Your Thoughts On CII - The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

Okay . . .

After my fiasco on Saturday, we decided to go ahead and try again on Sunday. Hoping the lines would be shorter, that we'd get our action figures and maybe get to see the RM Spectacular.

When we got there (10:00am) I saw that the Tattooine room was empty(ish) so I said "hey let's see what's happening in there today . . ." after realizing that the line was for costume signup and the lines for the next "show" were only 20 people deep at each door, we decided to stick for the "trilogy of stars" (mayhew, baker, prowse) so we could at least see SOMETHING.

Then the guy behind us tells us he heard that they're showing the RMS with this show . . . and I get goosebumps knowing what that meant!

Not long after it got posted that the RMS was indeed showing with "trilogy" and "stunts". I'm beside myself with my good fortune.

But then . . . as the room filled up . . . what GIVES with line cutters? People just walking up to the VERY FRONT like they own the place? How can people do that? rrrrrrrr

We get in and get to see a FABULOUS show with the trilogy (mayhew, baker, prowse) then . . . Steve Sansweet hosted the digital bits . . .

AMAZING. not just the 8 minutes . . . but the animatics . . .the "AOTC" trailer . . . and of course YODA! I had heard about it but didn't know I'd get to see it with the RMS!!!!! I almost wet myself, and I did get weepy eyed.

After the 8 minute bit, people got up and left, presumably to hit another show elsewhere. They missed further fabulous goodies (specially YODA!)

And our crowd, when seeing him in the 8min bit and the "yoda/spiderman" trailer, got on their FEET yelling and cheering . . . it made my experiences on Saturday all worth it.

Didn't get the action figure . . . why do people get more than they're allowed to? can't they be considerate of the rest of us? is greed that rampant in our society? ugh. frustrating. and then they post and BRAG that they got 4, 6 or even 10? egads!

photos from saturday (sunday will post tonight or tomorrow):

periidot's sw:c2 photo page

 

Complaints more than compliments...

First of all, why would you need a ticket to get into the upstairs events? Someone mentioned that they didn't need a ticket to get into the events on Friday...so who decided by Saturday and Sunday that you needed a ticket?!

The food vendors...can you say "price gouging"? $4 for a slice of pizza? No, thank you, not when you could go upstairs and across a skywalk to the Circle Centre Mall and hit Sbarro's (and their pizza looked healthier than the one in the convention center! ).

Since when would anyone consider paying $15 for someone's name? I know conventions have been charging for celebrity and pseudo-celebrity signatures for years, but $15?! And it wasn't just for Carrie Fisher or Billy Dee Williams, but also for third-string bit actors. Why would anyone cough up that much money for a guy who maybe had 10 lines of dialogue?

The idiots who applauded and cheered when Luke got his hand cut off during the Saturday showing of TESB need to be shot...and the jerk in front of me who wouldn't shut up his daughter, who also proceeded to stick a lightsaber in her mouth (at least she's getting in training for her future profession) and kept staring at me, may something nasty show up in your toilet.

The only saving graces were Ben Burtt's talk on filmmaking on Sunday (and you didn't need a ticket to see him, how utterly novel!)...I also got to get my picture taken with him, and got his autograph, and he seemed shocked when I said that he was the best part of the convention (I don't think he nor anyone could begin to fathom just how true that statement is...maybe it's because he's behind-the-scenes, but his approach to fans was more personal, and it made me glad to see that not everyone who's ever worked on a Star Wars film thinks they're so amazing).

Some of the fan costumes were utterly priceless...the most original costume was the guy who walked around on Saturday wearing a Jar Jar mask with a cardboard sign around his neck saying, "UNEMPLOYED. George no like Jar Jar". It was the best because it was the simplest, yet it took a lot of thought. And it was funny!

 

Was CoK the only one who gawked at the vacant FOOTBALL STADIUM connected to the convention and think.....Hmmmmm, why don't they use that for the major events. They could have had tickets sold before the event that indicated when you would see each special event.
1:00 Ric

3:30, The Fetts

PLANNING PLANNING PLANNING

Some Wizards!!!!

