Dan Starkey may not be a household name, but to Doctor Who fans, he's been integral to the portrayal of the Sontaran race in the last few seasons. He's most known for his role as Strax nowadays. But he started off as Sontaran Commander Skorr in 2008 in the episode "The Sontaran Stratagem". Then was cast as Commandar Jast in "The End of Time: Part 2" with David Tennant. Then finally coming back as Strax in "A Good Man Goes to War" with Matt Smith as the Doctor. This would be his iconic role in Doctor Who and the one now many rumor and fans want as a spin-off with Strax, Jenny and Madame Vastra. More on that later...
photo courtesy of BBC
So at the last minute, seeing a tweet from the Nerdist, Chris Hardwick, last Tuesday I was able to meet the amazing Dan Starkey!
He was in town for that Friday's, WhoYork event signing and q&a. I hadn't realized not only was he in town for the whole week prior to, but also had an interview and live podcast planned with the Comic Book Live crew. Whom, honestly I hadn't really heard of before since I don't listen to many podcasts.
Either way, I was eager to see Dan. So, I called my friend and told him to drop what he was doing, we were going to meet Strax!
Soooo glad I did. The podcast gang was so much fun! So funny. And they interviewed Dan. There was only a handful of us in the audience. So it was nice to be able to talk to Dan after the podcast and get a pic with him.
Because we asked questions to Dan, my friend and I won a stack of comics from the group (Thank you!) And then my friend won for best question, a superhero walking tour in the city. Sweet!
But back to Dan... He explained how in the beginning of being asked to be a Sontaran how he went into the audition as a normal actor, using his normal voice and acting skills. But they wanted something more "alien" so he went with the voice we hear today.
He also explained how the makeup process is for him. It's several hours of prosthetic being placed on his entire head. He says it's like a giant thumb with a hole for the face! HA! Dan is hilarious. But it does go all the way down to his shoulders. (see pic below) He has about seven inches of the prosthetic over his ears so he can't hear much. Which not only proves challenging to hear his directions and cues from other actors and the director but also to know how loudly he is speaking for his own part.
A pic of Dan inside his "thumb" costume.
Dan mentioned that the actress who plays Madame Vastra, a lizard-like creature also has the same problem, though, her prosthetic isn't quite as thick so she can hear a bit more than he can. But they both get into the chair a few hours before anyone else needs makeup to have their prosthetics put on. Dan's learned to meditate and even fall asleep as the makeup people slap on the glue and makeup for his character because he's so used to it now.
Dan and his alter ego Strax
Since the podcast was also mostly about comics, Dan was asked if he read comics as a kid growing up in London since nerdom wasn't that prevalent there. But he did say he did read a few comics over time but not a lot.
Dan has heard the fans wanting a spin-off series with Strax, Madame Vastra and Jenny but there are no confirmed talks or anything from the BBC and he hasn't been asked to do anything else with Strax at the moment, but fans will keep hoping... He did say if it ever happened, he believes it would be well-received.
Madame Vastra, Strax and Jenny
So then I saw Dan again on Friday night, at the aforementioned WhoYork event. It started with a nice long q&a with Dan where he discussed the obvious prosthetic process again and what it was like to be Strax. He talked about the audition process as well. Once the questions got a little looser, Dan laughed and made more jokes. Even to the point of singing holiday tunes as Strax, to which we all said we'd buy our copies that day!! It was hilarious. Here's some video to prove it! The video is dark, apologies. But you can at least listen to it.
video of Strax/Dan Starkey singing Christmas carols. Sorry it's so dark.
Dan with our host Barnaby who runs WhoYork events in NYC
Dan talked about his time on Sarah Jane Adventures and being around the wonderful and professional Elizabeth Sladen to which we all tipped our invisible hats to at the mention of her name. (I almost want to say that last part like River Song/Alex Kingston did when she talked about the Doctor in "A Good Man Goes to War")
He also discussed ripping his rubber pants of the Sontaran outfit (hey, that's what he calls them! haha) He took great long strides as Strax but that proved to be a disaster at one point when the crew quickly stopped the scene and the makeup and prosthetic folks whisked him away to patch up his crotch area where the rubber pants suit had ripped.
