Star Wars Celebration VI - August 23-26, 2012

[lovethattink]

Has a planning thread for this started yet? This is our first year planning on going and I don't know what to expect as a newbie.

 

[lovethattink]

I booked the our room for the celebration! I'm surprised at how fast some of the rooms are going!

 

[CaptainAlex]

It is a fantastic time. I went to the one last year with a friend and we had a great time. The convention center is perfect. Well laid out and with plenty to do. I would recommend visiting rebelscum.com and clicking on the forums to see all of the posts relating to the last Celebration event.

I'm planning on going but am holding off on booking until the block of time opens up with Expedia. I want to stay at the Hampton Inn on N. International Drive.

I had only been to one other Celebration prior to the one in Orlando (2005 in Indy) and Orlando blew it away. That's not saying the Celebration in Indy was bad. In fact it was really good but Orlando took it to another level.

 

[lovethattink]

Thanks for the info! I'll check out that site. Do you know if it was in the West or North/South side of the convention center?

 

[miralys]

You will have an awesome time at Celebration! So many things to do & people to meet.

To answer your last question, the convention was on the west concourse in 2010. I booked a room at the Rosen Centre in anticipation of it being on the west concourse again next year. I agree, rebelscum is a good site for planning purposes. So excited!

 

[CaptainAlex]

The West Side of the Convention Center had a ton of room. It did not feel crowded at all.

I've already booked our room as well. I'm going to stay at the Embassy Suites at Jamaican court. A little less than a mile down on International Drive but the walk does not bother me in the least.

Now I'm impatiently waiting for the airfare window to open.

 

[lovethattink]

We booked Hilton Orlando. It's the opposite side of the street. Rosen Centre was fully booked when I looked, but that certainly looks like the closest location.

We are excited!

Will you be in costume or street clothes?

 

[CaptainAlex]

Street clothing for me. I'm a big Star Wars fan and just as big a collector. Costuming seems like it would be a blast but it's not an aspect of my Star Wars fandom that I want to start spending money on.

 

[lovethattink]

Street clothing for me. I'm a big Star Wars fan and just as big a collector. Costuming seems like it would be a blast but it's not an aspect of my Star Wars fandom that I want to start spending money on.

My dh and ds both want to dress up. That's not really for me. Especially walking in the hot Florida sun from the Hilton to the convention center.

What aspect of Star Wars do you collect?

 

[CaptainAlex]

I collecting higher end Star Wars collectables for the most part. Statues and mini-busts. I've recently gotten into autograph collecting. My collection takes up 1/2 of my basement. I use to collect the figures and ships you could buy at Target or Walmart, for example, but my basement looked like a toy store and my DW hated it so I got rid of 99% of it.

I also dabble in Star Wars Character Keys from ACME, some comics and other misc stuff.

Are you collectors?

I wouldn't worry about your family members wanting to go in costume. Plenty of transportation or places you can duck in for a drink and AC.

 

[lovethattink]

I collecting higher end Star Wars collectables for the most part. Statues and mini-busts. I've recently gotten into autograph collecting. My collection takes up 1/2 of my basement. I use to collect the figures and ships you could buy at Target or Walmart, for example, but my basement looked like a toy store and my DW hated it so I got rid of 99% of it.

I also dabble in Star Wars Character Keys from ACME, some comics and other misc stuff.

Are you collectors?

I wouldn't worry about your family members wanting to go in costume. Plenty of transportation or places you can duck in for a drink and AC.

We have been Star Wars movie fans. Haven't missed a SSW since 2004! But Star Wars collecting is relatively new for us. We have a few autographs, Carrie Fisher's from sometime in the '90's, Jake Lloyd's from SSW 2004, and Ashley Eckstein's on one of her shirts I bought at SSW 2011.

Our 7 year old son has all the legos, and he is the biggest fan in the family. We are going to the Star Wars Celebration mostly for him. But dh and I are almost as excited about going as he!! I just really don't know what to expect?

 

[CaptainAlex]

It really is fun. Lots of fans in costume. More Jedi, Stormtroopers, Clonetroopers and Rebels than you could imagine. Also a bunch of characters from the books and comics too.

There is an artist alley along with an autograph alley too. Defiantly cool to meet those who continue to bring the Saga to life thru art and those who have literally played a part in the movies.

