JediDefender.com Forums
Community => Star Wars Celebrations => Celebration III: Indianapolis => Topic started by: JediMAC on February 23, 2003, 03:45 PM
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So how many of you have gone to either, or both, of the Star Wars Celebration 1 & 2 conventions in Denver and Indianapolis respectively? What were your thoughts on them? Did you have a great time, or did the bad weather or long lines ruin it for you?
Who's going to Celebration 3 in a couple years?
I missed out on the Denver celebration, which was probably a good thing since I'm not such a big fan of really bad weather. But I went to Celebration 2 in Indianapolis with my wife for all 3 days. Despite some long lines and the poorly distributed Sacul figure, I had the time of my life! It was a blast and there were just so many fun and incredible things to see and do - too many actually. I'll have to drop some of my highlights in here a little later - just too many to list right now!
My only regret was that I had just hit the online SW forum community a couple months prior to our trip to Indy, so I didn't really know anyone well enough to seek them out and try to meet up with them there. Now, nearly a year later, I feel that I've developed a lot of great friendships online, and gotten to know a lot of fellow forum members around the web, and I really wish I could've gotten together with them in person when we were all in the same place. Oh well. Another couple years I guess...
So, what are your SW Celebration experiences? Who will I get to meet at C3?
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I attended Celebration 2 and had an awesome time. I will be attending Celebration 3 and will be providing Coverage for JediDefender.com. I hope to have a booth at C3 and have a few special promotions, etc. It is great fun, I look forward to the next.
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I attended Celebration 2. I thought, it was an experience to say the least. I met so many people, the whole thing was fun, except for the lines. But, even those turned out to be fun, because who I got to talk too.
And, I do plan to go to C3!
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i didn't get too attend either, but i plan on attending C3 no matter where it's at, i will be there!!!
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I have not attended C2 but I will probably be at C3.
I know what you meen about meeting up with some fellow collectors. I think that itself would be a big part of the fun.
Later this year I am planning on attending a few conventions with other members of the 501st. That should be a blast as well.
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I went to C2 and enjoyed it for the most part. I think the worst part of the whole expereince are all the people who complaing about this and that and those who want to complain about those people. I hoping I can go to C3 whereever it is (hopefully the West Coast) ;D. I need to start saving so I can buy alot more stuff then I did at C2.
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Alright, as promised, here's some of my highlights from C2 in Indianapolis:
- Seeing the new Yoda lightsaber battle footage world premiere - as a complete and total surprise!
- Star Wars in 30 Minutes - absolutely hilarious (and impressive)
- The Jorg Sacul figure (not the actual process of getting it though)
- The Star Wars Toy Museum - every single Vintage & modern SW toy ever made, including an incredible Vintage carded collection, Rocket Fett & Yarna
- The Customs and Diorama room
- Celebrity panels - including McCallum, Hayden, Temura, Bies, Carrie, etc.
- Opening Ceremony
- The prop room (though not too much displayed) and Jedi Starfighter
- The Costume Contest
- The 501st (and then some) mass gathering outside of the stadium - Truly UNBELIEVABLE!
- Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra SW Concert (a little rusty, but pretty good)
- Hasbro's exhibit with many first time figure showings
- Having my wife finally realize that I'm not the only adult into this stuff!
- Watching my wife truly enjoy a lot of the SW madness as well!
- Watching the OT movies in the theater there
- Seeing Vader, Stormtroopers, Royal Guards & Bounty hunters wandering the streets of downtown Indy
- Chatting with so many fellow SW fans
- Probably many more things that I'm forgetting...
The only things I didn't enjoy were some of the lines and disorganization, and not having enough time to do and see everything I wanted to (autographs, collecting panel discussions) - though I probably squeezed more in than at least 95% of the other convention attendees! ;D Without a doubt, I had the time of my life!
Can't wait for C3! Hopefully it's here in SoCal this time - San Diego or Anaheim would be some seriously prime locations! 8)
Hopefully I can meet many of you there as well... ;)
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I missed out on C1 but had a blast at C2 working.
I live here in Indy so of course I had to go. Thank You to Frank (NiubNiub) and Phillip Wise for contacting me to help them get some volunteers for the event. At the time I was part of the Indy Knights so naturally I got them to volunteer. Plus being a customizer Frank thought of me. He is such a great guy.
