Coming this weekend to both Disney Resorts is the long awaited release of Disney Vinylmation Park Starz Series 2.  We didn’t talk much about Series 1 but there’s a certain character in this series you’ll be sure to want to get your hands on: Rex or RX-24!

The Disney Parks Blog has more details on the release of this collectible line-up.  It reveals that “Rex from the original Star Tours attraction was designed for Park Starz 1,” said Casey Jones “I’m glad he finally made it — better late than never!”

The rest of the series includes Orange Bird, It’s A Small World Hippo & Holland Girl, Carnotaurus (Dinosaur), Pirates of the Caribbean Redhead, Maelstrom Troll, Tower of Terror Bellhop, Jungle Cruise Baby Elephant, Tapestry of Nations Puppet, Mark Twain, and Haunted Mansion Gus. There’s a secret chase figure to find and that is Wally Boag from the original Golden Horseshoe Revue.

Happy Hunting!

Never let it be said that a search is hopeless. For several years, our own Brian Curran has been hoping to find an elusive piece of original Star Tours audio… the ‘breakdown spiel’ by Captain REX. We’d known about the existence of this typical Disney every-contingency-covered recording for a long time, as it is mentioned in various sources (like the employee operations manual) and had been corroborated by Park employees, but we were never sure exactly what the line said. We all wanted to hear it, but Brian in particular has been scouring the internet and diligently asking every Disney person he contacts if they could get us a recording. Read the rest of this entry »

When the D23 Presents Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives opens its doors to guests on July 6 at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Museum, there will be a treasure trove of Disney artifacts, props, artwork, photographs, costumes… an office… and then some!  We have a lot more from the museum to share with you in the next few days from Walt’s early days all the way to the very modern Marvel, but we wanted to give our faithful readers a little something that they’d appreicate: RX-24 or Captain REX in his original form!  Ain’t it cute? It’s like flying to Endor for the first time all over again.

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To commemorate Star Tours 25th anniversary Disneyland is releasing a limited edition pin. The pin is scheduled to be released 1/05/12 is a limited edition of 1000 and will retail for $12.95.

Image © Disney/Lucasfilm

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Since 1987, fans of Disney’s popular STAR TOURS attraction have clamored for a full sized STARSPEEDER for their Hasbro figure’s travel needs.  Unfortunately for them, Hasbro never felt the desire or need to do such an exclusive but with this year’s revamped attraction, STAR TOURS: THE ADVENTURES CONTINUE, Disney has pulled out all the stops and delivered the Starspeeder 1000 VEHICLE PLAYSET available at Disneyland’s StarTrader and Disney’s Hollywood Studios’ Tatooine Traders for $54.95.  (other figures sold separately)

Updated 12-13-11 more photos added

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In celebration of the 40th anniversary of Walt Disney World, D23 talks with the Hollywood stars of the resort’s most beloved attractions. Of course they interviewed Paul Reubens, our own Captain REX. Read the entire interview here.

If you’re like me, up until Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, you believed that the RX pilot droid was a brand-new model shortly after the end of Return of the Jedi.

But now we know that RX’s were actually in existence prior to A New Hope, which led me to reconsider an obscure passage from L. Neil Smith’s 1983 novel Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu. And the traits of the 1986 Rex pilot dovetail pretty nicely with the descriptions from the older novel.

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Pee-wee Herman (Paul Reubens) had a panel at this weekends San Diego Comic Con.  Pee-wee was asked “about his involvement with the popular Disneyland attraction and what it meant after his voice was removed after the remodeling. The actor voiced the funny robot on the ride during the upgrade.”

UPDATE: To hear Pee-wee speak about Star Tours at SDCC Inside the Magic Show (podcast) 329 about 30 minutes in.

http://www.insidethemagic.net/

The Examiner.com has posted the answer:

http://www.examiner.com/celebrity-headlines-in-national/pee-wee-herman-talks-disney-s-star-tours-at-comic-con-video

The latest round of Q&As with Hasbro are being posted on various Star Wars collecting websites. One question that Action Figure Insider submitted was brought to our attention:

Q1) Any plans to reissue REX (or a red and white repaint of him) for Star Tours? How about a holographic Admiral Ackbar as seen in the updated Star Tours attraction?

For Hasbro’s Answer Visit http://www.actionfigureinsider.com/main/hasbro-star-wars-qa-answers-for-june-2011

A few weeks ago we found a few images of this very cool custom Starspeeder 3000 made of Legos. We quickly contacted Harald ‘HJR’ Roossien to see if he would be interested in having his custom vehicle posted on EndorExpress…

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