In continuation from Part I of Pete's Celebration logbook...
Pete writes:
Saturday April 17th
6:00 AM
After only a few hours of sleep and two exhausting days of
constant running, standing in lines and general long periods of waiting, I felt
the need for a stop at Starbucks to get the morning going. Funny as at this point I had drank more
coffee in 48 hours then I had in the previous 48 days. As I headed over to the line queue for Day 3 I had one very
focused goal, a goal that I felt was obtainable, a goal that I had to
accomplish…getting that damn Gentle Giant C-3PO. Seriously it was starting to become a
problem. Frustration had set in after Day 2 and I wasn’t about to let it carry
through my third day.
Waiting in line for another 4 hours I met another group of
fanboys and fangirls. It always amazed
me how much diversity there was when it came to why people were attending, and
what they were hoping to see. On this
day I had a father-son duo that were equally excited about the new Battlefront,
a group of Emo kids that were going to get inked, another collector who focused
on currently issued collectibles from the original trilogy, and then of
course me, a vintage collector focused on finding great deals and meeting
people who I had known for years, but never truly met.
Saturday April 17th
9:50 AM
As the lines started to swell up and close together I had
just one thing on my mind: grabbing that big yellow piece of plastic. Much like I do with work or anything in life
I tried to visualize my plan of attack prior to the doors opening. I knew the floor like the back of my hand at
this point in time and knew the path I would take to get to the Gentle Giant
booth. As I approached the doors I took
off in a full blown sprint, basically the 200 yard dash with a few obstacles
(other fans) and a few turns. As I
pulled up to the booth I lined up, and felt good about my position in
line. That’s when I found out they were
going to do a raffle…really? Now this
may not seem like a bad deal if you didn’t just run at top speed across a show
floor filled with fans, but I did. Regardless, I took a ticket and heeded the advise to come back at
10:30. Brewing with anticipation I
waited to hear them announce the pink tickets would be getting an item today,
BOOYA! With pink ticket in hand I
strutted up to the check out desk like I just hit a hole in one, while nailing
a mid court shot, after winning the lottery. This was it, my moment of Zen! And so concluded a key part of my trip, in retrospect maybe I should
have just paid $150 for one of these at a re-sellers booth, but no, this was an
experience and a growing pain of being a dire hard fan, in the end it was well
worth it. However looking back I had to
think, what if I didn’t score it that day? Let’s just say I’m happy I did!
Saturday April 17th
11:00 AM
The Collecting Track had been hot all week. Lines for every
panel were always long, and you needed to be there early to get in. Since they ran back to back with only 30
minutes in between, being in one panel pretty much ensured you weren’t getting
into the next one. This is great for
the hobby and the collectors that spent their time putting it on, but for
someone who truly wants to make it to as many panels as possible it got to be a
bit frustrating at times. This was
aggravated by the fact that so many people seemed disinterested in the panels
and more interested in the Star Tots. This was professed by the number of people I saw reading a book, or
playing on their iPads during the panels themselves. The Star Tots were a great idea that started
a few years back and given that the Empire figures were the ones being featured
at this Celebration demand was high for these. You have to give big kudos to the people that donated to make this
possible and those that spent their time designing and creating these mini
masterpieces.
Saturday April 17th 11:35
AM
This would be my first day where I was able to make three of
the panels that were being presented and I was pretty stoked that I would get
that chance. The first panel was also
my favorite of the week. "Great stories
of Star Wars Collecting" was a great idea for the seasoned collector and the
newbie to the hobby. Covering some of
the best stories from collectors over the years it detailed some really key
moments in the hobby, my favorite of
which was the story of Steve Denny and acquiring the majority of the proofs
that are present in the hobby today directly from Kenner HQ. There were some great pictures of the find,
a bit of chicken scratch of how many of each film logo were in the find and some
images from the initial sale of the proofs which I believe took place at
Celebration 2. In addition to the great story of acquiring the proofs from
Kenner HQ there was a bit of tragedy in what was my 2nd favorite
topic, that being the Blue Harvest scandal. It gave me a lot more detail on what happened exactly, the why and how
and of course the blow back on this. What was funny about the whole ordeal is that I had just finished the
MarketWatch update for May, and low and behold there was a C-3PO Blue
Harvest piece, which despite its origins sold for over $1K.
