Winged Gundark

I got myself a brand-new unopened 10212 to keep myself busy during the Christmas holidays. It wasn't exactly cheap, but definitely worth the price. It is IMO one of the best looking UCS models ever released and one of the coolest ships in OT.

UCS Lambda UCS Snowspeeder UCS TIE Interceptor Perhaps three coolest ships in OT with Executor IMO. All are pretty much available second hand or mostly bricklinkable, but at least first two are pretty darn expensive and TIE fighter could be far better if made by today's standards.

It is somehow sad to see much of the EU to get "ditched" with the upcoming movies, but at the same time it is quite understandable especially with the things that took place after the RotJ. If Disney/LF should hold on with pretty much everything created for EU during the last 25 years or so, it would limit their possibilities quite much. I haven't read that much EU novels, except Zahns fabulous Thrawn Trilogy, but I'am quite familiar with Dark Horse's comic creations. Although quality of EU stories, books or otherwise, varies quite a lot, in overall they are extremely important in creating a living and breathing galaxy by adding more depth around the base that the movies created. In that sense, they are integral part of my SW experience and make the universe seem more real and diverse, build up the familiar characters and offer new angles to the saga. In short, EU adds up to the immersion. Just look at the wookiepedia page: most of that stuff there is from the plethora of EU stuff and without EU, galaxy would be a lot more empty place. Also, I am not a hard core "canon guy". To be fair, EU has quite many inconsistencies with the timeline etc. but who cares. I will still enjoy my comics, books and games no matter what Disney decides to do or what direction the canon (oh my, how I hate that word in SW context ) takes. If someone wants to stick to the material that is released or "approved" by some authority, that is their choice. I still think that they miss quite a lot great stuff. After all, SW is just a science fiction fairy tale and most of all entertainment and as such something that shouldn't be taken too seriously I am little bit wary of the Marvel getting the comic license as Dark Horse has treated SW and EU very well: they really have big boots to fill, at least. Right from the start DH created amazing stories with the right SW feel in them without the cheesiness of earlier Marvel creations of the 70's and 80's. Take Dark Empire for example, which is IMO one of the greatest scifi comics ever made. I have no doubt that in the future Marvel as part of the Disney will stick to the canon, but at the same time I think we may lost some of the richness of the earlier EU, although there is stuff that is simply rubbish in it. In fact, it would be pretty much impossible that all the material created by various people during the years would be top notch. And with Marvel, I'am truly afraid of the possible superhero/SW cross overs, which Marvel fans are already screaming for. Wolverine vs. Darth Vader would probably be even more worse idea than casting Hayden Christiansen for the new movies. All in all, DH comics have served SW franchise very well and in most cases their stories are far more enjoyable and deeper than the god awful prequel trilogy movies for example. Somebody mentioned DH getting into trouble by losing the license, but I doubt it. SW is creating about 6% of their sales, so while it hurts, it isn't the end of the world. At least I'd hate to see every publisher ending as a part of some corporation and I really wish DH well and good years in the future. As for LEGO, I'am pretty new with them in my adult age, I actually purchased UCS Executor, my first "adult" set, just before last christmas and I just have bought few sets after that including UCS R2-D2. I am mainly interested in the OT UCS stuff, but I have also purchased few "regular" SW sets to gather blocks for future MOCs when I have seen good sets in discount. So, if LEGO doesn't release EU stuff anymore, it is really no big deal for me. And with LEGO, we can of course always create EU stuff our selves, if we just wanto to. That is the magic of the blocks