**Official** Celebration 3 Memories!

Some of you are lucky enough to have gone to perhaps what will become known as the greatest show on earth for Star Wars fans, in this the year of Revenge of the Sith, Celebration 3. In order to document this historic event please use this thread to share your memories of the great occasion. How did you get there? Where did you stay? What did you get up to? Who did you meet? What did you buy? What has it all meant for you? How do you feel?

Okay,the preamble is over,let the sharing begin !

 

Yes, neither Mike nor I was lucky enough to go, so let us know what you bought and who you met.
Please use links for photos so the thread doesn't become image-heavy for us dialup users! Thanks..

 

I`ll be there Saturday

 

We'lll...the most memorable moment so far was probrably the Jedi minstel who sang, "on Endor there is no beer". He was pretty good too. The Celebration store lines are horrible. I heard one guy say he got in at one, went to the store immediantly, and got out of it at six! I went to the collectors hall and managed to grab a BARC speeder for 12 dollars. All of the good stuff was in the back. Brian's toys was there selling the blue lightsaber palps for 35 dollars and regular figures for fifteen. Uggh. People were buying them though, so I suppose they were doing good.

Oh, another thing that was hilarious was the SW trilogy in 30 minutes. Checked at the fanforce booth, so that was pretty cool.

All and All, a great day!

Now for tommorrow.

 

Upping this back to page 1

 

Wednesday
Drove 315 miles from Cleveland. My wife and I stayed at the Westin and had a great time. Had a great steak at Shulas.

Thursday
Stood in line for 3 and a half hours to get in. Doors opened an hour later than they were supposed to. Watched people with "Staff" and "Volunteer" badges hauling cases of Vader figures and Sandtrooper minibust out while we froze our butts off.

Finally got in at 2:30 and was told to stand in the store line. Then told the store was closed for the day and we wouldn't be able to buy any merchandise. Nevertheless, a line kept forming and people had to be repeatedly dispersed.

Went to Gentle Giant and the guy there helped me to get all the series 2 minibust. OOPS! All sold out of the C3 exclusive Sandtrooper minibust!

Went to the Code 3 booth to get the exclusive ESB 3d poster. OOPS AGAIN ! All sold out! Told to come back tommorrow in spite of the fact I'm wearing a Thursday one day pass!

Decided to buy my daughter a light up cap at the kiosk that was set up out front. Oops! That's closed too so we can move those people to the store! Again told by an employee he can't sell me the merchandise he is standing right next to and to come back tommorrow! Again wave Thursday one day pass in his face. Watch employee sheepishly shrug and avert gaze...

Get into a discussion with other Hyperspace members who can't believe what a crock this whole thing is. One guy drove 13 hours from New York and is livid. Watch more and more people walk past with cases of Vaders from the store we cant go into. Resist urge to choke scalper carrying 2 cases of figures and scattering his booty to the angry mob.

Eat the worst pizza I've ever had and watch a guy and his young son sit next to us with 8 Vaders between them. Unable to resist, I ask," Just how do you end up with eight Vaders when there is supposed to be a limit of one each?!" Listen to man moan about how it's 6 o'clock and he and his son had to wait in line all day. Amazed that he avoided answering my question, I walk away to avoid uttering profanity in front of an eight year old. (" Daddy, what does he mean Grandma and Grandpa were never married?")

Go to the main desk to vent. I'm amazed when the woman there offers us full refunds and apologies. Gladly take my $70. Mood lightens.

One highlight. Go to see a program by the ILM guys. Halfway through in walks Rick Macullum with a new trailer . First to see it!

Drove home to see daughters play on Friday. Get home at 3:00AM. Decide primary school play was better than C3.

 

Well, today was actually a good day. I got to see George Lucas, saw the one man star wars trilogy, saw Star Wars in 30 minutes, and Got Matt Stover to sign my ROTS book. But I was sad, because I have to leave tommorrow. Oh, well, it was fun while it lasted.

 

yeah I have heard how the stories already of the lines and stores and the figures that are dealer exclusive.

but if you get lucky you can get one for alot lower.

just time it right.

 

and watch a guy and his young son sit next to us with 8 Vaders between them. Unable to resist, I ask," Just how do you end up with eight Vaders when there is supposed to be a limit of one each?!"

That is messed up.

 

Sounds like it was yet another 'well-organized' event.

 

jedidavid it really saddened me to hear your story.

