Everyone has really outdone themselves this year on the swag. The day before the show even started I have almost 2 lanyards full. Most importantly though is meeting new people and people that I met briefly last one. Last night consisted of several hours just hanging out in the lobby with everyone just talking and having a great time.
So far for the first day I’ve mainly explored the exhibit hall, but plan on hitting a panel of two and of course the archive party tonight which should be a blast.
For some strange reason the weather decided it was a good day to snow. The airport wasn’t expecting this, so they are short staffed on the crew to de ice the planes. We were just told it’d be an hour before they get to ours, so a little set back and an even more great reason to enjoy the California weather when we land.
Well, the bags are finally packed and I think I’m ready to go. It’s bittersweet that things aren’t going quite as planned for my family to come with, but hopefully they’ll be joining in a couple days.
I’m looking forward to a great Archive Party and room sales night as well as attending a few panels. Most importantly though meeting up with friends and meeting some people that I’ve only known online up to this point.
It’s time to hit the sack for an early AM flight. I’ll try and at least do a post a day here and if I’m feeling overzealous a couple throughout each day.
I’m pleased to announce my involvement in a patch giveaway for Star Wars Celebration Anaheim. Myself and 6 other collectors have sponsored the creation of a puzzle patch, that when combined, form the vintage Darth Vader Carrying case. Each patch piece has one of the vintage Kenner logos that were used throughout the life of the toy line from 1977-1985. My particular piece is The Power of the Force logo. I’ll have 25 of these patch pieces available each day at celebration to give out.
Last celebration, a lot of people went patch crazy, so if that is the case again, you better find me early in the morning. I’ll be easiest to find roaming the exhibitor area or in the location of the collector panels. I could very well be with another one of the sponsors or two which will help knock out a few pieces at once as well. 🙂
Below is a photo of my patch and the full assembled case.
Full information on who to look for to find the other pieces is available here on rebelscum.
There were some rumblings about a young fan at the show who had answered a tough trivia question about the Droids cartoon series that not many would know.
During one of the panels we had this fan sit right in front of us and we got to talking. He literally blew us away with the type of knowledge he had on not only Star Wars, but other 80’s toy lines too.
In fact here you can see him telling Chris about the origin of He-Man.
After that, he wanted to know what I collected, so I told him about the mail aways. He then proceeded to name off several of the vintage mailers asking if I had them. He also shared the story in why the rocket firing feature on Boba Fett was cancelled.
If this is the future of vintage collecting, then I think we have a bright future ahead. I hope he doesn’t mind me posting these videos and if you do please contact me and I’ll gladly remove them.
Now that I feel like I have a bit of time, I’m going to try and play catch up over the next few days. It wouldn’t be right to not talk about the collector room sales that happen late Friday night at every celebration. This is generally a good time to see a lot of things that you’ve only read about online and this time was certainly not a disappointment. There was a great selection of MOC figures, loose figures, bootlegs, Proof Cards, coins, etc.
I knew this would probably be the time that I make my bigger CVI purchase, so I took my time to look around and see what everyone had. As I was looking, I saw Mattias had one of the Power of the Force concept logo pieces. I’d been wanting one of these for awhile and actually passed on one earlier this year because of lack of funds. I found out the price, but decided to have one last look at everything before I knew for sure that is what I wanted. In further looking, a Model Trem Luke Jedi had also caught my eye. That is something else that I wanted, but it did not have any of the accessories and I’ve told myself that when I splurge on one that I’d like it to be complete as the accessories would take forever to hunt down themselves. So in the end, I went back, did a little negotiation on the price, and bought it. Here’s a little bit of info on them for those that care to learn a little more.
Here’s a few pictures from the room sale and a little video I took.
I’ll try and do a few more posts once I get back home. I didn’t quite get to the blog posts as planned, but we haven’t had much down time. Before I head home though I thought I’d post a group picture of everything I managed to pick up from Celebration.
Today was the first day of CVI. It was fun and we got most of the things like picking up art prints and autographs out of the way first. The only panel I made it to was the Lili Ledy panel which had some amazing photos shown from inside the Ledy factory along with some other great items.
Tonight, was the archive party which was a blast. I manned the Rocket Fett game and we earned some great cash to save the Manatee. The Manatee cardbacks were incredible and Chris did an amazing job. Also, the exclusive coin turned out great and we were given two great surprises in that each sponsor got a couple exclusive cardbacks and a gold version of the coin.
We’ve gone crazy in picking up and distributing our fan made buttons. I’m working on my 2nd lanyard at the moment and there are still a few on my list that I’ve yet to find. Here’s mine from this morning before picking up even more throughout the day.
That’s it for now as it is getting late. Check the Flickr feed for a lot more photos from the party and the day. I’ll try and post more tomorrow.
I decided to splurge on airplane wifi and figured it was only fitting to do a post at 35,000 feet in the air. Everything went smooth at the airport and we arrived with plenty of time to get Breakfast before take off. It looks like we are going to arrive a good 30 minutes before our ETA, so you can’t really ask for anything better. The white skinny droid had fun eating breakfast with us and also wanted his picture taken in front of one of the airplanes as it is his first time flying.
My suitcase is now ready to go and Sarah’s is just about too. We’ll be leaving tomorrow early morning for Orlando. I can’t believe that it is finally time. I’m looking forward to meeting up with old acquaintances and meeting some new ones. I will try and do at least one overall post a day at the convention, but hopefully a few smaller ones during some down time as well. Keep an eye on the flickr feed though as that will be where you’ll see most of the action first.
This little guy on the suitcase will be joining us in the fun as well. 🙂