Spooky Star Wars: The First Winner

It's time to start unveiling the winners for the Spooky Star Wars competition!

First, though, I'd like to note that I've posted the comments from the three judges we've heard from to the entry grids - there are some hints there on how things are shaping up, although it's still anyone's game in the final scores.

Anyway, our first announcement is for the Imperial Award. This is the model that TK-1420 liked the best  - and who's builder will receive some cool 501^st swag!

And the winner is....

THE RACK by rknum

TK-1420 comments: EVERY STORMTROOPER'S DREAM. Well done!!

Well done, indeed! rknum, look for an email from Ian in the coming days to arrange for your prize to be delivered!

Tomorrow: Steve Sansweet's DARK SIDE award!

Episode 564

Read the comic here.

A classic problem with Festivals set up to mimic the realities of Medieval England - they had neither ATMs, nor phones, nor Port-o-sans.

On the other hand, who would want to go to a festival without those modern conveniences?

Spooky Star Wars: Winners to be announced!

Three of the four judges have reported in - and I hope to hear from the last one very soon. As such, I can start revealing the winners for the Spooky Star Wars contest!

Tomorrow at noon watch for the announcement of the first of Judge's Choice awards - we'll be starting with the coveted Imperial Award. The model that TK-1420 likes the best will receive some cool 501^st swag!

That's noon Eastern Standard Time, gang! Be here!

It's almost time...

Click to see what we'll be up to this year!

Episode 563

Read the comic here.

The Fish-On-A-Stick is a part from the new 2009 Pirates line. I found a few of the smaller sets at Toys R Us on Sunday morning. As you can see, I couldn't wait to incorporate it into the strip. Because, come on, fish on a stick!

For my non-American readers, the State Fairs in the US have a history of producing a varitey of "foods on sticks" for the fairgoers to enjoy. I've seen everything from corn to pizza to, yes, fish.

Episode 562

Read the comic here.

I live in fear of the Pun Police.

Episode 561

Read the comic here.

This catches me back up to my normal update schedule. Thanks for your patience.

Episode 560

Read the comic here.

Episode 559

Read the comic here.

For my Non-US readers, Detroit has a reputation of being a "less than pleasant" area to live in. I currently live in the Detroit suburbs, and I can vouch for that description.

Hope to have a double comic post tomorrow to catch back up.

Spooky Star Wars

I've gotten a few emails asking when the winners of the Spooky Star Wars contest will be announced. Right now I have 50% of the judge's spreadsheets back - I hope to have the others by late this week.

Right now the only announcements I can make are two "Judge's Choice" awards - I may post those over the next couple of days while we wait on the full data to get here.

Comics Delayed

Hey gang - comics will be off by a couple of days this week - travel back from OmegaCon was a bit more prolonged than expected. You'll still get 5 this week so don't get overly worked up.

Episode 558

Read the comic here.

Episode 557

Read the comic here.

I'm on the road and may not have FTP access to the site until this evening. Until then, this post is the only way "in" to today's strip. I figured you guys would rather see things on-time, even if the normal links weren't functional.

Just another perk for those of you who check the blog...

Episode 556

Read the comic here.

A small dig at Ian for making me wait so long to find out who shot Tryant.

Episode 555

Read the comic here.

Episode 554

Read the comic here.

Spooky Star Wars: Grids are Closed!

The Entry Grids for Spooky Star Wars are now closed. If you emailed me and don't see your model listed, please contact me ASAP.

The next step is creating the Ranking Spreadsheets and getting them to our judges - I hope to have that accomplished by tomorrow.

We ended up with the following breakdown:

• Class One: Spooky Vehicle: 22 Models
• Class Two: Spooky Scene: 25 Models
• Class Three: Spooky Impulse: 21 Models
• Class Four: Death of Jar Jar: 17 Models

That's a total of 85 Creations - a smaller turnout than I expected, but still quite nice. (I'm sure our judges will appreciate the lighter workload.)



I'm probably not going to run a November challenge - but I should have something ready for December. I don't have a sponsor for the next round, so I'll have to dig into the prize closet and see what's available...

Episode 553

Read the comic here.

I nearly left off the part of the caption dealing with Scotch's wardrobe, but realized someone would bitch about it if I didn't explain why his outfit was suddenly different.

It was nice to return to an already-built set for this scene. Also note that Donut has his Sonic Martini out again.

Episode 552

Read the comic here.

Happy Halloween, indeed.

Episode 551

Read the comic here.

Episode 550

Read the comic here.

Spooky Star Wars: Final Days!

The Entry Grids for Spooky Star Wars are up to date - and the turnout so far is pretty light. There are some very nice models - but honestly I was expecting to see some more builders represented. Hopefully everyone is doing the usual - waiting until very near the deadline to submit...

Speaking of, you still have until this Sunday to get your entries in - but learn a lesson from our past contests and don't wait until the last day to submit. We've had some real prize-worthy entries have to be sidelined due to late emails. I'd hate to see that happen again this time around.

Click the banner to check out the rules - and get to building!

Episode 549

Read the comic here.

That's not the same door that's been in the background - this one clearly has a strip of lights along the top and a bouncer. Looking back, I probably should have tweaked the design a bit more.

Episode 548

Read the comic here.

