Star Wars stars on Sesame Street: The Mandalorian edition!

This is the way...to Sesame Street!

In the past we've looked at a number of appearances of Star Wars stars on the beloved children's show Sesame Street. You can see Part I here and Part II here. This time we're looking specifically at performers from the Disney+ hit show The Mandalorian!

Giancarlo Esposito as Moff Gideon

Long before he was the imposing Moff Gideon on The Mandalorian, Giancarlo Esposito was "Mickey" the friendly Camp Counselor (or is it "Ricky"? Watch the clip and see) when Big Bird went away to camp. This was over several episodes back in 1982!

Amy Sedaris as Peli Motto

When the Mandalorian needed repairs to his ship, he turned to Peli Motto and her crew of pit droids, but she ended up taking care of The Child as well. 

Peli Motto was played by actor/writer/comedian Amy Sedaris, who also appeared in several clips on Sesame Street back in 2006, discussing snacks with Cookie Monster and as Snow White in another episode.
 

Ismael Cruz Córdova as Qin

In the episode The Prisoner, the Mandalorian takes a job rescuing a Twi'lek prisoner named Qin, played by actor Ismael Cruz Córdova. In 2013-2015 Córdova was busy playing Armando, a recurring character on Sesame Street. 

In one episode Córdova also voiced a Muppet rooster who runs a Cuba booth at a Latino festival.

And fittingly here's his singing a song called "What ryhmes with Mando?"

While she won't appear until sometime in Season 2, Rosario Dawson already has plenty of excitement growing for her role on The Mandalorian. Speaking of growing, as a child, Dawson made a brief appearance in a live-action segment on Sesame Street where several kids talk about their inner-city gardening.

Do you remember a Sesame Street or Muppet-Star Wars connection? Let us know in the comments! And don't forget to see our previous articles Part I and Part II.

 

Read, You Must: Extraordinary Droids

What is Star Wars without the droids? From the very beginning, the droids C-3PO and R2-D2 have been crucial to the storyline, and since then each movie has introduced new droid types in the galaxy. More importantly in Star Wars, droids are very much characters, not just machines or appliances.

Where would The Force Awakens be without BB-8, Star Wars Rebels without CHOPPER, or Rogue One without K2-SO?

Extraordinary Droids is a brand-new book from DK publishing that looks to explore the galaxy of Star Wars droids of all types, whether they are "Big, Small, Useful, Friendly" and what makes each kind special.

Arranged by size, from smallest Buzz Droid seen in opening of Revenge of the Sith to the largest Hailfire Droid seen in the battle of Geonosis, author Simon Beecroft (LEGO Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary) gives a short description and context of where we might know each of droid.

Extraordinary Droids profiles 50+ droids from all Star Wars movies, including many of those introduced in Rogue One, Solo, and The Rise of Skywalker. The 125-page collection also features droids from The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars Resistance and even DJ-R3X from Galaxy's Edge! The only prominent screen character droid missing seems to be IG-11 from The Mandalorian, though IG-88 is here.

Some droids feature prominently in the story and have their own names, others are representative of droid types. Each spread is dedicated to a large, detailed image of the respective droid, some facts and story moments that make each droid memorable.

Although mainly written for younger fans, this collection offers many interesting bits of info for older fans, large close-up images you won't find anywhere else, and of course, finally gives the droids their deserved respect!

Publisher's Recommendation: Ages 5 and up

MORE Indoor Activities, the Star Wars Way!

See below for details!

Whether it's an Imperial takeover, First Order occupation, a Blue Shadow virus going around, or just a Kamino-style rainy day, staying indoors will not stop young Star Wars fans from loving their favourite galaxy far, far away! 

Here's another list of activity books to keep young padawans engaged and inspired while indoors! See the previous batch of books here. Some of these books may be out of print or tricky to find new, but online sources should be able to help.

For Young Students:

Star Wars Workbooks (Workman Publishing) is a line of educational workbooks to help teach younglings. There are titles for each age/grade level (Preschool, Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade etc.) focusing on topics of reading, writing and mathematics.


Star Wars Phonics (Scholastic) "Learn how to read with all your favorite Star Wars characters! Perfect for reluctant readers, each book is illustrated with fullcolor images from the blockbuster Star Wars movies."

For Young Coders & Engineers:

Star Wars Coding Projects (DK) "A Step-by-Step Visual Guide to Coding Your Own Animations, Games, Simulations and more! Star Wars Coding Projects is a step-by-step visual guide to designing and coding in Scratch. The setting is as big as your imagination." (pictured above)

For Young Creative Writers: 

Star Wars Mad-Libs: The books that are word games. Loads of fun playing around and twisting up the familiar Star Wars story with your own creativity and sense of humour!

For Young Artists:

Learn to Draw Star Wars: Volume 2 (Walter Foster Jr. Creative Team) "With just a little practice, you’ll be drawing Rey, BB-8, Kylo Ren, and more. This 64-page, spiral-bound manual comes with grid-drawing exercises, tracing paper, and basic shapes projects."

LEGO Star Wars Doodle Activity Book "A brand new format for LEGO Star Wars, part activity book, part coloring/doodle book"

For Young Builders:

LEGO Star Wars Ideas Book (DK) "More than 200 Games, Activities, and Building Ideas. Features imaginative play and building ideas using your own LEGO brick collection. There are LEGO projects that take just a few minutes, it builds to keep you occupied for hours." 

Do you have a favourite Star Wars activity book? Let us know in the comments. Don't forget to check out part one of this list too!

Read, You Must: LEGO Star Wars Character Encyclopedia

It seems like it wasn't that long ago that we reviewed the "Updated and Expanded" 2015 edition of DK's LEGO Star Wars Character Encyclopedia! However the incredible amount of Star Wars movies and TV that has come out in the last 5 years, it makes sense that there's a need for a "New Edition" for 2020.

The LEGO Star Wars Character Encyclopedia provides a one-sheet "file" on each character. Some major characters like Luke Skywalker have many sheets for each film appearance. Others, like Ewoks, all share one spread.

There are details about the character's place in the story as well as the LEGO minifig itself. Represented here for the first time are characters from The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, Rogue One, Solo and most recently The Rise of Skywalker.

That's a lot of new characters, or new versions of familiar characters, so to make room there are many characters not represented in this 224 page edition. Most notably absent are any characters that fall into the "Legends" category (outside the official timeline) which was a whole section in the 2015 version. Also gone are the behind-the-scenes pages.

What is here is multiple colourful images and interesting info on over 200 Star Wars minifigs, including some rare and exclusive releases.

Like many other DK LEGO Star Wars books, this comes with an exclusive minifig! With this book you get an exclusive Darth Maul minifigure, based on his appearance in Solo: A Star Wars Story. 

For LEGO Star Wars fans and collectors, this update is full of updates and info you'll want to have!
 
(Publisher's Recommendation: Ages 9 - 12)