 

Good: Ben Burtt (although I chickened out during the Q&A ), the Unemployed Jar Jar guy, the sith witch, The 501st!! , the prop exhibit, seeing Empire and Return for the first time on the big screen (though I wish they hadn't been the special editions and I have to second Derth's comments about some of the people. ), the fanfilm "Star Wars or Bust" that MUST get distributed in some form, and getting to hold a replica of luke's ROTJ saber! (Oh, and the whirlpool, but that wasn't in the Convention Center. )

Bad: Eh, I really can't say there was anything bad. I think CII was limited to the two extremes, so here I go onto the next one...

Ugly: Rick's comment about his body parts, as if anyone other than DiCaprio would want to see them. , the ridiculous price for signings. I would have paid 15 to see all of them and get a chance to talk to them for a bit, but that was just @#$%@#$%@#ed up. Oh, the Y.O.D.A. guy who did the intermission shows between empire and return. , the crowd. It wasn't so much the people (although you just can't get away from jackasses no matter where you go), but it was just way too congested. Me and Derth were both on our last nerve saturday afternoon.

Hmm.... Oh, there was the Sith/KISS band member guy who had a pot belly sticking out and the fact that events like attack of the fetts and star wars in 30 minutes, though free, had lines that went out the door. Ugh.

 

Well it's apparent the mods are taking the day off, looking at some of the page 1 posts....

OK, this was the first convention of any kind I had ever been to, and I definitely would give my experience mixed reviews. That's ot to say it's all negative, but far from perfect.

THE GOOD:
I did get into the opening ceremony, and it was FANTASTIC! The video greetings were nice, Anthony Daniels was marvelous as an MC, and I was very, very impressed with Hayden. I totally disagree with what someone said earlier about Rick McCallum. He did not utter one swear word during the OC, and you could tell he was passionate about films, and about being there with all of us.

The Q and A's I did get to were informative and fun. Everyone on the panels was wonderful and thoroughly answered questions from everyone.

The toy museum was outstanding! Great photos that were used on the cards, wonderful displays, just an excellent job all the way around.

The Ultarama people were extremely friendly, whether you bought anything from them or not. They have earned my business!

The authors were GREAT! I had the priviledge of getting books signed by Dan Wallace and Mark Cotta Vaz, and both were excellent guys to chat with. You could tell Dan considered himself just a lucky fan who happens to write about all things Star Wars. A tip of the cap to you gentlemen.

I thought Wizards did a great job at giving fans such a wide variety of things to see and do. There truly was something for everyone, and I appreciate their hard work in getting such a wide spectrum of events going on at this event.

However...

Having said that, Wizards has to be held accountable for their poor execution of security, line management and overall organization. Lines blended together like crazy, although they did shout out in general direction of people which lines were for who.

I was disappointed in the FanForce booth. I checked in there 3 times, and at no time were more than 2 people there, and each of those times, the people looked like they could care less someone from this fine forum was introducing themselves. I heard this complaint from others also.

I am shocked no one has brought this up yet, but the autograph pull service was simply awful. I saw several people who stood in line Friday (including myself) to make sure their orders were placed, and yet, but 3 p.m. Sunday, some people had not even received their packets yet. I did get a packet, but one photo was missing from mine - the one signed by Bulloch, Prowse and Williams - which was the one I would obviously treasure the most (as well as paid the most for). C2 Ventures gets an "E" in my book for completely botching this up. There was a guy with blonde hair and a moustache working behind the counter there who was blowing people off left and right (including me) when they would check on the status of their order. After ignoring people and giving them rolls of the eyes, he sat there eating a sandwich. I know this might not seem like such a huge deal to some, but the small things can really play into a person's overall feeling about an event. Kudos to volunteers from the rebelscum.com staff who did work in that booth on Sunday and did their best to give solid answers to people who were wondering where their orders were. C2 ventures should have known how popular this service would be and done a better job to get orders filled as quickly as possible. Don't advertise "come back in a couple hours to pick up your photos" when some people went the whole weekend without having their orders filled. Absolutely awful. If anyone from Wizards is reading this, please keep C2 ventures away from any Star Wars-related event in the future. They acted like their customers were nothing but a bother to them. I paid $142 for my autographs, so I can imagine what someone who plucked down $795 felt when their book didn't even arrive at all. One guy did tell me C2 would priority mail to me the photo I was missing at their expense. Frankly, it's the least they could do.