Saturday April 17th
1:05 PM
For the first time I was able to leave one panel get in line
for the next and actually get inside the hall as well. Star Wars Proofs was something I was looking
forward to hear. Mattias Rendahl (author
of
A New Proof -- a book on proof cards) presented for an hour on the topic. However, I still walked out confused about
what the heck a Cromalin really is and why it’s not a proof, anyway I’ll PM him
another time and really sort this out in my head. Regardless of walking away confused on some
parts Mattias did a very thorough job of talking about 2D pre-production and its
place in the hobby today.
Saturday April 17th
3:35 PM
After spending some quality time on the show floor making a
deal for a DT Luke Skywalker, I started to line up to see Skye and Steve put on
their show on the podcast stage. With
several key contributors to the Archive taking part in the event it was a great
way to bridge together some of the people that helped make the Archive what it
was, and what it is today all during the 20
th anniversary year of
the site.
Saturday April 17th
5:35 PM
The last panel of the day was an interesting one unto
itself, "Elite Character Focus Collecting" was a great panel, but nonetheless a little
disappointing in some respects. It was
difficult for me to discern if the characters were elite or if the collections
were elite, but I tried not to let that distract me from the content. Bill McBride, one of the key Darth Vader
collectors, did an excellent job covering the gamut of different angles that you
could have when focusing on a character in the grand scale of anything that was
produced that was related to that character. While on the flip side Skye was very specific to Vintage Star Wars toy
collecting and getting as deep as possible into what came out of Kenner, his
run of Chewy pre-production pieces is incredibly complete and detailed. Bill Cable's awesome C-3PO collection was featured as well. Overall a really good presentation and one
that was well put together given there were three captains of this ship that
needed to coordinate a cohesive message.
However as I walked out I couldn’t help but think, shouldn’t Chewy have
been Ricky and C-3PO be Bubbles -- if you’ve never seen Trailer Park Boys don’t
overthink this.
Saturday April 17th
7:00 PM
As the show closed down for the third day it really stayed
opened for collectors. The "Collectors Swap Meet" was something new and fun, especially if you’re more of a casual
collecting fan and don’t spend as much time on forums. Unlike the room sales this was actually part
of the official agenda for the week, letting a much bigger audience experience
person to person trading outside of the show floor. The event itself was a great end to the
day. It was packed into a small part of
the Convention Center where the Collectors Lounge had been throughout the
week. Tables were set up and there was
a steady queue through the room. It was a fun
way for new collectors to start on their collections, and a lot of left over
rarities from the room sales the night before for those seasoned collectors
that were still looking for something unique.
Saturday night was finally a laid back evening, with the last two nights going until the wee hours
of the morning, it was good to chill for a bit. At the Hilton bar I was able to converse
with a few other collectors and grab a cocktail. The atmosphere that night was great -- it was
calming and refreshing at the same time. Closing out the third day of the event was somewhat bittersweet as I
knew that less then 24 hours later that would be it for another two years.
Sunday April 18th
7:30 AM
After getting in early the night before it wasn’t hard to
wake up and get moving at a fairly decent time. This was the shortest day of Celebration
with the show-floor closing up at 5:00 that night. Like every other day of the week it started
with a long line queue, by now it was starting to become a bit of a joke,
repetition in its most innate form.
Sunday April 18th
10:00 AM
Not waiting nearly as long today I felt a bit more
invigorated when I finally hit the show floor. As I quickly made my way upstairs to the Collecting Track, I ran into
some new friends Ross Barr and Sean Lehmkuhl. As we got in line we conversed
about what we had done the night before and what we expected of the day to
come. Sunday is a bit of a quiet day. Most of the big announcements had happened, most of the big panels had already
occurred. One thing that remained was a
full day of collector panels, and my quick presentation in the Collectors Lounge. With my presentation and
laptop in hand it was set up to be a big day for me at Celebration.
