May 28, 2007
Story by Rod Apel (SoCalRod)

FINAL THOUGHTS ON CELEBRATION IV
Well C4 is over for me and it was a very good time had be all. I enjoyed all the sights, sounds and pageantry with only a one day pass, which kept me on my toes and scrambling to see it all. Ran into a lot of familiar faces including the man himself, not George Lucas, but Chris Spice himself and his two Padawan learners. Nice to meet you finally, Chris. Later ran into Chris' cousin who approached me in my Sandtroopers.com t-shirt. Below is a short "off the cuff" overview of some of the interesting happenings around the convention.

AUTOGRAPH AREA
My, my, has it been thirty years already? A lot of the celebrities and sudo-celebrities signing autographs had changed quite a bit, besides it's been thirty years, while a few look just like they did yester year. Obviously a lot of the characters from Star Wars showed the most wear and tear as they have had the most time to maturate. Even some of the characters from "The Phantom Menace" had grown up and moved along. Most notably Jake Lloyd. Jake "I wouldn't have recognized you without that name tag" Lloyd definitely has been hitting the weights and buffing up. He's now sort of built like those 1995 Hasbro Star Wars action figures with the tiny waists, huge shoulders, and ridiculously large arms. Okay, Jake wasn't that messed up looking, but definitely not the scrawny kid from E1.

I managed to get a personalized autograph from Mayhew, Prowse, Baker and Bulloch. Bulloch was definitely the class of the bunch and actually interacted with me, smiled the whole time, poised for a picture, and small talked. Mayhew and Prowse seemed like they had signed a million times before and just did it to do it. They both shook my head, poised for a photo, and were professional. I guess if I had to sign hundreds and hundreds of auto's over five days I'd probably be the same way. Kenny Baker was under the weather and was only autographing and not personalizing. His line moved ultra slow as he was barely able to sign with small design of his hands and the way he was feeling. Props to Kenny for sticking it out. You can tell he was a little under the weather. As I was waiting I noticed Ray Park. Man, would he have been a good autograph to get. He was all smiles, shaking everyone's hand, personalizing above and beyond the call of duty, standing for photos, and basically the whole nine yards. Way to go, Ray!!!

Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to get Carrie Fisher's or Anthony Daniels' autographs. Their lines were routinely 2-3 hours, and between lunch breaks and other assorted breaks, it wasn't going to get any better. I heard both were very engaging and personable.

THE EXHIBITORS
The exhibitors were other sellers or big companies showing off their offerings or future offerings. As usual Gentle Giant had the biggest crowd as they had the life sized Jabba on display plus Ken "The Elvis Stormtrooper Guy" doing his best Elvis impersonation. Gentle Giant had a lot of cool stuff on display including the new Han statue, blue royal guard statue, and the kneeling Vader statue. They also had the new Tusken Raider and Ackbar mini-busts for all to see as well. Heard a lot of grumbling amongst the crowd about Gentle Giants distribution problems and marketing issues. This seems to becoming a more and more common theme with this company. Hopefully, it gets corrected as they make a top notch product.

Sideshow Collectibles was there as well, and they have to be the most fan friendly company in history. Of course I'm biased as I've had nothing but good experiences with this company. They were handing out gift cards and CDs, and were very helpful in answering my questions. Expect the pre-sale for the 1/6 scale classic Ben June 7th and the pre-sale for the $800 1/4 scale speeder bike with scout June 8th. Still enough time to get that second mortgage.

Hasbro was their with their usual "kiddy collection" plus rehashes upon rehashes, plus just enough cool new stuff to at least warrant a walk through. They had a display of Galactic Heroes. Wow, I never realized they made so many of those tiny characters. Completists beware, this could be what finally forces you into chapter 11. Some of the new 3.75" stuff is worth purchasing. However, it looks like Transformers won't be going anywhere soon, especially with two fronts to market to: Star Wars fans and Transformer movie fans.

Kotobukiya also made an appearance, but a very quiet appearance it was. Their show exclusive holographic Yoda model kit was piled to the rafters and not moving at $60.00. Never did I see more then 4-5 people near the Koto booth. This coupled with the fact I saw a lot of Koto stuff at the show super reduced has me wondering, "Are they next to drop out of the Star Wars world?" They did have their Grievous on display, which was cool, and their knew McQuarrie stuff. Overall, I like Koto and would hate to see them go away as did Medicom some time ago.

MISCELLANEOUS VENDORS
Nikko had their new R2 projector on display, but the associate didn't speak any English when I asked her a question about it and needless to say had difficulty giving me a price point. A company called Comic Images had these super cool Yoda and Chewbacca backpacks for sale for $40.00. Anybody else notice these? I bought the Chewbacca, or should I say pre-ordered the Chewbacca for July delivery. If anybody would have told me I would pre-order a Chewbacca backpack for $40.00 I'd tell them they were crazy, but it was that cool. I also bought a life-sized Yoda stuffed replica from them for $75.00 that was exclusive to the show and limited to 500. Also extremely cool. At Comic-Con they will have an exclusive Chewbacca for sale for $100, so would anybody want to pick one up for me?

May the Force Be With you All!