Please excuse the length of the C2 ventures rant, b

 

What a ****ing headache!!! I've been to illegal underground raves that were more organized than that...What was with the bootleggers?!?...I can only hope that if enough people complain, Uncle George might rethink his partnership with WotC...because that one company managed to piss off the majority of the entire starwars fan base and ruin what should have been a great weekend for so many people...I renounce my fan club membership and spit on my three day pass

 

I'm one of the yellow shirts who volunteered to work CII (I was Jedi Yellow Shirt at the LAN computer games on Saturday afternoon and at the Fisher autograph line Sunday morning) I'm also a huge SW fan -- so here's my point of veiw on those three days as both a worker and an attendee who drove all the way in from Pittsburgh . . .

The Good -- Jedi Yellow Shirt thinks the fans are absolutely wonderful! Despite the chaos and crowding, almost everyone was patient and well behaved. Thanks for your cooperation and patience. Many thanks to the Jedi who happened to be at the end of the first half of the Fisher line Sunday morning. He spontaniously helped out, giving directions and guarding the end of the line. I also have to give full credit for classy behavior to those that I had to tell the Fisher line had been capped. Although disappointed and upset, 99% of the fans I had to turn away dealt with the bad news with maturity and grace.

Attendee Greencat336 also thinks the fans are great! Those in costume were always willing to let their photos be taken when we asked. Had a great time chatting to everyone in the lines I was in (yes, I had to stand in all the crappy lines, too, even though I worked it. And I got closed out of the opening ceremonies and got closed out of getting Mayhew's autograph. Sigh.)

There's something about walking down a street or going to a resteraunt and seeing Stormtroopers, bounty hunters, Jedi, and various aliens just wondering around as part of the crowd.

Another big good were the authors and actors. I chatted with Mayhew at Friday night's fanforce party (I partied with Chewbacca!!!!! He's a very nice guy) Went to very interesting panel about the SW comic Tales (yeah Jan Duursema!), heard filmaker Kevin Rubio talking about Troops (and again at the Tales panel), watched some fanfilms (funniest one -- Your Lightsaber and You) and attended the excellent concert Saturday night. I also thought the giant lego Yoda was great.

Another good, the Scholastic book guy who calmly and politely listened to me rave about the decision to stop the Jedi Apprentice Series. (I want my Qui-Gon!!! ) Although by his reaction, I suspect I might not have been the only one with that complaint

Indy is a beautiful city.

I did have a good time overall, but . . .

The Bad -- I overheard someone say on Saturday "The Line will be with you, always."

Lack of organization. Jedi Yellow Shirt was put at an end of a line first thing Sunday morning with only the directions "watch the end of the Fisher autograph line" as guidance. Within 15 minutes that line stretched from the corner of the hallway to where people were entering. (No, I'm not exagerating.) So there's Jedi Yellow Shirt trying to find a place for the Fisher line to go, while at the same time a Store line is growing next to it and the Exhibit hall doors are closed, so those people are milling about. Meanwhile, the Red Shirts are trying to sort out all these details. Please don't get me wrong. All the Red Shirts I worked with were very nice people and I truly believe that they were doing the best they could. But I don't think they had much more information about what was going on than I did. It seemed that alot of things as far as line organization and admitting people to events like the openning ceremony were being made up as they went along. Who ever was in charge of briefing the Red Shirts needed to have had a better plan on how to handle so many people who all wanted to be at the same place at the same time.


