Star Wars continues to dominate merchandising of every possible kind: Star Wars English-Japanese Dictionary for Padawan learners

Star Wars English-Japanese Dictionary for Padawan learners

And why not?  While I recently experienced a plethora of Harry Potter goods that offered a more immersive experience for the dedicated fan, there is no escaping the grasp of all things Star Wars.  If you can look at it, hold it or use it in some way (including during those furtive, individualized acts of bodily pleasure), there's probably a Star Wars version of it.  And now Star Wars can colonize the language centers of your mind and transform all thought modes into those of Han, Leia, Luke and possibly Yoda if you can't figure out subject-verb-object sentence structure.

I'm not going to give you any examples of Yoda speak.

Yes, many people in Japan also enjoy Star Wars.  There's already a Darth Vader language book for those who want to speak like a Sith Lord and now here's what I take to be a more generalized Star Wars quote translation book.  "I have a bad feeling about this" is probably more useful than "Send a distress signal, and inform the Senate that all on board were killed," but the latter is definitely more fun to say in Japanese.

Samurai Vader: A historical take on a favorite from a galaxy far, far away

Samurai Vader: A historical take on a favorite from a galaxy far, far away

Well, I think Samurai Vader looks pretty darned good.  And it's appropriate when you consider how Ralph McQuarrie added a samurai helmet to his original designs as suggested by George Lucas (a big Akira Kurosawa fan I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest) and came up with the villain the world came to know and love.  This takes ol' Anakin Skywalker-- that's Darth Vader to you and me, Russ-- back to his roots. 

Usually I try to ignore Star Wars stuff because the web is choked with it.  It's well past the saturation point.  Actually, that was probably reached about the time Chad Vader hit the scene and well before that "Vader kid" TV commercial.  And trust me, I've got nothing but respect for the Chad Vader guys.  That's funny stuff.  But adding Star Wars to this, that and the other is the Internet crowd's favorite pastime, way ahead of even masturbation.

Okay, so masturbation is still in the lead.  Masturbation and Star Wars-themed masturbation.  But you get the idea.  But as soon as I saw Samurai Vader, I fell in love all over again.  Looking good!