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INFILTRATING WIZARD WORLD PHILADELPHIA
Jerome Blake Was as busy as the rest of the Star wars guest, with only four of them they were all a hot ticket. I only asked Jerome one question, "Why did they change Hakko's voice in EP3?” His reply was, "It was considered insulting to some of the Asian community and even though GL didn’t mean any offense he thought it best to make him less 'Asian,' so I did not do the voice. You can hardly notice in my opinion, no one really asks me about that (laughter).” We didn’t get to speak with Jeremy Bulloch, because it gets tiring trying to speak to actors for free and with two kids pulling away toward the toys. On passing him I did get a “he’s no good to me dead” off and he smiled at me.
Hasbro, Gentle Giant, Master Replicas and all the big manufacturers all skipped WW Philly again. It’s a big let down because seeing those vendors are killer. Guess we have to save up and hit San Diego or some other toy shows sometime. All in all a good time. Par for Philly shows. PHOTO GALLERY
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With
umbrella at the ready we set of for the city of brotherly love. It
is a 45 minute train ride and hour if you miss the express train.
The kids almost like the train ride as much as the shows. Once we
reach Philly the Wizard World show is located in the Pennsylvania
Convention Center, which happens to be just around the corner
of the train station. You can actually exit the convention center
directly into the train station when leaving the show. Convenient
but walking a few blocks in the city is a nice break from the burbs.
Once
you enter the con center it’s a Jetson escalator ride up one level
to the main floor of the show. Philly has never been a huge show but
the place is alive with fan boy and girl activity. Everyone for the
most part is always happy and friendly. Even Philly's finest the
boys in blue are grinning it up at the geek fest. Once around and
then headlong into the merchant area is how we usually attack the
show with a few stops at the special guest signing areas. Wizards of
the coast had the new Star wars miniature game and were teaching
that and the SW card game for free and giving away promo figures
after completion of the trial.
Not
too many Star Wars celebrities came this year compared to the last
three, but we did have Kenny Baker (R2-D2), Peter Mayhew
(Chewbacca), Jerome Blake (Rune Hakko & a dozen other characters)
and Jeremy Bulloch (the original Boba Fett). Kenny was in a wheel
chair this year and we caught up with him a few times pod racing
around with his wife pushing him through the scalper track. My wife
asked him if he was really as close with C-3PO (Anthony Daniels), as
he was in the movies. He laughed and said, “Almost, but we don’t see
much of each other these days. He doesn’t do many shows you see." I
asked him if he ever had a “accident” in the R2 suit. He gave me a
glance, looked around, and said “I'll never tell.” Good guy that
Kenny Baker. We wish him the best.
Peter
Mayhew was kept fairly busy for this show. He is a convention junky
and its how he makes a living, you can tell because when you talk
with him he keeps eyeing up his price sign in front of him,
sometimes tapping at it. Hey Peter we get it, but I'm just here for
the Troops. We let the rich kids line his pockets. I did get a few
questions off before his Jedi mind powers started to get to me.
We
aren’t big on signatures or the actors so we said hi to a few more
peeps like Lou Ferrigno (Hulk TV) he was very pleasant, real nice
person. There were less Stormtroopers and people dressed up this
year and not one single Sandtrooper, but we did see a few good
costumes and snapped some shots as we could. One guy had some fresh
new Star Wars tattoos, not bad work either, and they included one of
Yoda and one of Maul.
Off
to the toys! I snapped a shot of one of the first Star Wars vendor's
walls we got to. Very over priced figures that still sell in the
stores. The usually menagerie of scalpers all hungry for your money.
There were a few good deals we found though, a lot of $5 boxes and
the like, which are good for us seeing as we open our figures. I
asked about twelve different salesmen what was their hot Star Wars
item this year and all of them, every single one of them, said
statues and busts. No wonder I cant find any to buy. Except for a
few rogue C-3POs there were none to be found. Nice little set up
though and fun to wander around and haggle and browse. We snagged
two Jabba's Palace Lukes for 5 bucks a pop.