-=Salute=-

Greetings from the Recon Office.

Only news this week is that RA Shay'la will be fully taking over the Convention Database. She will be updating it weekly ( it badly needs it!) and working with AD Zsinj closely on this. She has a long list of sites that have convention announcements and plans to put them all to full use.

I am still waiting on a reply from both the GA and the XO on my list of questions I had typed up. Though with both of them having either email or illness problems, thats totally expected. Sir, if you wish me to resend the questions, I probably could in the next few days.

I will be going on a semi-leave until next Monday or Tuesday. Decided on a weekend trip to see some family I have in South Carolina. I should have limited e-mail acess during the weekend, but I'm not sure.

Anyways, thats about it from the Officer, there is a LOT of SW News in this report. Let's get to it..

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~* Conventions & Gatherngs *~

Celebration 3 Location Chosen in August

The location of Celebration 3 will be chosen in August, and will also be announced at the end of August. Lisa Stevens from the Fan Club also stated that they expected to do more Celebrations in the future after Episode III. Stay tuned!


The Art of Star Wars exhibit tours Japan

Fans wanting to see C-3PO up close and personal, or stand next to a podracer, now have their chance with The Art of Star Wars, a new major museum exhibition featuring over 200 pieces of artwork, props, and costumes from the original Star Wars trilogy is traveling throughout Japan in 2003 and 2004.

The Art of Star Wars exhibition explores the genesis and production of the films in the Star Wars saga. It includes original objects used in the creation of the films, from concept artwork and production paintings to models, prototypes, costumes and props from the archives of Lucasfilm, Ltd.

Fans will not be disappointed with the bounty of objects on display which include art of stormtroopers, C-3PO, R2-D2, Darth Vader, the Emperor, Yoda, Chewbacca and a major Jabba the Hutt model. In addition to various costumes on display worn by beloved characters of Luke, Leia and Han Solo, there are also plenty of production drawings and paintings, storyboards and posters (including the Revenge of the Jedi poster mock-up, which was later changed to Return of the Jedi.)

Thanks to the The Art of Star Wars exhibit fans gain an understanding of the evolution from Ralph McQuarrie's production paintings to what is seen on screen. Many of the displays showcase illustrated ideas, prototypes and final models, so fans can get a better grasp of the overall creative process in a linear fashion.

Lucasfilm Collections Manager Laela French, Lucasfilm Director of Special Programs Kathleen Holliday and Industrial Light and Magic Master Model Maker Lorne Peterson traveled to Japan to help the staff at the prestigious Kyoto National Museum prepare for the exhibit.

Five will host The Art of Star Wars, which will travel Japan throughout 2003 and 2004. The exhibition opened at the Kyoto National Museum with a grand ribbon cutting ceremony attended by President of Lucas Licensing Howard Roffman and none other than C-3PO himself, actor Anthony Daniels.

Following this first exhibition at the Kyoto National Museum, tentative dates and venues are:

Nagoya Science Museum
October-December 2003

Kyoto National Museum (Episodes I & II)
January-March 2004

Tokyo National Science Museum
March-June 2004

Fukushima Prefecture Art Museum, Fukushima
July-September 2004

Fukushima Prefecture Museum, Aizu
September-December 2004



~* Books *~

Excerpt - Force Heretic III: Reunion

Introduction
The Jedi move one step closer to saving the embattled galaxy -- only to confront a formidable wall of resistance in the novel, Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Force Heretic III: Reunion by best-selling writing duo Sean Williams and Shane Dix. The harrowing search for Zonama Sekot is finally over for Luke Skywalker, Jacen Solo, and the others aboard the Jade Shadow. But joy turns to alarm when the living planet sends a defiant message: it refuses to follow them back to a galaxy full of war, exploitation, and misery. While Luke works feverishly to persuade the elusive planet to reconsider, the Yuuzhan Vong launches a full-scale attack aimed at the heart of the new alliance. Sent to defend a major communications base, Han and Leia find themselves hopelessly outnumbered. Reinforcements are just too far away to help before everything is destroyed. So the courageous pair must now fight an unrelenting battle against staggering odds. Whether they actually survive is another matter.

Click here to go to the excerpt.


~* Games *~

Jedi Academy Release Date

September 16th has been announced as the release date of the upcoming Jedi Academy. The news come curtesy JK2Files along with box art that is supposed to be "very close to the final design of the actual cover art (though not exact)". Check the link to see the image.


New Jedi Academy Media

Jedi-Knight2.de has posted three new videos, as well as new screenshots of Jedi Academy. Now before your rush over there, their servers are pretty slow, and overloaded, so TheForce.net have mirrored the videos. All three videos are zipped WMV's. None is over 3.3 Mb.

The First Video is a Kel Dor weilding two sabers and fighting a Dark Jedi (probably) who also weild two sabers. The action is fast and intense, and, in my opinion strikes a blow to those who wanted more realistic saber combat; the action seems to be a lot of button mashing, and I couldn't see any type of strategy really.
The second video is what appears to be a female human who weilds two yellow sabers. She takes out a hangar of bad guys shotting at her with blaster rifles, and one Imperial Heavy Repeater. She force pulls a few, and deflects a bunch of bolts. The bolt-deflection looked very cool, and level very nice, but really, nothing new was presented, except for her waving her second saber around.
The Third Video shows a person weilding one saber (finally) who gets attacked by some tuskan raiders on Tatooine. She is knocked down, rolls around, gets up, uses a nice combo to take out two of the three Raiders, then pushed and slces the last.

The Screenshots are something very new. They include information about system info, install screens, setup, the pull down console, and the character customization screen.




~* CCG, TCG & RPG *~

Star Wars Trading Card Game: GenCon Results

"Congratulations and Thank You to everyone who participated in this year's SWTCG National Championships. The event was a lot of fun and it was great to see so many SWTCG fans enjoying themselves. A special congratulations to the top 25 and top 8 finishers for games well played and completion of the 16 hour tournament."

Check it all here.

To check TheForce.net pictures, click on the links below.
SWTCG GenCon Pic 1
SWTCG GenCon Pic 2
SWTCG GenCon Pic 3
SWTCG GenCon Pic 4
SWTCG GenCon Pic 5
SWTCG GenCon Pic 6
SWTCG GenCon Pic 7
SWTCG GenCon Pic 8
SWTCG GenCon Pic 9

You Make The Card - Mara Jade

This past weekend at Gen Con, Wizards of the Coast premiered the full Mara Jade image that will be used on the card. We now have the full image available here.

In the coming weeks some behind the scenes info on the photo shoot and the creation of the new Mara Jade card leading up to the release of the card itself will be available.

~* Others *~

ScreenThemes Adds Darth Maul

As a creature of pure evil, Darth Maul sought exact vengeance upon the Jedi for the decimation of the Sith ranks in Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Now you can download ScreenThemes of his two most-memorable duels against Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi. ScreenThemes, the photographic screen saver and wallpaper program known for its stunning high-resolution images, enables you to view these images of the Darth Maul duels on your Windows PC in a screen saver set to sound and music with cool transitional effects, and automatically set the crisp, sharp images as your desktop wallpaper. The Darth Maul lightsaber battle images join ScreenThemes' Princess Leia, Yoda on Dagoba, Battle of Hoth, Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader and thrilling Episode II action galleries.

Download your free trial of Star Wars ScreenThemes today.
For more information about ScreenThemes, click here.

Episode III: You Pick the Droid Color
*** Hyperspace members only ***

Starwars.com Hyperspace brings you closer than ever before possible to the making of a Star Wars film. Next month, one lucky Hyperspace member will even win a trip to the Episode III set(Only 10 days left for the contest). But now, Hyperspace members need no longer be content with just observing the newest Star Wars epic unfold, they will determine what's in the movie. Director George Lucas and the Episode III Droid Unit have decided to let Hyperspace members determine the look of a new droid to appear on the big screen in the summer of 2005. While Obi-Wan Kenobi may not remember owning a droid, you'll be able to select a memorable paint scheme for his new astro-unit in Episode III. In the film, this new droid will accompany Kenobi on a mission aboard his Jedi starfighter. There are four color schemes, represented here as concept art, from which to choose.

The first is a striped design, with a unique metallic gray blue pattern along a pewter dome. The second design features a metallic camouflage green eye and selected panels, aluminum panels, and a pewter dome. The third design has an embossed circuitry look with raised surface detail on a gunmetal gray head. The fourth design is very metallic, featuring copper panels on a bronze dome.

To vote for your favorite design, click here. Only Hyperspace members can vote in the poll. The poll closes at Sunday, August 3, 5 p.m. (Pacific). The Droid Unit will take winning astromech design into fabrication.
If you're not yet a member of Hyperspace, sign up today to get in on the voting and the rest of the exclusive excitement.

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Okay, that's about it from this office. Have a great weekend and I'll see you next week!

Whoa.. I almost forgot.. Today is 6 years to the day that I joined the EH!! Happy Anniversary!!

Non-EH Site of the Week: Midi-what? A site dedicated to explain the Midi-Chlorian debate.
http://www.theforce.net/midichlorians/midi-what.shtml


-=Salute=-

-- Reconnaissance Office Staff --

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CA:RO/RA Shay`la DuKahn Ludsorkim/CA-12/SSSD Sovereign
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