This week we’re talking LEGO with the man behind some of your favorite LEGO Star Wars sets.
Plus we’ll show you what it’s like to work on Star Wars.
Ohhh!
I bet it’s all blasters and lightsabers.
Yeah, if by blasters you mean word documents and by lightsabers you mean expense reports.
Does this guy party or what?!
I love a good spreadsheet.
This is The Star Wars Show.
From the Lucasfilm headquarters in San Francisco.
Here’s your hosts, Andi and Anthony!
Hello and welcome to The Star Wars Show, the only Star Wars Show on the internet that’s
like a delicious looking bag of potato chips.
You can’t wait to dive in, then 7-8 minutes later you’ve eaten the whole thing and wonder,
what have I done?!
And why was there so much air in it?
And now the news.
J.J. Abrams revealed last week that principal photography has officially wrapped on
Star Wars: Episode IX.
In his post he shared a photo of Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, and Oscar Isaac in an embrace,
writing, “It feels impossible, but today wrapped photography on Episode IX.
There is no adequate way to thank this truly magical crew and cast.
I’m forever indebted to you all.”
Star Wars: Episode IX will be released in theaters on December 20th 2019.
I think they knew that though.
They may have.
New York Toy Fair took place last week in New York, and along with all of the new Star
Wars toys like Lightsaber Academy debuting, Lucasfilm also released the first details
of the upcoming Triple Force Friday.
But unlike Force Fridays from the past, this years event will not only usher in products
from Star Wars: Episode IX, but from the upcoming Disney+ live action series The Mandalorian,
and the new video game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
The new products will span from toys, to collectibles, books, apparel, and even housewares, for those
of you looking for wookiee cookie cutters.
I’m always looking for wookiee cookie cutters and I’m always looking for excuses to say
wookiee cookie cutters.
Well there you go, there’s a perfect one right there.
Triple Force Friday will kick off on October 4th.
For more information check out StarWars.com/SWS
Star Wars Celebration has added even more guests to the growing list of celebrities
flying into Chicago this April.
Alan Tudyk, the actor and voice behind K-2SO will be there, along with Empire’s Michael
Culver and John Morton, Anthony Forrest, and…this one is for you Veers watch…Julian Glover
are all slated to attend.
Also making an appearance will be the voices of Ezra and Kanan from Star Wars Rebels,
Taylor Gray and Freddie Prinze Junior.
Plus the smuggler of smooth, Billy Dee Williams will be making his triumphant return to Celebration,
guaranteeing that hundreds of Celebration patrons will just be endlessly charmed.
For more on the guests coming to Star Wars Celebration Chicago check out StarWarsCelebration.com
And for more breaking news from around the galaxy, check out StarWars.com/SWS
My greatest contribution and possibly one of the greatest achievements of my life was
playing the GNK droid in The Star Wars Show 100th Episode Spectacular.
We did it!
[Ding sound]
[Laughing]
My name is Kristin Baver and I’m the Associate Editor and Content Strategist for StarWars.com.
[Music]
I’m one of two scruffy looking word herders who tries to do as much copy editing and writing
as possible to make sure that everything goes on the site from databank, to news stories,
to blog posts.
We make sure that we’re covering all the emerging and exciting news coming out of the
Star Wars galaxy.
And we also do some really fascinating interviews with creators, and actors, and talent.
We cover red carpets, we go to press junkets, we go to conventions, we talk to fans.
Pretty much anything that’s related to Star Wars and is newsworthy, we try to be there.
Before I got my start I wrote for a number of different types of outlets, I was constantly
hustling to get as much experience as I could and really find my path.
And over that time I also started writing as a freelancer for StarWars.com and for Star
Wars Insider, where I actually interviewed the lovely crew of The Star Wars Show.
I think the greatest part of the job is getting to go out in the field and talking to people
and doing interviews because at the base level everyone who’s creating something for Star
Wars today started out pretty much as a fan first.
So it always devolves into two fans just talking about their love of Star Wars.
I’d say for the most part we’re pretty lucky here because we work hard but it’s
not hard work.
Sometimes your in a lot of meetings and you’re just exhausted trying to get the finer points
of something nailed down and that can feel like a bit of a slug.
