Earn a medal from Toys R Us by participating in Star Wars EPIC BATTLES Challenge

We stopped by our local Toys R Us store this weekend so my kids could be awarded their medals for completing the online Star Wars EPIC BATTLES Challenge.  Go to the STAR WARS: EPIC BATTLES website and you'll find four picture puzzles featuring key locations from the original movie trilogy to complete.  Each location, Hoth, Yavin, Endor, or Tatooine has its own "Where's Waldo" style picture puzzle filled with popular Star Wars characters and vehicles plus some humorous illustrations thrown in to make the game extra fun.  Your mission is to find 5 hidden pictures in each EPIC BATTLE depiction. 

You can zoom in and out plus scroll up, down and side to side to assist you in accomplishing your mission.  Where is that Furbacca?!  Wow is that Indiana Jones swinging through the forests of Endor?!

Once you've found all five of your targets, the website will generate a Certificate of Accomplishment to print out.  You could frame it to display or you could take your certificate to Toys R Us to redeem for an exclusive Star Wars EPIC BATTLES medal.  Players can earn a unique medal for each of the four picture puzzles.  Between now and January 30, 2016 while supplies last you can swing by a Toy R Us retail location and redeem your online certificate for an absolutely FREE Star Wars medal.  Chewbacca may not have received a medal for the Battle of Yavin but my son sure did!

There is no age limit for participating but medals are limited to one per certificate per person per visit.  My son and daughter completed all four puzzles online so they picked the three medals they liked best and I turned in their third certificate for them.  We brought home Darth Vader (Yavin), Ewok (Endor) and (C3PO / R2D2).  The medals are made out of quality materials and have pin fasteners so kids can attach them to clothing, backpacks, or other things that may suite their fancy.  My 7 year old twins had a lot of fun completing the online picture puzzles and were really excited to get some cool Star Wars swag. HINT: We've gone to Toys R Us promos before, especially LEGO ones, where they've run out of giveaway items and my kids have left disappointed so you may want to call your local store before going to pickup medals to make sure they haven't run out of their allocation.  They still had a lot of medals available at the Toys R Us we visited but I'm sure that will vary from store to store.

Whether you are interested in the medals or not, if you are a Star Wars fan make sure to check out these picture puzzle maps while they are online because they are as Darth Vader would say "impressive, most impressive."  Playing the Star Wars EPIC BATTLES Challenge though is a nice way to spend some time having fun with your children doing something they may find a bit adventurous on a Winter day.  For those of you taking on this challenge, good luck and may the Force be with you!

Star Wars Fan Creates Impressive Web Comic Honoring a Favorite Scene From the Movie "Return of the Jedi"

Chicago-based free lance artist and illustrator Daniel Warren Johnson took some time away from his popular sci-fi webcomic SPACE-MULLET to pay tribute to a favorite scene of his from Return of the Jedi by sketching out an impressive story that gives some life to the pilot that crashed his A-Wing fighter into the bridge of a Star Destroyer during the Battle of Endor.  "For some reason, this A wing pilot MOVED me," noted Johnson. "Everything about this part of Return of the Jedi made me want to DRAW and CREATE. This is a fan fiction comic I made ...  because I love this scene and I love comics."  His work GREEN LEADER provides an excellent portrayal of the human element of a character who had only a brief few seconds of screen time in the movie but obviously made a memorable impact on the artist.

Enjoy a few panels from GREEN LEADER:

CLICK HERE to view the GREEN LEADER comic in its entirety on Daniel Warren Johnson's SPACE-MULLET website.  If you enjoy Johnson's work, check out Space-Mullet which  is an episodic style online digital comic about a washed up, Ex-Space Marine trucker named Jonah, and his alien co-pilot, Alphius. Together they do their best (and usually fail) to do good throughout the galaxy. The Space-Mullet web comic is updated on Mondays and Thursdays each week.

Star Wars Battle Pod Video Game Flies Into Arcades January 2015

With the proliferation of home video game consoles and the fact that most phones probably have at least one game loaded on them (I happen to have Angry Birds: Star Wars and Star Wars Pinball on my iPhone) you wouldn't consider there to be much of a market for manufacturers to be creating new video arcade games.   Bandai Namco Games Inc. is betting that arcades aren't dead just yet though and has invested in a brand new video game titled Star Wars: Battle Pod.  It allows players to take command of vehicles from the original trilogy of films such as X-wings, the Millennium Falcon, snowspeeders, and speederbikes and race through digitally reproduced scenes from the movies in arcade-exclusive game play beginning in January 2015 within the United States and a global release will follow later in the year.   The Battle Pod features a unique dome screen enveloping a player's entire area of sight that leaving him or her with a sense of actually piloting and taking part in scenes from the film.

"The Star Wars universe is a vast galaxy of memorable experiences and epic storylines and we intend to put that level of fun and control in the hands of fans with Star Wars: Battle Pod," said Satoshi Oshita, president and CEO of Namdai Namco Game Inc., in the announcement release promoting this new video game. "Players can jump right in to true-to-film battles on Endor, Hoth, Death Star II, Yavin, and more."

Today's arcades are different than the ones I went to as a kid.  They are much more focused on providing "experiences" rather than actual game play because it is too easy to play games at home or on the go now.  But you currently can't replicate racing on a mechanical jetski or motorcycle (which seem to be some of the more popular games when my kids and I go to the arcade) in your living room or on a phone.  So in that same light this new Star Wars video game provides a visual experience with its multi-dimensional screen that can't currently be replicated outside of the arcade.  From the video previews it appears this game really lets players become immersed in the Star Wars scenario they select and live out a scene from the movies rather than trying to "win" a game or beat levels.  It appears for a set amount of money you are guaranteed to complete your selected mission in  one take versus having to spends lots of hours and tons of quarters trying to get from one level to the next.

In an interview about Star Wars Battle Pods with John McKenzie, president of Bandai Namco Amusement America and Europe by Polygon.com it was noted by the gaming company executive that there would be five levels to the game that each are designed to be accomplished in one sitting so players can enjoy it within a set amount of time for a set amount of money.  "When you go into an arcade you need something that delivers an experience you can't get at home," McKenzie said. "That typically means these much bigger, experiential titles. Games that feel almost like a theater experience or augmented reality, rather than simply something you play for fun. The added benefit of a game like Battle Pod is that it delivers a set experience, typically three to four minutes long, for a set price."



The Battle Pod game will feature five separate scenes to select from key moments in the original trilogy of Star Wars movies and each featuring a different memorable vehicle relevant to that scenario.  In Endor, players race through the forest moon on speeder bikes.  There is a Death Star II scene where you race around and through the space station in the Millennium Falcon.  You try to repel the Imperial attack of the Rebel base on Hoth in a snow speeder.  You can also pick from either Darth Vader's TIE fighter or Luke Skywalker's X-wing to reenact the famous Deathstar space battle from the original Star Wars movie.

So keep an eye out at places like Dave & Busters or Chuck E Cheese for this new video game. It looks pretty darn cool!  I know for sure my kids and I will be on the look out for it.