A different build... "TK421 why aren't you at your post?" Documenting my build for the Empire!

Today a handful of us did time at a small Toy & Comic show at Wright State University's Student Union hall.  Not a bad event, I dropped out of a small con-thing Saturday that had 12-13 sign-ups to help with this one.  I don't think I'm up for back-to-back events anymore unless it's a REAL special circumstance.

But we had fun, I got to see some friends, photos with the kids, spent $30 between two vendors to help small business (right?) and still made it home after stopping at Skyline by 3pm.  Plenty of time to finish off Formula 1 Drive to Survive, while eating Girl Scout cookies.  (I have to say though, a morning event the day after "Springing Forward" was a bit extra.)

The whirlwind tour of Cleveland for the parade was a success.

We left Saturday morning after I dropped off my dog at friend's & headed north, but with a stop at Summit Racing in Talmadge to look at new helmets.  After a bit of try-ons I settled on a G-Force full-face this time around for $249.  But they didn't have a white XXL in stock, so it's being shipped from TX & should be here this week.  After that we headed to a friend's house near our hotel downtown for a different reason.

I bought back Snoopy!  When I found out RX might be coming back, I messaged him half-joking to see if he was bored with it.  Turns out, he's barely put 1K miles on it since 2020 when he bought it.  So for $7K I bought it back, including the snow tires I had included that I will likely put on some Sparcos again.  We left it at his house because of the valet parking, and went to the hotel.  Saturday was beautiful, sunny, about 60F.  Walked around downtown to have dinner at Shake Shack and wandered around watching the drunks and visiting a few shops.

Sunday however was different.  We checked out at 1130am and dumped everything except my festive green jawa costume in the Crosstrek and had valet park it again.  It went from snow to sunny to rain to sunny to snow to rain to sunny to snow....  for a few hours.  I had SWMBO get a photo of me with the Delorian in front of our spot while we waited for the other members.

Eventually they arrived including a Jeep with lots of Star Wars decorations.  The weather ended up becoming sunny but windy/cold, which is what we expected.  She volunteered to help carry a banner but the pace was FAST and she handed it over to me near the end.  I was out of breathe at one point keeping up.

She finally made it into a few photos, here she is next to me with our local Rebel Legion banner (we're both dual legion members so we both jumped in this one.)

When the parade was over, we went back to the hotel valet & I got him to meet me around the corner since they had blocked off the area by the hotel.  What should have been an extra $24 late fee never happened, I gave the man a $10 for all his help Sunday.  We went back to my friend's to get the WRX and headed out.

She drove the Crosstrek, I drove the WRX & with stopping for dinner we made it home by about 830pm.  Both on one tank of gas (~3.5hrs).  Then I had to unload everything and go get my dog.  Between the hotel bed, standing in the cold for 2hrs, a fast parade, and 3.5hr drive home I'm beat and my back is killing me.

But the parade itself was great, still lots of people and everyone was excited to see us.  One of the best parades I've done yet.

I like the troopers wearing kilts. 
Looks like a fun parade. 

Last night was the next After Dark event for adults at the Air Force Museum, and the theme was Villains.  I figured Count Dooku was very appropriate, especially when Katie said she was wearing her Emperor costume.

These are definitely lighter attendance than the usual daytime (FREE) museum events.  I'm not sure if they're making any $ but hopefully they are, it is nice to be able to move around and get whatever photos we want, without being swamped right outside the dressing area for an hour straight.  SWMBO was a handler and got quite a few photos of me (and some others) goofing off.

I left my glasses off for the first half for more authenticity, and realized I didn't have the famous Exit sign photo in this costume yet.  (There's an exit sign with LED lights shining down in a triangle pattern in a dark hallway that we discovered makes for fun photos.  I have one in my other costumes, even as a handler, but not Dooku yet.)

This guy was one of two Mauls that showed up, he could be one of us with that level of detail.  I didn't get a chance to talk to him, but pretty sure he's someone that contacted me last year by email about joining.  I tried to steer him in the right direction, hope he follows through.

I put my glasses back on after a couple hours, I volunteered to be a judge for the costume contest & figured I'd better be able to see.  Even with my fuzzy vision I could see there were some good costumes out there!  So me & two Imperial Officers (they wanted characters without helmets) judged 35 different entries.  It came down to two awesome ladies that we all scored perfect scores, so they did an audience participation thing to decide 1st-2nd places.

I like this photo, for reasons.  When she saw me she said she would be my new apprentice, who was I to argue??

