The great CC.com C4 write-up!
Posted by: Bill Cable 06.06.07 12:01am
My wife and I took a ton of photos at C4. I culled through them to get the best 85. Now 85 is A LOT of photos to go through and describe. I'm trying to think of the best way to do it. I could do it chronologically, narrating the whole event. But that could be a bit... dull. Or I could categorize them by theme. That could also get dull. And my ruminations over which process could get dull... very, very quickly. So I guess I'll just wing it. I'll try to get the substance of the con across with a mix of methods. And that's fitting... because this event was a true hodgepodge of situations.

We flew into L.A. late Wednesday, getting to the hotel around 11pm. We'd left our kids with the grandparents... this was the first trip my wife and I had taken together in probably 7 years! It was really nice to be out together without having to wrestle with and carry around two wild little girls. Thursday we got to the Con early to pick up special badges. These badges were so that we wouldn't have to stand in any lines. So what was the first thing I made my wife do when we got into the exhibitor's hall? I made her stand in line. While I looked around, she stood in line for one of the Fett maquettes. Did I marry the right woman or what? But she wasn't the only one sitting in lines...

The lobby was nice... a huge, open space. But it really wasn't used for anything, so it mostly ended up being wasted space. The exhibitor hall was big, but only a small portion was dedicated to exhibitors. More than half was roped off for autographs, and there was another big chunk set up for the artists' alley. They had their exclusive print scam going on... so there really wasn't much room for the dealer tables. And it was a good thing, because there were hardly any dealer tables there! I did snag a shot of the Toy Cave booth. LEGO had a nice booth... it was this big Death Star sphere with some goodies inside. I entered the contests, but didn't actually buy anything. Gentle Giant had a nice booth as well, with this full-scale Gentle Giant Jabba, which was particularly impressive. Hasbro was set up, but you can see all those photos on a dozen different collecting new sites out there.

One of the nicest surprises at C4 was when I opened a copy of the Star Wars Super Collector's Wish Book, Fourth Edition. I submitted an article to Geoff Carlton, and it ended up on page 450! I had an article about me published in the Third Edition, but this is my first time as a published author! It's a great, inspirational article. You should go buy a copy and read it. Here's me checking out a copy.

One of the most fun parts of any convention is watching the people in costume. For some reason, there really weren't a lot of people in costume at C4. I remember tons of people at C3... Slave Leias as far as the eye could see. There didn't even seem to be as many Stormtroopers. There were some creative and photo-worthy costumes, though. Check these out...

Now that last photo deserves a story. I was waiting in line for "Star Wars in 30 minutes" when I saw her walk by. She got in line farther back, so I grabbed my camera to go back and take the photo. She recognized me, of course, and I told her "Make this a good one for Bob!" She replied... "Oh yeah, I sure miss him." And I was like, "Yeah, it's a pity he didn't come... oh wait... you mean something entirely different, don't you." You see, nobody told me they'd broken up 6 months ago. I'm the PSWCS president... I'm supposed to be informed of these things! So that ended... awkwardly. But she did stop by the PSWCS booth later on and chatted it up.

The main reason I went to C4 was to hang out with my Vintage buddies... and I had that opportunity in spades. The first big event was the "Collector's Social Hour" Thursday night. We had a real big crowd. Here's a few photos..

After the social we moved on to the hotel, and a bunch of us ended up in Andy's room for more socializing.

Thursday was fun. But I talked too much. And the smog killed me. When I woke up Friday morning, I had no voice. The best I could muster was a raspy whisper. Not a good thing when I was set to participate in the Character Collecting panel on Saturday. So Friday, I decided not to talk. I hoped I'd regain my voice by not using it at all.

Now, one of the great things about Celebrations is the chance to meet some of the legendary actors from the Saga. Carrie Fisher was at Celebration 3, but I missed her. Actually, I didn't want to stand in line for 7 hours to meet her. At C4 I resolved to wait the line. We got there first thing Friday, made a dash for the Fisher line, and got in before it was too long. It was about a 90-minute wait before we got to meet Carrie. She was very nice. Lynda had a fun time talking to her. I, of course, couldn't. Carrie really got a blast out of the collage of photos of celebrities with the CC.com SUCKS! sign, and agreed to participate. This was my biggest score of the week!

Carrie agrees - CreatureCantina.com SUCKS!

And here's Carrie posing with yours truly.

