Here are some of the big and our favorite stories we covered in 2012…

In January, rapidly rising British actor Benedict Cumberbatch joined Star Trek: Into Darkness, while CW’s Arrow dropped “Green” from the name and named Stephen Amell the lead actor.

We lost actor Ian Abercrombie and the voice of the Robot from Lost In Space Dick Tufeld.
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I haven’t done one of these in a few years, but I thought I’d put together a small holiday buying guide for SF lovers – at least some of the items I think readers of this site would like…

To start, I cannot say enough about Ashley Eckstein’s Her Universe – except that I am jealous as the merchandise is for females of the species. My loss appears to be my wife and daughters gain – they love their shirts, and they might just be finding a few more delivered by Santa this year…just this week there are two new Doctor Who shirts – “Whovian” and “The Girl Who Waited”, while on the Star Wars side there are new “Cute Vader” pajamas and a Japanese-style V-neck. And the Ahsoka Tano hoodie, representing Ashley’s alter ego, is now available in adult sizes due to demand.
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Our friend and favorite fangirl Ashley Eckstein and her Her Universe brand has added two new properties to her apparel line – Doctor Who and Star Trek! (Apparently these were announced while I was on vacation, but they went on sale this week!)

In her Star Trek shop, there are Enterprise-D and Uhura uniform T-shirts, an “I’ve got a crush on Crusher” T (I wonder if she wears that around Comic-Con and happens upon Wil Wheaton what would happen…), an “I Grok Spock” T, and a “LLAP” (Live Long and Prosper) purple women’s polo.

Out of the Whoniverse comes three T-shirt styles: A “Hell in High Heels” V-neck featuring some high heels, referring to what the Doctor called River Song; a “Something Blue” V-neck with a drawing of the TARDIS and the “Something borrowed…” saying; and a scoop-neck T featuring the Van Gogh painting of the exploding TARDIS!

So jealous…heck, I’d wear a Princess Leia hoodie if I could go to Comic-Con this year…

Ashley Eckstein, who voices the character of Jedi padawan Ashoka Tano in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, is not your typical SF actor…she’s a fan as well. And as a female fan, she’s trying to change the SF merchandise landscape: one that has been marketed primarily to males, even though females account for half of science fiction fans. That’s why she’s founded Her Universe, which produces products focused on female fans.

Her Universe just launched some of their Star Wars shirts online with retailer Hot Topic, and Ashley begins her job as co-host for Star Wars Weekends at Walt Disney World this Friday, and taking place every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday through June 10th.

I spoke with the always friendly Ashley about Her Universe, Star Wars, and Disney.
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Star Wars Weekends starts a week from tomorrow at Walt Disney World, but some of the stars and characters are around a bit early…actress Ashley Eckstein, the voice of Ahsoka Tano, founder of Her Universe (awesome Star Wars and Syfy apparel and items for the female fans) and co-host of Star Wars Weekends, was around this past weekend signing pictures and selling merchandise. And it seems she found a rather persistent admirer…
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Our friend Ashley Eckstein and her HerUniverse brand has added some new merchandise for the holiday season, including some Cyber Monday deals…including this cute Eureka holiday-themed tote bag, featuring the characters in one of the many animated forms they take in the upcoming holiday episode, airing next Tuesday, December 6th.

Other new items include other Syfy products, such as a Battlestar Galactica pajama set, a Viper wings necklace, a Warehouse 13 burnout T-shirt, and a Sharktopus T-shirt (including a first-ever Mens version). On the Star Wars side, there is a “Daddy Issues” thermal hoodie and a Jedi charm. Plus, there are a limited number of Cylon “Toaster” necklaces (previously a convention exclusive), and also right now with any purchase you can get a free holiday Yoda pin!

My wife is participating in a “virtual fair” fundraiser for Give Kids the World Village in Florida. This organization brings terminally ill children and their families to the Disney area! We are trying to raise a million dollars for this wonderful organization.

If you need any books for your children or friends, please consider checking out her website. She will be donating up to 45% of her profit to this amazing charity! There are 12 other vendors that are also donating proceeds to this charity. Feel free to order from any of the charities!

http://powerof10fair.blogspot.com/
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Ashley Eckstein (the voice of Ahsoka Tano in Star Wars: The Clone Wars) is at Disney’s Hollywood Studios gearing up for Star Wars Weekends starting tomorrow, and has made a couple of videos previewing the brand-new version of the Star Tours attraction. You can view one video below, and then an exclusive tour of the new attraction queue is available over at Entertainment Weekly…the new attraction boasts incredible 3D projection, a new variable experience (54 possible variations) and all sorts of new details.

In the meantime, Eckstein’s company, Her Universe, which makes science fiction merchandise targeted at women, in partnership with Syfy (a partnership we reported on in October), will finally unveil a Syfy Gear merchandise line for women at San Diego Comic-Con, which runs July 20th-24th as well as available via Syfy.com and heruniverseshop.com (except for a Comic-Con “exclusive”). Both sides are still tight-lipped about what the merchandise might be…
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Syfy Ventures, a relatively new division created during the rebranding of Syfy as part of breaking out of the cable channel constraints and become a true transmedia, tech savvy destination, announced jointly with actress Ashley Eckstein (Ahsoka Tano on Star Wars: The Clone Wars) during the Digital Press Tour on Monday that Syfy Ventures would join forces with Eckstein’s Her Universe brand of female genre merchandise, to produce Syfy branded merchandise under the Syfy Gear label.
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