Hot Toys Shock Trooper - my 60th Hot Toys (so far)

I buy my Hot Toys from Lee Ward @ The Good The Bad and The Robots. The best Hot Toys dealer in the UK!

https://www.thegoodthebadandtherobots.co.uk/HOT_TOYS_PRE-ORDER/cat24475_502628.aspx

Favreau or Abrams?

I compared the 2 recent Star Wars producers/directors: Jon Favreau and JJ Abrams on Wikipedia.

They're the same age.
Abrams dies his hair. Favreau does not.
Abrams was the son of TV producers (hence his TV/movie connections and opportunities).
Favreau was the son of an elementary school teacher and a Special Education teacher and had no TV/movie connections.

It is interesting to compare the quality/nature of their contributions.
Abrams is slick, empty and facile whereas Favreau has heart.

Star Wars round-up

Disney bought the rights to Star Wars off Lucas about 6 years ago for billions. They built a Star Wars theme park and planned multiple movies including Episodes 7-9, Kenobi and Boba Fett.

Whilst The Force Awakens did well, it was ultimately controversial because of the whole plagiary/remake thing.
Solo was a flop, although we kind of liked it.
Rogue 1 was a flop too.

Then came The Last Jedi, and the franchise tanked.
Some fans liked the whole out with the old whereas others hated the contemporary humour, Mary Sue heroine and the overall story arc of Luke.
So, the movies are on hold.

The Mandalorian hits Disney streaming channel in December, directed by Iron Man director.
Disney made a new 2-D cartoon based on the new movies and that isn't faring well.
Disney are making a new season of The Clone Wars because it remains a cult hit.

The Rise of Skywalker

Apparently Disney wasn't happy with Last Jedi and hired JJ Abrams to do new movie. Also, George Lucas as consultant. Lucas says that Skywalker's end was a sore point for fans. He promises that Skywalker is to demonstrate a new unforeseen force skill... If Skywalker is dead, I guess the skill involves not being dead. Maybe they'll change end of last Jedi so Luke transported himself to another planet using the force, thus appearing to die?

Our week long holiday in Tunisia turned out to be a bust!

7 days ended up being 36 hours, with us catching the first flight home...

I'd picked a holiday that looked interesting, not realising that the hotel/region was custom built to accommodate one type of holiday: sunbathing and booze. And nothing else. It was a nightmare. The food was the kind of slop that is served to drunken people. We survived on meal bars we'd brought for the journey to Tunisia.

Sifu wants me to have a more careful holiday plan for next time:

1. Healthy, versatile food
2. Things to do (we're roamers, not sunbathers) - nearby towns, sites, ruins etc
3. Peace & quiet
4. Not too long on the aeroplane
5. Local food options/supermarket as a fallback

The hotel we stayed at was akin to being on a 100 person capacity cruise ship containing about 300 Newcastle United supporters. Very crowded, rowdy, noisy late at night. Lots of massively unhealthy, fat, drunken people rushing around all the time.

There was absolutely nowhere to explore nearby.

The holiday was sold on it's proximity to Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark filming sites. This wasn't quite accurate. Yes, these places were located in Tunisia, only not exactly nearby, nor cheap to reach.

The food was the biggest problem. We don't eat meat (of any kind) or sugar. The hotel did provide an obligatory 'vegetarian option' but it wasn't  palatable. If we're paying for food we want it to taste nice. The so-called restaurant reminded me of a school canteen. Over-crowded. Busy. Noisy. With a buffet containing all manner of slop. Ugh!

S H Figuarts Last Jedi Rey