SW In Concert/ Fan Days III report

wookiee_cookiee

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wookiee_cookiee

Moderator
Staff member
Star Wars In Concert/ Fan Days III write-up

Warren and I left Friday morning to head to Dallas for a busy Star Wars weekend. First up was Star Wars In Concert at 7:30pm Friday in Arlington, followed by Star Wars Fan Days III in Plano on Saturday and Sunday.

After a three hour ride to Dallas, we made it to our hotel, checked in and then called our friend Mike who was driving up from Lafayette, LA to attend the concert. We met up with Mike, had dinner at Joe's Crab shack (YUM!), and then we headed to the concert early, hoping to see the props on display and check out the merchandise.

The crowds once we were inside Cowboys Stadium were crazy! You had to push your way through to see the props. Luckily Warren is about 12 inches taller than I am, and he was able to get some nice pics. Mike went over to buy a shirt at the vendor booth, and had to wait in a massive group, with no rhyme or reason for who was going to get waited on next. But he made it through successfully, shirt in hand. We made our way to our seats, one level up from the floor, where we had a great view of the giant screens and the stage as well.

The concert was about two hours long with a twenty minute intermission. Anthony Daniels (C-3P0) hosted the event leading us into the musical numbers and the videos that accompanied them.

After the concert we said farewell to Mike and went back to the hotel to rest up for two more days of Star Wars.

Saturday was a great day in Plano. The weather was sunny, but with a cool breeze. We arrived at the con about 8:45 am. Warren carried all the baked goods and pink ribbons we had made for the 501st bake sale to their room, while I held our place in line. Once all the cakes and cookies were away, he stood in line and I went back to the car and dressed in the inflatable Jabba the Hutt costume, carrying my stuffed plush Rotta the Huttlett (aka Stinky). I walked back to the line and quite a few people were pointing me out to their kids and laughing. I don't think they had seen a Jabba costume before. It is difficult to walk in, you have to shuffle along, but I knew we were going to be standing in lines at the beginning, so I thought it would be a good time to wear it. At 9am, we got into the convention center and picked up our passes and free Clone Wars movie posters. We stopped at the 501st room, which was decked out in pink with several Legion members in armor with pink accessories. Then we made our way down the hall, stopping to get some free movie posters, Astro Boy hair gel, and Saw VI lollipops from a vendor.
Luckily, we could skip the huge line at the Official Pix booth, because we bought our photos online in September. Then we went outside where I ditched the Jabba costume, (but kept carrying Rotta), so we could attack the dealer room when it opened at 10:30. We made our way in, and I quickly bought 2 plush Woklings (baby Ewoks), Wiley ($5) and Leeni ($7 with tag). Warren took off on his own at that point, looking for specific ships and figures he wanted to add to his collection. I caught up with him a little while later and he had a full bag!

After our first pass at the dealer room we were off to get autographs. Warren had purchased a special combo autograph ticket that let him get 7 of the Clone Wars actors autographs for $60, but they could only sign the full size movie poster or a special 11x17 photo. Warren got his poster signed by Tom Kane (Yoda/narrator), Ashley Eckstein (Ahsoka), James Arnold Taylor (Obi-Wan), Dee Bradley Baker (all the Clone Troopers), Catherine Taber (Padme), Matt Lanter (Anakin) and Nika Futterman (Asajj Ventress).

Then I went to the collector room to watch Gus Lopez and Duncan Jenkins' presentation about their new book, Gus and Duncan's Guide to Star Wars Collectibles. Warren left to go stand in line for Anthony Daniels' autograph, since he was going to be there Saturday only. After a few technical difficulties, Gus and Duncan started their presentation, which was fun and informative, as always. They showed some items that I had seen at their presentation at CIII, like the C-3PO tape dispenser and the Jar Jar tongue lollipop. (Meesa wants some tongue!), but they always get a good laugh. Warren joined me before the hour was up, because the line for Daniels was a two to three hour wait! He said he moved 15 feet in 45 minutes and would try again later. It was only 1pm, so we had until four more hours to get his sig.

We went to the Official Pix booth next where Don Bies was signing for free! We each got 2 autographs, and Mr. Bies was nice enough to pose for a photo with us.

At noon we went outside for the 501st photo shoot. I managed to get there in time to get into the PINK squad photo. (Stinky was wearing a pink bow tie I made out of ribbon, we ran out of time to make anything pink for Jabba to wear) There were Imperial Officers in hot pink coats and hats, Stormtroopers with pink detail on their armor, Stephen’s pink Royal Guard and even a pink Slave Leia!