You can find Dan on Wizards and Aliens now, which he plays a hobgoblin. I need to check out this series still. He wishes one day the world will know who he is by playing a human or at least someone with his own face and body. But for now he's ever so grateful for all the press as Strax and the doors Doctor Who has opened for him.
And lastly, here's me and Dan! Thanks for a great week Dan! Hope to see you again soon!
As per Playbill.com, the TKTS booth in Times Square will now offer a 7-day fast pass for returning customers.
The TKTS 7-Day Fast Pass permits TKTS patrons to
return to the discount ticket booth within seven days of their TKTS
purchase and walk up to Window #1 with their TKTS ticket stub, avoiding
the longer lines at peak hours.
"All you have to do is bring your ticket stub to
Window #1, within seven days of that ticket's date, and you may
purchase full- or discount-priced tickets to the available Broadway or
Off-Broadway shows of your choice. TDF feels that this will help
visitors who are in town for a limited period of time enjoy more theatre
during their trip and save some of their time for more sightseeing."
This sounds like fantastic news as the lines for TKTS booth during peak hours can be pretty long. It moves for the most part but it can be daunting. Now I wonder how long the window #1 line will be tho--if this will really create a fast pass for returning patrons or not. Window #1 is mostly used to shows marked as plays only and doesn't get used as often as a line by itself--instead the normal musicals line usually gets bumped to window #1 quite often. Time will tell!
For awhile now I've been wanting a Tardis hoodie. But any that are on the market are not what I want. Some have lettering on the sleeves which is cool but not practical for me as I usually end up rolling the sleeves a bit (I'm petite) or the design on the front isn't exactly how I want it to look and some really are just too dark to even almost notice it's the Tardis and some are a pullover hoodie not a zipup hoodie. So I decided to make my own.
I sped things up to make this hoodie in time for a cosplay contest the following weekend.
It took me awhile to find the tardis blue hoodies I wanted. Usually it was the wrong color or cost way more than I wanted to spend on a plain blue hoodie. (Seriously? 50 bucks for a plain hoodie?? do you think we are rich??)
Thanks to Old Navy though, I finally found what I was looking for. One hoodie that was traditional fleecey sweatshirt material for the colder months and then found one more "me" that was like a t-shirt material, thinner and better suited for the occasional chilly summer nights/air-conditioned restaurants and such.
For this project I only did the lighter hoodie since it is a summer costume event I'm attending. I'll work on the heavier hoodie later on.
Most of the time working on this, I left the hoodie zipped up. It just kept things in line with one another and made sewing easier.
First, I took the black cotton fabric and measured and cut that out to be at the top of the hoodie and span across to the sleeve seams.
Then using a flat-iron, yes you heard me, a flat-iron, like you use for straightening hair, I creased my seam lines into the fabric. This was actually much easier then getting out the full iron so I could actually see of the seams being pressed were correct or not and correct it on the spot rather than notice after ironing.
Once I did this, I pinned the entire strip to the hoodie. I left the middle across the zipper for now so I could always adjust the second side once the first side was sewed in place. Things shift no matter how much you pin and the fabric stretches as you sew sometimes. So this made life easier later to leave the whole fabric strip on top as one whole piece.
pinned he fabric then cut the middle so it lined up as much as possible
After sewing the first half box onto the hoodie by hand, I then carefully cut the fabric where the zipper was. I then used the extra fabric now created, to tuck under each side to have another seam without the raw edge. Then continued sewing that last side.
top strip is sewn in place now
Sewed the second half of the black fabric. I did notice the second panel was off a little. I think the fabric stretched when I was sewing it. Which is to be expected. But it gives it the charmed look now. hehe
Then with the white fabric, using the flat-iron again, I ironed my seams into it. After doing on, i carefully folded over the second window panel so the size of the fabric matched the first one.