Sunday April 18th
10:45 AM
I started the event for the day with the collectors panel
called “Judge me by my size, Do you? The Many Scales of Figures.” This was a really interesting and novel idea. The presentation was well put together and it covered all the figure releases,
with the specific focus of talking about scale vs. anything else. Unlike any of the other presentations I had
heard of in the past, it was a unique way to look at figures over the years, by
size vs. other factors like movie releases, company or era.
Sunday April 18th
12:05 AM
From the last panel I headed next door to the Collectors Lounge to set up for my presentation. I
had gone through a few iterations over the weeks leading up to the event and
probably dropped about 10 hours of time into the presentation and reworks to
get to the final product finished. I
knew that people were busy with a lot of things and there was a Collectors Stage panel going on next door, so I knew attendance would be sparse. However I didn’t personally think that I
would present to an empty set of chairs. Although a few people walked through It was really empty and thus I
didn’t even spend the entire block of time in the lounge. I had to shake the feeling, so I headed back
to the Hilton and ditched my laptop and got my backpack strapped on for some
time on the show floor. Strangely the
event itself was so important to me that I dropped the feeling of
disappointment like a ton of bricks as I slammed my door shut. There was too much fun to be had still to
ponder on anything negative.
Sunday April 18th
1:00 PM
The show closed down at 5:00 this day vs. the normal time of
6:00. Thus there wasn’t a lot of time
left to find things and scour for some last minute deals. As I walked the fairly empty show floor I
had a lot of time to sit and take in what was left both literally and
metaphorically. I did a fun pass on all
the aisles that had Vintage for sale making sure I gave each booth another once
over before I left. I now had a plan of
attack for what I’m going to refer as the witching hour (the last hour of the
event) for some speed buying.
Sunday April 18th
2:50 PM
I attended the last panel I would make it into at the
event. "Star Wars Clocks and Watches" was
an interesting panel to say the least, due in part to the fact that there was
enough content to talk about Star Wars-themed watches and clocks for an
hour. As the panel started the presenter
had a great line explaining to those in the audience who were born after 1995
what a watch was… It was interesting
dialogue given the extent of how many themed pieces came out over the years and
the fact that there are many parallels to toy collecting, from the variation
factor to the pre-production factor.
Sunday April 18th
4:05 PM
Heading straight back into the pit I knew that there were a
few things that were still looming that I was really interested in. And so I
turn this story about my journey into a story on hard core collecting in a
finite amount of time. In one hour I
needed to pull together the last looming deals of the event. I focused in on things that I had been eying
all week but I either thought were overpriced, or were at the tail end of the
list of things I wanted to pick up. Not only did I want to pull together items for my collection that I
needed, but I wanted to pick up some pieces that would help me remember the
event. And so I went into execution
mode...
Vlix – As a
collector with the full Droids line I’ve wanted to grab a Vlix for a long
time, and of course there were a few
available. As I walked over to Order 66
toys I schmoozed up the owner and his cronies as the booth was fairly
empty. I knew what I would spend on
the piece and I knew that they were miles above where I wanted to be. I used every tactic in the book in about 15
minutes flat to try and pick up the piece, but to no avail, onto the next item.
Lili Ledy Squidhead
– As an ROTJ collector I’ve always been intrigued by the burgundy cape Bib
Fortuna and Squidhead, and as luck would have it Todd Chamberlain had one for
sale at the Toy Chamber. Knowing that the show was closing
quickly my biggest obstacle here was that his booth was taking cash only for
the most part and I needed to convince him to take a credit card. Knowing there were other things I still
needed to pick up and that it was priced pretty good for the market I only
spent about 5 minutes closing the transaction on my first Lili Ledy figure.
ROTJ Proofs – I
was shocked by the number of ROTJ proofs that I saw at the show, with most
showing up in one seller's both in particular. This seller was one of the toughest I’ve ever run into -- he flat out told
me he’d rather take the pieces home vs. take any type of discount on the first
day of the show. Thus I knew he was
going to be a tough nut to crack. I
spent each day talking with him about different parts of his booth, and lightly
asked about the two proofs I was looking at a few times to try and plant a
seed. With Sunday here and his booth
still stocked with proofs I thought he would be ready to deal. But to no avail he was holding his position.