If C3 happens to be in Indy I hope that Frank or Phillip will once again ask me for help in acquiring the Volunteers. Or that Mary Franklin or Steven J. Sansweet contact me and ask for help. I for one hope I get to go and work at C3 if it is once again held here in Indy.
At C2 I worked and ran my butt off to get things done for everyone. I got to meet and work with a lot of great people from ILM, LuscaFilms, the Fan Club, Actors and Actresses, ect. I made lots of freinds and met a bunch of people that I have been talking to on the net for years. It is great to be able to put faces to names.
But of course my big thing for C2 was not meeting the stars, working for the people, meeting Anthony Daniels or Carrie Fisher, and whatnot. The big thing for me was being asked by Steven Sansweet and company to design the 25th Anniversay Thank You card for Mr. Lucas. One of my lifelong dreams was fullfilled ever if it was for a short time. I now can say that I worked for George Lucas and LucasFilms. It is one of the highlites in my portfolio.
When I saw the picture in Bantha Tracks with him standing there and reading it I was just excited. I hope that one day I get to meet Mr. Lucas in person. I just have to know what did he think of the card.
Mary Franklin and Steven J. Sansweet both told me that George loved it. But it would be such an ego trip for me to head it from the man himself.
Also thank you all who took the time to sign the card.
Well, on that. If I hear the C3 is in Indy again I will let the world know for sure. I think it should be called C3-P0. :)
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Whoa, am I the only one that went to both?
Well no need to recap C2, I basically share the same highlights as everyone else! Had a fantastic time! Although, I did lose my credit card, and spent a good part of the day tracking it down (one of the WOTC store workers had accidentally held on to it, so much to my relief, it never got into the wrong hands). I got to meet Anthony Daniels for a second time, and amazingly, he recognized me after I told him where we met the first time.
C1 was fun as well, but if you think C2 was disorganized, or had long lines, then you would not have been very happy. I still absolutely loved it and would go again if I had the chance to redo it, but parts of it weren't exactly pleasant. First of all, it was held in an old military hanger, the main facility was about the size of the two main exhibition halls at C2 (the dealer/autograph/book giveaway/computer/card game area), and was about twice as cramped. The other part, the dealer area, was held in a tent out in a dirt parking lot. Every day it rained, and it rained HARD. The first day I was there, I waited 3 hours outside in a complete downpour. I managed to get under a tent (another queing area) and that was where I met Anthony Daniels for the first time. He came up to me, and shook my hand, and said "Youve got really warm hands, let me warm mine (god that sounds bad)". Well he stood there and continued to shake my hand, and carried on about a 10 minute discussion! :) It was cool, and he is most definately a stand up guy!
The dealer area was a disaster, and I felt very sorry for them, as the entire tent had flooded, and many people had stuff on the ground (including vintage stuff). It was a huge mess.
We ended up waiting six hours in the line for the Fan Club store, to get all of the "exclusives" that would later show up online at half the price ;) But no, Im not mad about that or anything :)
Overall, it was like Woodstock (well, more Woodstock 94), meets Star Wars. I had a fantastic time though!
I will definately go to C3. Everyone knows Im very adamant in my opinion that it will be in Indy (I worked at the Convention Center and Visitors Association for a short period, and it has been going through there for quite some time that C3 will come back to Indy), but wherever it is, Ill go!
I skipped my college graduation for C2, and instead of going to a graduation, my parents also decided to come! It was a fantastic time, I wouldnt miss another for anything
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I so wanted to go to the Indianapolis convention last year, but had a major scheduling conflict and had to bail on my plans to attend at the last minute. Sounds like I missed one great weekend. Didn't hit C1 either, but I'm not so bummed about that one due to the weather.
I'm definitely going to the next one in a couple years, wherever it is! My question is, do you think there will be any more after C3? I sure hope so, but I doubt they'll be in 3 year intervals any more. Maybe every 5 or 10 years or so would be my guess.
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According to uber collector Steve Sansweet, there will continue to be Star Wars Celebrations so long as demand warrants. That would lead me to believe at least one more after C3, to serve as a basis for testing the demand behind it.
