Bane Malar

As I frequently do, I checked out the Star Wars action figures at Target the other day. I saw this figure of Bane Malar and read the little description on the reverse side:

"The mysterious bounty hunter Bane Malar occasionally visits Jabba's palace on the Western Dune Sea. He reveals little of himself, causing suspicion and rumors that Malar is a telepath who steals people's secrets to use against them later. Armed with his trusty weapon, this Bane Malar figure hides mysteriously behind his dark helmet."

They might as well just have written "We found this toy mold in the Lucas warehouse, slapped a logo on it, wrote a really vague, halfassed description and sold it to you for $7.99" and been honest about it.

Stormtrooper Effect

I was thinking about Star Wars the other day. Okay, fine - I think about it nearly every day. Specifically, about weaknesses in the Empire and one of them stands out above all others - the lack of effective Stormtrooper armor.

These are your guys, Empire. They're your front line to get stuff done, whether it's enforcing Imperial law or installing reactors. Granted, you did provide them with blasters and commlinks but the armor is ineffective against even one blaster bolt! Look at the Rebel troops by comparison - they're just dudes with a blaster and a helmet. No wonder they get shot and die so easily.

I don't know where the hell the Empire spent all of their money but surely it wasn't on building up a decent army. The Emperor must have had to take out a second mortgage to build Darth Vader's armor that there just wasn't much left for the stormtroopers. Poor guys, they're just trying to make their way in the universe like anyone else.