My recent order from Oasis Scents arrived today and I was so excited I just had to unbox it straight away. Based in New Zealand, Oasis Scents has a wonderful range of fandom inspired scented products, which includes Star Wars. They have Star Wars inspired candles, room diffusers, lip balms, perfumes, and more – and I’m trying to collect as many as I can!

• Oasis Scents – https://oasisscents.co.nz/ (ships internationally)

MADE IN AOTEAROA
We create our products with love and passion in West Auckland, New Zealand. Each month we release limited collections inspired by the things we love – Movies, TV Shows, Books and Games.

We create scented products with passion and love, perfect for setting the atmosphere while consuming your favourite media, or for adding a little bit of nerdy goodness into your life.

Check out my unboxing video –

I always love getting items from Oasis Scents in the mail, they take such care with their orders – especially important with items like glass jars. I love the little touches like Oasis Scents printed tissue paper, and generous amounts of bubble wrap, so my orders always arrived safely.

The new item I was the most excited about was the Kanan Jarrus candle! We have been rewatching Star Wars Rebels episodes (in the lead-up to the release of the Ahsoka series) so we have been really enjoying Kanan’s story arc recently.

The Kanan Jarrus soy candle comes in a few different sizes – I choose the 120ml glass jar version.

• Scent: Orchid, Bergamot & Snow
• Topped with gold glitter and a brown drizzle

Of course when ordering candles online, one of the best moments is when you first open it up and inhale the scent – and this one is so nice! I don’t know they capture the scent of snow, but it’s amazing.

The other Star Wars item I picked up was the Carbonite room diffuser. I’m quite nostalgic about the Carbonite scent – it was the first candle I ever bought from Oasis Scents. It is part of their permanent collection, so it will always been restocked, which is good – I can always buy another when I use one up.

Knowing we really like the Carbonite scent, I wanted to grab the matching room diffuser to use in a different room where we can’t light candles.

• Scented in: Vanilla, Lychee & Black Tea

Both of these Star Wars inspired products smell amazing – and the stylish packaging always look so great on display around our home. Some of them are so pretty I just have them on display, I haven’t used them yet!

Oasis Scents is also celebrating 5 years since they launched, and are including a free gift with each order this month to celebrate.

With my order I received the gift of the ‘Nina Zenik’ Whipped Soap, which looks so pretty, and smells even better! And as usual, I also received a small wax melt sample with my online order – this one is ‘The Shadow King’. It is so lovely to include gifts like these for customers – one of the many reasons I love Oasis Scents.

We love being able to enjoy some beautiful Star Wars inspired scents everyday. Supporting a wonderful local NZ business and bringing some Star Wars joy to our home – I can’t wait to see which Star Wars inspired products they release next!

May the Force be with you!

The post Star Wars Mail Haul from Oasis Scents appeared first on Villa Varykino.

Today’s unboxing and review features Sabine Wren’s TIE Fighter from the Micro Galaxy Squadron collection. We are big fans of this range of scaled Star Wars vehicles and would love to add as many as we can to our collection.

I wanted this TIE Fighter variant from the moment I saw it, but my hopes dropped when I saw it was one of the hard to find 5,000 chase variants. You should have seen my face when I spotted this one hanging on the rack at my local toy store – I grabbed it so fast. I still can’t believe we found this one locally, and only paid retail for it, the Force was with us that day!

The assortment number for this pack is SWJ0012-091922-TM.

Check out my full unboxing video –

The packaging for this ‘light armor class’ vehicle is standard for this range – a big clear window bubble on a cardboard backing card. The lower front window insert has the name and number for this specific variant – Sabine Wren’s TIE Fighter #0036. The bubble has a gold foil circle sticker noting that is a rare chase variant – 1 in 5,000.

The backing card has colourful space battle artwork behind the bubble (A-Wing vs TIE Fighters), while the back has a blueprint style image of the vehicle, a few insert shots of moveable parts, and a collectible card that you can cut out if you want to – I will be leaving my backing card intact.

Sabine Wren’s TIE fighter looks great in the packaging, but even better when you get it out. The bright orange and yellow paint scheme just sings, especially in contrast with the classic black and pale grey of the wings. It was such an iconic design from Rebels, I wish it was used more in merchandising – like the fun Republic Gunship paint jobs from both Clone Wars animated series.