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I wasn't able to go to C2, much to my dismay, but C3 will be different. For one, thing, I'll have my license, so I'm gonna get there no matter what! :)
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I thought about another "fun" thing about going to C2 on my way home we stoped in Minneoplis (SP) to catch another flight. When we were going out to take off instead of the right turn to get on the runway we went left. A few minutes later the Copilot came out and went to the back of the plane then went back to the cockpit. He did this a couple of times before the pilot came on and told us "THey smelt smoke in the back of the plane and they checking on it" a few minutes after that he comes back and basicly says everythings okay and we will be taking off once we get back in line. Needless to say the whole flight I was waiting for something to happen.
Hopefully this is the worst thing that will happen to me when I fly.
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I haven't gone to either C1 or C2. Just the thought of missing out on both of these makes me severely depressed. :'(
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Well, since today is indeed two years after the start of Celebration II, as this year is a leap year, I thought it'd be appropriate to share my expirences and allow you to rekindle your memories of the event.
Techniclay speaking it's two years after the day long journey up to Indy, so I figure that's where I should start. Par usal, no one was ready to leave the house on time, as my mom was dragging her feet to leave. I had for several days professed the advantage of leaving the house in the pre-dawn hours due to the fact that we would miss most, if not all, the severe weather present on May the second 2002. But that jerk wad Murphy had other ideas as we left the house at about 7:15 AM.
That is by no means is an indication of when we got on the road finally. We had to stop at multiple places, including my elementary school's spring 'festival' to drop off a cake for the cake walk. Jump foward to 8:00 AM, I am now resting in the third seat of our vehicle with my half eaten Snikers bar tucked neatly into the second seat pocket. I recall looking up at the sky inbetween the mountains and thinking how unstable it was going to be that day because of how sunny it was and how warm it already was. I decided that it was ineffectual to worry about such things at that time and went back to sleep.
It got way to warm to sleep in the vehicle by 8:20 or so, as the sun was glaring into my seat. I then moved to the second seat, where I picked up my Attack of The Clones Comics and began to thumb through them. I then took another bite of the Snikers.
Fastfoward to around 11ish in the morning, at which time we stoped at a Citgo in the Tennesse Mountains, and infact we returned there yesterday on the two year anneversary while on our way to Knoxville, however, that's not the point. My sister got a peice of pizza from there, and that was the start of a long term affair with the pizza, one that continues to this day. I noticed that the clouds were realativley small at this point so, I allowed myself to go to sleep. I was also now in the front passenger seat.
As we got into Knoxville, the clouds had become dark and threating, and the wind began to gust at about 30 or so MPH. I at the time I still had a rather large phobia of severe weather (lay off I was only 12) so my stomach was turning, and I got that sickly feeling. However as we got into Knoxville, things improved and I relaxed. As we headed North I noticed Cumulo Nimbus clouds, big ones at that. However, they were not in our dicrection, so I continued to relax. As we entered Kentuky, a light rain began to fall, I then began talking to my sister and dad about C2.
About twenty or so miles into Kentuky, we stopped at a rest area, I like a moron didn't realize that the time zones had changed, so when I look at a radar and saw that it said 1:55 I thought it was an hour old. Anywho, the radar showed two large supercells close by, one with the classic hook tail. Not sensing any danger, I got into the second seat and laid down. Not long after I began to thumb through the ATOC comic again, only to be greated to really bright lighting and strong winds. I then saw a funnel cloud, which luckly didn't touchdown. The hail then began to barrade the unit of transportation, the size was comporable to golfballs, and the windsheild got a couple cracks.
As we left the London area (as that's where we were at the time) a small purple jeep beside us on my side slid into the wall and flipped over on it's roof. My dad being a doctor got out and went to go check. They were alright but their cargo of books was utterly ruined as it was tossed about the intersate.
After a twenty minuet delay, we continued to Indy, with stops in Lexington. We took the Cincinatti route up there and arrived at 7:00 PM. We were staying on the west side of the city near the interstate. When we got out of the vehicle, I was promplty punched by my sister, Michelle, as a bumble bee flew into her face. This resylted in me falling into a thron bush and loosing my glasses. She did find them, with one lense poped out of the frame. I fixed them, and then began to talk to other Star Wars fans about tonights events...ROTJ on Fox!