At 2pm we went to LUCASFILM's: The Future of Star Wars presented by Steve Sansweet and Dave Filoni. We got there in time to see some footage from The Old Republic (Awesome!), watch a short film about SW fans (like us, YAY!), and hear Sansweet say they still haven't signed contract for CV (BOO!). My feet were killing me and it was standing room only in the auditorium, so I told Warren I would find him later. I walked around a little, and went back to the dealer room now that it was a bit emptier. I saw that the Anthony Daniels line was shorter, so I went back and told Warren, and he quickly made his way back to the “not as long as it was an hour ago” line. After a short time in line, which we passed by chatting with other SW fans about the line and Friday's concert, Warren scored his autograph and one for a friend in Canada.

Then we went back to the room where the Clone Wars voice actors were and I got signatures from Ashley Eckstein and Matt Lanter. Catherine Taber wasn't at her table at that time, so we had to go back for her later.

After that we headed for the other autograph room, where Warren was able to get autographs by Chris Muncke, Matthew Wood and Jack Klaff. I decided at the last minute to get a David Acord signature, so we took Stinky over and picked out an 8x10 and got it signed. Mr. Acord asked if he could sign Stinky's tag, and I said “Of course!” Most of the celebs were wearing the pink ribbons we had made, which was awesome.

At 4pm we headed for the live charity auction. Two custom figures of a pink Emperor's Royal Guard made by a member of the 501st Legions Bast Alpha Garrison in Louisiana were going to be auctioned to raise money for Breast Cancer Awareness.

Warren and I were numbers 95 and 96 in the auction and we bid on many items. I won a vintage Ewok pop-up book, a set of 30 bookplates, and a copy of the Wookiee Cookies cookbook. I bid on a large stuffed Ewok by Applause, but it went for over $50! A rare (one of nine) George Lucas signed trading card sold for $1500. Warren won a Takara X-Wing from Japan,and a vintage C-3PO ceramic bank. Steve Sansweet admonished me during the auction because I would wave my number around wildly and he couldn’t read it. :p It was quite funny.

I left the auction before the pink guard figures were auctioned, to get in my Princess Leia costume for the Rebel Legion photo. Warren said they sold for $300. Steve Sansweet purchased one of the figures and had it signed by Walt, who made the figure) and Stephen, who created the pink Royal Guard costume.

That was the end of the con for Saturday, but we weren’t done yet!

We headed a few miles down the road for the 501st mixer/dinner at The Fish Shack. About 70 Legion members and their guests filled their patio, including Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) and his wife, Angie. The food was great, especially having not had time to eat anything after breakfast that day. Good times were had by all in attendance.

We called it an early night, and went to the hotel to rest up for the last day of the con.
 

wookiee_cookiee

Moderator
Staff member
On Sunday I dressed in my A New Hope Princess Leia costume, and Warren wore his Royal Guard robes. First we strolled into the dealer room, looking for bargains.

Then we headed to the autograph hall, where Warren got a Dave Prowse autograph and presented Anthony Forrest with a Bothan Spy t-shirt as a thank you for letting us interview him for the site.

Then we went back to the Clone Wars room, and this time Catherine Taber was there and I was able to get her autograph. My Fan Days autograph goals were complete!

At noon we went to the auditorium to listen to Steve Sansweet and Anne Neumann talk about their new book, Star Wars 1,000 Collectibles. This was a very neat presentation, with Anne and Steve discussing how they picked what went in the book and what were some of their favorite items. Anne said she went to 10-15 of Steve’s tours for charity groups, to see what he pointed out and what people were interested in. They had slides of the book pages, and I was glad that Warren picked up the last copy of the book before we left the con. He was even able to get it signed by Steve and Anne before we left! I am now halfway through the book, and it is just awesome. I would recommend it to any SW fan. We also presented Steve with a Bothan Spy t-shirt and a few business cards for his collection.

Two o’clock brought one of my favorite presentations. The voice actors of The Clone Wars and Supervising Director Dave Filoni gathered in the main auditorium for a table read. Filoni had written the two scenes while at Fan Days and given them to the cast that morning. There was a scene with the good guys, and one with the villains. Steve Sansweet read the stage directions, and the cast played out the scene. All of the cast did an excellent job, and it was neat to see the people behind the voices.

After the scenes, a Steelers-jersey clad Filoni said because he was missing the Pittsburgh game that day, he had added a scene where Asajj Ventress interrupts General Grievous as he is watching the destruction on his monitors.

