Peruse these awesome deals on Star Wars stuff, you must, because today is May the Fourth. Fans of Lucasfilm’s iconic franchise have long celebrated this day as a kind of borderline-religious holiday of sorts, one that recognizes an ever-growing franchise that has been adapted for almost every type of media — and product — you can think of.

Since its debut in ‘77, Star Wars lore has been doled out in films, TV series, books and graphic novels, video games, and plenty of other mediums we’re surely oblivious to. It’s also inspired board games, toys, apparel, and enough merch to fill a galaxy far, far away. Many retailers commemorate May 4th by discounting the latter, and we’ve gone deep into the heap so you can see all of the best Star Wars Day deals in one place.

Star Wars Day Lego deals

Lego is one of the biggest purveyors of Star Wars toys. The brand has blocky replicas of all sorts of iconic ships and gear, including AT-AT walkers, starfighters, and even our good friend Chewbacca. In addition to direct discounts, Lego is offering free gifts when you spend over a certain threshold. For example, you can get a 75-piece AAT set (usually $5) when you spend $40 or more, along with a Trade Federation Troop Carrier set (usually $29.99) when you spend $160 or more. If you have a free Lego Insiders account, you can also get a collectible pin depicting the Battle of Yavin (normally $14.99) when you spend $90 or more.

In addition to the freebies, Lego’s rewards program also nets you discounts on a host of exclusive sets — including a 2,319-piece Chewbacca, which is currently on sale for $164.99 ($35 off) via Lego’s online storefront. Coincidentally, that single purchase could net you all of the aforementioned freebies. You can also save $15 on the Emperor’s Throne Room Diorama, which brings it down to $84.99. To redeem either deal, however, you’ll need to go to Lego’s Insiders hub, sign up, and sign in if you haven’t already.

Star Wars Day gaming deals

We’re in something of a golden age when it comes to the relationship between films and video games. More game franchises are being adapted to film and TV series with great success (ahem, The Last of Us), and the reverse has been true for a while now. Star Wars games were some of the earliest success stories in that regard, but newer titles like Star Wars Jedi: Survivor have taken the quality to another level. That particular game is down to $29.99 ($40 off) at Amazon (PS5 / Xbox), Best Buy (PS5 / Xbox), and Target (PS5 / Xbox).

Survivor continues the original story of Cal Kestis, who is one of the few remaining survivors of the Jedi Order after Order 66 nearly drove it into extinction. The adventure title, which borrows inspiration from Dark Souls in that you lose experience points upon death, directly follows the events of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (which also happens to be down to $3.99 for Xbox, PS5, and Steam).

Star Wars Day tech deals

Personally, I love Nanoleaf’s Small Baby Gu Bundle, which is available from Nanoleaf right now for $224.98 ($75 off). The 17-panel starter kit includes just enough panels to assemble a replica of Baby Yoda’s head, though, if you ever get bored of the green fella’s pigmentation or design, Nanoleaf makes it easy to mix and match shapes from other bundles.

The modular lighting kit features Shapes Hexagons and Shapes Mini Triangles, both of which can react to light and sound. They’re also Matter-over-Thread-ready — meaning they’re compatible with Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and Apple Home — and can mirror the colors on your display with the help of Nanoleaf’s desktop app.

Speaking of Grogu, Amazon is offering its fifth-gen Echo Dot in black or white with a stand shaped like his head for $55.98 ($22 off). The latest clock-equipped model is also on sale at Amazon in white with a Grogu stand for $67.98 ($20 off). Alternatively, if you already own an Echo Dot, you can buy the stand at Amazon separately for $24.99 ($3 off).

Other Star Wars Day deals and discounts

For the first time since a 2013 stroke left country singer Randy Travis unable to speak or sing properly, he has released a new song. He didn’t sing it, though; instead, the vocals were created with AI software and a surrogate singer.

The song, called “Where That Came From,” is every bit the kind of folksy, sentimental tune I came to love as a kid when Travis was at the height of his fame. The producers created it by training an unnamed AI model, starting with 42 of his vocal-isolated recordings. Then, under the supervision of Travis and his career-long producer Kyle Lehning, fellow country singer James DuPre laid down the vocals to be transformed into Travis’ by AI.

Besides being on YouTube, the song is on other streaming platforms like Apple Music and Spotify.

The result of Warner’s experiment is a gentle tune that captures Travis’ relaxed style, which rarely wavered far from its baritone foundation. It sounds like one of those singles that would’ve hung around the charts long enough for me to nervously sway to once after working up the gumption to ask a girl to dance at a middle school social. I wouldn’t say it’s a great Randy Travis song, but it’s certainly not the worst — I’d even say I like it.

Dustin Ballard, who runs the various incarnations of the There I Ruined It social media account, creates his AI voice parodies in much the same way as Travis’ team, giving birth to goofy mash-ups like AI Elvis Presley singing “Baby Got Back” or synthetic Johnny Cash singing “Barbie Girl.”

It would be easy to sound the alarm over this song or Ballard’s creations, declaring the death of human-made music as we know it. But I’d say it does quite the opposite, reinforcing what tools like an AI voice clone can do in the right hands. Whether you like the song or not, you have to admit that you can’t get something like this from casual prompting.

Cris Lacy, Co-president of Warner Music Nashville, told CBS Sunday Morning that AI voice cloning sites produce approximations of artists like Travis that don’t “sound real, because it’s not.” She called the label’s use of AI to clone Travis’ voice “AI for good.”

Right now, Warner can’t really do much about AI clones that it feels don’t fall under the heading of “AI for good.” But Tennessee’s recently-passed ELVIS Act, which goes into effect on July 1st, would allow labels to take legal action against those using software to recreate an artists’ voice without permission.

Travis’ song is a good edge-case example of AI being used to make music that actually feels legitimate. But on the other hand, it also may open a new path for Warner, which owns the rights to vast catalogs of music from famous, dead artists that are ripe for digital resurrection and, if they want to go there, potential profit. As heartwarming as this story is, it makes me wonder what lessons Warner Music Nashville — and the record industry as a whole — will take away from this song.

A good video game speedrun is a marvel to witness. You watch players fly through your favorite games, hitting impossible jumps and finding shortcuts you never knew existed. It makes you see a familiar game in a whole new light. If you’ve never watched a speedrun, check out this world-record run through the original Super Mario Bros., and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Being, you know, a speedrun, it’ll take all of five minutes of your time.

But what you won’t see (unless you follow speedrunners on Twitch) is the hours upon hours of work it took to create that perfect run — the thousands of attempts to navigate a game with perfect precision, shaving off every unnecessary move, exploiting every weird glitch. It’s punishing work for the player — and for the controller they use run after run, day after day. And all that “grinding,” as speedrunners call it, is taking an unexpected toll.

On this episode of The Vergecast, we explore a looming crisis in the Nintendo 64 speedrunning community: players are grinding their controllers to plastic dust and at such a quick pace that optimal N64 controllers are growing scarce. We also speak with Beck Abney (abney317 on Twitch), a Mario Kart 64 speedrunning legend who is dealing with an even more bizarre, personal form of controller hell.

This also happens to be the first episode in our “Five Senses of Gaming” miniseries, so stay tuned every Sunday this month for another gaming story about another sense. And yes, if you read that sentence and thought Really? Smell? Taste!?, well... buckle up.

If you want an even deeper dive into the wild world of speedrunning, here are some links to get you started: