Reader Mail

Dear Mike,

Sorry this isn't some stranger shedding praise on you (like Ron Jeremy or some other important movie guy.) It's just me, letting you know that [CdC] #4 rocks. Not just the stuff with me in it, but the high-falutin' movie articles too. Before I forget, a note to Clifton Howard: Check out Faye Dunaway vs. What's-her-name at the end of BARFLY. Nothing toned-down about it, unless you count that she lets her live!

Thanks for the Boba Fett article. I seriously want to start a club for Boba Fett sympathists, but I have a feeling that it would attract too many guys who read "Starlog" and have the blue-prints for the Sandcrawler on their wall. I have been writing a song about it, though, and have bonded with many on the subject (most recently a cashier at Kroger in a Chewbacca t-shirt.) I share your fear that future STAR WARS ventures will become greedy, short-sighted cousins to the two sparkling originals. I just watched the first two with my sister this weekend. It was her first time ever seeing them. A strong bonding moment, to be sure.

I was loitering in Barnes & Noble on a hot day and found a big book on STAR WARS toys. The stuff I don't have any more (and the prices people pay for it) is depressing, but there were also pictures of shit they never released like different clothes-sets for the large-sized dolls, and (my favorite) the bounty hunter utility belt, which would have come with a bunch of Boba Fett weapons! Cool!

I also found the answers to two Boba Facts that have eluded me for some time:

1. The "shooting missle" Baba Fett was never released. Two unpainted prototypes were made, but after the Battlestar Galactica incident, the toy was altered before release. Anyone who says they existed is a liar. [But instructions for how the missle worked were still present on the back of the card, covered with a sticker, on their initial release - Ed.]

2. I've wondered for years why the Boba Fett figure was issued years before he ever appeared in EMPIRE. Now I know. Boba Fett's very first appearance was on the Wookie Christmas special in December 1977. Remember that? [Yes, I do but I thought it would have been in '78. I remember the wookie kid watching some sort of cartoon that featured Boba Fett going after Han Solo and the offer after the show for sending proofs of purchase for your very own figure. - Ed.] The hastily thrown-together TV show (with the "all star" cast) took place at Chewbacca's house. For years I thought that I'd hallucinated it until I found mentioned in a book about the '70's. [I think this should have been included with the shoddy "Definitive Collection" of laser discs that came out a few years back because I don't think it's available anyplace except maybe the Lucasfilm's archives. - Ed.] So whip that little tidbit out next time you're confronted by some Star Geek who thinks he knows everything.

Incidentally, not that I myself am an obsessive geek or anything, but next time you're wandering through the Blockbuster files, can you see what other movies (if any) Jeremy Bullock appeared in?

Don't announce this publicly yet [woops] but look for Stewie's "Junior High Memories." soon [this issue].

I assume you're going to catch a glimpse of Keanu's band Dogstar at the ritz this week. Who cares what they sound like, as long as they're cute, that's what I always say...

Love & Bibfortuna,
Leon Chase
Whereabouts Unknown