t's a far cry from a Jedi Holocron, but the Star Wars Wiki is still crammed with enough information to keep even the most studious padawans occupied for months.
The wiki's 16,400 entries exhaustively detail the six Star Wars movies as well as the myriad spinoff media, from the Clone Wars micro series to the Knights of the Old Republic games to the two Ewok TV movies. As with most wikis, the quality of the entries can vary greatly, but the best ones—such as those for Boba Fett and Mace Windu—are exceedingly detailed, offering full bios, lists of appearances and behind-the-scenes information. Less detailed entries can also be found, but thanks to the site's open nature, any one can easily edit or expand a writeup.
Where the self-described "Wookieepedia" may be most useful is in filling in the gaps in the official Star Wars mythology, particularly for those who may not have read every novel or comic book. Answers to questions like "Why does Mace Windu have a purple lightsaber?", "Who is General Grievous?" and "How did Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas know to commission the Clone Army years before it was needed?" abound in the wiki and make for enlightening reads.
—Ken Newquist
Site of the Week—November 21, 2005
hat does one give the SF collector who has everything, from a Chronicles of Narnia sword to his very own King Kong costume? With the holiday season now only four weeks away, this problem can become rather urgent. Luckily, Monsters in Motion might just be the solution to an otherwise thorny gift-shopping problem.
For those whose loved ones want nothing less than a Predator cookie jar, a replica of Mace Windu's lightsaber or a toilet-brush holder shaped like a skull, this site is a fannish paradise, offering collectibles and tie-in merchandise for just about every SF, fantasy and horror film imaginable, as well as a few that haven't been made yet. Dinosaur models, film posters, anime action figures—the range of items available will boggle the imagination. The browsing potential of the Monsters site is limitless, in other words: Every click brings new marvels and unbelievable oddities.
Though the core of this site is its selection of figurines and spaceship replicas, film fans not in the market for a full-sized Gollum collector's bust or the Jupiter 2 Moonbase can go straight to the Monsters DVD and soundtrack sections. For those of a more hands-on bent, the site has a wide range of model kits of varying difficulty.
Monsters in Motion is a store, pure and simple—one with a massive catalog, to be sure, but one that exists solely to sell its often zany merchandise. Site visitors looking for extras—like links or collector-oriented discussion boards—will have to look elsewhere on the Web. (The page does allow guests to sign up for mailings of its newsletter, "The Eyeball.") Straightforward, easy to navigate and filled with hilarious tie-in products, what the Monsters site does offer is some of the most outrageous and entertaining electronic window shopping on the Web.
—A.M. Dellamonica
Site of the Week—November 14, 2005
xperience close encounters of the Google kind with UFO Maps, a site that takes a month's worth of unidentified flying object sightings and digitally pins them to a map of the continental United States.
The site's a mashup of the innovative "Google Maps" Web application with data provided by the National UFO Reporting Center. When the U.S. map loads, dozens of small flying saucer icons appear on it. Mousing over an icon reveals a quick blurb about the sighting, including place, time and a short blurb explaining what was seen. Each entry links to the full sighting report on NUFORC. By default, the page loads with the past month's data, but visitors can choose to browse decades' worth of sightings.
The site retains the flexibility of Google Maps, allowing visitors to zoom in on a region or state and then drag the map with their mice to fine-tune the view. Other views are possible, too—while the default is Google Maps, users can try out MSN Virtual Earth and view the sightings in 3-D if they have the "Google Earth" rendering software.
—Ken Newquist
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