Well it was my first convention in over 10 years and I will be honest and say that it was a mostly hollow experience.
Good Points - Seeing all the costumes and the effort that people had gone to. - Seeing kids enjoying themselves. - A good turn out - Had a 20 minute chat with Dave Barclay and Toby Philpott - very nice guys! - Got to put faces (and say hi) to a few names I've known online.
Bad Points - Took me 55 mins to get in! A huge queue that took me 15 minutes to find the back of! - Not enough catering. Too many queues. - Rude staff who clearly didn't have a clue what they were doing. - Bad design of the autograph area. If you didn't want to join the queue, you simply couldn't see any of the 'stars'. The queue should also have taken people by the other 'stars'. When I spoke to Dave and Toby nobody was in their queue. They were simply ingnored and very bored with it all. - No 'star' panels. Why didn't they just sit everyone down and field questions from the audience. - Queued for an hour to see 'one man star wars'. Didn't get in, so waited a further hour to see Anthony Daniels. After only 15 minutes of Mr.Daniels mortifying display, we just had to leave. Making the audience clap him and welcome him for over 10 minutes was just unbearable. Perhaps he doesn't get enough love from home. I actually thought he was slightly sloshed. Very weird indeed. - Not enough info on what was where. For one, nobody could tell me where I had to go to find the queue to get my Hyperspace landyard. Perhaps I should have done a little more reseach. - The vast majority of the floorspace was taken up by traders. - I was absolutely sickened by the presence of the Army and Navy. "Do you kids enjoy watching people killed on films and games? Wanna do it for real?" Very distasteful and cast a real shadow over what was otherwise a family event.
Well I certainly learned a lesson. I should have gone on friday.
UPDATE: should have added that I gave the Jabba crew copies of my docos. Dave Barclay in particular was a very nice guy. Toby was also very accomodating but has been ever since I contacted him when I was making 'Returning to Jedi'.
I should also say that the group of friends I spent the day with were very disheartened very quickly. So by the time I met up with them they pretty much wanted to leave. So I think I was dragged down with them. I wish I had managed to call Scott (Aficionado) back, but my phone ran out of battery and my only option would have been to carry on alone, something I wasn't very keen on. Many regrets really. Oh well. We live and learn.
Creator of Star Wars Begins, Building Empire and Returning to Jedi
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Jambe, I went to C3 and know from what you speak. The lines were even worse there. We waited in the cold and rain for hours before they would let us in. And when they finally did it took over an hour for us to even get in. That's unexcuseable. A stadium with as many entrances as they had should take no more than 5-10 minutes. You hire enough staff to get people in and spending money...not waiting in a cue outside freezing and getting wet. That's poor planning and poor service. It serves no other purpose but to piss people off.
Inside...more lines. We didn't have any content problems at C3 though. There was plenty enough to do, but for most of it you had to wait in some long lines. They should have made these exhibits and what not 24/7 so people could go off hours and what not considering the number of people at these events.
Oh and Anthony Daniels? yeah he's got one bloated ego. I like the guy as C-3PO but watching him on stage is sickening.
Well i'm actually glad i couldn't afford to go to CE now after reading this.
I have to agree with Anthony Daniels having an inflated ego. He was at Memorabilia in Birmingham a few years ago . I was taking some pics of everyone there when all of a sudden i had some security guy for AD come over and threaten to take my camera off me because AD does not allow photos of him to be taken unless you are paying for an autograph. I told him i didn't even want a photo of him and continued to attempt to take photos of the others, plus ones of my daughter and then the guy tried to grab my camera. Big mistake. I don't care how bloody big he was he had no right to do that. My daughter went and got NEC security and they came over and sorted things out. I decided to go over and complain to one of AD's assistants that was near him and she just told me that it was his policy. Not even an appology. He was standing right next to her when i was complaining , he looked over but just ignored what was going on. This also happened to a young girl too who tried to take a photo of her brother as he stood in line for an autograph and probably more too. Big deal, he was in Star Wars. So were Dave Prowse Peter Mayhew, Kenny Baker & Jeremy bullock & others that have also been at Memorabilia but they had no ego and were only to happy to chat and know how to treat fans. I already have AD's autograph from years ago, pre inflated ego, but if i had't then i wouldn't even have added him to my collection after that.
I've been lurking quite a bit, most notably in the fan edit section, so here's my first proper post. I went to Celebration Europe on Friday (by myself) and had a pretty good day. It didn't take me too long to get in, but directions on getting a ticket at the door were pretty poor - I had to ask twice and got directed to the wrong place twice before one of the people I asked began directing people to the right places (!)
