Star Wars Celebration Blog 5/26

The logo's a bit outdated, but then, so am I.

When you're as tired as I am right now, having gotten up around six-thirty and walked for miles in and around a convention hall, it's less than desirous to have to write fiction at the end of the day.  Normally, I wouldn't even care whether I wrote or not, considering walking around could totally count as exercise (Marshal remarked that with is Stepcounter app, he could find out exactly how far he walked today, and I told him, "Oh, I bet it's miles and miles."

Marshal had this idea to get up at six, which is actually sleeping in for that guy, but Ryan and I are night owls (maybe fruit bats), and I wasn't looking forward to it.  But I'd awakened so many times in the night coughing that I welcomed the dawn.  We got out of the room before seven, and headed over to Anaheim.  

The first place we parked was free for the first twenty minutes, but anything past twenty-one and it was thirty-five dollars, which was worse than finding out you're adopted.  We'd stopped to get our wristbands and Ryan's pass from Will-Call, but couldn't quite make it out before the deadline, so that's where we were stuck.*

Because of COVID, they had this deal where every attendee had to either show proof of vaccination or a negative test, and you got a wristband when you showed that.  The wristbands had a long tightening end, and could not be removed.  But both Ryan and I pulled on that end the first day, making it insanely tight, so you could go back there and they'd slice yours off and give you a new one, then remove the tightening end (they'd realized the problem after hundreds of children had cut off their circulation that first day).

I'd never been to the Anaheim Convention Center, and it was huge and clean, with plenty of picturesque spots for photos, including a tiered section out in front where various costumed folk gathered throughout the weekend for pictures with their groups.  Honestly, if you had missed out on tickets for one of the days (as many folks did), you could hang out there and see thousands of cosplayers for free.

Because we were hours early, we got the idea to walk to the local Denny's, but we took a wrong turn and walked--no exaggeration--more than a mile out of our way.  To his credit, Marshal didn't complain about my brilliant idea to take the convention center's rear entrance, rather than walk all the way back to the street (which would've saved us, oh, five or six days' walking - whoops).  At Denny's, I was pretty ravenous, figuring it might be my only meal of the day.  It shocked me how much it was, though, unless I was paying for all three of us, and I pouted for a while about that (especially when Ryan said he was starving two hours later**).

They'd had a lottery system set up for the most popular panels, and Marshal had won the lottery for the first one, and since my pass was linked with his (I had done it before entering the lottery), I knew I'd get in too.  But I didn't.  They said only Marshal had won, despite him being able to get in four additional guests with his lottery ticket*** and Ryan and I got in the Stand-by line.  Eventually, Marshal's group was let in, and our line was told we would not get in, despite Marshal texting that there were tons of available seats.  In retrospect, we should've gone to one of the other rooms showing the same panel, or hung out by the doors, saying "Our friend's in there and has empty seats next to him."  But we didn't understand how clueless the line-managing volunteers would be.

I pouted for a few hours.  Ryan and I walked around the vendor floor, which was unimpressive (that's not true, there were various artists there showing off their work, and one flat-out changed the subject when I told him I wanted to buy one of his prints ("Yeah, I brought a few of those, but let me tell you what they did to me . . .").  I'd have blown a hundred dollars on it, but he didn't want my money (my nose is pretty big, I get that), and I bought another expensive print from a different (less-talented) artist.

One of the booths, Dorkside Toys, was selling action figures for retail price (and actually selling a couple of them for less than retail).  But that was because they are a store that gets them at a wholesale price . . . but it still doesn't explain why they wouldn't mark them way the hell up to sell to collectors.  I spoke to Robo, an online personality I follow, and asked him if they'd be even cheaper on Sunday, and he said his boss wanted to get rid of everything, so as not to have to pack it all up again, but I still bought four figures from him then.****

They had a cool photo-op section with various costumes on display, as well as a full-scale TIE Fighter.  It had a line to take pictures in front of, but as I waited, two costumed girls stood under it and began to tongue-wrestle.  That was good enough for me.  Is ANYTHING good enough for you?

Almost all the vendors had overpriced Star Wars junk, but it was selling like crazy, which is to be expected*****, but only the Dorkside booth was selling stuff for fairly cheap, and they probably made five times what the other booths made.  The Kotobukiya booth had a great white costume Boba Fett statue that I bought one of (it was one per customer per day), but was never able to get a second one to resell (I'll probably sell off the one I got, since I never do anything with them). 