This colourful TIE Fighter is so fun, makes me wish I had a full size one to jump in and go racing – especially with that black and white checkerboard print. I have to admit I did fly this one around my living room making TIE Fighter noises…

The paint job is fairly accurate, especially when you consider the scale of this vehicle, and it looks right at home with the style of other painted vehicles in the Micro Galaxy Squadron range. Of course the TIE fighters in Rebels have a slightly different wing size/ratio than the TIE Fighters of the original trilogy films (which is the sculpt used here), but I understand why Jazwares wouldn’t bother with a completely different vehicle sculpt. Not many people would notice or care about the subtle differences, and it looks fine, especially lined up with other TIE Fighter variants from the same range.

Sabine’s custom paint scheme is confined to the inner wing panels, cockpit and arms – the outer wing surfaces are the standard TIE Fighter black and grey as seen in Rebels (which is a slightly different grey to the original trilogy film TIE fighters). The wings can be removed from the main body if you wish – a tight fit, the simple peg-and-hole attachment is nice and secure.

There is a push-button panel on the underside of the cockpit, which raises the inner seat section, so you can more easily get a figure out. A simple push-up mechanism, it doesn’t fire the figure out James Bond ejection seat style or anything.

The back of the cockpit is also fully painted, and the checkboard print continues around the back as well. This vehicle has one of the most complex paint schemes in the Micro Galaxy Squadron range that I have seen in person (so far), and I am really impressed with how tidy it looks, even up close.

At the back there is a hinged section that can be folded down. I’m not sure this adds a lot of useful detail for display as this won’t really be seen once it’s on your shelf, but yeah, it’s there.

Next, onto the included figure. The Sabine Wren figure is quite well done, considering her size. She has quite a detailed paint app, with multiple colours, and is quite reasonably tidy. She is articulated at the shoulders and the hips, allowing you to pose her arms and legs into a sitting pose to put her in the cockpit.

The TIE Fighter cockpit window and top hatch both have sections of transparent plastic to act as windows, but in practice this is hard to see through. If I look really closely, I can just make out a figure through the front, but it’s not very easy to spot. Still, I appreciate the detail here, and much prefer it over opaque sections instead.

Overall, this is a fantastic version of Sabine’s TIE Fighter. I knew it was highly sought after on the secondary market, so realistically my only chance to own one was to find it locally, which I did! We know realistically, with some store exclusives and chase variant scarcity in the mix, it’s going to be hard or very expensive to be completionist with this range (as with so many Star Wars collection lines these days) so it was absolute luck to find this one instore ourselves.

Stay tuned for more review of Micro Galaxy Squadron vehicles coming soon – including a comparison of four different TIE Fighter variants.

May the Force be with you!

The post Micro Galaxy Squadron – Sabine Wren’s TIE Fighter appeared first on Villa Varykino.

To celebrate the animated series Star Wars Rebels, fans have designated today, 5th March (in the US), as #RebelsRemembered Day, in honor of the day the last episode aired in 2018. To celebrate #RebelsRemembered I’m taking a look at the Star Wars Rebels content in a collecting hobby we really enjoy – autographs.

Back in 2019, our local Armageddon Expo convention in Auckland, NZ, hosted four Star Wars voice actors – that coincidently all provided voices for Star Wars Rebels! It was so exciting to see Steve Blum, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, Jason Isaacs, and Sam Witwer all at our local event. We are not able to attend overseas conventions as often as we would like, so it’s fantastic when Star Wars actors visit New Zealand conventions, and we definitely take the opportunity to see their panels, and meet them while getting an autograph!

Steve Blum – is most well known to Star Wars fans as Zeb Orrelios in Star Wars Rebels, but also voices a number of other characters within that show. Blum has made significant contributions to the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO game (Andronikos Revel, Baron Deathmark, and more), and did additional dialogue recordings for stormtroopers in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

Mary Elizabeth McGlynn – voices Governor Arihnda Pryce in Rebels, but is also notably a voice director for Star Wars: Resistance.

Jason Isaacs – has a huge filmography behind him (including Harry Potter and Star Trek: Discovery). His contribution to Star Wars is as the voice of The Grand Inquisitor in Star Wars Rebels.

For our Sam Witwer autograph, it was a tough choice trying to decide which image to choose, but in the end we went with Darth Maul from The Clone Wars, so technically it’s not Rebels, but since it’s the same voice actor/character, I thought I’d include it here as well.

Sam Witwer – has a long list of roles in various Star Wars materials, headlined by Darth Maul in The Clone Wars, Rebels, and Solo: A Star Wars Story, and Starkiller in The Force Unleashed (I & II). Witwer also provided the motion capture performance for his character in The Force Unleashed games. He has also provided the voices of Star Wars characters in Resistance (Hugh Sion), Secrets of the Empire, Battlefront (Emperor Palpatine), Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Disney Infinity, and Kinect Star Wars.

