Star Wars, Geek Culture, and Power Converters
There’s a new LEGO Star Wars special coming to Cartoon Network! Called The Empire Strikes Out, it will debut on Wednesday, September 26 at 8 p.m. EST. Writer Michael Price clarified on Twitter that it is not a sequel to The Padawan Menace, but its own Original Trilogy special. Voice talent includes Anthony Daniels and Sam Witwer.
I loved the original The Padawan Menace and can’t wait for the follow-up. What a great way to get us in the mood for Detours!
We’re wrapping up Cosplay Week with another appropriate costume for Tosche Station. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed seeing these fantastic costumes as much as we did and, as always, if you recognize any of these costumes, let us know so we can credit them!
One thing we don’t see enough of at conventions is Expanded Universe costumes outside side of a handful of big name characters. While we always love seeing some great SWEU costumes, we especially love seeing characters who don’t get as much love. Enter this fabulous Hallis cosplayer from Celebration VI. We’ve never seen someone attempt this costume before and we’re pretty sure she nailed it.
Edit: You can find her website here!
Cosplay Week continues with Bria’s personal favorite costume from Dragon*Con and that’s saying something given how many awesome costumes were at the con. Once again, I don’t know who the cosplayer was so if anyone recognizes him, please let us know so we can credit accordingly!
Everyone remembers Tropic Thunder, right? It was a comedy from 2008 that riffed on action films and is responsible for a lot of gifs of Robert Downey Jr. in blackface on tumblr. One of the funniest parts of the film were the fake film trailers at the start. RDJ’s character starred in a fictious film called “Satan’s Alley”, Jack Black’s character was in a Nutty Professor, and Ben Stiller’s character is the ailing action star. His trailer is for the latest in his franchise, Scorcher VI. (Check it out on YouTube if you don’t remember.) I positively love the film and when I saw this costume, I went running after the guy to snag a picture. Props to this awesome costumer for rocking a minor yet hilarious costume like this one!
We kick off the show with some housekeeping. Wormie’s Works will be moving off the podcast and onto the blog as a regular Friday feature. Meanwhile on the blog itself, we’re having Cosplay Week by Bria. She’s highlighting some of the best costumes spotted at Dragon*Con and Celebration VI. So far we’ve seen Mary Poppins, the Hapan Queens, Darth Talon and Cade Skywalker, as well as the all-new Captain Marvel. We also introduced the gender-swapped Wraith Squadron with a bonus appearance by Aaron Allston.
In Fixer’s Flash this week, Nanci’s been busy watching Captain America: The First Avenger and getting into Avatar: The Last Airbender (FINALLY). Brian finished up Marvel’s Siege comic arc and is reading through War of the Seasons by all-around awesome human being Janine Spendlove. Emily is up to her eyeballs in her dissertation, but has found time to watch the brilliant Slings and Arrows television series. Bria’s found time between costuming to get into a decent vampire novel.
Deak’s Dirt starts with news of a survey sent out to Celebration VI attendees that asks where you’d like to see a future Celebration held at. Brian and Nanci are still in favor of Orlando. Emily is very excited about the title of the new Star Trek film. The hosts implore readers to pre-order Pablo Hidalgo’s Essential Reader’s Companion for a mere $20. Meanwhile, Bria’s thrilled that Joss Whedon is coming back to television with a S.H.I.E.L.D series.
This week’s Camie’s Concerns looks into X-Wing: Mercy Kill by Aaron Allston, the first entry in that series in thirteen years. This spoiler-filled roundtable discussion dives into the plot and setting before spending the bulk of the time discussing the returning characters and new additions to the franchise.
Wrapping up the show, the hosts field questions in our Ask us Anything segment.
Tosche Station Radio is the official podcast of Tosche-Station.net and a part of the Solo Sound network. If you like what you hear, please leave a review on the iTunes Music Store or the Zune Marketplace. 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.
The last two weeks, we’ve livestreamed the recording of Tosche Station Radio. What we would like to know from those of you who listen to the podcast is if there’s any interest in making this a regular weekly thing.
Also, if you’ve got any kind of feedback or suggestions for the podcast, feel free to leave them in the comments!
We’re continuing with Cosplay Week here at Tosche Station and featuring some of the fabulous costumes we spotted at Celebration VI and Dragon*Con! Again, we don’t know who the cosplayers were for most of these so if you recognize the costumer, please let us know so we can give proper credit!
If you’re a regular reader of Tosche Station, it’s no secret that we’re big fans of Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel around here and we were definitely hoping to see some cosplayers with her new costume. Dragon*Con costumers didn’t fail us and amongst the sea of Lokis and Hawkeyes, we found her! Not only did her costume look great but she had some serious Carol attitude! (Please notice the bonus defeated Deadpool we got for recognizing and loving her costume.)
We have more Star Wars costumes for today’s edition of Cosplay Week from Celebration VI! Unlike yesterday, we actually don’t know who these costumers are and this particular picture was snagged from Jan Duursema’s Facebook so if you know who they are, shout out!
Edit: You can find Darth Talon’s Facebook page here and Cade’s here. Great costumes, guys!
Take a look at these two perfect Darth Talon and Cade Skywalker costumers who look like they could’ve stepped right off the pages from the Legacy comics. The body pain on Talon is perfectly done and I’m incredibly impressed by the tattoos and the chest armor on Cade.
While at Celebration VI, Erich Schoeneweiss of Del Rey was kind enough to show Nanci and myself a laser print of the upcoming Essential Reader’s Companion by Pablo Hidalgo. I’ll just get right to the point: this book is an absolute must buy for any Expanded Universe fan. The art is gorgeous and plentiful. Pablo’s writing is fantastic. This is a book that needs to be on your bookshelf.
Need a little more incentive? If you pre-order ERC now, you can get it for only $20.
After a few weeks off, Trope Tuesday is back! Each Tuesday (provided I’m not being lazy) we dive into that time sink in the cloud known as TV Tropes and investigate a literary theme or device that makes our favorite entertainment chug along. This week, we’re looking at how a character can Become Their Own Antithesis.
After Character Development, some people regress into a vulnerable state. Others become betterpeople, somebecome much worse, and others turn into a fragile, highly poetic and a bit irrational version of themselves.
Another group of people tend to reject everything that seemed to define their identity for the viewer, their appearance, their values, their main quirk, and their general attitude towards The Hero, Save The World, and Good Versus Evil. Then, they manage to become a negative picture of themselves, the complete antithesis of what they formerly were known for. This is this trope.
The trope is mostly used to make a Face Heel Turn more dramatic, using The Dark Side Will Make You Forget, but can also serve the other way around, to prove how much someone can better himself when under the influence of Good.
Now who can relate to this trope? Someone that was compassionate at one point, but became a vile and inhumane person? Someone whose love of all living things was tossed away? Someone who …
Well that works.
You’ve heard us talk about it before and you’ve even seen a teaser picture but now, direct from Dragon*Con, we bring you the Gender Swapped Wraith Squadron featuring, yes that’s right, some of the Tosche Station staff! We had an absolute blast getting the group together especially since we got to chat with the one and only Aaron Allston after a panel as the Wraiths.
The Wraiths with their creator! Check out the rest of the photoshoot after the jump!