There was also a new toyline on display of Star Wars ships, which will be in scale with each other (for the first time), and seem pretty cool, but also aimed at children (which is probably smart), and my cousin vowed to buy most of them (we'll see what he says this fall when they're in stores).

Eventually, Marshal came out and I stood in line with him, talking about what he had seen.  He'd gotten a free poster (for the Cassian Andor show), and talked about seeing John Williams and Harrison Ford, and held up a sparkly wristband that meant he was invited to see the first two episodes of "Obi-Wan Kenobi" that night in an exclusive screening.  I was happy for him, but not really.

There was a mask policy in force the whole time, and while it was a pain, I understood (and it would've been more bearable had I not been coughing and blowing my nose half the day).  But there were also attendees that not only took their masks down, but didn't seem to have any with them, and I think I remember only twice hearing employees tell people to get their masks back on.  Of course, literally a quarter of the attendees had Mandalorian, Clone, or Stormtrooper masks on, which I suppose makes it easier.

Wow, the cosplay was more impressive than anything I've ever seen before, including San Diego Comic Con (although in its defense, you see a lot more hot chicks walking around in sexy outfits, probably because they're paid to do that), with entire legions of the Emperor's best troops marching around with their fans.  I took pictures of a few of the most elaborate ones, but there were hundreds I never saw which were probably just as cool.

Eventually, the guys got hungry again, and I kicked myself for not bringing a soda along in my backpack, like I try to do every time I go to a convention, conference, or movie shoot.  That afternoon, Ryan and I went to a Target down the road and bought some Diet Doctor Pepper, which I made last the rest of the weekend.

I'm going to skip ahead and mention that we got in a slow-moving line to see the efforts of various droid designers from across the country, and I was impressed by all the variations you could make of Artoos and BB-8s.  This is something that Marshal has wanted to do for years, but alas, he was unwilling to sell his youngest child on the black market to be able to afford to pursue the hobby.

You weren't supposed to touch anything in any of the exhibits, but this one was so unguarded that, yes, I took the opportunity to lick a Gonk Droid.

There was a fully animatronic C-3PO that I could've stared at for hours, and fans' self-made mouse droids, astromechs, treadwells, BB-units, and an EV-9D9.

Dude.

K-2So what?

Of the four days, this was the one where I went to the fewest panels, but that was mostly because I wanted to look around and, let's face it, they wouldn't let me into any.

My favorite costume of the day was a guy who looked like a better-than-screen-accurate Bossk, and we got a photo of him putting me in a headlock.  I would LOVE to have a costume just like that, as the Bossk mask and gloves I currently own are made for fans seven feet tall and above.

I mean, check out his feet!

Eventually, it was time for Marshal to get in line to watch "Obi-Wan," and though the volunteer I asked said no one without sparkly wristbands would be allowed in, I suspect I could've gotten in to see it, if I'd really, really tried.

Regardless, Disney+ decided to release "Obi-Wan Kenobi" a couple of hours early, so we sat down to watch it just as Marshal was being let out of his screening.  We told him we'd pick him up, but he was going to walk back to Denny's, eat, and we'd get him there (he was going to take an Uber, but his phone was dying, and we were willing to get him anyway).  That gave us time to watch most of the first episode, leave, pick him up, and come back to the show before it got too late.  

We finished both episodes "Obi-wan Kenobi" tonight, despite my insistence hours earlier that I was NEVER going to watch it, as an eff you to the Star Wars Celebration.  The show wasn't bad, but didn't really speak to me, except for the scenes with Bail Organa and ten year old Princess Leia.  I'll probably talk about that later, but boy, this blog post is getting out of hand, and will probably get published a full week late (or worse).

I was worried that my legs would cramp during the night, so I took some painkillers in addition to NyQuil, and being exhausted helped me sleep the best of all the nights, not moving until the next morning.

Writing or Exercise: Writing

*There had been a Facebook group you could join of convention attendees, and it turned out to be a lifesaver, as other fans explained how to get certain things, where to find the panels, and where the cheapest place to park was (it was twenty dollars a day, and only slightly less convenient than where we'd paid $35).

**And two hours after that.  And two hours later.

***Some poor bastard online had said, "I have FIVE children, what the spank am I supposed to do?!?"  To which, naturally, the answer was, "Give your wife a break and wear a condom, you randy bastard."

****And on Sunday, the prices were actually the same (and two of the figures that had been $15 on Thursday were now $20), so I'm glad I did.

*****Being around people who love (and are talking constantly) about Star Wars is infectious, and you end up wanting to buy stuff that you'd never want on your own.  I imagine it's how mobs are formed.