Grogu's Favorite Things

     For my Instagram account this year, I put together this little Countdown to Christmas with Grogu reaching for things. There's not really anything "Christmasey" about it at all, but it was a lot of fun to do. I suppose you can say it's Grogu opening an advent calendar filled with the most random stuff imaginable.

Yeah... Let's go with that.

Merry Christmas!

A candy cane | Fried okra | A VHS copy of Fievel Goes West

An old Nokia cell phone | A rubber chicken | An extended car warranty

An autographed headshot of Tom Bergeron | Camelot (only a model) | Chattermax

A dirty old boot | That grain of sand from The NeverEnding Story | B.B. King's Lucille

A pair of Air Force Ones | Harry Potter's birthday cake | A roll of duct tape

Green eggs & ham | A jazz cup | Sheet music for "The Final Countdown"

Patrick Begorra | Aldebaran whiskey | That carrot toy from Disney's Bolt

The Maltese Falcon | A black & white cookie | That Miss Piggy doll that McDonald's sold in the '80s

Far, Far Away...

 Some random characters from that galaxy we all love so much.

Rebooting Ruxpin Action Figures

     It's now been more than ten years since I suggested a reboot of Teddy Ruxpin and started on this little on-again/off-again fan art indulgence of mine. In my first post, I mentioned how I never owned the famous Teddy Ruxpin doll on which the whole franchise was based, but I did own the action figures... and played with them a lot! I, therefore, thought it'd be fun to conceptualize what the new action figures would look like if my reboot were actually a thing. 

     While I loved playing with the figures, they were severely lacking in terms of accessories, and since this whole thing is about creating the Teddy Ruxpin that I, personally, would want to see, I figured the toys should follow suit. 

In other words... a Grundo-load of accessories!

     This is just the first wave... which would be sold separately, of course, from Teddy and his friends' airship, The Patchwork.

Sam and Badtz

I'm usually one of these two penguins.

Life Day

     On this day in 1978, the Star Wars Holiday Special aired. I, therefore, thought it appropriate to put my own artistic spin on Ackmena, the bartender from the infamous television special, who was played by the great Bea Arthur and (on a personal note) my wife bounded as when when we visited Oga's Cantina earlier this year. 

     I actually really like the Star Wars Holiday Special. Not because it's good, (it's definitely NOT GOOD) but because it helps me keep a little perspective. The original Star Wars was a surprise hit. No movie had ever been that big of a success and after it was over, everyone was clamoring to get more of it in any way they could. Thus the Holiday Special was born! The whole thing centered on an idea of George Lucas' to tell an entire story just about Wookiees and... it wasn't good. Not even a little bit. Two years later, however, we got The Empire Strikes Back which, in my opinion, is the greatest Star Wars film ever made!

     You see, sometimes... a LOT of times, Star Wars is bad. It's been this way since the very beginning. For every A New Hope, we may get a Holiday Special. For every "Mortis Trilogy" we'll get... The One Where Jar Jar Has a Girlfriend? Sometimes Andor. Sometimes Lizzo. This is just the ebb and flow that is Star Wars. If there's one central theme to the entire franchise it's that no matter how bad things get, there's always hope, and the Holiday Special reminds me of that.

     People didn't really have anything good to say about it back when it aired, but I doubt they lost their minds in a fit of rage and exclaimed, "Star Wars is dead!" They probably didn't worry about it and just tried to have fun. And to quote me some Dickens, "may that be truly said of us, and all of us!"

Happy Life Day, everyone!

Rebooting Ruxpin... again.

     One thing I love coming back to, and will probably continue to come back to until someone else does it in a more official capacity, is conceptualizing a reboot of Teddy Ruxpin! You can scroll down here and see how long I've been goofing around with this thing, and I decided it was time to goof around some more. So here again is another pass at the main lineup from my Teddy Ruxpin reboot!

     Maybe someone will actually do this someday and I'll lose all interest, but for now, I'm wide-eyed and full of hope.

Teddy Ruxpin

Grubby

Leota the Woodsprite

Newton Gimmick

Princess Erin

Tweeg

L.B.

Beep Boop

     I don't think there's a more iconic Star Wars character than R2-D2. Oh sure, there's plenty of characters who are just as iconic, but none more so! Sometimes I think we fail to appreciate the incredible feat of turning this faceless trashcan who communicates through beeps and whistles into such a beloved character. It's mind-boggling to me and a testament to many people, I'm sure, namely sound designer Ben Burtt, the late Kenny Baker obviously, and of course... George Lucas.

     One thing that disappoints me is just how underused Artoo is in the sequel trilogy. It feels as if the filmmakers just didn't really know what to do with him. There'll be like one scene per movie where they plug him into a thing and then that's it! Take a bow, buddy. You're done. I don't get it.

     I love BB-8 as much as the next guy, but I don't see why it has to be an either/or situation. They had an opportunity to turn one of the greatest sidekick duo's in movie history into a trio! It could've been great! 

I'm ranting now... about droids. Don't get me started on D-0.

Trick or Treat!

     Here's Donald and Mickey sporting their fun costumes from the new Halloween special on Disney+. I've never really been a fan of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse versions of the characters, but I do love stop-motion animation, so I watched this new special and... while I'm still not a fan of these versions of the characters, I am still a fan of stop-motion animation! 

Pretty interesting take, huh?

Never Underestimate a Droid

     Recently Disney did what they call a "play test" with some new droid characters walking around Disneyland's Galaxy's Edge. I love this sort of thing and hope we'll see more of these little guys in a more official capacity. 

     To me, they're basically the Huey, Dewey & Louie (or maybe even the Flora, Fauna, & Merryweather) of the Star Wars universe and although they were only in the park for one day, I still think they deserve some fan art.