Once done, I then pinned only one window to sew, this way I wouldn't keep sticking myself with the straight pins of the window not being sewn. And again, doing it one at a time will help me adjust the second window panel better.
first window panel pinned in place
Sewed the first panel on and then did the same with the second making sure it all lined up with the first panel. This was all eyeballing it but one could measure or take a straight edge to make sure it all lined up right.
first window panel sewed on. second window panel pinned.
Once I got all that done, the main pieces were now in place.
all pieces sewn into place now.
Now I had to iron-on the letters for Police Box. Again, I just eyeballed
the spacing and bottom edge of letters, which the C in "police" it off.
And the B in "Box" is askew. But oh well. I'm ok with it.
Letters ironed on.
I bought Crayola fabric markers to write in the "public call" part. Though I thought about leaving it off. Since the iron-on letters looked so clean, writing in the other part might look weird. And I was kinda right. But it's done.
I had to go over the writing soooo many times because of the black fabric and how it just drank up the ink. This was in the instructions so I was prepared but I really needed to do it more times than I thought possible. You then need to heat set it when you are done. No where on the Crayola box does it tell you that it might change colors once you do this. Sigh. I had a nice bright white lettering that turned gray once I heat set it. So I went over it again with the white fabric marker but I haven't heat set it again, as I'm afraid it won't take again.
Process of going over the letters over and over and over again.
This was how bright it was before I heat-set the Crayola letters.
This was after I heat-set it. The letters dulled out to a gray.
Then to finish, I put very thin Tardis blue ribbon on the windows to create the panes of glass. Make sure to use a fabric glue that is washable with the garment later.
Adding the ribbons to make the windows.
Windows done.
And this is the finished product! I am very proud of myself despite a few minor hiccups like lining things up (the windows are actually lined up perfectly with one another!)
George Takei wrote a review for a portable/foldable grappling hook on Amazon. Did you even know you could buy a grappling hook online??? I've pasted below the review, but you can look at here for yourself, too.
While traveling to the recent Osaka Ninja-world Annual Gala and Silent
Auction, I decided not to check a bag. After all, my mask, robe, and
slippers neatly fit into my pink Hello Kitty knapsack, cinched tight
across both shoulders. I don't know why I decided to bring my Ninja
Folding Grappling Hook, or why I thought I could walk through security
with it. First mistake.
"What is that?" demanded the TSA agent,
who looked remarkably like Nikki Minaj. Perhaps it was because she
appeared well prepared to cast ample "shade" my way.
"It's a grappling hook. Haven't you ever seen one?" Second mistake.
"You can't carry weapons on board," she intoned, gesturing to the prohibited list, then inspecting a chipped nail.
"It's
not a weapon, and grappling hooks aren't on this list," I pointed out,
in my good natured tone. Third mistake. "Aerosols, oxygen tanks, box
cutters, but no grap--"
"You'll have to check it, grandpa," she interrupted, her head tipped to one side, a challenge. "No exceptions."
The
woman in front of me gave me a sympathetic look. She apparently was
trying to bring on a dozen Russian nesting dolls, which were being
opened one-by-one by an increasingly incredulous agent.
I
understood that I'd have to take matters into my own hands. I retreated
from the line, then found an empty stall in a nearby restroom. From my
HK knapsack I removed my approved ninja attire, then located an air duct
by removing a single ceiling tile. (This doesn't just work in
movies--it's actually a known thing.)
The duct led me to a Jamba
Juice not far from the security area. I dropped down behind the counter
unseen, then slipped past a family from Topeka with a single "shhhh!" to
my lips and a toss of an orange to the overweight 10-year old son. "Eat
this instead," I suggested to the bewildered lad.
