“Fans will be Able to Build, Code with 3 ‘Star Wars’ Droids in New Lego Set” by S.M. O’Connor

On Saturday, May 4, 2019, The LEGO® Group announced the forthcoming release of LEGO® Star Wars™ BOOST Droid Commander, the latest set in its licensed Star Wars™ product line on Sunday, September 1, 2019. Star Wars fans will be able to build, code, and play with three customizable famous droids (as robots are called in Star Wars films): R2-D2,[1] the Mouse Droid,[2] and the Gonk Power Droid.[3] This is the first time that drag-and-drop LEGO® BOOST computer coding technology has been used with a LEGO® licensed product.

The set includes a color and distance senor, an interactive motor, Bluetooth (Move Hub), and 1,177 pieces with which to build R2-D2, the Mouse Droid, and Gonk Droid. Each droid comes with its own sound effects and music. This set is for children and teens ages eight and up. The retail list price is $199.99.

In this set, R2-D2 measures over seven inches or twenty centimeters tall and five inches (fourteen centimeters) wide; the Gonk Droid measures over seven inches (eighteen centimeters) high, three inches (nine centimeters) wide, and six inches (sixteen centimeters) long; and the Mouse Droid measures over five inches (fourteen centimeters) high, three inches (nine centimeters) wide, and six inches (seventeen centimeters) long. The free LEGO® BOOST Star Wars™ app is available for selected iOS, Android, and Fire smart devices. Using the LEGO® BOOST Star Wars™ app, “commanders” can build the droids, insert the Bluetooth-controlled Move Hub into the droid they want to see solve each of the more than forty missions, and animate (as in veritably bringing it to life) using the intuitive drag-and-drop coding environment. “Missions” for the droids include plotting a course for R2-D2 or receiving and decoding an incoming message, preparing the Gonk Droid for a fighter pit, and preparing the Mouse Droid to deliver a message ore locate Rebels.

The LEGO® Group stated, “With the technology overhauled to match the LEGO Star Wars galaxy, the result is a whole new play experience in which kids and parents can team up to build, code and play with the droids, then create their own Star Wars stories and battlegrounds with inspiration from 40+ interactive missions. What’s more, every time they play with this LEGO Star Wars brick galaxy of lovable droids, they will also be honing their STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths) skills, which are ever more important for children in today’s digital world.”[4]

The LEGO Star Wars BOOST Droid Commander set is the latest example of how the LEGO Group is using product innovation to help boys and girls gain vital STEAM skills like creativity, critical-thinking, problem-solving and communication – all while enjoying the thrill of playing with their favourite LEGO Star Wars characters.

Julia Goldin, Chief Marketing Officer of The LEGO® Group, stated, “We’ve been fuelling the imagination of young Padawans and Jedi Masters for twenty years and wanted to take the Force to a new level. By introducing LEGO BOOST and creative coding into the LEGO Star Wars galaxy, kids now have the chance to develop essential 21st century skills while immersing themselves in the amazing world of Droid Commanders. Our children are the problem solvers of tomorrow and STEAM skills will be essential to help them conquer the challenges of the future.”

Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker (2019) will be released on Friday, December 20, 2019. This will be the third installment in the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy made since The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm, Ltd. Walt Disney Studios and Lucasfilm have stated this will be the final film in the Skywalker family saga and also the last Star Wars film to be scored by John Williams.

Figure 1 Credit: The LEGO® Group Caption: The set LEGO® Star Wars™ BOOST Droid Commander includes three customizable droids: the Mouse Droid, R2-D2, and the Gonk Power Droid.

Figure 2 Credit: The LEGO® Group Caption: Young ‘Commanders” can animate (as in veritably bring to life) a droid using the Move Hub and intuitive drag-and-drop BOOST coding environment. Here, we see two children animating R2-D2.

Figure 3 Credit: The LEGO® Group Caption: The set LEGO® Star Wars™ BOOST Droid Commander enables children to develop their S.T.E.A.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematical) skills.

Figure 4 Credit: The LEGO® Group Caption: This is what the drag-and-drop LEGO® BOOST Star Wars™ coding app looks.

Credit: The LEGO® Group Caption: The set LEGO® Star Wars™ BOOST Droid Commander includes three customizable droids: the Mouse Droid, R2-D2, and the Gonk Power Droid.

