Have you ever wanted to brighten up Darth Vader’s none more black costume? Well here’s your chance. Unless you really like using your black and grey crayons, the Rogue One colouring book is an outstanding chance to bring some much needed colour to the dark side, and make Darth Vader into Darth Fabulous.
Unfortunately, of the 100 images contained within to ‘inspire creativity’, there is only 3 pages where you actually get to tackle the Sith Lord himself, but elsewhere you have plenty of opportunities to colour in the many other characters of Rogue One. The drawings range from the wonderful (Jyn Erso, Chirrut Imwe) to the ever so slightly strange (Saw Gerrera). Countless characters are included in a variety of poses, but more Vader would have been much appreciated.
However, this is a Rogue One colouring book so it’s understandable to give more space to the new characters including K-S20 and Orson Krennic. But most entertaining are the many Death Star illustrations, including some minutely detailed plans and schematics. If you’ve ever yearned to cheer the look of the Death Star up, this is your chance to go nuts. A psychedelic planet killer would bring a smile to any face, even if it was the last thing they ever witnessed.
And the Death Star isn’t the only piece of technology that needs a good colouring in. Inside the book, there are also pages and pages of montages featuring AT-AT’s, TIE fighters and impressionistic illustrations of the battle on Scarif.
Best of all, there is very little repetition here. There may be a couple of pages where you get to colour in Vader’s top half again and again and again on a single page, but who would ever get bored of that? Unless you’re a purist and refuse to use anything except your black pencil.
If you’re suffering from Star Wars withdrawals until we get some more information on Episode VIII, then this book is a wonderful way to spend hours and hours staring back into the world of Rogue One. And more importantly, this is your chance to spruce up the costumes of some of your old favourites. After all, you’re never too old for Star Wars, and you’re never too old for colouring in.
ART OF COLOURING: ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY / PUBLISHER: EGMONT / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW