Star Wars Weekends Guests Announced!

Posted on by

SWW2015_MerchandisePoster (1)In all the excitement for Celebration, it’s easy to overlook that other event that happens every May and June at Walt Disney World — Star Wars Weekends! The event will take place every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from May 15-June 14 at (soon to be renamed) Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Earlier this afternoon the Disney Parks blog and The Official Site announced the Star Wars celebrities appearing this year, including the first appearances of two very special guests, Ian McDiarmid and Frank Oz!

Weekend I (May 15 – 17)

  • Ian McDiarmid: Senator/Emperor Palpatine (Star Wars: The Phantom Menace; Star Wars: Attack of the Clones; Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi)
  • Amy Allen: Aayla Secura (Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith)
  • Tiya Sircar: Sabine Wren (Star Wars Rebels)

Weekend II (May 22 – 24)

  • Warwick Davis: Wald, Wicket W. Warrick (Star Wars: The Phantom Menace; Star Wars: Return of the Jedi)
  • Silas Carson: Ki-Adi-Mundi, Nute Gunray (Star Wars: The Phantom Menace; Star Wars: Attack of the Clones;Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith)
  • Vanessa Marshall: Hera Syndulla (Star Wars Rebels)

Weekend III (May 29 – 31)

  • Warwick Davis: Wald, Wicket W. Warrick (Star Wars: The Phantom Menace; Star Wars: Return of the Jedi)
  • Daniel Logan: Boba Fett (Star Wars: Attack of the Clones)
  • Steve Blum: Zeb Orrelios (Star Wars Rebels)

Weekend IV (June 5 – 7)

  • Ray Park: Darth Maul (Star Wars: The Phantom Menace)
  • Jeremy Bulloch: Boba Fett (Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back; Star Wars: Return of the Jedi)
  • Ashley Eckstein: Ahsoka Tano (Star Wars: The Clone Wars; Star Wars Rebels)

Weekend V (June 12 – 14)

  • Frank Oz: Yoda (Star Wars: The Phantom Menace; Star Wars: Attack of the Clones; Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi; Star Wars Rebels)
  • Ray Park: Darth Maul (Star Wars: The Phantom Menace)
  • Peter Mayhew: Chewbacca (Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith; Star Wars: A New Hope; Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back; Star Wars: Return of the Jedi)
  • Taylor Gray: Ezra Bridger (Star Wars Rebels)

James Arnold Taylor will be hosting the event, with Ashley Eckstein on hand to host the Padawan Mind Challenge (in addition to her Weekend IV guest appearance).

Also of note this year: a new complex of shops for Darth’s Maul on Streets of America and a new inside location for celebrity autographs just off Commissary Lane.

In addition to celebrity appearances in “Stars of the Saga” and “Star Wars: Rebels”, Ray Park and Warwick Davis will be appearing in their own one-man shows. No work yet if Ian McDiarmid and Frank Oz will be appearing as part of “Stars of the Saga” or a separate interview like last year’s “Conversation with Mark Hamill”.

Who’s excited? I’m excited!

Tosche Station Radio #108: Celebration Pre-Funk

Posted on by

Logo

Play in new window | Download

Dunc and James from Club Jade join the hosts to discuss all things Celebration on this week’s Tosche Station Radio!

Kicking off the show, the hosts highlight What’s New on the Blog. Bria reviewed Kanan #1. We announced A Celebration of You, your chance to take part in a podcast recording and share your story at Celebration.

In Deak’s Dirt, Is there a Battlefront novel in the pipeline? (via clubjade). Is the Celebration opening panel going to be broadcast worldwide? (via clubjade). Gareth Edwards and Josh Trank are going to be at Celebration. But that’s stupid you shouldn’t go to it. Instead you should come to our recording instead! Starwars.com posted some Celebration shirts, Her Universe teases a Cloud City dress

Biggs’ Bullshit asks if a Lords of the Sith character feature in Rogue One? (via clubjade). Via Deadline: Ben Mendolsohn up for a role in Rogue One?

This week in Camie’s Concerns, James and Dunc help us break down Celebration and offer tips on what to bring, what to do, and what to see.

Tosche Station Radio is the official podcast of Tosche-Station.net and a part of Majestic Giraffe Productions. If you like what you hear, please leave a review on the iTunes Music Store. We can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Nanci and Brian are the co-founders and writers of Tosche-Station.net. You can find Nanci on Twitter with the handle @Nancipants and you can find Brian with @LaneWinree.

This podcast has been brought to you in part by Her Universe and Audible.com.

Her Universe - Flaunt Your World - www.heruniverseshop.com Listen to a bestseller for $7.49 at audible.com!

Tosche Station Radio #107: Fridges in Temples

Posted on by

Logo

Play in new window | Download

Brian and Nanci get literary on this week’s Tosche Station Radio!

Kicking off the shows, the hosts highlight What’s New on the Blog. Bria reviewed Princess Leia #2. Bria reviewed Darth Vader #3. She also outlined a new approach to recommending the Expanded Universe.

In Fixer’s Flash, Nanci’s been busy with writing a new book. The hosts went to Cloak and Blaster (a fun Central Florida geek themed pub), and Brian bought some new audio gear for Celebration.

