Star Wars Fan Days IV - Report

[darthskellington]

This past weekend, I attended Fan Days IV both days and had a blast. I arrived at the new Irving Convention Center about a half hour early on Saturday. The structure is a dirty metal color, and strongly resembles a Sandcrawler. Clearly I’m in the right place. With my Priority pass, I’m quickly ushered inside, where I get to queue up. No sooner do I walk in the door when I run in to Karen and Wayne, friends from Louisiana’s Bast Alpha Garrison. Wayne is dressed as Episode III Anakin, and Karen as Juno Eclipse. We talked for a while waiting for our turn to enter the dealer hall (VIP passes got in a half hour before us). Upon entering the dealer room, I quickly loose sight of Karen and Wayne, and am swept up in the aisles of Star Wars swag.

I made several purchases over the weekend, the first of which was a vintage Die-Cast Y-Wing Fighter, which completes my basic set of Vintage die-cast ships (not counting that TIE Bomber). I also found a bootleg vintage Royal Guard figure from Mexico….quite ugly, but cool at the same time. At one of the last booths I hit, I managed to snag a Star Tours Jedi Training Academy figure pack, something I’d been needing for a couple years now. Along the way I ran into Trent, a friend from Longview, who was also hunting bargains.

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[darthskellington]

Halfway through the dealer room, I noticed the autograph signers along the back wall had virtually no lines, so switched over to autograph hunter mode. I got autographs from Veronica Segura (explody Handmaiden), Jon Berg (ESB special effects) and Alan Flyng (bridge officer on the Executor in ROTJ). Alan bears a more than passing resemblance to Ricky Gervais from the British “Office” and “Extras“. I also got my Clone Wars poster signed by Meredith Salenger (voice of Bariss Offee) and Stephen Stanton (voice of Captain Tarkin). In addition, Rick Fitts, who played Dr. Crusher’s Assistant on Star Trek: The Next Generation and an alien on Voyager, was signing for free, so I snagged a photo from him too. He and Stanton were helping promote donations to the Princess Leah Fund, to help out baby Leah, who was born with a mysterious neurological disorder. Naturally I made a donation. Later in the weekend, I also obtained an autograph from Ed Jones, who did composite photography for ESB and ROTJ.

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[darthskellington]

Before leaving the dealer room, I stopped by Dave Dorman’s booth. He had many beautiful prints for sale, as well as some original artwork. Among his works were several original pencil sketches for the covers of Crimson Empire III, which will soon be hitting stands. I was wearing a brand new Star Wars shirt I’d bought at Target, which I was pretty certain featured Dave’s artwork. After talking about his sketches, I asked him about the shirt. Sure enough, it was his art, taken from the ANH: Special Editions comic covers, and mashed with another painting he did. He had not seen this before, and asked if he could take a picture. I did better than that, and presented him with a shirt for himself. Later in the day, I came back and snagged a Royal Guard print, and Dave made me a special deal on his pencil artwork for Crimson Empire III #3.

 

[darthskellington]

I made some new friends, all of whom were actually in the 501st Legion. I met Scott Rorie, honorary member and artist, whom I bought a cool Royal Guard sketch card from. Kevin “Sarge” whom I purchased a Royal Guard magazine and figurine set from, and Jason “Dash Render”, whose eyes lit up when he spotted my patch jacket from 20 paces away. I traded with both Jason and Kevin for some Royal Guard patches I’d been looking for a while.

Before the day was up, I caught the second half of George Takei’s panel, and then proceeded to get his autograph on my Clone Wars poster (he voiced Lot Durd in an episode). Mr. Takei was a real pleasure to meet, and was very gracious to all his fans. After putting away my purchases and signatures, I suited up in my Royal Guard armor and trooped around for an hour or so, posing for photos.

 

[darthskellington]

After the main event closed down for the day, a contingent of Legion friends all converged on The Fish Shack in Plano, which has excellent margaritas and fish tacos. I met up with Jeff and Amber, who graciously let me crash on their couch that night.

Sunday consisted of more dealer room hunting. I snagged an autograph from Ernie Cline, writer of Fanboys, who has a new book out, soon to be made into a movie. I also ran in to my friend Earnest, who I introduced to the Mando Mercs. He hopes to have some Mando armor soon, and the Mercs kept him for at least 45 minutes, making him try on helmets and blasters. I trooped for the remainder of the day, meeting up with fellow guards Stephen and Daniel. The three of us trooped through the dealer room and took photos with Dave Dorman, along with numerous other attendees and costumers. Dorman took some reference photos of my glaive (the weapon used by the Guards in the Crimson Empire comics). As the day wound down, I headed back up to the 501st room where we took a group photo and helped load up toys. We had done a Toys for Tots toy drive, and ended up with over 300 toys and over $300 in donations. After helping the marines load up their cars with toys, several of us headed over to Boston’s, a pizza/pasta place, for dinner. Then it was back home and back to work.

 

[darthskellington]

A few more images can be seen here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48811827@N00/sets/72157627860057646/

 

[darthskellington]

And today, I was featured in Dave Dorman's blog, along Daniel Quay, and fellow Bothan Spy Stephen Davenport.

http://davedorman.wordpress.com/

 

[darthskellington]

Here's an updated photo of my Clone Wars poster, now signed by 16 people. At Fan Days I added Meredith Salenger (Bariss Offee), Stephen Stanton (Capt. Tarkin) and George Takei (Lot Durd).

 

[Buzz Bumble]

It looks like you had a great time (if expensive).

I've got one of those Y-wings that my grandmother sent me from England when I was little, along with quite a few of the other metal vehicles too ... X-wing, TIE Fighter, etc. but not a TIE Bomber (or a Landspeeder from memory).

I've also got the full set of those DeAgostini magazines with the metal figurines (as well as the previous Fact Files they released). Most of the figurines are nice although some have slightly dodgy paint jobs - the Jabba one is very heavy. They are mostly characters, but also a few vehicles. That Royal Guard issue is No. 18, but there's 60 magazines / figurines in total.

Depending on how busy work gets this week, I might go along to the local Armageddon sci-fi and fantasy expo next weekend, although pitiful by American expo standards. I don't usually bother because they hold it on a long holiday weekend, so it gets too busy (and the parking is {beep}ing expensive in the city centre). But this year it's at a different venue with better parking and is for four days over a normal weekend (thanks to the Rugby World Cup Final being this long holiday weekend), so the Friday and Monday should be quieter with most people still at school / work. There's no Star Wars celebrities coming this year though - Stargate's Amanda Tapping is the biggest name.

 

[darthskellington]

Sound fun anyway. Always great to shop the dealers and see what surfaces.