Welcome to 10 Star Wars Things – a regular series highlighting a variety of Star Wars items from our collection. Today’s theme is – Han Solo!

Today is Harrison Ford’s birthday, so in celebration we are highlighting his iconic Star Wars character Han Solo. From the original Kenner vintage action figure, to collectibles from Gentle Giant, Hasbro and more, we highlight 10 Han Solo items from our collection.

Watch the full video on YouTube –

Check out our gallery below – which one is your favourite? May the Force be with you!

• Hasbro Unleashed Han Solo Figure

• 2. Vintage Kenner Han Solo Action Figure

• 3. Funko Pop! Vinyl Han Solo (Snow Gear) #86

• 4. Han Solo At Star’s End paperback novel by Brian Daley

• 5. Hasbro The Black Series Archive The Force Awakens Han Solo Carded Figure

• 6. Gentle Giant Ltd 2011 Premier Guild Exclusive Han Solo (Bespin) Mini Bust

• 7. Funko Pop! Han Solo Pocket Keychain

• 8. Hasbro The Black Series ROTJ Han Solo (Endor) Carded Figure

• 9. Gentle Giant Ltd 2010 Convention Exclusive Han Solo (Stormtrooper Disguise) Animated Maquette

• 10. Vintage Kenner ROTJ Han Solo (Hoth Outfit) Carded Figure

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We are saddened to hear of the passing of author Dave Wolverton. While we never had the opportunity to meet him, it is always sad when someone who contributed to the Star Wars galaxy passes away.

Dave Wolverton wrote five stories for the Star Wars expanded universe, but he is best remembered as the author of The Courtship Of Princess Leia, which was first published in 1994. It was in this book that the planet Dathomir was first introduced, along with the witches (now also known as Nightsisters), a popular location and culture that are still used in Star Wars storytelling to this day.

The Courtship Of Princess Leia is one of the few Star Wars novels that we own three copies of. To be fair, each one feels like quite a different collectible –

• hardback version with white dress artwork (US, 1994)
• paperback version with white dress artwork (UK, 1995)
• paperback version with Return Of The Jedi artwork (US, 1995)

Drew Struzan did the cover artwork for both versions as seen here – I always wished there was a full-length version of the original hardback artwork, so I could see Princess Leia’s wedding dress. I wonder what the inspiration for the dress design was?

In my early Star Wars collecting days, I went through a phase of trying to track down a copy of every Star Wars novel. A mission I have yet to complete, but The Courtship of Princess Leia was one of my earliest acquisitions, and one of the first Star Wars novels I read. As a big Princess Leia fan, I was eager to know how her story unfolded after Return Of The Jedi. It has been many years since I last read the book, but it is one I remember fondly from those early Star Wars stories.

Thank you for your contribution to the Star Wars galaxy, Dave Wolverton – May the Force be with you.

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Today is October 21st here in NZ – Carrie Fisher’s birthday. Instead of dwelling on the fact she is no longer with us, I want to celebrate her legacy and the lasting impact Carrie Fisher and Princess Leia has had on my life.

As well as meeting Carrie in person at conventions and collecting Princess Leia merchandise, I also enjoy reading about Carrie – as written by others, and in her own words. I recently read Todd Fisher’s autobiography My Girls, where he shares many memories of his sister Carrie, including her struggles.

I’ve only read one of Carrie’s own books in recent years – The Princess Diarist, which was released just before she died. It was hard to read her words after she passed away. I admit I held off for a while, I finally read it a year later – and it’s the only book of hers that I’ve read since her passing. But of course it was good to hear more of her own stories, particularly of her time filming Star Wars.

So, to celebrate her birthday this year, I decided it was time to continue reading Carrie’s books. Thankfully, she wrote quite a few – both fiction and non-fiction. I’ve read her older autobiographies in the past, but I haven’t read her highly acclaimed novels like Postcards From The Edge.

A trip to the local library, and I came home with an armful of Carrie Fisher’s books. I’ve already started reading Postcards From The Edge, a fictional novel but it’s inspired by people and events in her life (I’m keen to watch the film adaptation soon too).