Slipping along
the sheer wall of the secure area (yes, sheer, F you, I'm a ninja), I
spied a support beam high above on the other side, perfect for my
grappling hook. I created a distraction by releasing two mice into the
line. (This is also a known thing.) "Nikki" seemed particularly
distraught by the mice ploy, shrieking "Lord, oh Lord, oh Lord!!" to my
deep satisfaction. During the pandemonium, I swung unseen, as ninjas
will, over the security area.
Where do I even begin? Man of Steel was not a great film to me. I wanted to like it much more but I just didn't.
The one main thing I loved, was Lois Lane. She was the intelligent, bold, caring and daring journalist and woman you wanted to see on screen for once. Not a quimbling, bumbling idiot who only wanted to get into Superman's undies.
I am not totally sold on Amy Adams perse, who plays the almost-fearless Lois Lane. She is stereotyped into playing the damsel in distress or princess role. So seeing her play this was a bold choice and she did well for what she was given. There was still something missing in her performance though and I can't quite put my finger on it.
I did see some good nods to people like Pete Ross, Lana Lang and even
Lexcorp. Laurence Fishbourne plays Perry White pretty on-par with what
we have seen and know about White.
Henry Cavill really does nail the look and for the most part, personality of Superman and Clark Kent. He looks the part, much the way Brandon Routh did in Superman Returns. He played the angst when needed, which is most of the film, and he played the much-needed Superman just as easily.
The problem though is how Clark/Superman was written. I think for the most part, Clark was written as we all know Clark to be- sweet, understanding, loving and an honorable man. Though he was written to be what seemed to be much more angsty than usual. It wasn't as bad as watching a teenager brood the entire film, it never crossed that line, but it could have easily if gone a different way. But we see Clark being a loner with fake identities for what feels like the first forty minutes of the film. It's dragged on too long and seems like a worthless payoff for when Lois tries to find out about him.
Lois does try to find out about Clark early on and finds out way more about him than in previous incarnations of movies, tv shows and cartoons. Basically she finds out where Clark came from pretty early in the film and then knows who Superman is the rest of the film. This is definitely different then other media we've seen about their history together.
The beginning of the film starts with us on Krypton. It's an alien planet to us and it definitely felt like someone watched the movie Alien while designing the ships, Krypton and all the tech Krypton has. Everything was slick, black, moved organically and had a lot of blue lights. The implosion of the planet is already happening. Jor-El is trying to consult with the counsel to inform them of their poor decisions. He eventually is pleading to let him send off their son to some outer reaches of the galaxy when he is interrupted by General Zod who plans to take over. Drunk with power, Zod and Jor-El fight inside Jor-El's home as Lara is trying to send Kal-El off the planet. Pet peeve here, they changed the deaths of Jor and Lara. They do not die in each others arms like they should have. I was very disappointed in that history change.
Zod and his rebel gang are captured and sent to the phantom zone - which in this film, reminded me of Star Trek 2009 film when the Romulen's octopus-like ship goes through the wormhole. That's almost exactly what this scene looked like.
Much of the film is done in a lot of flashbacks. They lingered too much on each flashback. It made the storyline and movie slow. Along with the flashbacks were all the draggy angst scenes of each lonely job Clark had as he ran away from himself.
I realized later that the whole film was really about the fathers. Jor-El's fight with Zod, Pa Kent's teachings toward Clark. How each lived and died and the lessons they left behind. They changed Jonathan Kent's death to be something that technically Clark could have saved him vs a heart attack that Clark honestly could not have prevented or helped with much. And that felt really wrong.
In keeping with the fathers-movie theme, we see that Clark or Kal-El is really just being motivated to fight Zod because of Jor-El. Its as if Kal-El is just a pawn in Jor-El's quest to bring down Zod, even though Jor-El is technically dead. Another point, instead of just being a guiding factor or a normal hologram, Jor-El is trapped in a Kryptonian hard-drive and once used wherever this "hard-drive" fits, he becomes his own sentient being. Not just an educational hologram like we saw in the original films with Reeves or like we see he is in the Smallville show (at least in the beginning of that show). So it was odd to see him keep popping up so much and driving the plot towards its end.