I went up to the room a got two super battle droids, with the variations inside the plate. We all started talking about collecting when one guy came and put down an R4-M9, Taun We, and Teebo. I asked him how much and he said 70. What an fing scalper! I then offered to show him the variation I found when he made a wise crack about, ''I've got some droids in my pants I'd like to show you!'', He was quite the comedian, not. As the night progressed I started to talk to some girl from Boston about the EU, we talked for about two or so hours and it was fun. There was plenty of pizza to go around, as well as donuts.
At 12:00 AM my time I went up to my room and feel asleep on the couch. And I knew that the next day would be a lot of fun...
To be continued! Next up: Celebration II: The lone shopper!
EDIT: Problem solved...
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At around six fourty, on the morning of Friday, May third 2002. I looked at my whatch and cleverly deduced that I could get up. Now this entire series of events are vauge to me, as the rest of the day is what's important. Well long story short we set off from the room at around seven o'clock in the morning. While me and my father were trudging down the hall (you know that walk when you're really tired and you're just trying not to fall and cause a great calamity for any unfortunate person around you?) we ran into a particuarly large guy I had met last night. He called me Palpatine or something, since the night befour I had gushed about him being my favorite character. I retorted by saying 'Mandalorian boy' since he really liked Boba.
As we got into the car I was still really tired and it didn't help that the sun was obnoxiously glaring me down, I tried my best not to look into it, and I *skillfully* succeded. When we got to the convention centre there must have been well over a 300 people in line already. I quickly got in line and remarked how cool this one guy in a Carnor Jax costume was. I stood there for around twenty five minuets (My dad went to go park the car) then the retards who were running the event informed us that this line was for the fanclub only. Now if I was as mature as I am today I probably would have screamed out various curses at the imbicile, however seeing as how I was only 12 I let it slide and preceded to walk around the convention center with my dad who had just caught up.
As we and about a scattered group of around 20 with us walked around the convention area, moral was low. No one knew where the hell the non FC line was. The journey around the RCA Dome was a treachorous one as the group was muddy and the sun was still glaring. Then about 20-30 minutes later the staggering group walked into the line.
The line sucked, it was so boring. We weren't very social I can tell you that. Now as time went on there were applauses for the people dressed in costume, especially Thrawn (must have been alot of EU fans) but the largest applause came when Anthony Daniels came down. It was as though Jesus himself came down and started handing out free food.
Fastfoward to about an hour or so later and we were finally getting inside, I was pleased to see the 501st had indeed brought alot of people, but I was more pleased that I was getting in. We walked over to where you buy the passes and then BAM I had a three day pass to the event. My dad gave me about, I think 100? dollars and let me go, I had the cell phone (at the time all we had was a really 'cool' 1997 infinity cell phone, that didn't work most of the time) and so I set off.
My first stop was ofcourse the dealer room. Armed with cash I preceded to uy the following from the vendors: Dooku, Taun We, Mace Windu and a couple of clone troopers. I walked the dealer room for most of the day actually, and let me say you get no respect from dealers when you're a kid wereing a flopy hat. Oh and I had brilliantly decide not to take a shower that morning (it's a con, hardly anyone smells 'nice') but then around 11 I went to the SW Trilogy in thirt munutes show, not only was it hilarous, it also ate up valuable time. By this time I was hungry so I settled for the little bag of chips that came with the pass (those things were so very cool!). I sat at a table and read the art of AOTC that I had purchesed. Oh and let me add that the people at suncoast were really friendly.
After my 'lunch' I went to Nuib's diorama thingy, were he misclassified me as a girl. Yep that's write I got called a girl, by nuibnuib. I can't blame him, I had a hat on, I had ong hair, and had fat boobs. Anyway I sucked at making the buildings so I left.
I called my dad to pick me up and then, along with my sister picked me up and we left. I was so happy about my finds, but was more pleased that I was going to White Castle. After eating there we returned to the hotel where I took a nap. My family went out to Olive Garden that evening, but I was so tired I stayed back and went to sleep. However like so many times you try to sleep you can't. So when I awoke I turned on a special episode of the Simpsons. I was elated that it mentioned USC (south carolina mind you) and my football team the Gamecocks. But after it ended I went back to sleep and remained that way for the remainder of the night.
Up next: Day three in the great adventures of C2.
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Do you guys think they will bring back the Star Wars Museum for C3?
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Do you guys think they will bring back the Star Wars Museum for C3?
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