Friday afternoon I took a vacation day to help film a promo for this Saturday and May the Fourth, a local theater showing Return of the Jedi.

They shot quite a bit of footage, see how the piece turns out. It's showing on Good Day Dayton today at 10am, and again later this week. Channel 22 online if you see this in the next 12 minutes...

Happy 5-01st Legion Day!  Tonight I'm charging up the stormtrooper electronics for Saturday.  I know a few will get canceled but last check we had 38 different events going on around Ohio.  About a dozen in the general Dayton area alone...

I'm signed up for 3 of them:  a LEGO brick store (last year was their first event & fun), then that movie theater in Miamisburg after a quick stop for my dog & likely fast food, and then immediately off to the Air Force museum for Centerville High School's prom.  Yes, a prom at the museum.  This will likely be about a 12hr day.

Sunday will be spent on the couch with streaming TV & refreshments, including ibuprofen.

(If you're in Ohio and curious if we're anywhere near you, let me know & I can share the events.)

That was a long day. But fun!  First up, Saturday I left about 1045am to head to the Dayton Brick Shop for their open house event, we were there until about 3pm.  They gave us free food from the food truck, and this year the whole community room was ours (we had 12 signups to change into costumes).  It started to rain so we mostly stayed under the awning and at their background.  We did wander out a little but the store was packed again.

Then I went home to take care of the dog, sat for about 30min and went to the Historic Plaza Theater in Miamisburg for their showing of RotJ.  We were outside and in the lobby for 2hrs before the show.  I wore my AT-ST driver for this one, gave me a break from the stormtrooper earlier and fitting for the movie.  SWMBO met me for this one & stayed with me the rest of the day.

This event we had time to have fun for ourselves, this look familiar?  (I Photoshopped in the white lines to be more authentic.)  The ice cream store across the street had advertised a special Fantom Menace treat, orange Fanta ice cream float.  I was definitely interested, me & two others hit it as soon as we got there (it had gotten a little warm by now).

Then we immediately booked it over to the Air Force Museum where Centerville HS was having their prom.  Yes, a high school prom and it was quite a large crowd.  I got back into the stormtrooper, 5-6 others mostly came from the theater also to help.  I went back out while they were getting ready and one took this from the dressing area.

Twice I managed to scare girls that thought I was a statue until I turned my head towards them, wasn't even trying.  I was just tired!  We stood there by the entrance for about an hour then when the others were ready we went towards Hangar 2 where the main event was.

It ended up being better than I expected.  She talked me into the event in the first place, I figured it would be a bunch of kids "too cool" for Star Wars.  But most of the kids were "OMG that's awseome can I get a photo with you??"  We ended up staying much linger than I expected.  And SWMBO brought her light saber for fun & it was a hit with the kids.  But about 1015pm I hit my limit, my back was done, and we still had to make it back to the dressing room (with typical stops for photos along the way).

Even though it was mostly her idea to do the prom event, she had a point.  She said I never attended my own prom in high school, here was a chance for us to go to prom together, we even danced. And this was a chance for me to go to prom in a Star Wars costume. (Which I admit I would have considered in 1984/85.)

Got home about 1115pm, unloaded the car, fell into bed to rest up a bit & crashed big time.  Sunday was couch day, and with regular ibuprofen Saturday I was not sore at all.

That time of year.  The local parade was yesterday, and the weather was MUCH better than last year so I decided to make the stormtrooper fabulous.  SWMBO found half inch painter's tape in rainbow colors that would show up Friday, just in time to get creative.  (That's her on the other side of the banner.  She knocked out  a Jedi Librarian in like a week, right up to Friday night.  It isn't 100% but damn close.)

We waited around at the end to cheer the other groups on, we were pretty popular ourselves.  Lots of photos, lots of compliments.  When it was over, her kiddo had arrived and they all wanted to walk around the festival.  I didn't have time to go back to the garage to change, so I said berkeley it I'll walk around in the stormtrooper.  That was a lot of fun.

Managed to get a photo for myself with a Disney princess at the festival.  We walked around for over an hour, I would have stayed a bit longer but it was going on 2pm, I hadn't eaten anything since 830am and hadn't sat down since costuming at 930am.  So they stayed a bit to look at food trucks, I took my car keys and started the walk to the garage.  I realized I didn't have my phone, or my wallet with ID or $/credit cards.  That could have been an issue.

Walking down 3rd street two young ladies were coming the other way on the other side of the street, they saw me and I heard one say "god I love Pride."

