SHIPPING
The Arc Reactors from Iron Man are shipping, woooooooooo! Only about 2400 will be made (exact count TBD) and the majority are gone so act soon. You may have only another month at this rate to make up your mind and we don't want you kicking yourself later. C'mon we all have a little super hero in us.

Star Wars items will start shipping next week. We hoped this week, but you know how timing goes with licensed stuff.



NEWS
Assassin's Creed 2 Ezio is nearing completion and is one of the coolest outfits we've ever made. Even if you're not a fan, this Renaissance style outfit is awesome, elegant, sartorial and killer. Weapons and clothing coming around April/May for pre-order.

2 new old licenses were reacquired by us and we're proud to have the classic Gladiator and LOTR licenses back where they belong. Clothing, armor, LARP is all on the way this year.

Braveheart is fully approved and in production. You know you want to be William Wallace or Isabella, and you deserve the real, screen accurate deal. Definitive and never done before for true fans and history buffs. Then Sleepy Hollow...

Finally, we've put our unique stamp on Steampunk. Our sections will be loaded these coming weeks with gadgets, gizmo's, clothing and more. We're your steampunk HQ and proud of it. The Victorian Age melded with early Industrial Sci-fi never looked so good.

Well that should be enough to chew on for now. Need more, try a Snickers, I hear your cravings will go to Germany.
-RC

Immerse yourself in a galaxy far, far away. Dave DiPietro, our product manager, and I went to see Star Wars in Concert last night and it was well worth it (whether you're a fan or not). John Williams score is as amazing as ever and moving in person. Scores from all six films were featured.

Narrated live by Anthony Daniels, C-3PO (if I have to explain who that is no need to read on) the concert features a full symphony orchestra and choir, accompanied by specially footage from the films displayed on a three-story-tall, high-definition LED super-screen - one of the largest ever put on tour.

Along with the concert was an exhibit of Star Wars costumes, props, production artwork and behind-the-scenes videos from the Lucasfilm Archives. Here is a sampling:

-Full costumes for Jedi Masters Kit Fisto and Plo Koon.

-Pages from John Williams' original hand-written sheet music for "Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace".

-Han in Carbonite and Chewbacca (well the outfit at least).

Definitely a new way of experiencing the epic scope of the saga. For information go to http://www.starwarsinconcert.com/

The souvenirs are a little pricey and frankly a bit bland, but the performance was worth it and the print program was pretty cool.
-RC

Well, based on the incredibly wide range of comments on the Star Wars clothing I think its our responsibility to inform all of you better on what you are seeing. With the comments I've seen, we aren't doing so well at that. We do know many of you feel strongly about your perceptions and I hope this helps.

Our fabrics are as close as possible to the originals and use fabrics from multiple countries (whew, that's a lot of travel) - no one can make every single material 100% since many items no longer exist in any way- some of the clothing pieces haven't existed for decades and longer. About 90% of the fabrics in our line are exact (after 18 months in the archives with the originals and Lucas approvals we should know), all colors, seams, cut-patterns are 100% exact. Where the material was not available, we have had to make many custom samples from scratch at great cost to come as close as possible and with the thought in mind that it must be commercially possible to make at textile mills. Our strong collaboration with the archives and Lucas Licensing is what allows us the ability to offer the outfits with confidence.

There are no adequate swatches available of anything original and nothing is allowed to leave the Lucasfilm archives adding to our huge challenge. Very few people have actually seen the costumes and I fear there are some people who simply don't understand the process involved to make something available and attainable. Could we have made one outfit more perfect if price was no object? Possibly, but no one would buy it and where would we be? And you the fan who deserves the chance to choose and own something from the Star Wars legacy?

A key example of where perceptions can be understandably different: there are dozens of Jedi robes from the same movie, same character and sometimes multiples for a single scene- all slightly different from each other. We must choose the most representative for the intended look. Could you find one in another scene different, maybe, but it doesn't mean one or the other is less or more right.


It took 18 months of research just to get to this point. No one can fully appreciate what we've gone through which is unfortunate, but we understand and you still deserve our best. Should you feel a fan has done a better job and can give you a genuine, documented approval from Lucasfilm then by all means act, our goal is never to stunt your creativity, but in the meantime your trust in us and Lucas is well placed