Saturday morning, I woke up around 8 or so and decided not to head down to the con until after the line had progressed into the building. I figured Heather and I might have a little breakfast at a sit down place first, then head to the convention after people had entered. We ended up taking our sweet time getting ready, and then ran into Beth in the lobby, so that idea kind of went by the wayside.
IHOP had a long line, so we ended up going to the “Famima” store for breakfast around 9:50am and having some of their breakfast sandwiches again. One of my local collecting friends who has an associate’s badge called me to tell me that she had scored me the Yoda and R2 maquette. She said that even though she got in before the public did, she was still almost denied the opportunity to purchase this maquette because so many exhibitors were already in line and Gentle Giant had turned the line around yet again. I am thrilled to get it, but frankly, I think that’s the only way it was ever going to happen for me. Gentle Giant has no idea how to handle the distribution of exclusives and could really take a cue from Sideshow.
After we got to the con, we jumped into the Robot Chicken panel line with Adam and his friend (also named Heather). It was very sunny and they were lining up people outside, so my black t-shirt wasn’t exactly the best attire for the next 90 minutes we spent out there. It was nice to get some sunshine though. Here's the line:
And here we are:
Eventually, they filed us into the theater and the show started about 30 minutes late. Seth Green, Matt Seinriech (sp?), Breckin Meyer plus many of the writers, producers and other staff were there answering questions and showing clips from the Robot Chicken Star Wars special that’s coming in June. It was really entertaining, but ended far too early.
After that panel was over, Heather and I jumped into a collector’s panel (tail end of the selling tips panel) where we found out they had already given two coins out that morning. C-3PO and the Death Star Trooper. We watched the Large Focus collecting panel which had no coin, but was incredibly informative for me, and then we watched the Cast and Crew items which had a Luke coin.
We left the panels after this to jump into the line for the Robot Chicken Toys and Sets panel, which ended up being really cool. Adam lined up with us, but got to sit in the VIP section thanks to a badge from some of his friends on the Toys and Sets panel. Seth Green sat in front of us with his two body guards, and answered questions from time to time. They showed how they made the toys (which weren’t real Star Wars action figures), how they made sets and answered just a ton of questions. I really enjoyed it. Took some awesome pictures of some of the toys that will be featured in the upcoming episode:
A really cool Chewbacca
Last but not least, the Robot Chicken himself, in his Vader suit:
After this panel, we went back to the collecting room to see the Hilarious Star Wars items panel, which was really funny, then stayed for the trivia contest. It was kind of a cool system. Everyone who was playing stood up, then they asked questions, which you’d raise or lower your hand to answer. If you were wrong, you had to sit down. I made it through all of the True and False questions without getting eliminated, mostly because I was in the back of the room and could follow the consensus of raised hands. The next round was multiple choice and I was eliminated on my first question, which was about trading cards (I don’t collect em). We did get a Jawa coin at this panel though, and because I traded an extra R2 for a 3PO and my extra Luke for an Obi-Wan, I’m building a pretty good set here so far.
As soon as I was knocked out of the collector’s contest, Heather and I walked very briskly back to the Sheraton, where we proceeded to quickly get ready for the 501st group photo at 8pm. Just when we arrived back in the room, Jim called to let me know he had won the collector’s contest! I was thrilled for him and really bummed that we didn’t get to see it, but apparently he won some cool prizes.
It was 7 when we arrived and that was enough time for Heather to iron her officer’s costume, do her make-up and get suited up, while I unpacked my armor, shaved and got dressed in my Biker Scout outfit. We hit the lobby by 7:40 and took a taxi back to the convention to save time.
When we arrived, we hurried into the hall to find that they were already lining people up (15 minutes early), so we split up and joined our respective gatherings of similar costumes. I called everyone and had them spread the word that we wanted to do a big Northwest photo after the Legion photo was done.
Jason called me from the convention lobby to tell me that he and Julie had arrived and that they would meet us after the photo. I decided to give my Carrie Fisher tickets to Adam so I could hang out with all of our friends after the photo shoot instead of being stuck in a panel. Lining up for the photo took forever, but eventually…they got it and we scattered back up to the lobby. I had lost my glove, but one of my fellow scouts brought it to me (gotta love the 501st).
In the lobby we met up with Adam to give him the tickets, and then met Brandon, Walter, Victoria, Misty, Badger, Bethany, B eth, John, Lisa, Montine and her friend Chris. There were a couple of people who were busy elsewhere, but we had a pretty good gathering even if it wasn’t complete. The group of us went out front where we met Jason and Julie, and then we took a few pictures together. Here they are, courtesy of Jason:
Everyone suited up:
The whole crew:
After the pictures, we milled around a bit before heading to the Sheraton to change.
It took at least an hour for everyone to assemble again, but the group of us eventually made it to IHOP (of all places) where we were joined by Steve, Katie, Ryan, Deanna and a few other Seattle area folks. We took up 4 or 5 tables and a booth and somehow they managed to serve all of us in pretty close intervals.
After our late dinner, 5 or 10 of our group decided to call it a night while the rest of us decided to continue on. We walked Lisa home to the Marriott, and then went to a little bar back in our next of the woods, where we stayed until last call. Afterwards, we headed back to the Sheraton where we saw Wyatt standing outside. Turns out he had his helmet and his nose accidentally busted by someone’s tripod that evening, but apparently he was able to fix both of them.
Jason was stranded in downtown LA without a car to get back to his friend’s house, so we let him crash in our room. He’s sleeping in a couple of chairs while I type this. We’ll probably all get up and head out sometime soon. Sunday awaits!
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