My friend made me realize the kryptonite used in the film was the atmosphere. Since they couldn't actually use kryptonite, the atmosphere on earth or on Zod's ship became Superman's weakness. This was lame and lazy to me. Although, yes I like that it was a different weakness for Superman, in some ways I'd have preferred the usual green piece of kryptonite to be used...
There were plenty of moments I kept thinking it was like Nolan's Batman reboots if only that it's-not-a-Batman-movie-without-Batman concept. I felt like there wasn't as much Superman in this. Even tho the second half of the film is Superman fighting Zod, I didn't feel like it was something Superman would have done or that it didn't feel like Superman in general. There was a LOT of fight scenes and like Transformers, it was up close and personal and I could barely follow along with them because they were so fast and furious and close to the camera. Even through the slow, quiet angst scenes, Snyder did not have a steadycam or turned off the steady in steadycam. All the shots were shaky and moving and it made me annoyed at having to watch those scenes. Side note- most of the film was so loud I was holding one ear closed the entire movie.
The ending fight with Zod is kind of a shocker. The whole theatre cheered when it happened vs me and my friend groaning and were totally disappointed in how they handled it. But we were slightly relieved with Kal-El's reaction to it but only slightly. It just wasn't something I thought Superman would have done, ever. EVER! But Superman's reaction to what he did, still wasn't enough to uphold the horror. And I think it was a cheap escape in a way. Superman was forced to do what he did, thankfully it wasn't by choice or his first choice but at the same time it was too quick. Especially for the build-up of all the many many many! fight scenes that led up to it. So I felt cheated by what happened and how it ended.
Any and all humorous moments are lost. Every joke or pop culture phrase they tried to use, came off forced and not funny at all. They were all cringe-worthy. It was bad writing.
Editing to add the concept of Superman as Jesus or God. I cannot deal with this any longer. Both Superman Returns and this one both use the concept of him as a God. I get that he's different and he will be our "savior" but that is implied already by his humanitarian efforts. We do not need to see anymore effigies to this. And I don't believe Jor-El in old comics and such, (tho one can correct me if you'd like) ever once said that Kal-El will be a God to humans. He actually says that in this movie!! No! Bad Jor-El! And then later in the film, when Jor-El is guiding him to save earth, Superman exits the ship in a very Jesus-on-the-cross manner with his arms out and his one leg up slightly and flies outward backwards with the light behind him. NO! Bad Zach Snyder! Bad! Ugh! This was so blatent and it really annoyed me to see this depiction again. Also, we all know Superman was made my Jewish people right?? Ok enough religion... Sigh.
I was a bit annoyed at how the entire film was about Zod and Jor-El basically. Yes, I'm glad they picked a different villian than Luthor who could have been a tv show, oh wait it was, Smallville... So I'm glad they picked someone else but this movie was too long to be just about Zod too.
To me, the film's focus was turned around -- we are learning his origin in the entire film and it's about Jor-El and Zod instead of being about Superman helping to save the Earth. In this case, the earth is just collateral damage and not a one-off save the earth film. Superman is not an established superhero yet. He needs help to become that. He is not mutually loved by the public yet. And that's different. In past shows or films he is already Clark Kent, the bumbling journalist at the Daily Planet by day and Superman by night. In this he's nobody yet. He's barely even a Clark Kent yet. So it was interesting twist to see if from this perspective but I don't know if it really worked.
Clearly, I did not really like this movie even though I really wanted to. It had so much potential but fell short. I know Superman Returns also fell short but maybe if they took a little from column A and a little from column B, both could have been better films or one big film that would have matched expectations and a better combined movie overall.
Note -- If you post comments, please try not to post any spoilers. Thank you.
Editing to add again:
I keep forgetting things to add to this huge list of stuff I didn't like, so I apologize for all the add-ins.
