Boba Fett

Where last time DC’s Legends of Tomorrow put on their best Guardians of the Galaxy for a new trailer, now the Arrow-Flash spinoff has taken aim at a different Disney branch. Just who is the masked ‘Boba Fett’-style baddie taking on the Legends in a new 2016 trailer?

For over a thousand generations the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times. Before the Empire. And what an Empire it was! Just as the Star Wars universe is lauded and loved for its heroes, those heroes would have no way to prove their bravery and valor without the best bad guys in the galaxy. Sure the Joker and Loki are incredibly popular, but Star Wars has the power to take characters with one or two lines of dialogue and make them full blown cultural icons. Or make dozens of highly sought after action figures based on characters with zero lines of dialogue who do little more than briefly stand around in the background. Vader famously said, “You don’t know the power of the Dark Side”, but let’s celebrate that power with this small collection of fan art and see if we can’t get a better idea.

Boba Fett wasn't always the Mandalorian armor-wearing bad-ass that made it into the final films. Star Wars concept artist Ralph McQuarrie originally envisioned Fett as a sort of super-trooper (meow) in the Imperial army. The concept also stemmed a bit from the original ideas for Darth Vader, though we all know how that turned out. The Fett we saw on screen was a further modified version of McQuarrie's concepts that was finished off by Joe Johnston, who was an art director at Lucasfilm at the time. While the white armor even made it so far as to be screentested, the final version deviated from McQuarrie's original plans quite a bit. There have been a few different figures and collectibles over the years to commemorate Boba's original all-white armor, but none that were based solely on McQuarrie's original design. That's where Sideshow Collectibles steps in. As part of its new Star Wars Concept Art series of premium format figures, the Boba Fett that had previously only lived as a painting or sketch will soon be realized in 3D.

While he only has only four lines of dialogue and you never see his face, Boba Fett has gone on to become one of the most popular characters in Star Wars lore. But, it turns out his iconic design was actually just taken from a rejected sketch for Darth Vader. That’s just one of the facts packed into the latest episode of You Think You Know Movies, which checks out your favorite bounty hunter with Boba Fett!

Oh, Boba Fett. The reasoning behind your popularity outside of the cool costume has always eluded me, yet like so many other Star Wars fans, I can't help but be drawn to you. That armor is that cool. Yes, you went out like a punk in Return of the Jedi, only to be saved later in the comics and novelizations that no longer count as part of the Star Wars canon, but the impression you made on a legion of admirers was so great, it seems nothing will ever break the bond. Even being retroactively turned into a clone of Jango Fett, a vastly inferior version of your own future self. When I say things like that out loud, I wonder again how it is you've managed to stay one of Star Wars' most popular characters. It seems even Hot Toys counts itself amongst the loyalists infettuated with the bounty hunter as the company has just officially announced its second Boba Fett figure from its recently launched Star Wars figure line. Already, Hot Toys has planned a quarter-scale version of the character with a portion of Jabba the Hutt's skiff serving as the base. Teased at SDCC this past July, the sixth-scale Boba Fett also comes from the Return of the Jedi, as it will include a Sarlacc pit accessory as part of the deluxe package. There's a normal version, too, but who cares? It's all about that base.

If you listened hard when Disney announced that it had bought Lucasfilm, you could hear it: millions of expanded universe stories suddenly crying out in terror, and suddenly silenced. For the last 23 years, Dark Horse Comics has been adding to the Star Wars saga, publishing a host of comics set in that galaxy far, far away, partnering with Lucasfilm to help weave a vibrant tapestry of stories, characters and settings to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the films, books, video games, trading card games, RPG handbooks, and (ugh) Holiday Specials. Well, no more. Starting in 2015, Disney's handing the publishing of any and all new Star Wars comics over to Marvel Comics, with an all new, optimized-for-corporate-synergy canon that will spread across all their media platforms. Anything that's not a movie (especially one of the Original Trilogy movies), or a Clone Wars cartoon, will be unceremoniously Order 66-ed out of existence, giving future filmmakers a clean-ish slate to make movies (and money) on. But what about all those Dark Horse comics? That's where we come in with 7 Dark Horse Star Wars comics you should track down before they disappear.

Every weekend here at CA we’re cracking open the latest and/or just greatest decades old action figures around to see what sets them apart from the articulated plastic pack. This week we’re unboxing Sideshow Collectibles' Sixth Scale Prototype Armor Boba Fett figure, which the company sent our way for a review...

Read more to kick off July with a look at our favorite links of the day.

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