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MISSION:
INFILTRATE AND CONQUER
I didn’t get to far when I heard someone calling my name, and it was then I met my first contact, James Wark, a.k.a. Icypher from the Sandtroopers forums. We had talked earlier in the week about the rendezvous point and I was able to procure him the newest Target Exclusive Lava figures for supplies. We shot the breeze for a while, went over our manifesto and preceded to conquer Sandtrooper style! His report to follow shortly.
There were also many Q & A sessions with the different guests, Steve Sansweet being one of these. Unfortunately, I was standing in an autograph line when he did his presentation. But I did see him later and introduced myself. He is a nice fellow, but he could never be a stormtrooper. (Aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper?) PHOTO GALLERY
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It
all started on a beautiful Texas morning, sun shining and reflecting
off of the morning dew... a day just right for this mission. We
saddled up our trusty dewback, kicked the dust off of the ol’ boy
and headed north to pillage! Today on my mission, I had two
recruits, my loving wife Amy (sneak peak photo included) and my
nephew Damien. The road was long and hard, but we did not despair.
Actually, we made record time two hours 15 minutes. The show started
at 11am and we walked in at 11:15 and the lines were not long at
first. I will have to say the entry fee and the way things were
handled were a little sloppy. We had our option of General Admission
$10, SpeedPass $20 and VIP Pass $50... what is a SpeedPass? A
special pass sold early to get you in the front of the autograph
lines... well this was good and bad. They never stopped selling
SpeedPasses all day. As a general admission, you could wait in the
lines for over an hour and when you get to the door, new speed
passes would show up and jump ahead, they should have stopped
selling these at some point, but they didn’t... very frustrating.
But, it was an effective way to make more money off of the
collectors! Enough of the bad, time for the good!
After
first entry into the perimeter, we were greeted by none other than
Vader himself with his entourage, a very impressive sight walking
through the dimly lit hallway, almost eerie. My wife and nephew
flipped out and loved it, this was their first time seeing these
cool Troopers first hand. The entry hallway had several different
comic book artists lining both sides of the hall, all showing off
their talents and hawking their goods... many were all too sweet!
The
autograph section started at 12 noon for the big names, to include
Carrie Fisher, Jonathan Frakes, Kenny Baker, Peter Mayhew, Kevin
Sorbo, Marc Singer, Bonnie Piesse, Lar Park Lincoln, Erin Gray, Adam
Baldwin and many others, some today only, some Sunday only. I was
miffed at how this was handled (see above). We finally made it in
and I was able to get Kenny Baker to sign a Silver Edition R2 for
me. He and his wife were very pleasant and accommodated fans at
every turn. I was able to visit with Peter Mayhew for a moment
(already have his autograph, thanks to RJP) and congratulated him on
his new US citizenship. Most of the other celebs were friendly when
you got to visit with them, but some lines were still too long...
then there was Marc Singer. His line was short and my wife had a
crush on him from her younger years, so we visited with him about
Beastmaster and took a couple of photos (the only time you will see
my wife!)
Next
came the Exhibitor Hall where all the regular merchants, business
people and scalpers sold their wares. There was a variety of items
for sale from pictures, to action figures to jewelry to swords...
you name it and it was there. I didn’t see any bargains here like I
did at the Austin Expo, but I’m sure there were some to be found...
but I was on a bigger mission... to meet Miss Carrie Fisher. She had
a very long line, charged a little more for her autograph and would
NOT let you take any photos! Then a fan in a wheelchair could not
get up to the stage where she was signing, so she came to him... and
what a sight. She was less than 15 feet from me and I was able to
snag a quick photo! Then my heart sank as well as my spirit... and
all was to be lost... speed passes had her for the next three hours
and the show was closing in less than four hours. Then a bright
light shined down from above and I saw Trooper Icypher way ahead in
the line. He offered to get my figure autographed for me and mail it
to me this week! What a great Trooper! Even though I did not get to
meet Carrie personally, all was not lost... thanks James!