But I really disliked how Superman didn't try to save any civilians. Yes, I know he saved the earth but at what cost? How many millions died in the rubbles of the small Smallville street or in Metropolis where buildings collapsed!! In none of those scenes did Snyder decide to put in sequences of Superman saving civilians or trying to! Superman saves people!!!! and in turn, will save the planet. and in turn, will defeat the bad guys. But that didn't happen at all in this movie! wha?!? ok wrap your head around that.
And overall -- this was a sci-fi movie more than a fantasy superhero movie. That bothered me. As you can see from my idea about the Kryptonian ships looking like something out of the movie Alien. I also realized there isn't so much a Fortress of Solitude like there should have been. Much like the no-kryptonite to hurt Kal-El thing, there was no true Fortress built. I suppose one could argue that where the ship was, was the Fortress. But it was either too subtle or just not enough to convince me of that.
I attended Friday and Sunday this year. Took Saturday off because the crowds were probably going to be crazy.
Friday was good. Got up at the crack of dawn to get fastpasses for autograph sessions. Yes, people have camped out overnight in order to get them by the way. They started handing them out about 6am we found out. Got there about 6:45/7am. Got Admiral Ackbar/Salacious Crumb's Tim Rose's autograph wristband first. Then went in line for Ashley Eckstein (mind you there was no real lines at this hour, just the roped off queue lines though). That's when we found out you could only get one wristband per 2-hour window, just like a real fastpass works. Erm... understand but that stinks- there won't be any wristbands left in 2 hours! And sure enough we came back at 8am even the line queues were gone. So I guess we got lucky in getting in the line we wanted first without realizing it.
Sidenote: I did get Ashley Eckstein's autograph and met her later though, as she does a daily signing at 3-4pm at the HerUniverse shop within Darth's Mall. So that was nice. As long as you buy those products, you can get those signed by her during that hour. She is under contract to not sign anything else though, so don't bring anything else to get signed to that. Also be sure you are there at about 2pm to line up. I was lucky that I was there about 2:15pm on Friday and was third in line. Sunday I went about 3:15pm and they had already cut the line! (I was busy with family earlier and couldn't get there at 2pm when I wanted to).
Back to the morning...
Waited in ticket line after we got our one autograph wristband. It was still almost an hour til the gates opened to Hollywood Studios. Eventually we got in and stood with the rest of the crowd at the rope drop. This year they didn't have the stormtroopers up on top of the ticket gates, instead they had them on small wheeled stands on either end of the roped area.
This is my video I took of the stormtroopers opening ceremonies.
Sorry I cut off his head in the pic as I was running into the park.
It was a cute funny bit with them. Eventually they dropped the rope and let us all in. First thing in the morning at 8:45am I had an appointment to the D-Tech Stormtrooper 3D figure-making. So I got to Darth's Mall and ran to the appointment first. Did my stormtrooper and hopefully I picked a good face for it. The first face they just let you do whatever. Then they ask you do make certain faces afterwards, like "show me angry!" or things like that. Those always come out cheesy so I picked the first one I did. Painless process, done the same as last year's Han in carbonite figure, which was available to do this year as well.
Not me obviously, but the guy before me. You wear a disposable headband
thing so no pieces of hair are in the picture or 3d sculpt later.
This is what you see when you first walk into the Darth's Mall. It's a life size replica with blinking lights and things.
And I did not realize Salacious Crumb sitting up top there til now.
Then I went to get this year's nametag for Star Tours. Last year was blue and I got Missy written in aurebesh with the planet Tattooine as my hometown. This year the tags were green and you could have either a planet or a title! I wish you could have both though. So this time I did my full name of Melissa and put Jedi as the title. The annual passholder one is black with gold trim. I got that Sunday when some passholders I knew were coming. That one said Missy and I got Rebel put under it as I was the rebel spy in the Star Tours ride that day!
The cast members, especially in Darth's Mall, have actually studied the aurebash language that most of them could actually read your nametags if you came up to them for something or were at the registers with them. That was fun.
