Roxy the Rancor gets a little brother, The Force Awakens comic adaptation Joe Quesada cover will melt your heart, Ciena Ree is bad-ass, and an all new Smuggler’s Bounty box!
By Mike Audette // Joe Quesada does it again, Ciena Ree is seen for the first time, and the latest Smuggler’s Bounty box has arrived! But first…
The creators of the famous Roxy the Rancor replica have launched their latest prop coming from The Force Awakens. Rick Bohler and Erik Hollander had been trying to figure out which creature they would take on next when The Force Awakens released. They had narrowed it down between the three largest creatures featured in the film: the Luggabeast, the Happabore, and the Rathtar. They decided to create their own Luggabeast.
Taking upwards of 320 hours of sculpting, preparation, and construction and 160 hours of painting, the replica prop comes in at 450 lbs while standing 8 feet tall, 13 feet long, and 6 feet wide. The Luggabeast is one of my favorite creatures from the film. It has a un-measurable cool factor and a mysterious origin story. The prop will be making its convention debut this upcoming weekend at MegaCon in Orlando, Florida and then attending the Dallas FanExpo in early June.
On Friday, Marvel comics released details on The Force Awakens adaptation, written by Aftermath-trilogy author Chuck Wendig and drawn by Luke Ross. The adaptation will be a five-issue mini-series beginning with the first release on June 22nd and it will come with plenty of awesome variant covers to collect. Among the artists providing artwork for the variants include the amazing Phil Noto, Esad Ribic, John Cassaday, and Joe Quesada.
The Quesada variant cover is just, wow. Rey is my favorite character introduced in the movie and this one is beyond beautiful. I want to blow this up into wallpaper and cover my entire house with it. I will no doubt be getting this variant edition and framing it.
It’s been two months since the last Funko Smuggler’s Bounty box, so that only means a new one just came out. This month’s box was themed for the Bounty Hunters. Those crazy guys killing for hire, you know. The box featured two Pops, the customary patch and pin and t-shirt. This was my second Smuggler’s Bounty I’ve received since signing up and I am definitely a fan. The items contained are all unique to the box and are well done. Make sure you check out RetroZap’s own Funko expert (and Dengar Fan Club President) Dan’s review of the box here! The theme for the July Smuggler’s box is Jabba’s palace. I wonder what could be coming? Malakili? Bib Fortuna? Sy Snootles? Max Rebo? Only time will tell. (I want a Lando in disguise Pop)
This week on the Star Wars Show, Andi and Peter revealed the first piece of official artwork of Ciena Ree, one half of the main pair in the novel Lost Stars, and I’m in love. The artwork is for the upcoming update for Fantasy Flight games which has had a lot of amazing artwork like this over the years. If you haven’t read Lost Stars yet, you are doing yourself a major disservice. Claudia Gray absolutely knocked it out of the park and followed it up with Bloodline (not a Lost Stars sequel), which are my two favorite Star Wars books to date.