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SANDTROOPERS INVADE THE EXPO, PART 2 After the breakfast concluded, or actually a little before, we departed and moved to the main area we would set up our temporary HQ for the weekend. Utilizing an area to cover four tables, we set up the outlander club so if you were standing in line for ticket sales you would want to look over and see what was getting everyone’s attention. Dan and Chris also prepared the other end of the table for our customs assault. To top it all off there was a couch nicely positioned within the bunker so my Padawans could take a break when my wife brought them down. My son Tyler took great delight in bringing Mom’s new Darth Vader cookie jar and passing out Dum Dum suckers. Using the phrase “Don’t be a sucker, be a Sandtrooper!” he generously passed out candy to all the kids who stopped by. A combined attack of talent, literature and sweet lollypops, it was now time for me to get into my armor and assist with 501st duties.
After the contest I wandered around and checked out how the family and the others at the booth were holding up. Both Dan and dustrho informed me that it was a success. Many, many people stopped by for pictures, and were passed along the literature we provided to help spread our message. Our target audience was the enormous amount of people who haven’t heard of us, right here in our own backyard. Some were in disbelief after stopping by the Federation Toys booth where they could view the site. I hope we have a flood of new recruits in the days and weeks to come. The day concluded with a charity auction, which consisted of many great prizes the dealers provided. This would be a great revenue booster for the charity, in addition to the breakfast and dinner the Expo was hosting. I was told the auction generated an additional $1600 in addition to what the Breakfast and Dinner made. It was great to see how much busier this show was vs. last year. We rounded out the day providing escort duty to the Star Wars personalities to and from the Q & A sessions, which were host to a capacity filled room. I decided after dragging my wife and three kids and making them attend yet another convention, I gave my tickets away for the dinner and headed out of the hotel to find a relaxing dinner at a Pizza Hut with my family. It was a nice needed break, and while I was sure the dinner would be better food, I had more to enjoy at this table. After an entire day of nothing short of madness, we headed back to the room and I met with friends downstairs after the dinner had concluded. I met with forum member Scalperhunter1 (Ron Lanning) and his wife who made the venture from Iowa. It was really nice to sit back and have drinks with some of the guests that seemed to be having the best time of the day! It was a delight to see Ray Park take the mic at one point in the evening and the party that was in the room will never forget his rendition what we’ll call “Sith Blues”! Exercising good sense I decided to pack it in shortly after 1 a.m. and headed back to my room. While Sunday didn’t pack the same crowd as Saturday, most shows I’ve ever been to seem to be like this. It is perhaps the best chance to score with a dealer who doesn’t want to lug something back home. I donned my Sandtrooper armor and made tracks around the event a few times and took some more photos. Sandtrooper Dan packed up the bunker and we were all delighted dustrho got the first report live the day before. This was really a great show in the sense you could take time and talk to the actors. It was busy, but not too busy.
We had a wonderful time and would like to thank Paul and Dianne of the Chicagoland Entertainment Expo for helping out Sandtroopers.com and allowing us to be a part of this event. The Midwest Garrison for deploying the Troops. I’ve said this long before I joined, these people make the shows. Jim and Beth at Federation Toys, the local Rebel Legion and Tom Jozwiak for bringing out his life-sized R2-D2 it was a huge impact. We look forward to the show next year. United We Find! PHOTO GALLERY
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Falling
into my alter ego of TK 7306, I had great anticipation if my repairs
would indeed hold up, at event I’d be at for two days. With a little
help from my good friend TK 737 I was ready to go in record time.
Another highlight from the event was an R2-D2 Droid built by Tom
Jozwiak of Bolingbrook, IL. I have seen some pretty decent R2 units
after attending both CII and III and to say this one wasn’t among
the elite would be a vast understatement. Complete with all the
sound effects we all know and love, music and every other
characteristic of R2, kids that were waiting in the long line for
the show to open at least got a little bit of entertainment. After
stating, “This is NOT the Droid I’m looking for”, I moved along into
the main dealers room and autograph hall.
There
were quite a few other members from the 501st and Rebel Legion that
showed up for the costume contest. I was proud to be selected as one
of the first winners! With a couple other Sandtroopers that were not
dirty, it would be a legitimate guess it was the “battle damage”
that won me my prize. While I still have a couple imperfections in
my armor, it continues to be a work in progress that I love near as
much as colleting action figures and other memorabilia. There were
quite a few Troopers, a couple of Sandtroopers, a Biker Scout, Boba
Fett, Mara Jade, Princess Leia Bespin and a young man who did a
pretty good job with a Pod Racing Anakin Skywalker.
I
was really impressed with Daniel Logan taking the time to actually
draw a Boba Fett helmet and personalize the hell out of my boys
t-shirts. It was really interesting to talk to Doug Wangler about
the character Quinlan Vos who remains to be one of the more
intriguing characters that were unseen in the prequels except in
books. Kenny Baker was very kind and Peter Mayhew showed off one of
his prized possessions he got in Japan on a tour, a Silver Chewbacca
ring that was sized to his Wookiee sized hand! It was simply
amazing. C. Andrew Nelson really enjoyed getting his feet wet in the
convention world and I was told by an operative he is really looking
forward to doing something like this again. Mary Oyaya and Orli
Shoshon and Paul Blake all were a delight to speak with. Even being
hampered with a cold, Orli was great with the fans and didn’t miss a
single autograph. Mary had an excellent photo of Kashyyyk in her
brief appearance in
RotS,
but I really enjoyed seeing how great the guests were with kids.
Paul Blake was so cool once again. I met him briefly in 2002 at
Wizard World and agreeing with the fans with his Han Shot First
t-shirt, I have to say it was truly amazing to have Greedo tell me
how much better the 501st Stormtrooper costumes are made vs. what
was actually used in the films. “They just fell apart everywhere,
all of the time”! Paul brought his teenage son with him who had
never seen America before, and I believe he decided he wanted to
live here before the weekend was over. I could only say if you think
Chicago is beautiful, wait until you see the rest of the country. 