Filoni then had James Arnold Taylor read the scene between Obi-Wan and Anakin, voicing them as Doc Brown and Marty McFly from Back to the Future. It was hilarious!

Filoni added how much fun it is to work with the actors in the recording sessions. He brings them all in at the same time, and they have about 6 hours to record an episode. Dee Bradley Baker demonstrated his cricket and special effect sounds. Matt Lanter did a voice of a drunken clone trooper. Tom Kane amused the audience with the voice of a character from an upcoming episode that sounds a lot like Morgan Freeman—so much so that at the taping it even fooled Freeman’s son!

The audience was invited to ask questions at the end of the hour. One fan asked Baker if it was difficult to do the voices during “Rookies”. He said although he voiced most of the characters in that episode, it wasn’t difficult because each clone has their own tone and personality.

A young fan dressed in Clone Trooper armor asked Filoni who was going to voice the Mandolorian. Filoni feigned deafness, and then waved his hand, and said, “You don’t know anything about Mandolorians.” It got a good laugh from the audience, but still he didn’t answer the question. ;)

Another fan asked how devastating were they going to make the death of Ahsoka. Ashley Eckstein covered her ears with her hands, and Filoni said, “No Ashley, don’t go into the light.” Then he said, just because you don’t see Ahsoka in the later movies doesn’t mean she dies. He added that special editions included characters that weren’t in the original releases. He also said that he had plans for what was going to happen to Ahsoka in the long-term, and that it had changed from what he originally planned. In the end, he stated, Ahsoka’s fate was up to George Lucas.

After the presentation, Filoni signed autographs for free at the Official Pix booth. Warren got his poster signed, and we got three Clone Wars movie DVD sleeve covers autographed. When he saw all our DVD covers, Filoni said, “That’s what I like to see! That helps pay for the show.” We will keep one signed cover for our DVD and give the other two away at Christmas on the Bothan Spy. We told Filoni we were really looking forward to the Clone Wars DVD because we didn’t have cable and hadn’t seen much of the show.

Warren commented that it was neat to see Filoni without his trademark hat at the autograph booth, since he had never seen any pictures of him without it. Sadly, we didn’t think to take a photo.

The con was coming to a close…I went out to the car to put the Jabba costume back on, because I hadn’t seen anyone else wearing one that day. (On Saturday, there was another fan dressed as Jabba, but he didn’t have a Rotta!) This time we had an amplifier that we hooked up a small mp3 player, which had Jabba sound clips on repeat. I wore the amp around my neck, but it wasn’t until I had it on that I noticed it had a red light glowing on it that made me look like a cross between Jabba the Hutt and E.T. There was no time to hunt down any black electrical tape to cover it, so we made due.

We went back to the dealer room to make some last minute deals. I scored a rare Wampa buddy and a Leia Shirt marked $15 each for $20. Warren bought some Angel and Spike comics for 50 cents an issue.

We stopped at Randy Martinez’ booth and admired his Celebration Europe print. It is based on the cover art from The Beatles Sgt. Pepper album. I loved it, but priced at $100, I didn’t have enough money left to buy one. Hopefully I can snag one in the future.

We went to Katie Cook’s booth and bought two mini-paintings that she made on the spot. She painted a Royal Guard for Warren and Ahsoka for me. I also picked up her 2009 sketch book and two mini pins, one says rar! And the other says I <3 cute things.. Her work is so adorable, it is right up my alley.

With tired feet and empty wallets we headed back to the 501st room to collect the remains of our cupcakes. We had baked 96, and had 24 to take home, not too shabby! All of our ribbons and cookies were long gone. The fundraiser raised $1510 overall. Yay!

Overall, it was a great con. It was the first time I had attended Fan Days. Warren had gone in 2008, but only on Saturday. I think we will definitely attend in the future, I hope to see some of you there too!


 

RYAN-J

TTM AUTOGRAPH MASTER
Totally awesome stories!! Would have loved to seen the Clone Wars 'Table Reading'. You guys scored some great signatures and items!! :D Was very excited to see the part about the Christmas Give-a-ways coming up in a couple of months!! :D Sounds like some cool prizes!

Where did you find the Jabba The Hutt Costume?? That's very creative! Rotta was so cool. :D

RYAN-J
 

IG-PPO

Sith Hamsters Handler
Very nice photos and seems that you had a great time. Last year I was able to attend where I score many autographs from Jewel Staite (Firefly's Kaylee), Erin Gray, a few Clone Wars actors and Mr. Grovy himself Bruce Campbell. Also met up with Brian and Warren. :)
 
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