The other celeb I was anxious to see was Anthony Daniels. I had such a fantastic time meeting him at Dragon*Con that I couldn't wait to see him again. Sadly, this second meeting didn't go quite as well. We were second in line Saturday to see him... I knew I'd have to be quick to make it to the Character Collecting panel. I was happy that my voice had somewhat returned, so I could actually say hi. But the idiot in front of us had to go and put Tony in a bad mood. Watching Tony set up, it's obvious he has full-on OCD. He set up his signing table all by himself... taking at least half an hour to get everything exactly how he wanted it. While he was doing this, the goofball in front of us started snapping photos. And this upset Tony. He came over, told the guy how rude it was and how the flash blinded him. The goofball then spent the rest of his 30 minutes standing there muttering under his breath how Tony was an ass and how he wanted to walk back to his booth except that he didn't have the autograph yet. So by the time Tony was ready to sign he was in a bad mood. And I guess due to our proximity in line to the goofball that we got associated with his rudeness. I had him sign a shirt, and he commented on how difficult it is to sign shirts. He sort of forced a smile for a photo and shooed me away. It was nothing at all like his completely gracious interaction with me at Dragon*con. A pity...

As I said, I participated in the Character Collecting panel on Saturday. That was a blast. Dustin Roberts and I jabbed each other about our respective characters. For whatever reason he thinks R2-D2 is superior to C-3PO. Pure folly! 3PO is clearly the better character with the better collectibles! Being a fan of R2-D2 is about as challenging as being a fan of a stupid dog. He's totally loyal. He yelps and whines when it's funny. He keeps sticking his probes in the wrong holes. Being a fan of 3PO is much more of a challenge because 3PO is much more complex. C-3PO has subtleties. He's a coward. He's annoying. But he's hilarious, and he shows genuine growth through the Saga, especially the Original Trilogy.

Also on the panel were Mattias Rendahl, a Chief "Shirpa" collector (stupid little bear), and Chris Nichols, a Jawa collector. Mattias was a hoot! He's from Sweden, and took full advantage of his Swedish Chef accent. We talked about our own collections, showed off the collections of some other people... it was a blast.

Another huge event for me at C4 was the "room sales" at the hotel. There's no better place to pick up rare pieces for your collection. The "Official" room sales were Friday... but there was a problem. We had about five people talking in the hallway between our rooms when security showed up. We were too loud. Now recall... we had probably 60 people in the halls at C3... so this just wasn't going to cut it. After some negotiations, the security allowed us to gather in an out-of-service bar in the lobby. And man, talk about PERFECT! The bar was shaped just like the Cantina, three sides with tables surrounding it. We had a big crowd, and some decent swag the first night.

But I'll be honest... there wasn't as much good stuff as at previous Celebrations. There were very few Vintage prototypes. People brought some AFA graded stuff... loose and carded... not even worth a look. And two different guys has bins full of modern first shots... but no 3POs!

That was more than made up for Saturday, when the Prodigal Son himself, Steve York showed up! And he brought all his best stuff to sell.

You should have seen dude's wad at the end of the night. He couldn't even close his wallet.

Yorkie came back Sunday night with more stuff.

I picked up a nice mis-card C-3PO on a Tri-logo Zuckuss card from Steve. Other people got Vintage coin soft and hard copies, original art, tons of MOC Tri-logos, rare foreign carded stuff, and a wax-through-hard copy run of a Micro Lando 4-up. It was amazing to watch those treasures spill out of those bins.

Also Sunday I hosted a panel on Collecting Clubs. We had reps from OSWCC, DCSWCC & SARLACC talking about the benefits of collecting clubs. I felt like we inspired some people. It was great.

It was a real honor to be given the opportunity to share my collecting passions in the panels. That didn't really hit me until C4 was almost over. There's dozens... hundreds of guys who could sit up there and talk about the stuff I talked about. But Gus and his guys chose me. Hopefully they think they made the right choice. As a reward for being chosen to present a couple panels, I received a special gold set of the medallions. They're gorgeous. The morning they were presented all the panelists posed for a group photo. Except for Dustin. He probably realized his R2-worshiping ass wasn't worthy.

We're getting close to deadline, so I guess I should wrap this up. Another thing I enjoyed was the various exhibitions. They had a Vader helmet thing, a Lucasfilm Archive thing, and a Droids thing. The helmets, in particular, were impressive. Most impressive...

What else did I do at C4? Oh yeah... PSWCS set up a booth! Here we are:

Lynda's greatest thrill was getting to see an actual celebrity. Who goes to LA and doesn't see an actual celebrity? We almost didn't... but then there was Seth Green! Seeing him made Lynda's weekend. But man... he was SHORT! He looked short in films, but not SHORT short.

Four more photos... let's blow through these. Another thing Lynda loved was the Jedi training academy in the Fan Group room. She walked up to watch the little kids face Vader over and over again. It was very cute.

Here's my buddy Dustin... we ran into each other a few times. This time was in the hall. It was great seeing him and his family again.

Here's a proto run from the 12" Padme doll... Rare stuff. Don't know if it sold or not...

And finally, when I went around and took all my Cantina Celebs photos, I got to Daniel Logan just as some fan challenged him to an arm wrestling match. Daniel won. He has guns.

And whew... that's about it! I hope I didn't forget any of the funny stories. But deadline is just seconds from now, so I gotta post this.