I tried everything: the nibble, the bundle, and almost went into begging mode
to meet me somewhere half way on what I was looking at. But nothing would work. Thus I had to bite the bullet and take a
modest discount on what I thought were high prices to finally pick up two of
the last ROTJ proofs I needed: Bossk and IG-88.
Green ROTJ Force
Lightsaber – The last item I went after was really a last ditch effort to
try and pick up something unique that doesn’t come around very often. I had heard that a particular booth with several
unique and extremely rare items in its showcase had a mint packaged
green lightsaber. Given the guy still
had every piece in the case that he started the week out with, I thought he
might be open to some offers. However,
just like several other sellers, his sky high prices were not negotiable, at
the end of the day this was another seller willing to ship their stuff home vs.
sell it at the convention.
At the end of the day I walked away on Day 4 with some
pretty choice pieces for the collection. Nothing out of this world rare, but
definitely stuff that is worth some featured space in my display.
Sunday April 18th
5:00 PM
As the doors to the Anaheim Convention Center closed, there
was still one thing to do -- try and get some Star Tots from the unannounced
Star Tots grab. There were several left
over Star Tots and people lined up to grab them one at a time. I was able to
pick up one, but declined waiting a second time, as I had some unfinished
business with a seller on the floor. It
was a really cool way to end the event as many people were turned away for
Gus’s panel where the Boba Fett Tot was handed out, and a large chunk of people were
able to pick up that piece, Yoda and some of the other more sought after characters. What, pray tell, did I pick up? An Ugnaught,
that’s right. Even though there were many others left, I went after the pig-faced midget from Bespin. Why, you may
ask? Because I needed one to go along with the Pugnaught proof card I got on
Thursday at the Archive Party, duh….
As security pushed the remaining stragglers out the door the
show came to a final close. The feeling
was bittersweet... what a great event, what a great time, what great memories and
I can’t wait to share them with others in the hobby that didn’t make it out.
As I walked back from the Anaheim Convention Center on my
way to the Hilton I pondered one question: What was my place in this hobby? For years I had felt that I was a pretty big Star Wars fan and a fairly
astute collector. I walked away with
great memories, but with one single thought, “I can’t hang with these guys,”
plain and simple. I would compare to how
Garth and Wayne felt when they got to hang out with Alice Cooper. I felt so small walking out of the building...
not in a bad way, but in a profound way. For years I had one pretty simple goal when it came to the true fruits
of my collecting efforts: build the best ROTJ focus collection I could. It was a simple goal, a focused goal, and
ultimately one that I felt would bring me the most joy and sense of
accomplishment. I use the word
accomplishment very deliberately as I interacted with so many that have
accomplished so much in the hobby -- writers, innovators, developers and those
who just ooze all things Star Wars. It left
me feeling invigorated, but also with a somber sense of humility as I realized
that my aspirations in this hobby were focused on tangible aspects vs. the
intangible aspects such as the community, the philanthropy, and in general
giving back in different ways. Thus I
left with a much different mindset than I came in with, and one focused on the
great fraternity of Star Wars collectors rather than a very introspective view of me
and my stuff.
I wanted to end this post with a simple thank you to all
of those that I was able to interact with and build relationships with over that
weekend. There were so many people that
have had a positive impact on my collecting experience over the years and it
was great to finally have some face time with each other: Jeff Jacobs, Stephen
Danley, Skye Paine, James Gallo, Robert Daughtery, The Lehmkuhl Brothers Sean
and Ryan, Ross Bar, Ron Salvatore, Tracey Hamilton, Derek Ho, Todd Chamberlain,
Josh Burch, Trevor Hopper, Gus Lopez, Duncan Jenkins, Steve York, Martin Thurn,
Lee from AFA, Paul Konatske, and so many more. If you’ve never been
to a Celebration, I compel you to go (as long as you’re not looking for the same
pieces I am in my collection). It’s a trip, it’s a happening, it's Star Wars
Celebration, and after it’s 10th installment it shows no sign of
slowing down or getting stale.
--FB24
