Star Wars creator George Lucas visited Disneyland Park in California today, giving a thumbs up on the progress being made on the theme park’s newly revised Star Tours attraction.

The picture above is of Lucas posing with the audio-animatronics figure of C-3PO in the motion-simulated ride’s Starspeeder 1000 cockpit. Lucas, along with Star Wars producer Rick McCallum, took some test runs on the ride aboard the Starspeeder, which will now “travel” to several Star Wars worlds.

Disney has announced that Star Tours is coming back, and that the newly updated attraction will reopen May 20, 2011, at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in at the Disney World theme park in Orlando, Florida. Star Tours is a motion simulator attraction based on the Star Wars universe created by George Lucas. It was first launched at Disneyland in 1987 as a creative collaboration between Disney Imagineers and George Lucas with Industrial Light and Magic.

The new version, retitled Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, will be based on a story set between Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Anthony Daniels, James Earl Jones, and Peter Mayhew reprise their roles as C-3PO, Darth Vader, and Chewbacca, respectively, for the attraction.

It’ll be just like Beggar’s Canyon back home!

The t-shirt deal of the day over at RIPT Apparel is the Star Wars-inspired “Droid Drive In.”

The tee, by artist Matt Wrightson, went on sale at RIPT today, Monday, January 10, 2010, at midnight CST, and will continue for 24 hours from then, and once it’s over, it will not be sold on the site anymore.

The t-shirt is available in men’s and women’s sizes in beige for $10 each. Kids sizes are $15 (Boys, Girls, and Toddler, all white); Onesies are $18 (in white). You can also get the design on a Hoodie for $38 (in white in Men/Unisex sizes).

The design features the C-3PO character from the Star Wars franchise. The golden droid is at the Beggar’s Canyon drive-in, which boasts that it’s “Serving all kinds” (droids have some trouble getting served, especially on Tatooine, where Beggar’s Canyon is located). The droid is standing in front of a landspeeder, a popular vehicle on the sand planet, and judging by the hat he’s wearing and the tray he’s carrying with a burger and fries on it, it appears that C-3PO is a server at this drive-in.

The $9 t-shirt deal of the day over at Teefury is called “Oz Wars,” a mashed up of Star Wars with The Wizard Of Oz by artist Denism79.

The sale at Teefury began at midnight EST (Sunday, December 27, 2010) and will continue for 24 hours from then, and once it’s over, it’s gone forever.

The t-shirt design shows the characters from the original Star Wars trilogy in the roles from The Wizard Of Oz. Princess Leia, hair buns and all, is Dorothy; C-3PO is the Scarecrow; R2-D2 is the Tin Man, Chewbacca is the Cowardly Lion, and Darth Vader is Dorothy’s little dog Toto.

Jon Bon Jovi.

He’s a huge star now, but back before he got his big break in the music industry in the early 1980s, the singer was sweeping floors for cash at his cousin’s recording studio, where they just so happened to be making Christmas In The Stars: Star Wars Christmas Album. During the making of the album, the young Bon Jovi got a chance to make his first professional recording on the song, “R2-D2 We Wish You A Merry Christmas.”

Listen to the song here below. It’s SO good. Trust me, just one listen and you will not only love it, you won’t be able to stop listening to it. R2-D2 makes an appearance on the track, as does Anthony Daniels as C-3PO.