Luke Brown

Earlier this summer, we got our first hands-on time with Star Wars Battlefront II, DICE's follow-up to the pretty, yet unspectacular, rebooted Battlefront. The upcoming sequel is taking a lot of influence from DICE's other shooter series Battlefront, which bodes well for multiplayer die-hards, but Battlefront II will be about more than just ground battles across the Star Wars saga. At GamesCom this week, DICE unveiled the first look at Starfighter Assault, the new space-based vehicle combat mode that ramps up the action from the first game in ways we've only dreamed.

While his appearance in The Force Awakens was basically a cameo, fans have been clamoring for a new Luke Skywalker action figure to join the rest of the cast from the current trilogy. For more than two years, the Jedi knight has remained in seclusion on Acht-To, but this weekend at San Diego Comic-Con, Hasbro will finally deliver Luke. Along with a new Jedi-in-training Rey, Luke will be part of The Last Jedi exclusive offered at this year’s convention.

Playground Games' Hot Wheels expansion for Forza Horizon 3 is the most fun I've ever had racing cars since, well, I was mashing Hot Wheels up in my living room as a kid.

Who among us hasn't dreamed of flying the Millennium Falcon or a TIE Fighter high in the sky above the rest of the walking world? While that's not technically possible (yet), that hasn't stopped a devoted bunch of Star Wars car junkies from doing everything they can to get as close to that fantasy as possible. Dubbed the Road Squadron at Star Wars Celebration, these custom cars and motorcycles will make you wish you had one of these sweet rides to call your own.

When it comes to Marvel Legends, Spider-Man is about as bankable a hero you can find. As the centerpiece for numerous lines in a given year, Spider-Man's action figure waves have been among the most diverse and impressive in Hasbro's Marvel Legends catalog. The latest Spider-Man series, which features the Sandman as a build-a-figure, is a prime example of everything Hasbro has gotten right with Legends, even if it also includes a few figures that fail to impress.

Ever wanted your own personal Sith Lord to do thy bidding? Need an astromech droid to record your day-to-day dalliances for the Galactic Empire? Both of those things can be hard to track down, but lucky for you, we just so happen to be giving those exact things away. That's right, you can take home your very own R2-Q5 Imperial Astromech Droid and Return of the Jedi Darth Vader sixth-scale figures just because we like you. Sure this Darth Vader won't actually be able to Force Choke anyone that's giving you the business, but you can pretend he is. That's close enough, right?

Want to feel old? The Decepticon Soundwave is a tablet now. We remember a simpler time, when the big blue brute was really into mixtapes. Now, he's really into first-party apps. Millenials ruin everything, even your nostalgia. Actually, scratch that; millenials don't ruin anything, especially not toys, and especially not toy giveaways. To prove just how strong our love for Transformers still is after all these years, we're giving you the chance to walk away with one of Hasbro's 2016 San Diego Comic-Con exclusive figures. And yeah, it's a Soundwave Tablet figure.

For all the heavy lifting he did designing much of the look and feel of the Star Wars universe, there really isn't a whole lot of Ralph McQuarrie-inspired merchandise out there. Yes, obviously there were plenty of other massively, massively talented artists working on what would become The Trilogy, but McQuarrie's conceptualization of this galaxy far, far away established not just the tone of this world, but inspired more than a proportionate share of imitators. Still, beyond prints and art books, McQuarrie's original work is fairly non-existent. Which is surprising given that Star Wars merchandise is the reason for all merchandise, and it's been around since 1977. Thankfully, Sideshow's recently picked up the gauntlet of bringing the artist's work to the physical realm with a series of statues. Already the line features that iconic soldier, the Stortrooper, and the human hype machine, Boba Fett, who I guess is technically a bounty hunter that just sucks at getting bounties. Now the most fearsome of the Empire's agents gets the royal treatment, as McQuarrie's Darth Vader lives once more.

Boy, these new Barbie body types are sure getting really specific. I mean, it makes sense for Mattel to attempt to reach a broader, more diverse audience by releasing new Barbies that better match the girls and young women of the world, but aging, rich white dude with trust issues hardly seems like it will strike the right chord. The only thing this might strike is fear into the hearts of criminals. Though Mattel had announced the full DC Trinity (in their Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice garb) would be getting the Barbie treatment at San Diego Comic-Con last year, the only doll anyone got to see was Wonder Woman. The Amazonian princess certainly looked the part, but nobody really knew what to expect from a potential Batman or Superman at the time. With Toy Fair 2016 right around the corner, and Mattel having a large Barbie and DC Comics presence at the show, it seemed like we might get our first glimpse at the Bruce and Clark Ken dolls in a few weeks. Thanks to Amazon, we no longer have to wait for Batman.

Three years ago, Disney bought Lucasfilm and a number of its properties for $4 billion. With that deal came the right to produce new movies, books, comics, games and toys based on the existing Star Wars universe. However, since Lucasfilm had let the universe of Star Wars expand so widely since the conclusion of the original trilogy in 1983, Disney decided it was best to wipe the slate mostly clean. The Mouse House greatly streamlined the Star Wars galaxy, introducing a new and improved canon for a new age. This new canon would still keep much of what made Star Wars so endearing to a large number of older fans, but it would also open the previously impregnable fortress of the expanded universe for new fans by practically dismissing all of it. In the past three years, Disney has been busy filling the void vacated by the expanded universe. To prepare for the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens we've carefully curated a catalog of Star Wars' new history. This is the new Star Wars canon timeline.