A trip that took a few Parsecs…
Posted by: BRADP 08.08.07 12:01am
Well I wasn't able to make C4 in LA due to one of the best things in the world, we had a baby girl on May 25th. How fitting… My wife prays that I don't introduce her to the PSWCS too soon. So I was able to convince my better half that a trip to CE would suffice and I would be just fine. She agreed and so our story begins.

Celebration Europe seemed to have been shaky from the start. People were not sure how it could stand up and compare to all of the previous celebrations here in the states. I have to say, it was not bad and I really had a great time. I was lucky enough to obtain a Media badge to do some coverage for Creature Cantina. I arrived in London on Thursday July 12. That was the day that Forbidden Planet was selling the GG Bly bust. I was planning on getting it but wasn't sure. Now when traveling in a foreign country it takes a bit of time to get acclimated to the transit system. I took the Tube (railway) to get to my hotel. After talking to a few people and having them speak slowly to me because of the accents, I arrived at the ExCel on the waterfront a mere 2 hours later. My hotel, the Novotel was directly across from the convention center and my room looked upon the entrance way.

I was getting very excited because I could wake up early and get into line to get my badges on Friday. I took a quick tour of the Excel and saw that it really didn't seem as large as some other convention centers but seemed a decent size. Steve Sansweet was also there and I gave him a quick Hello from the PA guys. Really Nice Guy!!! While wondering I tried to grab a peek and get my Media badge early. No go. I was able to see the general layout of the main floor but not able to get the badge and do my “interviews” that day. Safety was the reason. I understood and decided to head over to FP for the busts.

So My roommate and I took a taxi..aka Mercedes private service to find FP. It was costly but worth it. We walked around central London and really had a hard time finding it. I stopped in a local comic shop to ask him where FP was and he graciously told me, I kind of felt bad as he was a comic shop also and I was asking directions to his competition. When we found it we saw a line of about 70 or so people. That wasn't too bad at that point. But, we had another 2 hours to wait until they started selling them. Well it now seems that CE was starting to look a lot like all the other celebrations. Lines already?? We haven't even started yet. FP and GG were running a contest/giveaway with the busts. If you got your name called you received a shirt and the chance to have your head scanned into the same way they make the busts. For those of you who remember CII, they also did this. It was originally for the first 10 people they pulled. Well, that took all of 20 minutes and people wanted more. They did about another 30 names and I was lucky enough to get pulled. I have a shirt and soon will have my pictures of my head scan. Now I am not sure who would want a bust of my head, but hey, it was a neat experience. I still don't know who actually won the contest to have the bust made. So after the head scan I picked up my Bly's and was starving at that point and headed back via Tube to get some dinner. I have been up for close to 20+ hours since sleeping on the plane was not comfortable.

Dinner the first night was the cheapest. 25.00USD, and that was for a burger and fries and a soda. The exchange rate was horrible, I felt dirty after seeing how much stuff was and what I would have to pay for things. I forgot to mention that in the Philadelphia airport I exchanged 100USD to pounds and got 41 pounds. Yes, less than half. Anyway, after dinner and this is still Thursday, we hung out with the 501st European garrisons. Great GUYS, Admiral Motti was there and was having a great time. I had some PSWCS patches and did some trading. So after being up and hanging out I headed to bed. NEXT, Friday, day one of the convention.

Its Friday folks. I woke up at 6 AM and looked outside to see how long the line was to get into the convention center. To my surprise there was none. Really, there was no line. So I went to breakfast. It seemed the convention had moved from to the ExCel to my hotel. Many of the actors were staying there. I saw David Prowse, Jay LaGaia, Kenny Baker, Warrick Davis, and about 10 other I knew were in the movies but didn't know their names. Of Course I didn't have my Creature Cantina Sucks sign. But honestly many of them already know this site sucks. David Prowse kindly introduced me to a British delicacy. Yeah Right. Blood/Black(?) pudding. Uh, I am not a vampire and reluctantly tried it. It is pigs blood with some wheat in it. Pretty gross, I don't recommend it. I finished my breakfast and went to get in line to get my Media badge. On the way in I was able to get hooked up with my media badge and a mysterious stranger gave me a Chewbacca badge, AKA exhibitors badge. I had to wait in ZERO lines. But at this point the convention started at 9 and only about 100 people were in line. Really, no lines at this point. Surprising I know. With my badges I walk around and snap some shots of costumed 501st guys...

an almost life size x-wing, and the Vader Project that was still being set up...

