Celebration IV Report Part II: 30 Years With A Bang...Well, Not Quite

[lazypadawan]

Again, Debbie and I got to the convention center between 7 and 7:30 a.m., this time getting dropped off at the West Hall. We noticed right away the line was much shorter than at the South Hall; we lined up at the West Hall every morning for the remainder of the convention.

We had typical Gray May (overcast, foggy skies) but the clouds quickly burned off. Then it got quite warm. I'd left my new stormtrooper hat back at the hotel, so I had to endure the sun. The new SW stamps were also set to go on sale on Friday morning, so the postal service had a tent set up outside for sales to start at 8 a.m.. The line for that was short, so we got into it. I'd already ordered stamps online to avoid getting them dinged, but there were other items up for sale as well: postcards, first day of issue cached envelopes, dedication ceremony programs, etc.. It turned out the dedication ceremony programs weren't for sale yet. So at 8 a.m., I got the postcards and a cached envelope with the Leia and Artoo stamp. I told the staff as I looked over everything, "You know how to get us." Several people got their stamps cancelled with the date 5/25/07, which supposedly increases their value, but I heard the ink took all day to dry!

Back in line to get into the convention center, we were entertained by a perky blonde who corralled every new busload of conventiongoers. Then there was the husky-voiced Line Lady who gave us the same spiel every morning about closing up the line and the Celebration Store. She was LOUD. Poor woman probably lost her voice on Tuesday.

A boy around 9 or 10 years old commented on the costumes (there were more of them today), calling out to people if he recognized their blaster rifles were really paintball guns or something. Another guy dressed as Cade Skywalker walked next to the line and the kid asked him who he was. "Cade" took out a vial with some liquid in it and asked the youngster, "Want some deathsticks?" I bust up laughing, then I advised the kid to "just say no."

At 10 a.m., we were released into the convention center. Our first objective of the morning was to go back to the Exhibit Hall for another round of freebies. Hasbro was giving out more coins and the first of its exclusive cardbacks, while Topps was giving away more trading cards. On the way through a concourse to the South Hall, I saw a group ahead of me that included a middle aged "little" woman and someone in a wheelchair. As I walked up next to them, Debbie nudged me and whispered, "Kenny Baker." I glanced to the side and sure enough, that was him in the wheelchair. He certainly looked older and more frail than the last time I saw him at Celebration II. At that convention, he was walking around on his own. Later on I heard that he started dozing off as he signed a picture for someone and his wife nudged him awake, making a nice little line next to his signature. Poor guy.

After getting another round of Hasbro coins and a Darth Vader cardback, we went over to Topps. Three preview cards from the upcoming 30th anniversary set were being given out. I already got P1 and picked up P3, but we found out we had to ASK a particular staffer (John or somebody) for P2 cards! He would then pull one out of his pocket and give it to you.

This brings up the most bizarre aspect of Celebration IV: The Secret Giveaway(TM). Patches, buttons, cards, and all kinds of other stuff were up for grabs from various sources, particularly fan groups. But you had to give the secret signal or handshake or plea for it, promising your firstborn in the process. Or you had to know the people giving the stuff away. What was up with that?

The king of the Secret Giveaways was the collector's panel commemorative coin. Ah, those coins. To encourage people to attend collecting panels, especially the less popular/obscure ones, they gave out at random coins commemorating the first 12 Kenner action figures. They became such a hot item, completed sets were selling for $1500 on eBay before the con even ended, lines formed to get into panels, and dealers in the Exhibit Hall were paying out $20 per coin. I even began meeting people who literally spent all day in those panels to get all of the coins they could.

Debbie got bit by the coin bug big time. It all started when we went to the DCSWCC booth where club founder Mike got a call on his cell tipping him off that a coin giveaway was about to occur during a panel on Peruvian collectibles. "They're going to give coins out at 11:30! We need to be in our seats by 11:20!" he said. I was a little annoyed because I wanted to pick up my autograph coupons from Official Pix, but off I went to follow everyone else all of the way back to the West Hall. We slipped into the collector's panel room and endured the last several minutes of a monotone lecture on Peruvian SW collectibles. Eeek. But I did get my coin.