But at the end of the day you have to give yourself a reality check that I’m getting
paid to watch The Empire Strikes Back and The Clone Wars again.
[Porg sounds]
Everybody please welcome Jens Frederiksen to the show.
You’re the creative director and lead model designer for LEGO Star Wars.
Can you tell me a little bit about how the past 20 years have gone for LEGO and for your experience?
It has been a great experience working with this for so many years.
It started out with the launch of Episode I.
I think what has been interesting is the fact that there’s always been something new happening
and we have been able to make models relating to the new content coming out.
Do you have a favorite model that you’ve developed?
I’m sure you’ve been involved in so many.
It’s like picking your favorite child.
One of my own highlights was the first Ultimate Collector’s series Millennium Falcon.
That was a 4,500 pieces or something.
We had never made a product that big so logistically it was a nightmare.
I mean tell me a little bit about the logistics and process of developing something like that.
How do you translate that into LEGO bricks?
When we’re designing models, your always trying to use existing LEGO pieces and that’s
also to show the versatility of LEGO.
That you can sort of mix and match everything.
Exactly.
And we don’t look at an element as what it’s intended for necessarily, we look at
it as shapes.
Our models have become more complex.
There are more play features, more functions, and the general design has developed over the years.
But still one of the things that’s super important for us is it has to be possible
for a child to actually build the models.
So creating a model that looks cool, has the right detail level, and so on, that can be
built by a child, that actually is one of the biggest challenges.
So let’s talk a little bit about the models that you brought here today.
These are the 20th anniversary models that are coming out soon.
Yeah, we started out by looking back and we looked at some of the most popular models
we’ve had, especially from the first years of LEGO Star Wars.
We decided we are gonna make a new edition of these very popular models.
Also for the collector we added these special anniversary mini figures.
So each set comes with a minifigure and a display plate that can then be connected together
so you have your little collection of these characters.
And the mini figures here, they are exact copies of the first version of some of the
most iconic characters.
Just to make them a little more special, we have made a special print saying 20th anniversary on the back.
Can you tell me a little bit about how these models differ from their original counterparts?
Yeah, so the Slave I, I think it’s one of the models we have created the most times
in many different scales in LEGO.
When we’re making a new version, this is by far much bigger, and also we have new colors
available, making it way more accurate.
What we always think about, hey what can we improve?
You know in the movie the ship is flying like this?
And it’s like where to hold the model.
That’s why we created this handle so now it can actually fly around the model like
this and then if I press here on the back it will fire the missiles.
That’s awesome.
Are there any models or designs that you’ve wanted to make for LEGO Star Wars that you
haven't yet that you want to do in the future?
That’s a lot, I have to say.
Even though we have been working with this for 20 years, there’s still ships and scenes
that could be made in LEGO.
So I don’t think we’ll run out of ideas.
Yeah, it’s a big galaxy.
It is.
Awesome, thank you so much for coming by.
It was a total pleasure talking to you.
Thank you.
These look like a lot of fun.
You’re watching The Star Wars Show.
I have tried to design LEGO vehicles before.
How did that go?
Uh, it’s all boxes.
Mhmm.
With wheels and then one tree.
I mean, does it move?
If it works.
About half the time.
And it’s tree, you know, the atmosphere is great.
Thank you very much.
I thought so.
Yeah.
Uh, your probably better at LEGO than I am so we want to see your biggest and best LEGO
Star Wars creations.
We’re talking official sets, or just free-form creations and dioramas you made yourself.
Bonus points if you use all of your trees.
Send them to us using the hashtag #LEGOStarWars and we’ll feature our favorites here next week.
They’ll all have trees.
And as always, remember to like the video, subscribe to the channel, follow us on Twitter,
Facebook, and Instagram, and if you’d like to learn more about Star Wars, head to your local library.
A library is like the internet, but you have to drive to it in traffic.
Mhmm.
It’s great.
Thanks for watching, and may the Force be with you.
We wish we could put more chips in the bag, you know what I’m saying.
It protects the chips.
There are so many chips we want to put in the bag.
I’d put more chips in the bag if I could.
I wish we could double stuff this bag.
I don't make that call.
That’s not for us.
That’s way above our pay grade.
That’s Mr. Pringle with his monocle somewhere in an office.
Yep.