I walk some more and see all the different exhibitors, Lego, Hasbro, WOTC, Topp Trumps, LucasArts and a smattering of dealers, about 25 or so. Mostly everyone was set up at this point but not 100 percent.

Well 9 AM rolls around and I have to say the place was dead. Not a huge crowd, nothing. I walked right up to Hasbro and bought my Luke figures, they said I could have as many as I wanted. I said 100, they said Really? Sure, But I only needed 4. I literally walked around for 45 minutes trying to see how many people were there. I ran into a few guys from Rebelscum, a few dealers I know from the PA club but the visitors were at a minimum. I had forgotten about the droids exclusives and ran to find that line. It was the longest one but I was able to score a few.

I headed up to the collectors panels where I spent most of the convention. I really wanted a set of CE medallions. Plus I knew that spending was limited due to the exchange rate. It was about 12:00 and it started to get crowded. Plenty of costumes, plenty of interesting sights to see. Sadly, not as many Slave Leia's as I would have liked. I sat though 4 or 5 of the panels and met some great guys from the vintage forums. I collected a few of the medallions and some other goodies. PSWCS members…you better come to the next meeting I am at!!!!! I got goodies!!! I saw a few good Chewbacca items but not exactly what I needed. There was a display case for items to be shown off by the panel guys. Neat stuff, a few protos, some foreign comics, foreign trading cards and such. Anyway, it was time for the collectors social and then we headed to dinner. I had met some great people. Dinner was great regular Chinese for 750.00USD. really, there were only 13 of us. I thought it was a super deal. Man am I gonna hate my credit card bill!!!

Saturday and Sunday were much different attendee wise. Saturday was actually crowded. Yup, the Brits and Swedes and Germans all love Star Wars like we do. It was really standing room only.

I was getting nervous that this place was a bust. The big draw was Mark Hamill. Hew was there Friday and Saturday signing and speaking. But at 185.00 for his autograph, I will pass. He also hasn't spoken out about his star wars experience in a long time. And he didn't seem too happy about it now. His line was huge. But that was expected. Some of the highlights of the show were the rebel blockade runner show/activity. You could dress up as a rebel trooper and pretend to die. There was a fan made section of the Millenium Falcon that had the holochess table. I should have taken a picture of me sitting at the Dejarik table like Chewie, but didn't.

There were activities for kids where they could dress like jedi and train on Dagobah, the video games could be played at LucasArts and WOTRC had a mini game area. Lawrence Noble was there creating a Tarkin bust. I spoke to him. Very nice guy.

The Artist corner was nice, I met Chris Trevas, Joe Corroney both nice guys. I also met Dave Dorman. I was sent on a mission to get 2 prints from him. I was like Luke getting a message from Leia and had to get the stolen plans/prints to a pair of rebels..well, one tusken and one rebel.

Sunday was an OK day. I registered for an auction number for the archive auction. I bid on a few items but was outbid, by a lot on most. After sitting through 63 of the 90 items, I went to help out and worked with the collector panel guys to help hand out the extra medallions people missed. That was fun. We handed out about 600 medallions in about 45 minutes. I was able to get 11 out of the 12 I needed for a second set. I later got a Vader I needed from a fellow collector.

So, Celebration Europe was a great time. I was able to get some authentic Chewbacca hair from the propstore/stuart freeborn, and a 12 back chewie for just over 200.00USD. I eventually got the hang of using the tube and made it there in an hour. I made my flight home and had another long day of traveling.