Afterwards, we went back to the South Hall and the Fan Fair room. We met up with Jamie, who told us she got a cranky reception from Anthony Daniels late Thursday afternoon when she got his autograph. He apparently didn't take it too well when she asked to take a picture with him. Ouch. She was waiting to be admitted back into line to get Carrie Fisher's autograph since Carrie was out on a break. After lunch, Debbie took off for another collecting panel and the hunt for more coins, while I followed Jamie back to Official Pix Land. There I got my photo coupons, my autograph coupon for Jake Lloyd, and a paper bracelet with the number "3" stamped on it. I thought this meant I'd get his autograph really late in the day on Saturday. Sigh. I used one of the photo coupons to get a nice shot of Leia I'd not seen before for my collection o' pix. Then I headed upstairs. There was only about five people in line to see the "Star Wars Trilogy In 30 Minutes" show; Debbie planned to meet up with me to see it at 3:30. So, I went into the Lucasfilm Archives where there was absolutely no line.

The archive display was much more sparse than at Celebration II. There were a couple of Padmé costumes I'd seen at FIDM and some ROTJ costumes I'd seen at the Magic of Myth exhibit and at Celebration II. Han's Hoth coat was on display along with a placard describing the controversy on how his coat was actually brown but it shows up as blue on film. There were some prototypes and art on display but there seemed to be a morbid theme running throughout the rest of the displays. There's all of the different Vader masks and accessories along with a charred Vader helmet used in ROTJ and a lifelike maquette of Krispy!Anakin used to test makeup for ROTS. Across the room there's a dummy of Luke's head from the Dagobah cave sequence in TESB. Then there were some dismembered droids. In any case, it was nice seeing some of the stuff again. I'd forgotten the dragonfly designs in Padmé's cloak used in that cut family scene from AOTC. As I was taking pictures, a group of Padmé costumers came in and I overheard one of them telling her friends that as a graduation gift to herself, she was going to get a tattoo with Padmé's royal sigil on her back. Well, if you're going to ink yourself up...I suppose she can compete in the tattoo competition at Celebration V.

After searching out some soda, I went back to the line for "Star Wars Trilogy In 30 Minutes," which had grown significantly. I sat down for the wait and watched the line grow longer and longer. At one point, a kid about ten years old challenged a 20-something guy to a lightsaber duel with the expensive Master Replicas lightsabers. The boy managed to take the older guy to town, fighting dirty and using his smaller size to get at the guy. Then I got a call on my cell phone from AnakinsLuv, who I know from the A/P Defenders thread on TFN. She was already in line for the opening ceremony. She promised to hold two spots for me and for Debbie and I told her we'd head down there after the show.

Debbie came back a few minutes before they let us into the room for the show. The line snaked all of the way back down the corridor. The room was completely packed by the time the show got started. The concept of it is a small troupe acts out key scenes from the OT within 30 minutes to hilarious results. The show was a smash hit at previous Celebrations and I could see why. It's really quite funny.

Afterwards, we went to the growing opening ceremony line. AnakinsLuv was close to the beginnng of the line...what a lucky break! After a while, Debbie left for another collector's panel that ended around 6 p.m.. AnakinsLuv and chatted for a while, then I got a call from celosia2. AnakinsLuv kindly let celosia2 and her friend Kara line up with us, then eventually ladyaeryn, Lindsay, and a_p joined the merry crew. Just as I was wondering if I should run out and get something to eat, the line fascists, er staff, told us we couldn't leave. I started calling Debbie frantically but she'd turned her phone off. I was worried they'd close the line and Debbie wouldn't be able to get back in. All I could do was leave messages telling her how to get to the line. By 6:30, Debbie managed to appear just before they let us in. It's a Celebration miracle!