Love the painter's tape!  Well done!

In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :

Thanks!  It worked out really well, and I got a lot of compliments from the public and my fellow members.

June 15th is the parade in Columbus, we plan to be there but I'm going to be a walking handler in regular clothes.  Many helmeted characters already signed up & we always need more eyes/hands for events like this.  (I did Columbus 2022 & it was huge.)  Plus it is liable to be much warmer...

In reply to Jerry :

Oh, buddy!  That's the same day we start our journey to Tunisia!  We got the truck dressed up and everything!

Have fun in Columbus!  (and stay hydrated!)

In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :

Tunisia?  Like Luke's home town?  I'm not jealous at all...

Saturday in Columbus, minus me (I was in line to take a whiz before it started).

That was a long day.  Up at 530am to make the 1.5hr trip in time to meet everyone before 8am, and get the truck/trailer ready to check in.  We needed to be in line and ready by 10am, 1030am parade start, and we finally started walking at about 1pm...

The weather could have been much worse, it was pretty nice until the shade left us about 10-1030am, and even I in regular clothes had to find shade eventually.  SWMBO was riding on the trailer, and brought my umbrella because she is doing a photo shoot on Monday and sunburn is a bitch to Photoshop away. 

Once we finally started moving, it was a decent pace with only a few stops.  I'm glad she opted for the trailer.  As a handler, I was moving around a lot checking on the helmeted characters, taking photos from different places, and handing out some stickers/pins to the crowd.  As I expected, the crowd was great.  I ran into a few friends, and even Toy Barn Cars (a semi-local high end car selling place) had an entry, had to get a photo of the Ferrari and say hello to the drivers.

The parade ended at Goodall Park, the truck went off to the north and walkers turned left.  We had to walk back to near a baseball stadium to meet up with the truck, that was more of  hike than I expected.  But finally met up with them, got a ride back to the parking garage on the trailer, waving to pedestrians and drivers along the way.  Some were going for food, but by now it was about 3pm and we were both wiped out and had the drive home to take care of my dog.

I did stop just outside of Columbus for Wendy's, glad I did because we got stuck behind accident traffic on I-70 just after.  Finally got home, showered, watched a bit of TV with a root beer float, and was in bed by 945pm.

After a very long day Saturday in the sun and heat, between Cars and Coffee & a "night" autocross that I had to be there at 3pm (home at midnight), I still dragged my ass out of the house to do a SICSA 50th anniversary celebration troop.  It was right down the street, it wasn't early, I picked a simple costume (Rebel Fleet Trooper), and we took many breaks.  Seriously though, I am dragging pretty fierce right this moment.

Next troop might be Gem City Comic Con, just not feeling the July 4th parade.  But I've made some progress.  Meet costume #8, ISB Officer, Non-Saga (meaning not original movie but Andor and other more recent material) Version 2 (didn't like the jodphur style pants so went with straight leg and shoes like my stormtrooper).

The ISB Officer from the original movie doesn't have the pockets for the code cylinders on each side, and a different rank bar.  I probably would have rather done that version but finding someone to do the white tunic for that is much more difficult and expensive.  This one from Wampa Wear was like $270 (vs $500-700) and really well made.  And I picked a great size, everything was perfect (waist, chest, sleeves, collar width) but the collar was a bit too tall.  I ended up folding it over for the approval photo, can't decide if I'll do the same when wearing or just leave it up.

For those unfamiliar, the ISB (Imperial Security Bureau) was the Empire's police force, and pretty much bad-asses.  They could basically make you disappear if they wanted.  I've wanted to do some form of officer for awhile, this seemed like fun & a fairly simple one.  I already had the belt and hat, bought simple dress pants and the shoes.  Plus another costume I can sit down in.

Jerry said:

In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :

Tunisia?  Like Luke's home town?  I'm not jealous at all...

100%!
I may or may not have grabbed you a souvenir while I was in the area

In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :

Busy weekend this weekend, but if anyone is local, the Gem City Comic Con is Saturday and Sunday at the Dayton Convention Center.  I didn't feel like dealing with both days and setup/teardown this year, so I'll only be there Sunday.  (Autocross on Saturday).  Likely wearing the new costume.

Saturday was spent in the sun at an autocross with the new car, Sunday was spent in (mostly) airconditioned convention center at a comic con.