As has been mentioned one or two times before, the crowds were terrible. I have no problem with Wizards selling tickets to however many people were interested in buying them. However, have a plan in place to deal with the numbers! Wizards knew how many people were going to be there based on advance ticket sales - they should have been able to guess about the at-gate ticket sales. If you are going to have that many people, organize things to deal with it. Common sense tel

 

What made SWC2 for me? The fans. Met the greatest people there. Since lines turned into events in them selves, the fans made it worth the wait. My hat's off to the 501st. If they were on staff on the Death Star the empire would have never lost. You guys were great.
And a big cheer for the town of Indy. All in all they welcomed us with open arms.

 

While there was some trouble with the lines and stuff, along with the fact that I went solo (companions coming with you makes a BIGG difference), I still thoroughly enjoyed myself.

I really, really, really want to thank the 501st, and anyone else wearing Associate or Staff badges: these people did a bang up job and worked long hours while missing most of the talks and shows. Many times, they had to make due without knowing what was going on. The 501st were especially awesome since they would take the time to get pictures taken with them and say 'hi' to the kids. If it wasn't for these people, C2 wouldn't have been as cool as it was. Again, thanx a billion times...I had awonderful time.

 

Good:
Meeting other fans
Everything that you were able to see
3 words: Rick McCallum's Spectacular
Meeting SW celebrities
Being able to order some C2 merchandise that they sold out of (poster, shirt)

The Bad:
Having to wait in lines for 2 hours
Waiting in line for over an hour and a half for opening ceremonies, only to be told that it was full
People cutting to the front of the lines...
The store selling out of everything on Friday. I bought the figure in the "cash only" line on Friday morning, and waited until around 4 or so to go to the store to buy other stuff. By then, they had sold out of the C2 poster, C2 shirt (in certain sizes), Yoda cutouts, and just about everything else.
People taking pictures of costumes. It was great to see fans in costumes, but when others would stop them to take pictures, it would clog up the hallway. It was crowded enough as it is.

The good definately outweigh the bad.

The Funny:
After seeing the 8 minutes of footage at the "Stunts" show Sunday, it was funny when people left, even though Sansweet said that he had a few more clips to show.

 

After reading other comments, here's some more:

They definately needed more "velvet ropes" or queues to organize the lines.

People who rushed to the front of the lines after people had been waiting in line for hours: just plain wrong.

I was in line for something else, and they announced that "Attack of the Fetts" was full, so everyone in line left. Less than five minutes later, they said "we have around 20 seats open for Attack of the Fetts". Fans who waited in line for an hour left, and then they realized that they had seats open still.

They should have had some sort of "overflow rooms" where you could see the presentation or speakers in the other room, even if you couldn't interact and ask questions. The panels were interesting, even though I didn't ask any questions.

Opening ceremonies: enough said. after being turned down after an hour and a half in line, they gave me a red ticket for the next show. I still have that ticket now. It was useless. I wanted to see the Opening Ceremonies, not whatever was after it.

I'm glad I'm not a fan club member. I'm not a member, and I was still able to buy the figures on Friday morning. Again, on Saturday morning, I was able to get into the store before they sold out (I just went to see if they had any more of the standups, shirts, or posters that they had run out of on friday - I didn't buy extra figures).

By Saturday, everything was a little more organized. Especially the lines to get in.

Thanks to Anthony Daniels for coming outside on Saturday and Sunday to entertain the crowd. On Sunday he was running away from a couple of fans saying that he was "being stalked". It was hilarious.

Star Wars in 30 minutes was well worth the hour and a half I stood in line. It was hilarious, and the cast seemed to enjoy putting it on.

The program map wasn't very good, but after the first day, I knew where I was going most of the time.

They needed to have a sign that was passed to the end of the line saying "This is the end of the line for ____insert event here____". Luckily, fans were nice enough to let you know what they were in line for.

The toy museum was nice, but it didn't seem to be displayed very well. It just wasn't what I was expecting.

I was glad that they had stopped letting people into the autograph area at a certain time on Saturday. It was crowded in there (there were 3 different lines for Prowse outside of the main area).

Warwick Davis was great.