They got everyone to check in bags and other items besides purses and backpacks, meaning they confiscated scores of lightsabers and last minute purchases. Great. Luckily they let me keep my messenger bag. We were handed envelopes as we walked inside, each with different SW stamps. Hall K, where the opening ceremony was held, was darker than the Batcave. A woman banged out various SW tunes on a piano as people searched out good places to sit. We made our close to the front, though we did get separated from celosia2 and Kara. Then I tried something completely nuts. I went to the back of the auditorium and asked the guys in the maroon jackets if I could run out really quick and get some chow, because like heck I was going to wait until 10-11 p.m. to eat anything. I'd been struggling with a headache all day and I know from experience that if I have an empty tummy, my headaches get a lot worse, almost migraine level. Strangely enough, the maroon jacket guys said, "Sure." So I dashed out to the nearby food court and got a sandwich. On my way back in, a volunteer--a 501st dude in an Impie officers' uniform--tried to stop me. I explained I had already been admitted into the auditorium but I'd gotten permission to go get something to eat. The guy looked like he totally did not believe me. The irony is of course that what I told him was 100% true. But I kept walking. Like I listen to Imps anyway.

As I scarfed down my $7.35 sandwich like a starving ogre, I looked at all of the media in the room. I figured Big Things Would Happen. Big Guests Would Appear. We would be treated to Big Surprises. After all, previous opening ceremonies had all kinds of cool stuff happen.

The event started a half hour or so late. A stormtrooper honor guard bearing flags marched down the aisles with USC's marching band. Not bad for an opener. A stormie is chased off the stage by an Ewok, who turned out to be Steve Sansweet. "Indiana Jones" hassles the Ewok for a bit, but Steve ends up staying.

We're shown a video from Papa George apologizing for not showing up. Sansweet announces that we're going to have instead a live satellite hookup with The Flanneled One in London. But it turns out to be a paper bag puppet. Now, they did a nice job with the paper bag...it really did look as much like Papa George as a paper bag could. But I think we sorta felt let down.

We are next treated to the mayor of Los Angeles, taking time off from his busy schedule attending protests and marches, to welcome us all to his humble burg and proclaim May 25, 2007 as "Star Wars Day." Cool, now that the day was almost over! This was followed by a city council member with another proclamation. That's all fine and good, but as the council member said, we didn't come there to listen to politicians all night. You got that right.

Lucas Licensing guru Howard Roffman comes up on stage and delivers the most infuriating part of the program. Well, infuriating to me anyway. It starts out innocuously enough when he asks people who first saw SW in 1977 to stand up (yep, geezerly me would be included). Then after we sit down he goes on about how after the Han-n-Greedo shooting scene kerfluffle, Lucas "apologized" for it by changing the scene in 2004 and after TPM, Lucas "apologized" for Jar Jar by giving him a diminished role in the other prequels. This fanboy pandering is bad enough. Then Roffman makes the sweeping generalization that older fans think the OT is better (loud cheers) while younger fans prefer the PT (boos). When it got quiet I yelled out, "Some of us like both!"

Believe you me, I was upset. I was shaking and it took me a long time to calm down. It was a completely unnecessary and appalling pander to balding fanboy nation but it confirmed what I've suspected for a long time about Lucasfilm; these guys are willing to throw the PT under the bus when it suits them.

The rest of the overly-long show was a blur of promoting upcoming video games, redundant promotion of panels and events at the convention (uh, we've been doing and seeing this stuff for two full days now), a bellydancing slave Leia, a repeat of the Robot Chicken Emperor phone call skit, and a "Parade of Celebrities" that was missing some of the bigger names at the convention for unknown reasons. It played out like a weird, awkward high school graduation ceremony. I hate to sound nitpicky, but if your claim to fame is playing the third Jawa on the left in ANH, you're not really a celebrity. They rolled out a big cake and Jay Laga'aia, one of the most engaging personalities at the show, led everyone in singing happy birthday to SW. Then they sprung the surprise on us that everyone in the audience--all several thousand of us--are getting cake too. As they diced up the cake on the stage, they rolled out carts filled with small pieces o' cake for the audience. Unfortunately it takes a long time to serve that many people. Like being on a plane, they served the back first and I didn't get my piece until almost the end of the show.

