August 10, 2007
Story by Chris Spice (Darth Spice)
Photos by Chris Rhoads (dustrho)
 

DAY 1: ENTER SANDMAN
The first day of official operations got off to a bit of a slow start, or fashionably late but in any case the ground assault was under way by noon. With special guest Anthony Forrest, we arrived at the convention center around 10 a.m. to be greeted by the Sandtrooper team of Dustrho, Boba Binks and Recon Sgt. With our Imperial Disposal Unit in place and proper introductions it was time to get the party under way. I donned the persona of TD 7306 and made way to seek out some of the fellow members of the 501st Legion. The ground assault is simple, we punch your badge and you get a ticket entered. If you would like to partake in operation mercy mission, additional tickets can be purchased for fifty cents. All proceeds will benefit the Sturge-Weber Foundation. The first prize was a Quinlan Vos & Villimar Grah 2-pack. However with Master Vos nearby, we escorted the first Sandblast winner for his action figure to be personalized by Doug Wangler himself. It was so cool to see the first winner be a kid, his eyes were the size of teacup saucers. It was truly sandtastic.

After the first announcement the operation seemed to pick up a little bit of steam. Forum members Jedi Scholar 8, Sandtrooper Dennis, and even our old friend Wedgewannabe stopped by the bunker and paid us a visit! Agent Twenny returned with General J to also aid the Empire as needed. So there was a nice blend of members and former staff that would equate to some great conversation. After a good few hours of walking the convention floor I decided it was time to suit down and give the team at the bunker a much-needed lunch break. We blasted off several other prizes including an R2-KT (donated by staffer Longshot) and a 12-inch Plo-Koon courtesy of Federation Toys. Another highlight of the day had to be Dave Dorman’s appearance at the Federation booth. There were a few Celebration prints on display, as I simply can’t get over how spectacular these pieces turned out. You can definitely feel the force with one glance.

It was an incredible day, a little after 2 o’clock it was time for a lunch break. Once again, I had some pretty incredible company in the form of Anthony Forrest. We had quite an interesting conversation. When George Lucas asked him to play the Sandtrooper while filming Star Wars a new hope, he thought not too much of it. How something in the moment can seem so insignificant but come back years later to be very important factors in your everyday life. I could only compare it to six years ago when a young man named Spiceowan thought writing an ebay column for a little outpost called Sandtroopers.com wasn’t such a big deal. We headed back to the bunker as many fans stopped by the table with action figures to sign or some of the great photos he brought with him. As the show winded down I could see the rigors of a red-eye flight were catching up with our guest, and after wrapping up we headed out into the sunset. Like two old Troopers on a Dewback, as I just couldn’t get over how surreal this experience was. I can’t wait until tomorrow as I have a serious plan in store for our weekend ops as we look to unload some of the heavy hardware of the ground assault. Like Hannibal, I love it when a great plan comes together. United in our attack, United We Find!

PHOTO GALLERIES
To see the different photo galleries click on the links below.