MAY THE 4TH BE WITH YOU - STAR WARS GEONOSIAN ARENA

May the 4th Be With You

Geonosian Arena - Attack of the Clones

    As all the Attack of the Clones product was hitting the shelves in 2002, I decided to make a diorama of the Geonosian Arena.  I had plenty of the figures and I had just found the Arena playset on clearance.  Plus, a lot of figures from this assortment were cleverly packed with extras that could be used in such a display - like the pillars and bonus droid parts.

    I had a small round table from my college days that was to encompass the whole thing.  I built cardboard walls in conjunction with the Arena playset.  At the opposite end of the playset, I needed a large arch for where the Reek beast was brought in (I believe at this time the Acklay was not released).  So I found a large, decorative wooden "boat" on clearance.  This was perfect.  I cut off the bow of the boat, painted it brown, and I had my arch.

    I tried to match the colors of the rock walls with the reddish brown color of the playset with some black streaks.  I also filled the inside of the arena with sand.  This was especially beneficial to helping the figures to keep from falling over without having to bury multiple figure stands.

    Unfortunately, yet fortunately, many of the AOTC figures had little to no articulation and were in static battle poses.  I prefer my figures to be able to move more, but the battle poses worked well to depict the action!  Another bonus was the blast-effects that were getting included with the figures at the time.

    Once I started assembling the Arena, it was clear there was no room for the beasts really.  This was okay as I only had the Nexu.  I was able to find a little room for him stepping out of his cat-kennel.

    Some of my favorite parts of this diorama is Aayla Secura with her 2 lightsabers and also R2-D2 reattaching C-3PO's noggin.  This was the 3PO that came with the Battle Droid where they have swappable heads.  I needed every Battle Droid I could get though, so this is how I displayed everyone's favorite droid duo.

    As it's apparent from the pictures, I took these photos in 2006.  When we moved in 2008, we were going to be doing a lot of work on the new house.  I didn't have anywhere to put this large diorama.  So I ended up selling the Geonosian Arena to a good friend of mine that I worked with named Dave.  Plus, in 2005, George Lucas said he was done with the Star Wars movies and there wasn't much on the horizon at that point.  So it was a little easier to part with.  I still think it came out pretty cool!

    I hope you enjoyed a brief trip down Star Wars Lane for May the 4th!  I know the picture quality isn't perfect, sorry about that, but this was 18 years ago!  Maybe next year I'll cover another diorama I used to have!

    Stay tuned, the SCC is returning to G.I. Joe content very soon!!