I’ll be spending as much of my free time in the next few weeks and months catching up on reading her stories. I enjoy Carrie’s writing style, and if the first few chapters are anything to go by, I’ll be curling up on the sofa for hours, unable to put her books down. Of course we all wish Carrie was still here, but her legacy lives on – I know she will be an inspiration to me for the rest of my life.

#CarrieOnForever #ForeverOurPrincess

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This week I finally sat down and read Todd Fisher’s autobiography My Girls – A Lifetime With Carrie And Debbie. Todd’s story follows his life with mother Debbie Reynolds and sister Carrie Fisher – a unique insider perspective on these famous women. From childhood, to a year after their passing, the book follows his life and his close relationship with his family. A loving and honest look at the troubles both women faced, and their incredible strength.

No such word as ‘can’t‘ in our family.

Todd Fisher

I don’t read as much as I want to (as I’m sure many of us find these days), but I knew I had make time to read this book. I settled in and soon found that I’d read for hours. It was an easy read, full of incredible stories – it may sound cliche’ but I highly recommend it to every Carrie Fisher fan. The book also includes wonderful family photos scattered throughout, and in two glossy inserts.

Although the book was first published last year, I wasn’t sure I was emotionally ready to read about Carrie’s last days – now that I have, I am glad I waited. I have read Carrie’s autobiographies, including The Princess Diarist which was published just before her death (and I read afterwards) – but there was an added emotional weight in Todd’s book, an honest behind-the-scenes account of her struggles, which shares his family’s grief with the world.

I’m still not sure why Carrie’s death can still, after several years, easily make me cry when I read or talk about it. Perhaps one day I’ll be better able to articulate what Carrie Fisher and Princess Leia mean to me. In the mean time, she will always always be my hero and inspiration. In the book, Todd shares that Carrie had this quote from the film Heartbreak Ridge painted over her bed –

Adapt! Overcome! Persevere!

As soon as I finished reading the book, I printed out that quote, with a silhouette of Princess Leia underneath, and pinned it to my bedroom wall. A daily reminder of Carrie and her legacy of inspiring me through both her on-screen characters, and her own personal journey.

Thank you Todd, for sharing your story with us.

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I love digging up old Star Wars treasures from the depths of our storage boxes. This more-than-a-little-worn Star Wars pencil case was the one I used at primary school for a couple of years from 1978. It opens like a book, and features a “combination lock” style closure (in reality, you just dialed to a pre-specified number to open).

The Star Wars imagery on the front and back cover is based on classic promotion pics, as well as an artistic Tatooine scene that is actually from the Letraset “rub down transfer” products. A weird, but interesting feature is that the interior had cartoon Tom and Jerry graphics. The spine goes all the way down the faux novel path, and reads “Star Wars – by George Lucas”. It also bears the logo for the manufacturer, Three Leaf Stationery Factory of Taiwan.

As well as being available in New Zealand, this pencil case, and the other two variations in a set of three, were available in a few South American countries (Argentina, Peru), and possibly Australia.

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I always enjoy seeing fan art of player’s characters from Star Wars The Old Republic, so it’s especially neat to see SWTOR-inspired artwork show up in official Star Wars sources! We were checking out the new ‘Star Wars Alien Archive’ book when we noticed a familiar-looking design for the togruta artwork – it’s inspired by the features available in Star Wars The Old Republic!

I headed to my SWTOR character creator to check out the settings – and sure enough, I could make a togruta character very similar to the artwork! There are just a few small differences to the settings available – the colours of the montrals/lekku/headtails are switched, and the left montral has two jewelry bands instead of one. Other than that, I think I found a pretty good match!

The artwork also uses SWTOR in-game armor – the ‘Balanced Combantant’s Armor Set’, which is a variation of Darth Sion’s armor, also available in the game.

It’s pretty cool to see SWTOR-related artwork used in an official book like this, and makes me want to roll a new togruta character! I already have three togruta characters, but there are so many great options, I’m pretty sure I’ll end up with more!

For reference, the settings I used for this togruta sith warrior character are –

• Body Type – 3
• Head – 15
• Eye Color – 7
• Jewelry – 5
• Face Pattern – 8
• Montrals and Lekku – 8
• Montrals and Lekku Pattern Color – 10
• Skin Color – 10

Read more about Star Wars: Alien Archive in a review on SWNZ, Star Wars New Zealand.

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