I got to participate in the Lego Star Wars posters build as well.
this was my block number
finished my block
my block on the wall
my friend building his block
which happened to be only a couple over from my block
the two blocks we did (1804 and 1806)
this is the finished lego poster wall - the entire thing is legos! even the top.
this is the poster we helped with. my block was the laser all the way to the top corner, towards the bottom of the laser and my friends was part of the lightsaber mickey is holding, deflecting the laser.
Obviously I rode Star Tours a few times as much as I could through the day, as long as it was no more than 20 minutes wait (which is a long time considering I always walk on in 2 minutes on the off-season). Eventually I was the rebel spy!!! Whee!! My friend was the rebel spy earlier in the day, too!! Awesome! And by chance he went to buy the "I am the rebel spy" shirt as now it made sense. Upon doing so, the cast member asked if he was actually the rebel spy and presented him with a Disney "I'm celebrating" button that said underneath "I'm a rebel spy" Nice! so that was a nice treat. When I became the rebel spy later, I knew to go to the register and tell them so I could walk around with that button too!
oops sorry, that's my nail in the corner there. (Looks pretty phallic tho)
Did normal Disney stuff of course inbetween going back and forth to Darth's Mall. We needed the limited edition Star Wars pin for a couple people so we had to go back and get those and then a friend was asking for some things, too. So we went back a couple times to get things and then to see Ashley Eckstein as mentioned above by about 2:15pm.
This is some merch we saw there or got -- I got the window clings of Darth, Yoda, R2 and Princess Leia. It only came as a four-pack for about 20 bucks.. Apparently, in Disneyland they come separately priced at about 5 bucks each. The black Star Tours nametag is the Passholder one and the green was the normal nametag color. And the limited edition SWW pin is in the second pic below. A lot of the merch was related not just to the SWW 2013 but also for the Return of the Jedi 30th anniversary (which is my favorite of the original trilogy and of all the SW films so I was excited by all this merch!)
pic courtesy of Disney blog.
pic courtesy of Disney blog.
I had to have this! it was the most adorable Ewok I've seen! It was also available in the D-tech area as a 3d printed Iphone case. (I don't have an Iphone so that was useless) but when I saw the shirt...!!!
I would have bought this too had it not been only on a tanktop. But I loved the design of Minnie on a speeder.
Since it was the third weekend out of four, there was a lot of merch that was sold out already. Especially pins (the spinner ones like the one you see in the first pic, bottom right corner) were sold out the first weekend.
Finally got to meet Ashley couldn't have been more sweet and kind. She even remembered me from twitter as we have had a few twitter exchanges. She signed my two items I got -- the Rogue Squandron dress and R2 tunic hoodie. She signed the tags on them- which as she said, was created so that she could sign them. She assumed people would not actually want the clothing to be signed, but no, sooo many people want the clothing signed! But she thinks like me and if signing the clothes, neither of us would wear it again haha. So she designed the tags to have a lot of space to sign on it. And she did sign my friend's autograph book too.
Me and Ashley Eckstein, her hubby is the guy on the left in the background hehe
R2 tunic and rogue squandron dress.
this comes pre-signed. I wore it on Sunday when we came back to the SWW.
Sidenote: earlier when I bought the R2 tunic, I found the last XL on the rack. Well, it had some makeup smudges on the bottom of the hoodie/neckline of the shirt. But I figured I'll just get it because it's my only chance and I really wanted it and I could wash it off later. But it was a slight disappointment. But as luck would have it, Ashley's wonderful hubby had just gone to the back room during the signing and got more of the tunics out. I quickly told him my situation and he was more than accommodating to swap mine out. He felt terrible that happened. So I got to swap mine out right before my signing. I made sure to thank him again once I finished my meet and greet with Ashley. He mentioned that he and the family try to be in the shop as much as possible so that things like that won't happen -- and that if they see someone with makeup on, they ask them to not try the clothing on. But of course they can't be there all the time so it does happen. I thanked him again for his kindness and went on our way.
Seriously, Ashley and her hubby are the best. Thanks again guys!!!
