Star Wars Celebration IV

I missed the previous 3 Celebrations. Mostly because I had no idea such a thing existed. 2 took place when I was effectively still in college and locked into finishing projects and drinking beer. The last one was on my side radar but took place in Indianapolis and I had no want to travel to such a place for a convention. I had no costumes at the time and no links to the Star Wars community; not to mention no one to go with me.

It was announced last year that the fourth Celebration would take place on the weekend of the 30th Anniversary of the release of the original Star Wars. It was rumored to be moving to Los Angeles. This excited me to no end as I now had a costume and links to the Star Wars community; not to mention I live in Los Angeles.

Soon after the dates and location were finalized: the convention would take place over Memorial Day weekend 2007 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The first official day of the convention would fall on Friday, May 25th 2007. 30 years from when all this madness was started.

I immediately began planning.

The first hurdle was getting tickets. Luckily the start time was Pacific Standard Time so I could get on it at work instead of losing 3 hours of lead time to people on the East Coast.

The second hurdle was whether or not to stay in a hotel. I originally decided to commute over the hill into downtown LA from Burbank. It would save money and I am close enough that it wouldn’t be too bad. I would pay for parking at the LACC and pay for gas and brave the morning commute. As I started researching what parking would cost and how long it can take to get to downtown from the valley in traffic and how much was going on at night and I quickly realized I needed to consider staying downtown.

However by this time most people I know had already booked hotel rooms with friends. I was lucky enough that an awesome couple I know, Paul and Lesley Farquar, had an open bed at the Wilshire Grand and offered it up to me for whatever I could afford to pay.

With everything set for the stay I could now look to getting my costumes ready.

By running away, Rebels finally get their due

Starting February 11th and running until the end of April, Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination is showing at the California Science Center.

This is a science center event featuring scientific explanations of real-world technology appearing in the Star Wars universe combined with props, costumes, and models from the films.

I was lucky enough to be included in the events scheduled around this event as a costumed volunteer. The first being the museum’s annual Discovery Ball. This is their big fundraising event centered around their largest exhibit; which this year happened to be Star Wars. I was also lucky enough to be portraying a face character so I used for some special stuff over the rest of my fellow volunteers. I able to hang out in the Cantina early in the night with the infamous Marie Prestin in her ANH Leia costume; chatting and taking pictures with the attendees. I also used in a staged firefight between Rebel troopers, Han, and Leia and Stormtroopers on scaffolds. Beside being waaayyy too long at 3 minutes it was fun. At the end I was required by Lucasfilm to grab Leia and run out as Darth Vader shows up. Apparently, LFL doesn’t want any hero characters to be captured. Instead we do the courageous thing and run away.

This nice thing about running out was that Marie and I got a jump on eating. Which was good because we were quickly grabbed to take pictures with the VIP guests. These tables were purchased for $25,000 or more so the diners were given the opportunity to take professional photos with the face characters from the Original Trilogy. Marie (as Leia) and myself (as Han) were joined by Darth Vader, Chewbacca, Old Ben, and Luke Skywalker as we went from table to table taking pictures.

It was a fun night despite being work and we were very proud to say we helped the museum raise over a million dollars. The first time they had ever done so.

All it took was Star Wars.

CHOC Xmas Party

Members of Sunrider and the 501st went down to the Children’s Hospital of Orange County to lend a had at their annual Xmas party. It was a good time. I road tested the new wig and ROTJ costume. I also painted my Hasbro blaster so it looks like the realt hing but still retains it’s noise making abilities. Which the kids always like. The wig is to dark and kind of crappy. I will probably purchase a new one before the Where Science Meets Imagination events in February. Vince brought his R2. Shawn brought the H-Wing. I met another Han Solo costumers who had painted his Malibu up to look like the Millenium Falcon. Good times had by all. Especially the kids.

Here’s some pics:

Parade of Roses

Around the time I joined the Rebel Legion there was this buzz going around. It could be heard at the Cinemax event and through the 1’s and 0’s on the online boards. Like ringing in your ears. Like a mosquito flying around your ear while you try and sleep. Whispers really. Speculation. Quiet speculation.

About a parade.

Strange thing to be excited about I know. But, as most people know now, George Lucas was chosen as the Grand Marshall of the 2007 Tournament of Roses Parade. This is old news to anyone in the Star Wars community. It was announced by Steven Sansweet at Comicon this year. The “thing” kept mildly secret for a while was that members of the 501st Legion would be marching in formation behind the Lucasfilm floats. Great for the Uncle George. Great for the 501st.