First time wearing the ISB officer costume, the shoes are NOT comfortable even with gel insoles, they kept cramping my toes.  Not sure if I'll look for better shoes, try to stretch these out, or just switch to the boots from Dooku and assume no one would care.  (Multiple people told me "you're approved, do what you need")  Haven't seen many photos yet but this is basically what I did all day.  Except also with kids and parents.

I didn't spend much, $10 for parking, a RotJ movie poster at the very end for $9 (now have all 3 classics), LEGO minfigs to bash an ISB figure together, and a lady that hand-paints little figures that look like the old wooden Fischer Price people.  Bought a stormtrooper for me, a jawa for SWMBO, and the lady will be painting a Dooku for me later (she's in Cincinnati, we'll figure it out), all for like $20-25 I forget.

I had ordered a neat LED lighted data pad from a vendor in the UK to use with this, pretty sure it's showing up today.  Been in Chicago since Wednesday.

Typical, showed up the day after the con. Pretty neat, even has my ID number at the top.

I didn't have any car events this weekend, not a lot of plans in general except tinker with the new car maybe.  So I signed up for a short troop this morning, Optimist Kids Day event.  3-4 hours at Delco Park in Kettering, games and stuff for kids to do, a few vendors, police/fire and some mascots from local schools.

I hadn't worn the stormtrooper in awhile so I went with that.  We had some fun until lunchtime and headed over to the local Skyline Chili for lunch.  They provided a tent to change in but past experience has been blazing hot in that thing so we changed at our cars.  It ended up being mostly overcast so it wasn't that bad this year.

Thursday night was a new event for us, the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal (yes, the Hall of Justice) was having an after-hours event called Off the Rails - Intergalactic Edition.  Kinda like the Air Force Museum's after-hours 21+ events, and with a space/Sci-Fi theme.  They said we were a natural fit.

I wore my new ISB officer costume mostly because I got that LED datapad the day after Gem City Comicon and dammit I wanted to play with it.  About 12-13 of us made it, and a good variety although mostly Imperial types.  We did have this pilot (my friend Monica) and a lady that has a few Leia costumes, including her Slave Leia / Huttslayer Leia, depending on your thoughts.  She's a bigger girl and I have to give her props for working it, she's a fun person to talk to.

Our dressing area was next to two really awesome rooms and we took full advantage after suiting up, before the event got started.  I had done some reading on Wikipedia and believe this is called the Presidents room or office, I forget now.  We were thinking they may have used it for the new Superman movie that was filming here recently (remember, Hall of Justice).  I had to Photoshop something worthy onto the TV in the corner, easier than removing it.

This might be my next trading card...

We had full run of the place for 3 hours, all the exhibits and free food as well.  We took advantage of the exhibit about the ice age and had Vader and a snowtrooper entering the Rebel base.  The DJ let us get some fun photos dropping our sick beats.  I really hope they invite us back, especially if we get to play in those two rooms again!

Dayton Children's Hospital visit yesterday.  I haven't done one in almost a year, they keep scheduling them at like 3pm on a Tuesday or Wednesday.  The only people that have been signing up are the retirees and even then we've canceled a visit or two for no sign-ups.  But I was planning to take a random vacation day this month anyway, why not a Tuesday?  (Plus I managed to schedule window tinting on the GR Corolla earlier in the day, so bonus.

Busy weekend for me.  Saturday was our social picnic at Alum Creek Dam in Columbus, about 40-50 probably showed up between members and Plus Ones.  Here's half the table we used for our helmets for a photo, there's Monster Mouse my 4x4 mouse droid.  (My stormtrooper bucket is on the other side, I'm standing about behind the mouse.)

The mouse ended up being a fun idea, he ended up chasing and being chased by about 3-4 kids running around the grass.  Luckily he's pretty quick, if a bit top-heavy.  It's fine for the most part but I have to be careful on the turns.

Then today was the annual Holiday at Home parade in Kettering.  This year the weather ended up being amazing!  Like mid-70s vs the usual heat and humidity, it was actually a little cool during the usual 2hr delay waiting for our turn to start.  I drove the Crosstrek again, one of our lady jawa's sat on the back with the hatch open most of the parade, she got out just after the crest of a hill to walk a bit.

Throw in a Sunday journey almost to IL to pick up a car part from someone coming from St Louis, and I'm needing a weekend to relax from my weekend.  But, Saturday is another 21+ event at the Air Force Museum and they initially gave us the wrong date!  They told us early November, one of our member's saw their website said Sept 7th.  Ooops, time to scramble and find people last minute.  I'll probably wear the stormtrooper.