A lot of the footage could only be seen if you waited in the long lines. It would be nice if there was some way to see it on monitors while waiting in lines for other things. I realize this would make it a lot easier to bootleg, but then again, there are already bootlegs of everything.

The LEGO Yoda was cool. I only was able to walk by it once on friday, a couple of times on saturday, and once on Sunday as they announced that the Celebration was over.

I missed out on the R2 builders group. There was way too much to do.

I also missed out on the concert, and the screenings of Eps 1, 4-6. I was there with other family members, and they had made enough sacrifices for me already.

My hotel room at the Days Inn - Thompson Road (not downtown) was OK. It was only a 10 minute or so drive, and there were only a few turns involved.

$10 wasn't bad for the "special program". It is an interesting read, and it came with some cards that would cost $2 or more anyways. You didn't need it to know what was going on. At sporting events, it'd cost $5-10 for a program, so I didn't see anything wrong with this.

Scalpers are evil. And vendors offering to buy the figures: just plain wrong. And why were there vendors who didn't have SW items?

There should have been some random monitors throughout the center showing various Star Wars clips.

I enjoyed watching around an hour of the "Star Wars in Pop Culture" presentation. It was nice, but there were too many things to do. This would be something to broadcast throughout the center to entertain you while you were in line.

 

because of a bunch of selfish, greedy, ignorant, dishonest, cheating wannabe collectors, many of us could not get the special edition George Lucas X-wing pilot action figure. There was supposed to be a limit of two per person. The problem is the event organizers didn't police this policy. They could have EASILY regulated this by giving every paying customer a ticket which they would have to turn in to be able to buy their two figures. But no.. instead, they let the fan club members in an hour early and they viciously ravaged the supply, some walking out of there literally with shopping bags full of the figures. Now they are selling them on ebay for hundreds of dollars. Nice. Selfish people like that ruin the true spirit of collecting. Now my son will never be able to get that figure. Thanks a lot.

 

The Good: The "Spiderman" trailer, 501st! Kevin Rubio's TROOPS lecture (directors commentary, in person). The USC crew putting on a extra show for those of us who styaed in line for hours--You guys were incredible! The concert, the digital camera demonstration, Carrie Fisher with Anthony Daniels, and the FANS. The Fans would hold your place in line so you can use the restroom, be more that happy to pose for photos, or take photos of you with someone who had dressed up, and would always happily and correctly answer when someone would ask "What is this line for?"

The Bad: Lines. A previous poster said you had to plan. Yeah. I had to plan what I really wanted to see, because I would have to get in line for it two hours ahead of time. The R2 builders club, the fan club room and the SW in pop culture were often unaccessible because the stairs were closed off.

The Ugly: WotC. When you could find a redshirt,they were sincere, but the information they gave you was often wrong. Luckily the yellowshirts, the 501st or just a plain old fan would over hear and set things straight. More signs, and a better informed staff would have helped.

 

The good....
I did have a good time. I bought some cool stuff, I got to see Anthony Daniels and Hayden Christensen. Didn't get to meet them unfortunatly. Ran into Warwick Davis and Petr Mayhew many times. Got to play a little one on one lightsaber deul with Danial Logan in the LAN computer area. What a cool kid! Thanks to some smart crowd movement and the help of friends I managed to get into the first part of the opening ceremonies on Friday, got to see Rick Mcallum's spectacular three times. hehehe Got into Two In Tatoonie, Attack Of The Fetts, and Stunts! The people I met from all over the place. The costumes rocked.