“What about the Rebels?”

Was the question asked by many for a long time. Ed “Reaper”, our Legion CO, asked the same question to Sansweet and Mary Franklin at LFL. The answer was to wait and see. Exciting things would be revealed in time.

So, around the time of the Cinemax event, it was announced that LFL wanted non-Stormtrooper characters to march around the floats and add some color to the parade. There was a made-up photo submission date. People went about finishing projects. Excitement filled the air. People had to decide if they could actually walk 5 miles and if they wanted to submit.

With all things regarding LFL, the photo submission date was, as previously stated, made up. The date became way earlier than previously expected. Most of Sunrider was not able to finish their Endor Troopers for the photo submissions. I, myself, was scrambling to try and get pics done in time. I got them done and sent them to Mary Franklin as soon as I could.

Now, I know my costume is pretty good. But I had no thought, ever in my head, that I would be chosen. Not because I am self conscious and negative. It’s because we were told, early on, that LFL was mainly looking for generic Rebel and Imperial characters. If you were submitting a face or hero character, that is one with a name and a famous actor attached to it, that they would heavily weigh how much you look like the character. That is, from 10-20 feet, do you capture the look of the character and the actor? Do you look iconic enough that people will know, immediately, who you are? Especially those who may not be huge Star Wars fans? Those pesky football fans that come to a parade based around a college football game?

I knew I didn’t have this magic. Not that I don’t look enough like Harrison Ford from 20 feet. My problems were thus.

I chose the costume no one remembers.

My hair is cut short and is lighter than Ford’s.

But I submitted anyway. As Obi-Shawn stated, he never wanted to walk in the Rose Parade but it would be pretty cool to do it. I submitted and waited. I got my rejection letter and wasn’t surprised. I went about supporting those that I knew that got accepted. And there was a few people I knew, or had met, that got chosen. Bryan, one of the Anakin guys I know from Sons of the Suns got picked to walk as ROTS Anakin. Obi-Shawn and Vince Sanchez walked as Stormtroopers (as well as a lot of other guys I have met but can’t remember exactly who–I’m not part of the 501st yet–I appologize for leaving anyone out). Rob, Jon, Lawrence, and Joslyn from Sunrider walked as various good guy characters.

It was a fun thing to wake up to on New Year’s Day. The floats looked awesome. Kudos to everyone that helped build them; including a few Sunrider members! Kudos to the 501st and Rebel Legion members who marched. Kudos to LFL for the great idea and floats. And kudos to Uncle George for giving all of us something to occupy our free time.

Which one are you?

So after finally joining the Rebel Legion, I was able to participate in my first costume event. Cinemax was gearing up to play all six Star Wars films on their premium Hi-def channel, aptly named CinemaxHD, as a marathon. They asked us to help out with some events for either the public or their employees. They had some of us make appearances at their call centers so their employees could take pictures. These were usually during the day or on weeknights before I could get out of work. There was also an event in Hollywood that was during a weekday.

The event I was able to attend was a 6 hour long event on the 3rd St Promenade in Santa Monica. It was an all day event featuring a pavilion with info about signing up for CinemaxHD, a green screen wall where people could take a pictures with Darth Vader, and some martial arts people in really lame karate giis pretending to fight each other with Force FX lightsabers billed as the Jedi Training Academy.

Us members of the Rebel Legion were joined by member of the 501st Legion, the “bad guy” costuming group. We were there to hang out, outside the pavilion, and get the crowd interested, take pictures, and generally not freak out kids. It was my first event in costume like this. I learned a few things.

Apparently, these charity events are usually typified by our group being shafted out of agreed upon things. Like the Cinemax event; where we were promised lunch, a changing area, bathrooms, and breaks. We got none of these things. Apparently this happens often at these things and you just have to learn to roll with the punches. Or be one of those bitchy guys that everyone wants to shut up. One or the other. Your choice.

Paying for my own lunch aside, I had a great time. Got to meet a bunch of fine folks in the Legion and the 501st. Saw Obi-Shawn’s infamous H-Wing of the Road Squadron. Got to chat with an old school Han Solo costumer: Vince Sanchez. I actually own a few of Vince’s replica for my costume. So chatting with him and finding him to be a really nice, funny, and open guy was way cool.

