Awesome Star Wars

Have you dreamt of wielding a lightsaber like the ones in the Star Wars saga? These machined aluminum CyberSabers take inspiration from those, but offer a streamlined, cyberpunk aesthetic. They light up in 11 different colors, and make cool sci-fi sound effects as you swing them around. Save 27% in The Awesomer Shop.

Star Wars fans will love these laser-engraved baltic birch coasters, each of which features a planetary destination in a galaxy far, far away. There are nine designs in all, with familiar locales like Hoth and Tatooine, along with less-explored lands like Kashyyyk and Geonosis. Sold in sets of four or more.

16 years have passed and Baby Yoda is no longer the adorable child he was playing with the controls aboard the Razor Crest. He’s now an angsty, sulking goth teenager… and Mando has a real dad bod. See how this scenario plays out in AOK’s animated parody.

Alex Dodson of Burned by Design created this awesome grill that looks just like one of the AT-ATs from The Empire Strikes Back. But instead of spending its days in the frigid mountains of Hoth, this Imperial Walker will have a decidedly warmer life as it cooks up hot dogs and hamburgers. It’ll soon be available for order on his website.

We all know Chewbacca. But we don’t all know about his upbringing, why he carries a bowcaster, or how old he is. Looper delves into our Wookiee pal’s background and attempts to fill in some blanks about his life story – assuming you can count the Star Wars Holiday Special as canon.

Filmmaker and Star Wars fan Mason Drumm used stop-motion animation to recreate the pivotal lightsaber battle between Rey and Kylo Ren in The Rise of Skywalker. The 2 minute film includes some really great tricks, including confetti water splashes, and a rippling water machine. Behind the scenes story here.

Most of today’s science fiction movies use CGI for creature effects, but the original Star Wars trilogy (and some of the recent ones) used puppets. Jamie Benning’s 2015 documentary takes us behind the scenes of Return of the Jedi, and introduces us to Toby Philpott and his fellow puppeteers who brought the slimeball to life.

We’ve seen the original Star Wars movies so many times, we could tell you every minor plot point from memory. But what if you only saw it one time? Liam’s Newly Rebranded Entertainment Franchise asked his girlfriend to recount the story of Episode IV, which she didn’t see until 2017.

While we enjoyed The Rise of Skywalker for the most part, it did try and cram in way too many stories, and had its share of sloppy and too-convenient plot points. Of course Screen Junkies has a lot more beefs about Star Wars Episode IX in their brutally Honest Trailer.

Not long ago, The Hacksmith showed off his insane high-temperature protosaber build. But one cannot duel with a single weapon, so one of his cohorts went about building a second one. With their power supplies placed into backpacks, they performed a dangerous ballet with their 2700ºF cutting tools while donning fire suits.

If you’ve never seen Mongolian band The HU live, you owe it to yourself to do so. This video is the next best thing, as the throat-singing hard rockers perform an original song they created for the game Jedi: Fallen Order. Note that they’re not singing Mongolian here, but a unique language created for the Star Wars universe.

During Toy Fair 2020, Gizmodo got an up-close look at Hasbro’s awesome Baby Yoda animatronic toy. The $60 plush figure can move its head, wiggle its hears, open and close its big eyes, and makes adorable sounds. Available for pre-order now, with shipping December 2020. The high tech bassinet is sadly not included.

ILM takes us behind the scenes of The Mandalorian to see how visual effects tech developed with Epic Games are used to create the series. Rather than shoot on location or in front of a green screen, the series uses a gigantic, wraparound screen to surround actors with digital scenery which can move in sync with a camera.

Kevin Custer’s minimal, but well-executed Star Wars short tells the tale of a stormtrooper who finds himself abandoned and injured on Endor after the destruction of the Death Star II. Naturally, he comes face-to-face with an Ewok along the way.

Young geeks will love to complete the challenges in this DIY book, filled with 20 different science experiments and craft projects inspired by the Star Wars universe. Using household objects, kids from 8-12+ will build their own mouse droid, a Tatooine sand globe, tabletop gliding landspeeders, and more.

Vocalist Matthew Van Ness recorded himself performing each and every instrument for this acapella orchestral version of John Williams Star Wars main theme. He also did a version of the Dual of the Fates, and the theme from Avengers.

Now that Disney owns the studio that makes The Simpsons, they figured it was time to pay tribute to some of the many times the series satirized or referenced Disney’s iconic properties. Since they also own Marvel and Star Wars, they couldn’t resist doing compilations for those franchises too.

After his stint as radar technician “Matt,” Kylo Ren returns to Undercover Boss to see if he was able to keep his promises to improve his organization and not lose his temper as much. One of several hilarious sketches from Adam Driver’s latest appearance on SNL.

While it’s not nearly as big as the AT-ACT treehouse that Colin Furze built, we’re still impressed with this foamcore and hot glue replica of the Empire’s walking weapon the guys from FliteTest put together. They built it with the sole purpose of flying tiny drones around it to knock it down.

The Mandalorian certainly owes alot to western films like A Fistful of Dollars and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. But what would it have looked like if it actually were a spaghetti western? Kingkida’s stylized trailer does a great job imagining just that, complete with the proper music, typeface, and film grain.

Motion designer Sekani Solomon and a team of talented animators made this brief, but impressive Star Wars fan film, which features an epic battle between a group of stormtroopers and an unknown enemy. The CGI work is as good as any video game cutscene we’ve seen. Sound design by Echoic.

Illustrator dvglzv loves to create imaginary comic book covers based on pop culture. He recently put together an brilliant series of vintage-style Marvel covers for each of The Mandalorian’s eight initial episodes. We’d love to see full comic books done this in this style.

Tel Aviv-based ceramic artist Erifyli Tsavdari of Keramiki creates these dramatic, one-of-a-kind, decorative raku mugs featuring the visage of the Dark Lord of the Sith. While the raku version isn’t food-safe, there’s a glazed espresso cup that is.