These are the things my dear friends who are both local and some who
come from far away, gave me as gifts during New York Comic Con meetups,
dinners, and get togethers. I am so very lucky to have you all in my
life and be surrounded by such talented and generous people. <3
Left to right: A felt and wire-made flower from Dom Campisi, A 3-d printed Lego/Han Solo in carbonite mashup from Jon Lazar, a first-run/first-made painted Pugnacious riding a lizard from Bill MacKay, and a sleepy time blue bunny from Peter Kato.
The Pugnacious/lizard were his first hand-painted toys Bill tried his hand in. And the details really shine through. He really painted every part of the lizard, including inside the mouth and teeth. He hand-sculpted the harness for the Pug and then painted it all by hand. And you can get this figure from the link provided above, for your own collection!
The flower by Dom was done with wire underneath and felt over the wire. So it's fully poseable and stands up on its own very well. I love the colors! pink! So pretty!
And the sleepy bunny just adds to Peter's other bunnies I've gotten from him over the last year. They are adorable and if I could've bought them all I would have! (I was having a bad Sat night after NYCC day so Peter gave this to me to cheer me up...) ^_^
Thank you all for your wonderful gifts! I'm finding room on my shelves for them all!
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!
For Geek Pride Day, May 25th, I went into Times Square to see the life-size Lego X-Wing. And do all the other Star Wars activities they had scheduled. It was basically to promo the new cartoon "Lego Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles".
Wearing my HerUniverse R2 shirt and my Tokidoki Thor hoodie and my R2 felt hairclip. I should have worn and broken in my new Jedi sneakers too, but it was raining and dreary and I didn't want to ruin them.
the lightsaber really lights up and blinks!
First, I made sure to figure out how to get on the x-wing. I got on one line to get a colored brick for myself which then I could get in line for the real deal in about 45 minutes or by watching the monitor to see if they called my brick color. That process took roughly 15 minutes. And around the time I got up there, they were running out of colored bricks. But traveling alone had its perks as they needed someone who was only 2 people. I said I was a party of one and they gave me the last gray brick. Woohoo!
So with brick in hand, I then went to scope out the area around the x-wing. It had Lego brick statues of Chewie, Darth Vader, R2 & C3P0, Boba Fett and another unit I can't recall (R5?) Anywho...
They also had a spot to take a pic with Lego Yoda who had a touristy shirt on that said "NY I <3"
I took that pic as the line wasn't long and kept moving. Having more time, moved on to the longer wait of the make and take area where you could build a little x-wing mini fig. Too cute!
Then characters started showing up. Darth Vader, an x-wing pilot and a few Imperial guards. I want to think they were part of the 501st Legion but saw no signs that they were from that.
I kinda feel like this should say that he was dancing with the Vader umbrella but he wasn't. sigh.
Finally heard they called my brick number! Got in line by the x-wing and it was probably another 25 minutes before I got into the cockpit. And right after I got on the line with my colored brick, I heard they were going to start just lining people up because they ran out of the colored bricks. Whew, glad I got my brick as the line was now about 2 hours long where you got the colored brick.
Once up there, you get an awesome picture of you in the cockpit with R2 as your pilot behind you!
And these are the awesome closeups of the x-wing. Lego of course made the smaller pieces into larger Lego pieces :) Attention to detail never escapes the Lego builders.
Night shot of the back
Under the nose, you can see how the smaller bricks are made to look like the bricks if they were giant sized.
The millions of Legos!
There was also a "master class" in brick building but I heard it wasn't that good. They didn't really give you anything to build that was master class level or from the kits you normally would purchase (not saying they should give that to you free but even if you just take it apart afterwards). They merely told you how to sandwich a few bricks together. The only good thing about the class was you got a purple brick to cut the x-wing line.
They of course also had a few cabinets with new toys out for the cartoon.
And this was a special promo with Toys R Us. If you bought the x-wing, you got this cool NY Yoda figure,
Yoda figure. Too cute! I now own one :)
The x-wing is now on its way to Legoland California. Enjoy Californians!
It was a fab day albeit drizzly and cold. Thanks Geek Pride Day! Thanks Lego! Thanks Star Wars!
Fun factoids about the x-wing, courtesy of Lego.com: • Contains 5,335,200 LEGO bricks
• Weighs 45,980 pounds/20,865 kilograms
• Height: 11 feet / 3.35 meters
• Length: 43 feet / 13.1 meters
• Wingspan: 44 feet / 13.44 meters
• 32 builders spent 17,336 hours to construct – about 4 months
• Built in the LEGO Model Shop in Kladno, Czech Republic
• Is a one-to-one replica of LEGO Star Wars set #9493; The model is 42x the size of the retail building set
• The model was heavily engineered to withstand all the transportation,
setup/break down and to ensure it was safe for Times Square given the
subway system below and California’s seismic requirements for the
LEGOLAND California Resort installation. “The Yoda Chronicles” The Yoda Chronicles is an exciting, funny and
action-packed new LEGO Star Wars story told in three animated TV
specials. “The Phantom Clone” will premiere on Wednesday, May 29 at 8:00
p.m. (ET, PT) on Cartoon Network with specials two and three airing
later this year. In the first of three specials, a brand new character,
Jek 14 will enter the Star Wars universe. Created by the LEGO Group, Jek
14 is a clone who has been ‘enhanced’ by the Force. -via Lego.com