I learned an important lesson about kids (and non-hard core Star Wars fans in general). They all just want to take pictures with Darth Vader and Stormtroopers. And there’s a very good reason behind it. Masked characters always look like the person they are dressing as. No matter what the person underneath looks like. From 500 feet or 2 feet, a guy in Stormtrooper armor looks like a Stormtrooper. So people always flock to them because they look like they are straight off the screen instead of some dude in a costume. Especially the TKs.

The only thing that stopped the crowds around the TKs and the Vaders was C3P0 and R2-D2. We had two people willing to done the Golden Rod suits that day. They can only really wear them for a few minutes at a time as it is hot, stuffy, claustrophobic, and dark. We had a guy who brought his remote control full-sized R2. Whenever someone donned the 3P0 and stood with R2, the crowds would flock.

Third thing kids flock to, after the Tks, Vaders, 3P0s, and R2s, is Jedi. Kids know the prequels better than the original trilogy. So they all know Anakin, Obi Wan, Mace Windu, and anyone in tan tunics. The Jedi have an added weapon at their disposal: the light-up lightsaber. Everyone loves lightsabers. Especially kids. So if they see one that lights up AND makes noise, held by a real Jedi, they go nuts. Especially if it’s getting dark. I swear I am gonna put an LED in the barrel of my blaster next time I do a evening event.

There’s probably some steps in between I forgot. But whatever. My original point was to show that people go to OT characters last and I have chosen the most obscure of the OT hero characters. When mild fans think of Han Solo they think of the vest. He wore one in ANH and in ROTJ. People don’t remember he wore a jacket in ESB. They don’t tend to remember he wore brown pants either. If they don’t know the gun or the holster they don’t usually recognize me.

It’s why I decided to do ROTJ Han for the time being. Just a simple addition of a vest and a new blaster. It’s also my reason behind getting a wig. I can keep my hair cut however short I want, throw on the wig, and voila! 70’s shag. Easy peezy, lemon squeezy.

Sadly, that day I did none of these things so not many kinds wanted to take pictures with me. Most of the time I was just greeted with the question,

“Which one are you?”

Broken hyperdrive motivator

I received an email from the Rebel Legion command that my application had been processed and I had to submit a picture. I submitted what I had: mostly Con photos with other people or where I am wearing a badge. I received a second message asking if I could take and submit some photos without other people or badges and on a plain background. I put it on my to-do list but my work and personal life had been churning like white water since July and the picture continually slipped my mind.

I spent the next few months forgetting to take pictures as the Rebel Legion would slip in and out of my consciousness. It seemed Han was doomed to a life of sitting in a closet waiting for Halloween.

Luckily, at some point around October, Legion command passed membership and costume on to the individuals local bases. So, with that change, Donna was able to push my full membership through since she had seen the quality of my costume firsthand at Comicon. Being a bit shy to all this new frontier, I dragged my feet about checking out the Legion forums or posting for a while.

Eventually, I got over it and started checking the Sunrider Base boards.

Comicon 2006

Day One:

I took off work on Friday, July 21st. I packed up my multitude of clothes and costume accessories the night before. I woke up at 8 am and left LA around 9 for the 3 hour drive to San Diego. I arrived around noon and parked at the Hyatt. Unfortunately my room was not ready yet. So I went over to the convention center and got my badge and checked in with my friends at the Nickelodeon booth. Did a little walking around.

My original plan was to hang out in plain clothes on Friday since it would be a short day. Wear the Han costume on Saturday. Go back to plain clothes for Sunday. But Friday was “Star Wars Day” and there were a lot of SW costumes on the floor. So, as soon as I got the call that my room was ready I headed back to the hotel, got my key, quickly settled in my room and changed into Han.

I made my way back to the convention floor. Keep in mind, this is the first time I have ever worn a costume to a big Con like this. I was truly not prepared for the looks, the picture requests, or the general information exchange with other costumers that would take place. I ran almost immediately into a TK costumer from the 501st who wanted some pics. He was the first perosn to ask if I was in the Rebel Legion. To which I replied, “What’s that?” He directed me upstairs to their table. I said I’d head up later. After that I ran into a guy named Bryan I know from the Anakin threads on the Jedi Council forums. He was hanging out with a large group of Anakins. A guy with them was dressed Indiana Jones so we took a picture together: the two Harrison Ford iconic roles.