Of course we hope to add more Star Wars Rebels voice actors to our autograph collection, but it’s a great start. It was such a pleasure to meet these four actors in person, they were absolutely lovely to talk to.

We’ll be celebrating #RebelsRemembered all day with more Rebels from our Star Wars hobbies and collections – check out other posts here

The post Star Wars Rebels Autographs appeared first on Villa Varykino.

To celebrate the animated series Star Wars Rebels, fans have designated today, 5th March, as #RebelsRemembered Day, in honor of the day the last episode aired in 2018. To celebrate #RebelsRemembered I’m taking a look at the Star Wars Rebels content in a game I play daily – Star Wars Card Trader by Topps.

Star Wars Card Trader (SWCT) is an app game where you can collect Star Wars digital cards, with the aim of trying to complete sets by trading with other players. As as long time SWCT player (since the game launched in early 2015), I have collected a fair amount of Star Wars Rebels themed cards. It it would take too long to share all my Rebels cards, so I’ll try to narrow it down to some of my favourites.

An older set, but my of my all-time favourites – I also have the black and white version set too, but the colour ‘swoosh’ backgrounds really make this version fun and bright.

One particular set that always stands out in my collection is the Artist Series by Dave Filoni – they feature Ahsoka Tano and Darth Vader with a striking red and black colour scheme .

And now for some fun random picks from my collection –

There so many great Rebels card sets that I either don’t have time/space to feature here, or I didn’t manage to collect myself. Alas, sometimes the pack odds just don’t work for you. One recent set that I did managed to collect and complete was ‘Inquisitorious’, which predominantly featured the clashes of the Inquisitors against the Rebels. A fantastic but too big to include here as well. And one that I am actively working on completing is the new ‘Fractured’ set featuring Rebels characters – the cards have a neat ‘fracture’ animation to the borders!

SWCT is a game I play daily – it’s free to play and available for both iOS and Android, so definitely check it out if you’re looking for some Star Wars action on your mobile device!

We’ll be celebrating #RebelsRemembered all day with more Rebels from our Star Wars hobbies and collections – check out other posts here

The post Star Wars Rebels in Card Trader appeared first on Villa Varykino.

To celebrate the animated series Star Wars Rebels, fans have designated today, 5th March, as #RebelsRemembered Day, in honor of the day the last episode aired in 2018. To celebrate #RebelsRemembered I’m taking a look at the Star Wars Rebels content in a game I play daily – Star Wars Galaxy Of Heroes.

Star Wars Galaxy Of Heroes (SWGOH) is an app game where you can collect Star Wars characters and and battle them against in-game challenges and also other players. As as long time SWGOH player (since the game launched in late 2015), I was so excited to see the entire Phoenix Squadron join the game in 2017 –

• Hera Syndulla – added 9th March 2017
• Chopper – added 9th March 2017
• Kanan Jarrus – added 16th March 2017
• Garazeb “Zeb” Orrelios – added 23rd March 2017
• Ezra Bridger – added 30th March 2017
• Sabine Wren – added 6th April 2017
• Ahsoka Tano (Fulcrum) – added 2nd June 2017
• Grand Admiral Thrawn – added 15th June 2017

While my Rebels line-up are not the highest geared characters in my roster, I do still use them often. Fulcrum Ahsoka works well in Rebel-themed teams, and Grand Admiral Thrawn is an absolutely must-have character, a powerful addition to Empire teams. With the new game emphasis on Grand Arena, I definitely need to gear this team up so I’ve got them at the ready – fingers crossed for a new omega ability for one of them, Hera maybe?

A great in-game event is the Artist Of War legendary event, where you use the Phoenix squad characters to defeat and then unlock Grand Admiral Thrawn. I remember how hard this was back when it launched in 2017! It took careful strategy to beat him, which was only fitting of course.

As well as characters from Rebels, SWGOH also has some ships too! The Ghost and Phantom II are available in-game, as well as Thrawn’s flagship Chimaera. The Phantom II is in my current main ship team, and Chimaera is great for the fleet section in Territory War.

• Ghost – added 13th April 2017
• Phantom II – added 13th April 2017
• Chimaera – added 9th October 2017

SWGOH is a game I play daily – it’s free to play and available for both iOS and Android, so definitely check it out if you’re looking for some Star Wars action on your mobile device!

We’ll be celebrating #RebelsRemembered all day with more Rebels from our Star Wars hobbies and collections – check out other posts here

The post Star Wars Rebels in SWGOH appeared first on Villa Varykino.