The higher points of the program include Laga'aia singing "Celebration", bringing much needed energy to the show (although he didn't know most of us had our lightsabers confiscated when he said, "come on and wave your lightsabers!"), a brief glimpse of the Family Guy SW episode, and preview of the SW Saga LEGO game. The best part was Vader showing Luke a snapshot of Anakin and a pregnant Padmé then pointing to Luke. We got a big kick out of that one. I also enjoyed the preview of the movie "Fanboys," a snippet of "One Man Star Wars" and the "Star Wars In 30 Minutes" crew doing 30 years of Lucasfilm. When they got to "Tucker," a guy comes forward and says, "My name is Tucker. I'm a man and I have a dream!" Their take on ROTS is hilarious; these guys need to do a prequels show.

They also unveiled the new postage stamps and revealed which stamp won the poll to be issued separately...Yoda!

The evening wound up with Jet Pack Guy from the Rose Bowl Parade taking a flight across the hall. I'd love to have taken pictures, but my eardrums were exploding so I was unable to reach a camera.

After the show, we made the mistake of waiting for a bus at the South Hall when at that hour buses were only going to the West Hall. Once we got over there, buses on our route suddenly became rare. While we were waiting, we were serenaded by a group of fans singing "The Saga Begins." Finally a bus shows up, we pile on, and on the way back to the hotel, my cell phone rang. It turns out to be quidawn and she's the first person to tell me about the bomb scare.

Despite lockdowns, suspension of bus service for a while, and evacuation of the convention center, we were never told once about this bomb scare. I suppose they figured we were all expendable. Later on, I found out what happened was the "suspicious package" that caused all of the trouble was an empty Hasbro box sitting around near the South Hall bus dropoff. The security guard asked if it belonged to anyone and when everyone said "no," the guard called it in and that's when all heck broke loose. The bomb scare apparently made the news; people at work were even asking about it when I got back.

Comments

[nic]

Thank you so much for writing these reports. It's been really interesting reading... and it's actually made me glad that I DIDN'T go.

I've been to a lot of conventions and none of them have been remotely as 'security conscious' as what you've described here. Making people hand over their bags and lightsabers before a show at a *convention*? Nazi-like security guards who don't want to let someone out of line to get a sandwhich? Endless lines and being treated like cattle rather than people? An air of secrecy on how to get freebies? And guests who are rude to fans?

I'm a little bit horrified.

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

I think the reason why they were so security conscious at this particular event was because the mayor of L.A. was going to be there and as well as a lot of media. Granted, at Comic Con, nobody cares what you bring in and you often have huge movie stars like Angelina Jolie showing up. *Shrug.* I think it was the decision of the convention center staff, not so much GenCon or Lucasfilm.

Convention guest rudeness happens way more often than you think. Sometimes a guest is having a bad day, or he's tired, or he's not feeling well. Sometimes these people have personalities that really aren't all that condusive to meeting the general public. Sometimes a fan does or says something that ticks off the guest. From what I heard, Daniels wasn't rude to everybody and pretty much everyone else at the con was great with the guests. Even after signing for more than 8 hours, Carrie Fisher cheerfully took pictures with ladyaeryn and her friend. And I still have to report on getting Jake Lloyd's autograph.

Trust me, in just about every way, Celebration IV was a better convention than Celebration II and even with their problems, there's a reason why Celebrations are different in a good way from Comic Con or Dragoncon.

[anakinsluv.livejournal.com]

Thought I would hook myself up to leave comments as I've been lurking for a few years now...BTW, how do you work this thing? I at least want to pick an icon, but can't figure it out.

Nice take by take. You guys had much more of an agenda than my hubby and I did, but it sounds like you were able to snatch up a bunch of free goodies.
And I so agree with you on the OC LFL spit on the PT. We need to start a movement....heck, the good people over on the History Channel have it figured out!

So were you ever able to run into quidawn? I'm sorry I missed her.

Can't wait to read the rest! It was so nice to meet you in person and hang in line with you!

Got my pics up in the Defender's thread....

-AnakinsLuv

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

Hi, anakinsluv! *Waves.*

You have to have icons downloaded to your account and then when you post you have to use the Picture To Use dropdown menu to select the icon you want.

No, I wasn't able to meet up with quidawn :(. Great pix on the Defenders' thread! I'll have to post mine soon.

Anyway, I decided at Celebration I am going to start something concerning the PT over the next few weeks/months...

[ladyaeryn.livejournal.com]

Hey girl! About time! :D *adds to friends list*