I remained on the floor for the rest of the day. Taking pictures with some people. Checking out the booths. I got asked, or told, about the Rebel Legion another 4 or 5 times that day. Finally I decided to go to their booth. I approached, chatted with some of the folks working, and filled out my application. I met Lori (Jedi Loreen) who I knew from the Jedi Council boards and we chatted a bit. She had on her Rebel Fleet Trooper costume and told me about their attack on the 501st. The general consensus from the RL people was that they needed more good guys and especially more Han Solos and especially especially would like more ESB Solos. It’s a bit of a wildcard costume. I left the booth and went to see some panels.

I went back to my room as the floor closed and got changed to go to the Master Replicas Collector’s Society Party. I had a ticket since I am a member and figured free food and shwag is always welcome. I got there, saw some people I knew, got some food, watched a lightsaber fight, and then went to get a drink. In line in front of me was a woman in Fleet Trooper uniform. It was dark. I feel stupid now that I didn’t notice the difference between the blue and black of the standard RFT and this replica of Captain Antilles brown uniform.

“Lori?” I asked.

The woman turned around. It wasn’t Lori. She wasn’t even wearing the same costume. I am a jackass.

Luckily, I soon found out this woman knew Lori, was a tremendously nice person named Donna, and was happy to talk to me about the Rebel Legion and my Han costume. She also knew some people from Nickelodeon by a strange coincidence. She made Jedi tunics for a few guys who work on Avatar: The Last Airbender. So she was happy to know I worked at Nick too. We chatted for a while. I had a few more drinks and then left to meet up with my friends from Nick.

I ended up having a great time and staying up way to late.

Day Two:

I woke up early. I had to get into costume and make it to the convention hall in time for the Lost panel. Afterwards I went back to the Nick booth to take pictures with, my now girlfriend, Austin. As I was in the booth a familiar voice came up behind me. It was Donna. She was at the Con with her son and checking out the Nick booth. We chatted for a bit and she got a chance to finally see my costume. She said she was going to be at the Avatar panel and I said I’d see here there.

I spent the rest of the morning on the floor. Doing the costume thing. Waiting for Dan, the kid who bought my Anakin tunics, at the MR booth. After it became way clear he was not showing up I bolted for some panels. Me and a friend Jef made our way to the Nickelodeon New Shows/Avatar panel. Afterwards, I helped pass out free Avatar t-shirts. A job which almost ended my life as the crowd began to crush me against the table at one point. I guess dying as Han Solo wouldn’t have been so bad. Donna showed up to get a t-shirt. She asked for 2 for both her sons. I was about to oblige, because that’s the kind of guy I am, but a woman from NickToons reminded me one per person. Luckily I would get the chance to appologize in the future. We finished with the grabbing hands of t-shirt doom and I made my way, with Austin, to the Veronica Mars panel.

I stayed for another day. But it was a plain clothes day and there’s not much to tell that relates to costuming. A big thing happened at the Con: I used my costume for something other than Halloween adding to my content with the amount of time and money spent on it and, by applying for membership to the Rebel Legion, had begun taking steps into an exciting new area of costuming.

But, like most good things, it would take a while for the wheels to get rolling.

Frozen in carbonite

On November 23rd, 2005 I was pulled over after a premiere party and arrested for drunk driving. After spending the night in jail, I was charged with driving under the influence, fined $1500, and required to complete a mandatory DUI course which included mandatory AA meetings. My license was suspended for 6 months and I began riding my bike to work shortly after the new year. The whole process set me back about $2500-3000 depending on if you count rising insurance rates.

With my mind dealing with all the things I had to get done by certain dates or face jail time and my Han pants hanging in a closet with a busted zipper, I kind of forgot about Captain Solo for a time. Understandable as it is.

In February I was made aware, by my boss, that the show that I primarily do effects for at Nick was running a heavy risk of being cancelled. Thus, layoffs were a real risk on the horizon. Not knowing when, as it could have been anywhere from March to August, I decided to start saving money and living as if I would be laid off anytime. I began cutting my spending, which was easy due to my lack of automobile mobility, and selling off random crap I had laying around on eBay.

I spent most of the winter and spring slowly selling off parts of my Anakin costume as well as other costume and props stuff I had lying around that I had bought up in the frenzy that was fall 2005. I didn’t give a thought to fixing my Han pants for quite a while. It wasn’t until sometime in April, when I started giving serious thought to attending San Diego Comicon. I had been to Comicon a year before; for one day. I wanted to go for more and get a hotel room. eventually I bit the bullet in late April and snagged a room, through Nickelodeon, at the Hyatt.

