You may remember that late last year, we heard about a new set of Star Wars blueprints that were in the works from DK Books.

Well, Zee Zee from UK-based fansite Star Wars Books has contacted us, to let us know that listings for the up-coming Star Wars Ultimate Blueprints Collection have appeared online.

You can find it at Amazon.com, and also on the website of its publishers, DK.com. Both sites list a release date of 4th August, and give a cover price of $19.99 US.

It's also on Amazon.co.uk with a UK price of ?12.99, and a UK released date of August 1st.

The UK site identifies Ryder Windham as the author, and Chris Trevas and Chris Reiff as illustrators, all of which sounds plausible. Veteran Star Wars artist Chris Trevas has been linked to this project since the StarWars.com "first look" last year, and Reiff has been his collaborator on a regular column in the Star Wars Insider and the website The Parts of Star Wars.

Wyndham would presumably be supplying the text accompanying the plans, and for what it's worth--which may not be much--the page on Chris Trevas at Wookieepedia already claims that he's doing just that.

As to content, the cover image that we were given on StarWars.com last year announces "five double-sided poster-sized plans", including the Millennium Falcon and Death Star, Artoo, Threepio and Darth Vader, and "lightsabers & blasters".

The DK.com page now mentions a look at the Falcon's hyperdrive, and "the complete floor plan of the Deathstar"... which seems quite an impressive claim if it's accurate, considering the size of that thing.

Update!: two important bits of news about this.

Firstly, we were contacted by Sompeetalay from the Belgian Star Wars fanclub TeeKay-421. He tells us that they have an interview with Ryder Windham in the latest issue of their quarterly print magazine, in which Windham confirms that he's providing the text for this book.

Unfortunately, the interview is in Dutch, and it isn't online. You can, however, view the TeeKay-421 website, also in Dutch, here.

Then... we were contacted by Chris Trevas and Chris Reiff in person. They've confirmed that they're both doing the art for this book, and that the five posters included will be broadly as they were listed in the "first look": the Millennium Falcon, Darth Vader, the Death Star, Threepio and Artoo, and a selection of weapons.

The box art, however, will be different from the mock-up we saw last year, and while we are going to get a look at the Falcon's hyperdrive on one of the posters, the Death Star material won't show a complete floor-plan, though it will offer an indication of how some details fit into the overall design.

Another thing I should have said is that Chris Reiff is a veteran product designer/developer whose Star Wars work includes some of the current Wizards of the Coast miniatures. You can check out his website here.

We'll bring you more details on this just as soon as we hear them ourselves!


UPDATE #2: Just a short update today...Click here for your first views of some of the prints at Amazon.com. (Not sure why it's listed as an import)

Also, as a side note, Chris Trevas and Chris Reiff will be doing a couple of signings for DK at San Diego Comic-Con in July. Make sure to stop by and say hello!

Thanks to Chris Reiff for the heads up!