And now you know where Ian was going with Scotch in the previous couple of episodes. Kudos to those of you who noticed the background action.

Episode 547

Read the comic here.

After doing some digging, I learned the comment issue that appeared yesterday is a new blogger upgrade in-the-works. Details are here. Mine was one of the blogs that it was accidentally enabled on. What do you regulars think? Now that you know a bit more about it, is it a feature you'd like me to activate?

Episode 546

Read the comic here.

Episode 545

Read the comic here.

Episode 544

Read the comic here.

Episode 543

Read the comic here.

Again, for those of you who refuse to see the films: Trinity.

It's sad that the best catchphrase my strip has to offer is "Has anyone noticed that phone before?"

Episode 542

Read the comic here.

Note the classy tattoo on the dancer's back. I had built this figure a long time ago (although with a different hairstyle), back in the days when I didn't have a baggie of plain yellow torsos on hand. So I swapped the arms on a classic space torso and called it
"good enough".

Episode 541

Read the comic here.

Yes, that's a different dancer. They do swap them out from time to time. I had this young lady dancing elsewhere in the club in earlier strips, but she never actually made it into shot. Oh well.

We could accuse Ian of being a big spender, but the "100" is the smallest denomination in LEGO cash. He doesn't really have a choice.

Episode 540

Read the comic here.

For the record, the guys *did* think of this - they were trying to change Morpheus back when Neo decided to Chili-Up. Then the wheels came off, and they were off on to other plans. (See strip 485)

This scripting style is based on "Real Life", as anyone who works in an office environment with more than one manager can tell you.

Episode 539

Read the comic here.

The dialog for this strip was finalized around the same time I was getting nearly daily blog-comments about "I've lost the plot. What are they doing?"

Here, Ian vents my own frustration at the convoluted mess the backstory has become.

On the other hand, the archive is there for a reason. The story reads a lot better in big chunks. Try it and see.

Episode 538

Read the comic here.

Another new set. This one turned out a bit sleazier looking than the last. Oh well.

Episode 537

Read the comic here.

When I started writing the "Boys in Wonderland" arc I had such a wholesome storyline in mind. And yet, somehow, I ended up with this.

Episode 536

Read the comic here.

A super power almost anyone can acquire.

Episode 535

Read the comic here.

No, I'm not mad at Ian. That's just the booze talking.

Episode 534

Read the comic here.

For those of you who don't follow Ian's webcomic, the Adventures of the S-Team (and why don't you? It's great stuff.), Tiny is a height-challenged villain who chased Ian off his own set.

And here you thought my characters treated me poorly.

Episode 533

Read the comic here.

Yes, I know you all figured out this was Ian the moment he appeared. But remember Whiskey has never seen him before in person - much less in LEGO form.

Episode 532

Read the comic here.

There are days that I wish this strip was a radio play, just so you could hear the character's voices as I hear them. Today is definitely one of those days.

Spooky Star Wars - First Entries are up

I've just added the Entry Grids to the contest - we've already had two models submitted.

It's going to take a lot to top the quality of the creations we saw in the SCIENCE contest, but I have a feeling we're in for some very nice surprises.

(Since these things take time to develop, I should probably mention that I don't have anything lined up for a follow-up contest yet. If you're interested in partnering with Reasonably Clever for the next round, drop me an email.)

Episode 531

Read the comic here.

That is one BIG hot wing.

Before anyone asks, the Jester Hat is from this year's Castle Advent Calendar.

(Yeah, I cheated a bit. Before LEGO offered the shop-at-home deal to US customers a friend of mine in the UK had already arranged getting a couple to me. To save on shipping, I got one boxed, and one loose. So I have all these cool parts in a ziploc bag...the temptation to use them "before their time" was just too great.)

Spooky Star Wars!

It's time to announce our latest contest!

Thanks to the kind sponsorship (and connections) of Reasonably Clever Regular TK-1420 of the 501st, our October challenge is the

There are some incredible prizes, and some amazing celebrity judges...but first, let's let TK-1420 tell us about the competition itself....

(Click for full sized view)

Now...as to those prizes....how about some rare and out-of-print Star Wars sets?

And as to those celebrity judges...

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Stephen J. Sansweet is the Director of Content Management and Head of Fan Relations at Lucasfilm and the owner of the world's largest private collection of Star Wars memorabilia. Sansweet is also the author of 12 books, 10 of them about Star Wars.

(Bio and photo lifted from linked Wikipedia article)

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and

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Mary Franklin is the Events Manager for Lucasfilm Ltd. where she coordinates various marketing and promotional events for the company, such as Star Wars Celebration II, Celebration III, Celebration IV, the yearly E3 Expo, and San Diego Comic-Con International.

Mary Franklin is also the current editor of Bantha Tracks in the Star Wars Insider magazine.

(Bio and photo lifted from linked Wookieepedia article)

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How Cool Is THAT???

And that's not all...look for more announcements as the contest progresses!

Episode 530

Read the comic here.

Yep, another new set. I didn't think this one through very well - I ended up having to take apart parts of the stage so that I could photograph the boy's faces. It made for some interesting shots, though, like the one in panel four.

Oh, and Whiskey's love of Hot Wings was established back in Episode 19!