Here’s some of the highlights of Star Wars Celebration Europe for me. I worked the convention as part of the crew at the Celebration stage in the Grugahalle, which was a giant concert hall next door to the main convention halls, so most of my memories involve being at the Celebration stage, but really it’s all about the people that one encounters at a Star Wars convention – we’re all here because of one thing: we love Star Wars!
Joey Fatone, host of My Family Recipe Rocks and former member *NSYNC, takes a visit to Rancho Obi-Wan and cooks up a Star Wars breakfast with Steve Sansweet and Anne Neumann. The episode will be broadcast normally on August 18 on the Live Well Network at 8:30 pm ET/PT, but will premiere on Disney XD tonight at August 1st at 8pm ET/PT as part of a three day Disney Fandom programming event showcasing Disney, Marvel and Star Wars.
Toonami, the action-oriented programming block on Saturday nights on Adult Swim, will be showing episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, starting August 17, according to the Toonami tumblr and Q&A session. TheOuthousers.com summed up the Q&A session on tumblr with:
They also stated they would be skipping kid friendly or slow episodes (namely anything involving the Senate and Jar Jar Binks) focusing more on the episodes more memorable and action heavy. Toonami also said they’re trying to get their hands on the uncut episodes from the show along with airing episodes in their original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. Also they are looking into if they can air the BONUS CONTENT of episodes that were finished, but never aired.
When asked why The Clone Wars got picked up instead of other shows, Toonami responded: “We chose to pick it up because it’s a great show!”
They are trying to get the unedited versions of the shows (as on their video releases), instead of the sometimes censored versions used by Cartoon Network. And yes, while Cartoon Network and Adult Swim are on the same cable channel, but at different times, they are considered separate networks.
Before the show opening on Sunday, I took a tour of the main convention floor of Star Wars Celebration Europe in Essen, Germany. Check out all the cool ship models and other dioramas from the Belgian 501st Legion, as well as a peek inside the Rancho Obi-Wan Experience and LEGO displays from Halles 11 and 12 of Messe Essen.
And below, a video of the Fan Hall booths in Halle 5, including the R2 Builders Club, Rebel Legion and 501st Legion and other fan organization booths.
The Celebration Store had its soft open on Thursday night, with exhibitors, VIPs, and Jedi Master level-badge holders getting a shot to pick up their Celebration merchandise. Her Universe’s shop was part of the Celebration store, and Ashley Eckstein was on hand to give us a tour of the Her Universe gear at Celebration. Plus shirts, football/soccer gear, barware, and a visit from Admiral Ackbar?
Several of my fellow convention attendees enabled my shopping, and I escaped there with a ton of damage to my credit card bill. But I did show off my new Boba Fett messenger bag to Jeremy Bulloch!
Becker & Mayer, the producers of the deluxe versions of The Jedi Path and Book of Sith, brought their newest books to Comic-Con. Watch the video to learn more about The Bounty Hunter Code (similar to the two previous in-universe type books), the more affordable version of Star Wars: The Blueprints, and the Barnes&Noble special book: Star Wars: Build R2-D2 Papercraft. Big thanks to Stephanie and Katie from becker&mayer for filling us in on these cool books!
On Saturday at Comic-Con, I had a chance to sit down with Lucasfilm’s J. W. Rinzler to discuss his upcoming works: The Making of Return of the Jedi, The Making of … ebooks with enhanced content, and The Star Wars, the eight-issue comic portraying the original draft screenplay of George Lucas for Star Wars. Big thanks to Mr. Rinzler for the interview, and Del Rey for their secret press room.
While at Comic-Con in San Diego, I got the chance to sit down with Star Wars author John Jackson Miller to discuss his upcoming novel Kenobi, his recently published sci-fi work Overdraft: The Orion Offensive, and his other upcoming projects, and a Kenobi giveaway from Del Rey at Comic-Con.
And below, Miller gets a surprise visit from Lisa Curtis (dressed as Miller’s character Zayne Carrick from Knights of the Old Republic comics), who presents him with an honorary membership in Rebel Legion
On Monday morning, Team Hondo took to the streets of Oceanside and Carlsbad, along the north coast of San Diego County, for their segments of the Course of the Force lightsaber relay. Raising nearly $2,200 for Make-A-Wish over the past few weeks, putting us in the top three of all Course of the Force fundraising teams, Team Hondo was ready to run our segments in the lightsaber relay that had started in the Bay Area and was headed to Comic-Con in downtown San Diego. Here is our epic saga! Continue reading “Course of the Force 2013: Team Hondo races to riches for Make-A-Wish!”
Course of the Force moved to southern California over the weekend, with Day 4 (Friday) of the relay going from Pacific Palisades to Santa Monica, and then Day 5 (Saturday) from Santa Monica to Huntington Beach, and Day 6 ending in Oceanside. There were conivals, movie screenings, and of course, fans young and old running with the lightsaber in the relay for Make-A-Wish. I went out to the Oceanside Conival on Sunday to meet up with my Team Hondo teammates and we had a blast – all before our big part of the relay on Monday morning!
We’ve got the Day 4 recap video above, which has a really adorable Costume of the Day: an Artoo Dress, and there’s more photos over at the blog summary of the day, and some catching up with Robot Chicken writer Kevin Schinick.
Also, the Day 5 recap from Huntington Beach, with some more celebrity runners, Jennifer Landa’s Millennium Falcon dress, and more. Plus the photos and text of day five, and a Behind the Saber with actor Danielle Panabaker.
Day 6 had the sail barge cruise down the interstate from Orange County to Oceanside, where the relay picked up for a few more miles, then ended at a conival at the Oceanside Pier. There’s the official write up with photos, including Castle‘s Molly Quinn as Mara Jade.
I went out to the Conival to meet up with my fellow relay participants on Team Hondo. After some cool megasized Icesaber Otter Pops and taking some photos at the Cinemark booth, we relaxed in the sun to the Springsteen tribute band, Thunder Road. You can check out all my fun Conival photos on Flickr! Also, I got to photobomb Team HTown Jedi as they came in to the conival. While we had been leading them in the afternoon with fundraising, they’ve gotten the upper hand with a big donation late in the day. But you can show that pirates are better than Jedi by supporting me, or Dani and Lindsay!
Team Hondo – Dani, Lindsay, and myself will all be running tomorrow morning in the Oceanside and Carlsbad areas in the 8 am to 10:30 am timeframe – watch #TeamHondo on Twitter in the morning for more details if you are in the area and want to cheer us on!