Deak’s Dirt starts with news that The X-Files has reopened! Meanwhile in Star Wars, there’s a new blurb for Dark Disciple. Star Wars Celebration schedule has been posted. Rumors that a Star Wars live action show will be shooting at Pinewood in between movies.

What’s in Biggs’ Bull#&$*? Well, In the stupid department, Lucasfilm can’t market Rogue One until Rogue Nation comes out. Musically, John Williams will be recording the Episode VII score in LA

Camie’s Concerns is all about the Expanded Universe and Star Wars literature. We look at what’s already been released, what’s coming up, what we liked, and what we think could use some improvement.

Tosche Station Radio is the official podcast of Tosche-Station.net and a part of Majestic Giraffe Productions. If you like what you hear, please leave a review on the iTunes Music Store. We can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Nanci and Brian are the co-founders and writers of Tosche-Station.net. You can find Nanci on Twitter with the handle @Nancipants and you can find Brian with @LaneWinree.

This podcast has been brought to you in part by Her Universe and Audible.com.

Her Universe - Flaunt Your World - www.heruniverseshop.com Listen to a bestseller for $7.49 at audible.com!

Tosche Station Radio at SWCA: A Celebration of You

Posted on by

celebration_keyart_wide

As you may be aware, Tosche Station Radio has been selected to participate on the Celebration Podcast Stage. On Sunday April 19th at 10:30AM, you can head into room 208A to see Nanci, Bria, Sho, and myself record a live show in front of an audience. It’ll be a lot like our normal episodes. We’ll have the usual intros, highlighting stuff we’ve posted to the blog, Fixer’s Flash, Deak’s Dirt, and Camie’s Concerns.

For that last segment, though, we’re going to change things up a bit: we want you to participate.

Nanci and I have already decided to call this episode A Celebration of You. We want to hear your stories. We want to learn how you became a fan of Star Wars. We want to find out what you’d love to see represented in the Galaxy Far, Far Away. We want to have a conversation with you, listener and Star Wars fan.

Tosche Station Radio has, from the beginning, been a podcast focused on diversity. Diversity in storytelling, diversity in characters, diversity in creators, diversity in fans. We know that there’s a huge range of fans out there that don’t fit the normal demographic checkboxes. When we sit down on the stage to record this April, our goal is to let your voice be heard.

We look forward to hearing your story. See you at Celebration.

-The Tosche Station Staff

A New Approach to Recommending The EU

Posted on by

If you’re an Expanded Universe fan, chances are you’ve had to field the following question at least once: “Where should I start reading the Star Wars books?” Everyone has a different answer of course but the most common is usually “The Thrawn Trilogy. Duh.” As the first EU book, it’s accessible and doesn’t require more knowledge than the films and it’s simply a pretty darn good trilogy. The problem, however, is that I don’t think this works anymore.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve had two people ask me where they should start reading the books and I had to pause and reconsider the instinctive and age-old Thrawn Trilogy answer. We now live in a world where there is Star Wars canon and there is Legends with hundreds of books. For me, this changes that game completely.

Taking my probably belated realization into mind, I wanted to share with all of you my new method for deciding which EU books I should recommend to someone. It’s only been tested on two people so it’s hardly foolproof but it may be useful to some of you.

Continue reading →

Tosche Station Radio #106: Wild Mass Guessing II – The Guessening

Posted on by

Logo

Play in new window | Download

Rogue One and Journey to the Force Awakens? Mike Cooper joins us for WILD MASS GUESSING!

Kicking off the show, the hosts highlight What’s New on the Blog. Bria reviewed Star Wars #3. Brian wrote about Separating the Art from the Artist and why he’s worried about Lords of the Sith. Nanci explained the big problem with Heir to the Jedi. We’ll be discussing these topics in depth next week along with a sort of State of the EU.

Deak’s Dirt starts with comics news this week. Stuart Immonen will be the new artist on Star Wars starting with #8. Meanwhile on the lit side of things, Journey to The Force Awakens announced. In additional Marvel comics news,  the cover of Shattered Empire #1 by Phil Noto was shown off. Finally, we got official confirmation that Aftermath will be written by Chuck Wendig.

Over in Biggs Bull$^%*,  Rian Johnson officially confirmed for Episode VIII and the release date is set for May 26, 2017. Rogue One announced as the first standalone movie, will be released in December 2016. Directed by Gareth Edwards, written by Chris Weitz, and starring Felicity Jones. Alexandre Desplat will do the score. Stackpole had a  blog post on the subject. Meanwhile, Andrew Liptak posted a history of Rogue Squadron at B&N

There’s so much news this week, we’re just continuing it in Camie’s Concerns! Mike Cooper from Eleven Thirty Eight joins us to break things down and engage in wild mass guessing (our favorite passtime).

You can see Mike’s work here at Eleven-ThirtyEight and follow the blog here on Twitter.

Tosche Station Radio is the official podcast of Tosche-Station.net and a part of Majestic Giraffe Productions. If you like what you hear, please leave a review on the iTunes Music Store. We can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Nanci and Brian are the co-founders and writers of Tosche-Station.net. You can find Nanci on Twitter with the handle @Nancipants and you can find Brian with @LaneWinree.

This podcast has been brought to you in part by Her Universe and Audible.com.

Her Universe - Flaunt Your World - www.heruniverseshop.com Listen to a bestseller for $7.49 at audible.com!