Things I wish I didn't miss.....
The 501st march. Got there 1/2 hour late cause I was told it was at 9:00. Didn't get Carrie Fisher's autograph like I wanted to. After taking a look at the line I decided that I wasn't going to spend my whole day in line. Didn't get to see Anthony Daniels work the crowd on Sunday. Didn't get into to see the Trilogy in 30min. And didn't get a frickin' figure after standing in line for the store three times!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The bad, the horrible, and the unimagineable...
I've never liked WOTC. They run Gen Con horribly too.
A: Why was there one huge line and one door open? Why wasn't there seprate lines for will call, on site and fan club regestration right off the bat? I spent two hours in the 3 mile long line only to get inside and find another long line for will call. And to see people being able to bypass the long line and get right into the will call line. Ridiculous.
B: Fan club meant absolutly nothing. The long lines outside were filled with fan club and non fan club and it was well after nine before I made it in on all three days. The fan club lounge was a joke. Nothing that was advertised as fan club perks were given.
C: Horrible crowd managment. Wayyy too many people pcaked into small spaces. Lines itersecting lines, hardly any signs. I had to ask many people what the line they were standing in was for. Not enough seating for the shows people wanted to see. And why all of a sudden on Saturday and Sunday did you need a ticket to get upstairs? And that the tickets were being sold upstairs but you're not allowed to go up there????

I really hope WOTC gets the message and makes some major changes for Celebration III. I know they have something against Milwaukee cause their moving Gen Con from Milwaukee to Indy next year. But the Midwest Express center here has tons of space. Big rooms, one of them is a large ballroom and the other a huge exhibit hall. It's also connected by skywalk to the 10,000 seat U.S. Cellular Arena. It't second largest only to out 18,000 seat Bradley Center acroos the street. Perfect for those ceremonies everyone got turned away from. Think about WOTC.

 

Had a GREAT time!!!!

It was a little ugly the first day...but these are the things we did/saw.

Friday:
Celebration II store...bought figures, posters, pins etc., got a lot of great free books, took great pics, saw all the great stuff in the Exhibit Hall. Went to the Fan Force Party. Mostly just hanging out...missed the shows...with the long lines and such.

Saturday:
Saw shows with:
Lorne Peterson, Temurera Morrison, Daniel Logan, Don Bies, Anthony Daniels, Billy Dee Williams, Nick Gillard, Hayden Christensen, Ben Burtt and John Knoll. Got a ton of autographs..and talked in length to a great many of those who were signing...wow!!

Sunday:
Carrie Fisher Autograph and show!!! (also with Don Bies, R2D2 and Lorne Peterson) only waited in line for an hour for the autograph. Watched the Celebration II costume contest...that was a hoot!

We also saw some fan films, the R2D2 Builders room, visited with the Fan Clubs...had some great conversations and knowing glances to other fans at the convention and saw all the book signings...the giant Lego Yoda that was completed by sunday...a great model of Obi Wan's ship...must...have....ship...

Plus, almost all of the fans were tremendous and wonderful. The 501st guys and gals were FABULOUS, they put in so much duty that alot of them couldn't see the show at all. They were wonderful as was Anthony Daniels!!!

Saw a bit of "Women that Kick" cool!! Boy, and all the ladies were so nice too. (Well, all the guys were too...had some great conversations).

The food? LOL well, we ate one good meal a day and just snacked in the morning. We ate at subway and Steak and Shake, had good meals and they weren't expensive.


Yes, the lines were long, and some of the convention was seriously disorganized..., but,t he shows were well worth it. We learned quickly and did as much as we could, even did a "tag team" deal with a friend and were able to get tickets for many of the shows and eat and get autographs...and do many other things.

Wish I could have seen more of the people I've met online...but, since I only knew what a handful of them looked like...it would have been impossible. I didn't even get to see a friend who I was DYING to meet Sorry, DD!!!

Can't wait for Celebration III!!!
Princess Leah

We had a blast!!!!


EDIT: YES, WOTC really needs to get their act together...a Bantha could have organized it beter. *sigh*

 

You know, there was a bantha there. She was in the costume contest.

 

Wizards passing the buck:
Whenever you would question a Wizard staff member they would simply shrug. As a New Englander I would not allow myself to be brushed off. After asking to talk with staff member after staff member I was finally able to get someone from Wizards to answer some questions which I found very interesting.

Q) Why one Earth are you not using the RCA Dome?
A) Rubbing fingers together in the universal sign of money.

Q) As if your not making enough money of of us?
A) I guess not.