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ENDNOTES

[1] R2-D2 (played by Kenny Baker in the Original Trilogy) scarcely needs an introduction. George Lucas first depicted the character with companion C-3PO in Star Wars (1977), which George Lucas renamed Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope for the re-release in 1981 after he had released the sequel, Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980). The two cute robot characters provided comic relief and were inspired by the two bumbling peasants in Akira Kurosawa’s samurai film The Hidden Fortress (1958) and designed by concept artist Ralph McQuarrie (1929-2012).

[2] First seen aboard the Death Star in A New Hope, were cute robots on wheels the Galactic Empire used to ferry small objects around the corridors of large installations.

[3] The Gonk Droid, also known as the GNK Droid, was a walking power generator seen in the Jawa sandcrawler in A New Hope.

[4] Note that speakers of British English say “maths” where speakers of American English say “math” the way speakers of British English say a person is “in hospital” whereas speakers of American English say a person is “in the hospital.”

The Field Museum of Natural History in March, 2018

The Field Museum of Natural History’s entrance pavilions are at opposite ends of Stanley Field Hall, which has a north-south axis. The two porticos (porches) are each reached by two successive flights of stairs.

Both porticos of The Field Museum of Natural History are flanked by two small porches, which each have two caryatids (columns in the shape of maidens). On the facade, the wings are adorned with a colonnade of attached fluted Ionic columns. The building’s fluted Ionic columns have volutes (spiral-scroll-shaped crowns).

Each portico of The Field Museum is tetrastyle in antis with double-ranked fluted Ionic columns capped by volutes. An entablature crowned by a pediment rests atop the columns. The continuous frieze in each case is relatively plain. The wave-themed acroteria that crown the pediments are borrowed from the Palace of a Fine Arts, which housed The Field Museum until 1920 and now houses the Museum of Science and Industry.

The Field Museum of Natural History isn’t “just” a museum. Visitors can watch scientists at work through windows at the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice DNA Discovery Center’s Pritzker Laboratory.

Mrs. Charles (Laura) Schweppe, a daughter and co-heiress of John Graves Shedd, the former partner of Marshall Field I who succeeded him as president of Marshall Field & Company, and who, under the guidance of Stanley Field founded the Shedd Aquarium, donated an exhibit of 100 bronze sculptures by Malvina Hoffman to The Field Museum. They represent every race, nation, and tribe in the human family (more or less). On January 9, 1933, the first group, Unity of Man, went on display.

In addition to the four figures Henry Hering (1874-1949) made for the corners of Stanley Field Hall, he also made the twelve plaster round lion head shield escutcheons that line it. These are replicas of the marble round lion head shield escutcheon he made for the pediment of the facade of The Field Museum of Natural History.

Christmas at Chicago’s Union Station

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a POLAR EXPRESS display in the Great Hall of Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a closeup of the THE POLAR EXPRESS steam locomotive mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is the headlamp of THE POLAR EXPRESS steam locomotive mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This Union Station Company rail car loaded with super-size gifts is part of THE POLAR EXPRESS mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a Christmas tree in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This Christmas tree in the Great Hall of Union Station in downtown Chicago has emblems of Amtrak, Metra, and historic railroad companies whose routes they now operate like Burlington.

Cinemas sculptor Alfonso Iannelli (1888-1965) Helped Design

This is the Pickwick Theatre Building, an Art Deco movie palace and office building erected in downtown Park Ridge, Illinois in 1928.

The architects were Roscoe Harold Zook and William F. McCaughey. Sculptor Alfonso Iannelli, who also worked on the Adler Planetarium, contributed to this building.

In recent years, the Vlahakis family, who’ve owned the building for 50 years, have been able to turn the building into a multiplex by adding smaller theaters around the original auditorium. The latest one, with a screen four times the size of the one in the auditorium, will open in time to screen INFINITY WARS in May, if all goes well.

The Catlow Movie Theater is a cinema that opened in downtown Barrington, Illinois in 1927. The Tudor Revival style of architecture is not confined to the facade of the cinema. As with the Pickwick Theatre in Park Ridge, Illinois, sculptor Alfonso Iannelli (1888-1965) played a role in the design and decoration of The Catlow Movie Theater.