedha Revolt pack was $13 (just over $3 per figure) and the Baze/Stormtrooper combo was $7 ($3.50 per figure). I was particularly stoked because I’ve never even seen figures like Two Tubs and Saw on shelves, so scoring them at that price point was pretty sweet! Now is the time to grab any toys from the TFA or Rogue One lines you’ve been wanting.

The Glove of Darth Vader/The Lost City of the Jedi/Zorba the Hutt’s Revenge

I grabbed this for around $10 on Amazon for our upcoming Power of the 90s show covering 1992. This hardcover collection was actually released by Barnes & Noble in 1997, but all three of these children’s novels were first published in 1992. They’re super fun and we’ll talking about them a bunch more when our 92 show drops later this month.

Star Wars: Ominbus #1 – A Long Time Ago…

I was able to find this collection for about $15, this time on eBay, and I thought I was buying it for the 1992 Power of the 90s show too, but it turns out I had my circuits crossed and the comics contained in this Dark Horse collection aren’t actually relevant to the next episode of that series. Still, I’d consider it a happy accident as it’s a high quality reprinting of a bunch of the original Marvel Comics Star Wars run and part of a large collection of Star Wars Omnibus releases from Dark Horse I’m now itching to track down.

August 15, 2017
by John Leave a comment

Discussing Entertainment Weekly’s The Last Jedi Coverage – The Blockade Runner Podcast – August 12th, 2017

Ryan, John, Dan, and Kevin get together to discuss Anthony Breznican’s incredible coverage this week of The Last Jedi for Entertainment Weekly. We share our reactions, theories, and favorite moments from each of this week’s stories with a heavy emphasis on Luke, Rey, Leia, Chewie, Snoke, Kylo, Caretakers, and PORGS! Ryan and John warm up for the show by discussing a few Last Jedi toy leaks too. Join us for an in-depth discussion with plenty of analysis, insights, and laughs shared between friends!