Q) What is the deal with the disaster in the autograph section?
A) C2 Ventures is running that and we have no say over what they or any of the vendors do. From Hasbro to C2 Ventures we have no say.

Q) Your company sold the tickets and organized this,why doesn't it have a say?
A) I wish I knew, I am tired of the people here (fans) sh**ting in my mouth over this(problems with Celebration 2).

Of course he refused to repeat what he said when I pulled out my video camera and then left.

 

Simply put...disorganization. I don't care or want to hear any arguments in defense of WotC. They *****d this thing up. They didn't educate security, they didn't enforce ANY policies set up before hand, and they oversold the venue in order to grab some more of that almighty green, without a single thought extended to the fan.

But you know what...none of this matters. We will all go back in three years, and things will most likely be the same. They had Denver to learn from, and the only lesson they paid attention to was that Star Wars fans will bend over, take it up the shoot, and then thank you, as long as you associate the plugging with Star Wars or Luca$Films.

So WotC...thank you for screwing us. Those of us that are Fan Club members send extra thanks for not coming through on the promises of exclusive opportunities and such. May the Force be with you in sticking it to us for many years to come.

If you want to b***h, send it to WotC...not that it will do much good. But it will do more good than venting off on this meaningless chat board.

My single thought on Celebration II?

I........missed...........Denver.

The end.

 

"got to see Rick Mcallum's spectacular three times. hehehe..."

so, based on the figure debacle, this is OK? riiiiight...two people didn't get to see the McCallum thing, since you went three times. maybe two people who didn't get to see the spectacular got your figures...oh well...

 

I wonder how WotC, would react to a class action suit. Can you sue for supidity?

Probably not.

I know it seems kind of dark right now. Wotc scr*w*d us, and didnt even give us a kiss. But if I did learn anything this weekend, it's this; Wotc is not the power behind Star Wars, ILM isn't, we are. If we don't want a repeat of this pain in the ass, we've got to complain, organize, and take back what is rightfully ours, the Fandom of Star Wars.

Ok, the old mans going to get down of the soap box now. If it wasn't for the good time I had just hanging out with other fans, I would proable have to right the whole weekend of as a disaster, If I could I'd ask for my money back for that three day pass.

As for WotC, I'm going to do the only thing I can do, not buy any of their products.

 

He got to see it (the Spectacular) 3 times because they started bundling it with the normal presentations. I'm glad they did that, and it was cool in digital and all, but 2 weeks from now it won't mean that much.

And all the preaching about talking to the theaters--Rick really was in his own world there, which I thought at the time, and it was confirmed here with a post from a theater insider. All I could think about during most of that was how Lucas/the distributors are sticking it to the theaters for the first few weeks or whatever of release of the new movie. Maybe they would have some money to invest in possibly soon to be obsolete equipment if they got to keep a bigger cut of some of these blockbusters that do 1/3 their business the first week?

 