 

I went to C3, and having not been to C2 did not know what to expect. I only live 50 miles from Indy, so I drove up on Friday to get my ticket, because I was afraid that I would have to stand in line to get a ticket on Saturday (the only day I was free to go) and then stand in line to see Lucas.
So Saturday comes and I wake up at 4 in the morning, raining and is cold so I give up on the idea of standing in line for Lucas. Get to the Convention Center around 8, line is already up to the RCA Dome. Around 9 a guy comes out and yells if you want to see Lucas follow him, so I go with him, he gives me a wrist band and I get in to see Lucas and the second show he does! The only real bright spot of the day.
So then I don't really know what to do. Wanted to see the Lucas Archives exhibt, line was WAY to long. Walked aroud and look at some stuff. Went inot the exhibt hall and looked at all the awesome stuff for sale.
Then I decided to get in the line for the store. When i lined up the sign said it would be a 7 hour wait. Was pissed, but what could i do. I wanted the Vader. Anyway, made some friends in line and found out how everyone is getting casses of Vaders. If you had a 4 day pass, you could buy 4. If you had a 1 day pass (like me) you could only by 1. BUT, here is how people were buying cases. If you go to the front desk and buy a kids 4 day pass (at like $30 bucks i thnk) you could buy 4 more Vaders. The guy in front of me had his 4 day pass and three 4 day kids' pass. SO he could get 16 Vaders!! So i stood there was going to get a Vader and and shirt. All the shirts sold out before I could get one. Overhead they tell you what is sold out as you go along. So the say they are out of the star casses (had the C3 logo on the back of them) for the Vaders. Well get up and the lady lets me buy 2 for waiting in line so long, but they have no cases. Yet behind the curtains we can watch them opening boxes of the cases and getting them ready for something. SO i get raise hell, they give me 2 cases and 2 Vaders. 1 for myself and 1 for my brother in law.
So i left there and went back into the exhibt hall and looked around. Tried to talk the guy at Gentle giant to sale me a Sandtrooper bust and he just laughed at me. Really laughed at me. Told me I was out of mind, so I tried I only had a 1 day pass story and almost had them I think, but still would not do it.
SO left there again, and went and saw the Rick Mcullum (not sure how to spell it) and saw like 10 minutes of the film. Could not hear the film, because there was music overdubbed.
All and all not bad, but wow had no idea what to expect.

 

Went on a 1-day Friday pass. I live in Carmel, which is a north Indy suburb, so I left home around 9:30, got there at 10, walked right in from the skybridge that connects the convention center to the Circle Center Mall. No line.

Got some great pictures of various excellent costumes. Hit the Art Show first and chatted with a number of the talented artists there. Lots of great prints, but ultimately decided to save money to get some merchandise from the trade floor.

We hit the trade floor next, and I luckily found a Return of the Jedi Luke Skywalker Unleashed for $20. His was the only older Unleashed figure that I really wanted. Just blind luck that I saw him hanging from the top of a vendor's shelf. Also got an animated Clone Wars Yoda figure for my wife, who had to work on Friday.

After the trade floor, we went on and hit the diorama and vehicle displays, which were really cool, some very intricate.

Then went to lunch at the Alcatraz Brew Co. restaurant across the street. No crowd, in and out, friendly staff that was obviously happy for the convention business, and went out of their way to make us feel well-taken-care-of.

Headed back over to sit in on the "Meet the 501st" panel in the 500 Ballroom. Great anecdotes by the founders of the organization. After that, fielded a phone call from my wife, who said that now she wanted to go to C3 on Saturday with a friend from work who was planning on going. So I picked up a badge for her on the way to the Rick McCallum "Spectacular".

Timed it so we'd be heading to the "shortened" version of the Rick McCallum thing, since I was only interested in seeing the movie footage, and didn't care to listen to McCallum pimp DLP for half-an-hour. Walked right into the "overflow" room for the McCallum thing, waited about 15 minutes, then we all filed in.

After that, we headed up to the Sagamore Ballroom for the 4:30 Episode III art department show, which was fantastic. All the art department guys, especially Derek Thompson, Feng Zhu and Warren Fu were all funny and engaging. Saw some great concept art. We got up there around 4, so we could get seats close to the front.

At 5:30, after that show, we headed back down to the trade floor for one final sweep. Played several rounds of the new Episode III game at the LucasArts booth. The Jedi Duel mode is excellent. Around 6:30, we made our way to the exit.

All in all, an excellent time. For the record, all event staff that I spoke to were friendly, often as excited about the movies as the rest of us. Those staff who were unfamiliar with the films and just there working were likewise friendly and respectful, and willing to answer questions. And the 501st guys were all absolutely great.

I went to all three days of Celebration II and had a fantastic time then, but only opted for 1 day this time, as trying to do all four days would have been just too exhausting. 1 day was all I needed to see some great stuff and get the Star Wars fanaticism stoked for the release in May.

Spent maybe a total of 45 minutes waiting in any kind of line, and 30 of those minutes were expected because I arrived 30 minutes early to the art department panel. So lines were a non-factor.

Never went near the C3 store. Why bother? You can always get a C3 action figure if you really want to (vendors were selling the C2 limited figure, Jorg Sacul, for as low as $20 at some stalls), but you can't buy a C3 experience on eBay. So why would you trade the latter for the former?

 

You know, I imagine thats true about the kids passes, but they weren't supposed to sell more than one per day per pass. In fact they were supposed to punch them as you bought your figure. To get four figures you were supposed to be there four days or have more than one pass.