We also got pics with R2D2 and C3P0 who seriously sounded like Anthony Daniels!! R2 was moving around and such. And C3P0 liked my outfit a lot- said I had impeccable taste hehe. Just in case you can't see it all, I'm wearing my R2 homemade skirt, Wampa purse, Jedi sneakers, HerUniverse Alderaan shirt, C3P0 lego necklace, HerUniverse Jedi logo necklace, r2 and Yoda hairclips and my Star Tours nametags all over the place! haha
And I got a picture with the infamous real-scale Rancor!!! eee!!! I'm pretending to run away from it whilst in its grip, in this picture. I look like I'm still laughing though. oops. hehe
Around the park they had a lot of characters walking around, like Darth Vader, jawas, gomorean guard, Boba Fett, etc. And they had a life-size clone trooper toy box to make yourself into an action figure.
This Jawa was trying to trade stuff with a guest. Like they wanted the woman's camera in exchange for a McDonald's happy meal toy they had in that droid leg they were using as a bag.
the stormtrooper made sure Vader got backstage without any incidents
me and Jango Fett
me as an action figure
Eventually it was time to meet the great Tim Rose, who was Admiral Ackbar and Salacious Crumb's voice. He was very sweet. And he signed his headshot with "Run, Missy, It's a trap!" Also, he apparently calls himself "Timbo" and almost signed his picture that way haha. When I took my pic with him, he is sitting on a platform so I didn't want to make an assumption to stand on it, but I really was too short so they told me step up onto the platform haha.
me and Tim Rose
As per previous years, they also had the Disney characters dressed up as Star Wars characters. I skipped them this year because we spent way too much time getting in line for those characters last year. But they are cute. Goofy is Darth Vader, Donald is a stormtrooper, Minnie is Princess Leia and Mickey is a Jedi.
The first day went by so quickly. As mentioned earlier, skipped Saturday and came back Sunday for the last SWW day of the weekend.
Focused on the shows for Sunday. So we saw the Voices Behind the Force show with host Ashley Eckstein and featured the talented actors Sam Witwer, James Arnold Taylor and celeb cameo from Back to the Future fame Tom Wilson (Biff!!) I was soooo floored when I saw it was Tom Wilson!! :)
blurry pic from camera phone but it's Tom Wilson!
The point of the show is to discuss the voiceover process and how the actors come up with their voices for different characters, mostly for the Clone Wars cartoon but other shows as well. Then they pick people from the audience to do voiceovers for a short cartoon made just for SWW.
Sam Witwer and Ashley Eckstein
Sam Witwer and Ashley Eckstein
From l-r: James Arnold Taylor, Tom Wilson, Sam witwer, two audience members, Ashley Eckstein
In this "scene" Tom goes to threaten Sam's character.
James Arnold Taylor, Tom Wilson, Sam Witwer
From l-r: James Arnold Taylor, Tom Wilson, Sam Witwer, two audience members, Ashley Eckstein
This is the video from Behind the Force show. Having technical difficulties embedding it here.
The funny but weird thing that happened at the end of the audience VO session was when the hipster teen/young 20-something was leaving the stage and took a moment on stage to ask Tom Wilson who he was. <Head slap> Parenting fail people! You must all show your kids Back to the Future!!! Ok I digress.
Also went to see Warwick Davis' show which was kinda of a life story of his. It was really funny and cute and Warwick really is a comedian. He also had people come up to be certain people in his life, like his agent, mother, Harry Potter, Hermoine Granger, George Lucas and a couple other characters I can't recall. It was really cute and I wonder if he really is trying to make it into a real show or not, as he joked about it being a trial run. It could really work as a real show if he wanted it to, it would need a little more work but it could. But of course it could still just be for the SWW.
Warwick Davis
audience members with Warwick Davis
R2 and Warwick Davis
That was the Star Wars portion of my weekend! It was a fab time with Disney and Star Wars!!! Can't wait for next year!