Ok, I am here at work after my four hour flight and am still totally stoked I got to spend three totally-packed days with tons and tons and tons....and tons of Star Wars fans. I don't understand how come these people so far on here for the most part have came under some delusion that they would have planned the perfect event. There is no such thing as the perfect event. The only way this would become a "perfect" event would be if they did it year in and year out at the same venue and would be able to plan out the errors of the previous year and so on and so forth. Admittedly, it was obvious from the people I had talked to who had gone to the Denver Celebration that the basic same mistakes were made but without the rain and the mud. I had alot of time to think and mull over my trip as a whole on the way home, brousing through the "schedule" and whatnot. But, putting an event on for so many people with the majority of the people being volunteers <---- people who are doing this out of the goodness of thier heart and for an opportunity to strap on the old Stormie armor for the "good of us all" <wink>. I made sure any complaints I had were filed in the back of my mind till after the event. And after all is said and done, this was no different in my opinion then "Midnight Madness" or a midnight showing of any of the previous Star Wars films at any number of theaters I have attended. Were there long lines, of course...but as Star Wars fans we should all be used to walking up to a line and naturally asking "What is this line for?". Again I'm not taking up for Wizards or the convention center (The security guards didn't know anything about Star Wars much less anything going on) but I can look past that. Was I mad when they allowed everyone to break the line going in the concert on Saturday night. Of course I was after spending an hour or so already in the line. Was that all forgiven when I heard the first few notes of music that night. You bet your ass it was. Did I get autographs? Sure did. Watto's Autographs, particularly I believe his name was Dan I would like to give special thanks to. After explaining to me that my autographs would only cost a couple bucks more if I did it a different way as well as getting more autographs out of it I was happy he didn't just hang me out to dry. After returning the next day to pick them up and realizing that he had forgotten to put the others I had picked the day before in, he personally went up and got them for me. Would I say it was perfect? Not by any means, I spoke to several people who were also in the same line as me who had come by several times waiting for autographs. Did they help every single one of them. As far as I can tell they did. Did I get to meet Carrie? No, but I did make it in to see Billy Dee, John Hollis, Rick M., and Nick Gillard. Were the hosts of these shows good? They did an excellent job. From what I understand and from the Concert I can see Anthony Daniels has embraced his character as fully as any star I have ever known. He comes across as genuine and seems that he is as big of fan of Star Wars as any one of us could ever be. As for the other host who's name escapes me now, he was also great. His ability to keep levity to the Q&A sessions and to keeps things moving along even with all the innane questions that were being asked was a sign of someone who should be invited to any Star Wars Celebration from here till the end of eternity. The FanForce party was a bit of a disapointment but that was forgiven with the fact that myself and the friend I brought along met another couple who we ended up spending the rest of the weekend with doing stuff and enjoying the company. The 501st was very cordial and accomidating when it came to pictures and questions. I remember asking several of them who were around the booth they were at if they wouldn't mind me taking a picture of all of them together. They looked at each other and acted like they didn't want to do it, but after smiling and saying "Want to do it one more time today?" They all got the helmets and gloves and variou

 

I know they said a limit of two action figures per person -- but the way that store was disorganized, anyone could have gotten out of one line and into another to purchase two more. Dumb. All they had to do was use a "punch card" system. Punch the buyer's bagde/ticket for each figure they purchase. After two punches, that's it -- no more.

Also -- they only figured out on the last day that some lines should be only for in-stock purchases and some should be only for mail order purchases. On Saturday, we waited forever because people ahead of us were filling out stupid mail order forms!

Even before the Celebration, many pepole thought purchasing a subscription to the Insider also got them a SW Fan Club membership. Wrong. So they didn't get in a hour early and all the action figures were gone before they even stepped into the building. VERY lame.

The lines were absurd. I didn't come to Indy wait in long lines like I would at an amusement park. And there were no barriers for many of the lines. A friend said she waited for 90-minutes, then when the doors opened, all these people who were not in line rushed the door! Crazy.

As for the price of the food -- those are vendors who sell food there no matter what the event. That's not Wizards' fault.

Explain why there was just ONE entrance? The building has many doors all over the place. In the morning, you could have people stationed at several entrances to check for badges, then close all but one later in the day. With more than one entrance, more people would get a chance to go to the Celebration store for a shot at those action figures. Instead, the first few dozen people in the ONE LINE go straight to the store and snatch-up all the figures. Dumb. And very disappointing.

Considering the amount of room NOT used at the convention center, the main exhibitors' hall was very cramped. Why not spread out more and make the aisles wider? Sometimes, I felt like I was going to be smothered! Not safe for little kids and VERY poorly designed for people with strollers, etc.

You'll never convince me to pay anyone for an autograph -- or wait in line for hours to get it!

 

I think everything pretty much has been covered so I won't bother repeating what has already been stated.

Personally, I had an absolute_BLAST!! The fans were by far the highlight for me.

 

In regards to C2 and the autograph lines... I could be wrong, but I would assume that they could only gauge attendance/demand for autographs by what Wizards told them. And I really don't think they had any say over how much space they got. There was a huge, unused space behind where they were set up... it's a shame that they weren't able to use that.