I mean come on...How far do you take this? Are people thinking they are going to retire on Darth Vader figures? At least in theory the promoters were going to great lengths to make sure everyone got a figure but someone always finds a way beat the system. We didn't get figures not because they were sold out but because the distribution system was so messed up.

I've been collecting for years. I've always enjoyed it and I've always been able to find things without too much difficulty. I can't even think of a good way to describe what I saw at C3. It's one thing to get an extra one or two figures, ( I usually buy one to open and one to keep in package) but to buy case after case is just wanton greed. I never would have believed it. Leave it to someone to screw up a good thing. Oh well, the whole thing was a mess.


By the way...Hasbro announced they are making the figures available online so don't anyone buy them on Ebay!! It would be sweet to see these greedy jerks be stuck with 300 dollars worth of figures.

We went to the art show for about 15 minutes. It was okay. I honestly didn't see a whole lot that interested me. I spent a total of about a half hour in the store line and came to the conclusion you did about wasting my day standing in the store line. The vendors hall was okay but the dealers were selling the same tired stuff that has been out for ten years. It was like a flea market.

The fan group area was allright. There are some really nice dioramas and custom figures. I just felt the overall experience was way overhyped. I also have a lot of complaints about how the whole thing was run. First off, the programs looked like a second grader did the layout. Second, there wasn't much in the way of directions when you got in there. I talked to a lot of people in there who were really unhappy with the experience but I'm sure some people thought it was great. For my wife and I it was 630 miles round trip so maybe I expected more. At least we spent a great night in a first rate motel and had a great dinner or the whole trip would have been a bust.

 

One of my friends had 2 passes because he had invited another friend who ended up not being able to come. So, he had 8 figures 6 of which he sold to others.. but for a reasonable $25-35. I find nothing wrong with that..I mean he did spend literally all day in line for the figures, so the few extra dollars in exchange for not having to wait in the line is a deal in my opinion.

However we did see people walking out with boxes full, while we waited in line that first day.. there was even rumors cirulating within the first few hours of Thursday that they had sold out (the amount for that day anyway). Most of the individuals I saw selling them (with more than 4 figures) had collected their family's badges and gotten 4 per badge ligitimately. They sold the figures for around $30 ($15 for cost.. extra $15 for time spent in line). Yet I saw vendors buying up figures from individuals in exchange for their other goods.. or around $35... then sold them for $50 or more.


I did not wait in line for them anymore after waiting 2 hours to get inside the store only to find it would be another 4-5 hours. That was stupid especially since I only wanted one figure to give to my brother for his birthday.. and maybe a t-shirt or something else for myself. I spent my line waiting time on other experiences at the Celebration.. and had a wonderful time.

I managed to see everything I wanted to.. except I didn't ever make it to the one-man Star Wars (I did see his promo selection at the opening ceremony though.. very well done) I managed to get into the Spectacular footage 2-3 times, and saw 30-minute Star Wars before the line became insanely long.

The only thing I was truely disappointed about was I didn't get to take pictures in the spot where my husband proposed as it was under renovations.. nor did we get to go see the R2 builders (who helped him in his proposal scheme).

As for what I bought.. I had intended on getting a C3 t-shirt or something like that (see above about lines), but never felt like going back to the store. Instead of buying my brother the action figure I got a Boba Fett picture (of him in the carbonite chamber room) signed by all three Fetts. Temura Morrison even personalized it for me.

I has also wanted to get some TCG cards from a set other than AotC, ANH, or ESB... but nothing in my price range was available (I didn't see any singles at all.. and the booster packs were only available in box sets...)

 

Standing in line 13 and a half hours for George Lucas!!!!!!!! Any fan who did this is the hardcore lot of the many Star Wars fans who attended. Since this is the collecting forum I assume this is for C3 memories connected to collecting.

I was fortunate enough to get my four Vaders and whatnot on the first day. But I remember that register 16 broke down. Then the volunteer at 15 left unexpectedly so we had a free register. The volunteer at 16 could not leave her broken down register to operate the free register 15 and everyone was like "Why don't you have her go on 15?" but she wasn't "supposed" to.

Also I remember Exhibit Hall D. Some fine memories in there. I also got spoiled for the first line of the scrolling for Episode III by seeing the game at LucasArts so I booked it. I also have some memories that I probably shouldn't talk about on here but let's say the scalpers deserved it.

 

doesnt sound like i missed anything by not going.

best $1000++ i ever saved

onward

 

UP!

 

I went on Sunday, and it was simply awesome. The lines were not an issue at all. Walked right it at 9:20 in the morning. The longest wait of the day was for Billy Dee's autograph, about an hour. Also saw some shows--Star Wars in 30 minutes was, without question, the funniest thing I have ever seen. It was incredible! For collecting, it was not too shabby because the dealers were getting nervous that they still had stock and the convention was almost over. They were jumping up on tables and grabbing things, yelling "5 Bucks! No? 2 Bucks? A dollar?"

All around, a fantastic experience...well worth it.