With that decision made, it opened up another can of worms. Did I want to go and where my costume? If I decided to take that plunge from normal Con-goer to costumed Con-goer, I had to fix my pants. I wasn’t even sure if they were able to be repaired. I don’t know much about sewing, seamstressing, tailoring, or garment construction. Could a zipper be easily removed from some cheap decades-old pants and replaced with a heavy duty metal one? Was it worth it? Should I just find a new pair of pants at the thrift stores and swap the stripes? I really wasn’t sure how to approach it. And the lack of a car for transportation made it tough. At the time I was stuck walking to the supermarket if no one could drive me.

An answer would come via the Replica Props Forum. A member there was selling his Han pants. ESB style for pretty cheap. I decided to buy them and see if I could alter them to fit. They arrived a few weeks later and much to my surprise fit great! To be honest, I had dropped nearly 15 lbs at this point from my bike riding shenanigans. The stripes on the sides were inaccurate, as most are, and I had them replaced with my stripe patches.

The costume was now complete again and need only wait for July and Comicon International.

The costume contest

As you may remember me saying, last fall I was working quite long hours. I hadn’t been getting a lot of sleep and hadn’t had a proper day off in quiet a while. Most of my time away from work was usually filled with all the errands I couldn’t get done while I was at work. Suffice to say I was exhausted.

I had given my ticket to a crazy industry party to a friend the night before Halloween because I had to work that Sunday and had a delivery to make early on Monday morning. Monday being Halloween. I arrived at work an hour early due to a confusion with Daylight Savings in plain clothes. Anakin would have to remain in a bag until around noon. I donned him and had a girl here do some eye makeup on me. I entered the costume contest. I left the costume contest and took some pictures. I went back into my office and changed back into plain clothes. Total time as Anakin: couple of hours. Total money and time spent making it: Couple thousand dollars and at least 8 hours.

Awesome.

I did however have the pleasure of a girl here at work dressing as Padme. Took some pics with her. It was fun. People on the internet thought she was my girlfriend; making me appear less nerdy.

Something worked out at least.

Cheap plastic zipper

My friend, Brinsfield, was having a Halloween party at his house in North Hollywood. Well, more accurately, I bugged him to have a party at his house as he swore the year before was his last. I even helped him decorate. Going over there on weekend for a few weeks to set up the Jar Jar dart board, the Death Star mural, the Imperial symbol drapery, the Yoda Hut, the Jawa, etc, etc.

I decided to wear my new Han costume to his party because Anakin wasn’t done yet. I also kind of wanted to save Anakin for the Nickelodeon costume contest. You know, show off the current duds.

I squeezed into my 70’s era slacks and headed over to his house. The party was great and everything was going smoothly. My friend Eryne asked me, “Those pants look tight. How are you going to go to the bathroom?” I could only answer, “I hadn’t thought about that.” I truly hadn’t. I had neglected to realize I would be drinking beer and most likely going to wizz about every half hour in my hard-to-get-zipped-up slacks. So the moment finally arrived when I couldn’t hold it any longer and I went to relieve myself. When I went to zip back up I breathed in and pulled and heard a rip and a pop and looked down and the zipper had come off the track. I quickly scooted into Brinsfield’s spare bedroom to try and fix the pants; to no avail. The whole time wondering how funny it would look if someone came in. Me sitting on the bed, pants around my ankle, fiddling with something in my crotch…

Anyway…

I decided to make a quick getaway and head home and put on my other costume. This being the only time when making 2 costumes was advantageous. I headed out the door quickly, drove home, changed and came back. Everyone puzzled by my absence and return in a different outfit. They all chuckled at my story and I spent the rest of the night trying to keep my pleather tabbards on my shoulders as I hadn’t yet added velcro to keep them in place.

The worst part of losing Han for the night was it happened before my friend Molly showed up. She had done a ANH Leia dress. We worked on our costumes at the same time and shared a lot of knowledge with each other. I really wanted a picture together. But it wasn’t to be. The moral of the story kids?

Have metal zippers sewn into your tight 70’s action slacks before you do drinking.

The busting of the zipper would actually kind of hault my life as everyone’s favorite smuggler until sometime in the spring. But, from there, it would prove a step into a larger world.