I have to agree that the autograph zone was badly laid out. I didn't know whether I was allowed to go in and just take pictures or whether I had to buy coupons to get that chance and at £5 per coupon with a minimum of 5 coupons, that'd have been £25 per picture and I wasn't ever going to pay that...even if I got an autograph with it! As it was quiet, I followed a bunch of people in and stood far back enough to show I wasn't queuing but unfortunately not close enough to take really good shots of the stars. I did see the Jabba puppeteers and they were being largely ignored - perhaps if I knew I could bend or break the rules a little bit more, I'd have gone over to say hello, but I did get a picture of the trio. I managed to get a couple of shots of Peter Mayhew (small anecdote: my dad actually worked with him when he was still doing hospital porterage in the 70s) and one of Ray Park, probably the most genial of the people there - he was smiling, chatting and generally posing for every camera that got stuck in his face. The queues for Anthony Daniels and Mark Hamill were horrendously long - when I left at 5pm, the queues were coming out of the autograph zone. Didn't see Mark Hamill, but Anthony Daniels was generally mincing about in his way.
The rest of the show? Well I didn't get a chance to get into the Fan Stage area. I should have gone in whilst it was quiet, but thought I'd go back later - BIG mistake as the queue for that went around the entire back wall of the hall! I saw the Steve Sansweet presentation of From The Vaults. He seems genuinely pleased to be able to do stuff for the fans and does a wicked impression of George Lucas during his anecdotes. Vader's Helmet exhibition was quite cool with various interpretations to celebrate 30 years. Artist Alley was quite good, but the prices for the limited run prints were very high - can't blame them, I guess, for wanting to make the most out of their opportunities and the rest was largely trader stands. The Tantive IV experience was ok - those walls ARE white!!! The Falcon lounge was a fan-made item (apparently) which had people queuing for photos with R2. There was a full-sized snowspeeder which had people climbing in and out, a speeder bike and an AT-AT.
Probably the best thing were the 501st Legion. They were willing to pose for any camera shot and even stole someone's camera for some more candid shots - quite funny.
So overall, and this was my first convention of any sort, it was a good day just to see what it was all about, but also a little strange to see how commercial it has all become. Everything had to be paid for otherwise you had nothing...
I've given my opinion of CE over at my blog, but I agree with nearly all the above. I've now had a couple of days to think about my experience there and the more I do, the more disappointed I was with the whole thing. It should have been called Star Wars 'Sell'abration. Another excuse to make money from the punters. In fact it was the fans that made it. The 501st, the Palitoy Archive, the team from Belgium with their props that let you take photos with them FREE OF CHARGE! Lets hope the next CE learns some lessons from this one. And let's hope Mr. Sansweet is reading these comments in the hope he may learn something about fan relations!
I know my fellow 501st members would want me to say thank you for them. We do our best to be available for photos and to help put smiles on people's faces. That's what we do best.
Probably the best thing were the 501st Legion. They were willing to pose for any camera shot and even stole someone's camera for some more candid shots - quite funny.
Well I had a total blast as they never,ever have any conventions on that scale in Northern Ireland so it was my first.I really enjoyed my three days there and spent time with friends from the original prop community too so that was very cool.People bitch about the commercial aspect buy did anyone REALLY expect anything less?As with most things Star Wars it was the fans that made it and created a great atmosphere.I would also like to echo the sentiments above about the 501st.Great guys with steel balls to be in those costumes in that humidity and heat.My thanks to all the garrisons that participated.
I hope he still is. I met him a few times in 1982 whilst he was shooting ROTJ and he was very approachable, always stopped to talk to you and signed whatever you put in front of him.
Hamill was a really nice.It was amazing to finally meet my absolute hero and him to be such a cool guy.A very emotional moment ans Luke was always and remains one of role models.
Went to both C4 and CE and C4 was definitely better. CE was great in that I met Mark Hamill, also my total childhood hero. He was great, talked about the rare photo I got him to sign ( a shot from Terry O Neills 1977 shoot) and lived up to my expectations. I agree with everything said about Anthony Daniels, great as C3PO but a total w**ker in real life. Mind you don't get me started on some of the other stars who I have seen behave as bad or worse than Daniels to the fans.
On the whole CE was great and it was good to have something in the UK for a change. Let's hope there is another.
Originally posted by: Mr T Went to both C4 and CE and C4 was definitely better. CE was great in that I met Mark Hamill, also my total childhood hero. He was great, talked about the rare photo I got him to sign ( a shot from Terry O Neills 1977 shoot) and lived up to my expectations. I agree with everything said about Anthony Daniels, great as C3PO but a total w**ker in real life.
That's great you got to meet Mark Hamill! Would it be possible for you to put up a scan of the pic when you get a chance? I'd love to see it!
Sorry to hear about Anthony Daniels, though. Very disappointing. (what's his problem, anyway?)
(what's his problem, anyway?)