There is a good sized kids room at the convention where they have many Star Wars themed arts and crafts. From other threads it does read as you and your family are quite good with the crafts and I think would really enjoy this.

The Droid Room is pretty awesome. Tons of fan made and in many cases droids that actually come to life.

The 501st (the world wide costuming group) also had a room last year showing off their costumes and props.

Lots of panels going on with the films stars, designers, and FX people. Also there are several collecting, book, comic and gaming panels to attend.

They also do a preview of the upcoming Clone Wars season. By that time it should be the preview for season 5.

Lots of vendors selling every kind of Star Wars item.

At the last Celebration there was a tattoo section where you could go get inked and a wedding chapel to wed that very special Jedi in your life.

There is something for everyone.

I can't wait. It will be great to ride the new Star Tours in just over 2 weeks as a primer to next Augusts big event.

 

[miralys]

my basement looked like a toy store and my DW hated it so I got rid of 99% of it.
c

This sounds like my closet! You must love your spouse a lot to liquidate all of that. How did you get rid of it all? I have a bunch of X-Files and Star Trek stuff to get rid of. You'll have to pry the SW stuff out of my cold dead hands though!

Back to topic at hand, lots of people dress up, and that's part of what makes Celebration so fun! Just be sure your shoes are comfy, because there is way more walking involved than you might think.

I'll be there in costume. Two are still top-secret so I can't tell you what they are yet! Do look for the red-headed Jedi or short Jawa if you go and say hi!

 

[msgrimm23]

we went last year and it was so much fun. we missed alot of stuff it seemed so big. we will be taking our daughter next year she will be 2 and loves star wars thanks to my hubby. she makes the breathing sound of darth vader and says star wars. she also knows the tee shirts we have that have star wars on them lol. next year we are doing the best of both worlds we are going to stay at disney and do star wars that was my husbands idea i have no compaints with that one. not sure about the costume thing my husband wants my daughter to dress up and i have a jedi costume i made but im not sure yet

 

[lovethattink]

The droid room sound very cool!

Speaking of an artist alley, there is an AMAZING giclee of Hans Solo at the Art of Disney. It keeps calling our name, lol.

The kid's room and crafts sound right down ds's alley. I'm assuming there are additional fees or were they included?

Does a published or online program guide become available before the convention of all the events?

I can't wait. It will be great to ride the new Star Tours in just over 2 weeks as a primer to next Augusts big event.

It all sounds like so much fun! Star Tours is awesome!! So far, I've been on it 3 times. I love what they've done to the queue and the ride experience! I've beaten all odds, we have had the same ending all 3 times. But each of our beginnings were different! Sounds like you will be staying at Disney close to the same time as us.

This sounds like my closet! You must love your spouse a lot to liquidate all of that. How did you get rid of it all? I have a bunch of X-Files and Star Trek stuff to get rid of. You'll have to pry the SW stuff out of my cold dead hands though!

Back to topic at hand, lots of people dress up, and that's part of what makes Celebration so fun! Just be sure your shoes are comfy, because there is way more walking involved than you might think.

I'll be there in costume. Two are still top-secret so I can't tell you what they are yet! Do look for the red-headed Jedi or short Jawa if you go and say hi!

For my DH it's baseball cards that have invaded over the years. He is emotionally attatched to each!

We will keep our eye out for the red-headed Jedi and short jawa!

we went last year and it was so much fun. we missed alot of stuff it seemed so big. we will be taking our daughter next year she will be 2 and loves star wars thanks to my hubby. she makes the breathing sound of darth vader and says star wars. she also knows the tee shirts we have that have star wars on them lol. next year we are doing the best of both worlds we are going to stay at disney and do star wars that was my husbands idea i have no compaints with that one. not sure about the costume thing my husband wants my daughter to dress up and i have a jedi costume i made but im not sure yet

I keep re-thinking our options. Til I add in the $20 a day for parking at the Hilton and the walking, I wonder if it would be that inconvenient to stay at Disney and drive to the convention center?

 

[msgrimm23]

lovethattink: we will do the meal plan at disney too. i looked at the hotel we stayed at last year and it was almost 500 dollars to stay in orlando that was with an employee discount we had to factor in the food while staying off site.
after we are done at celebration we can go to the parks so he kinda sold me on it

 

[CaptainAlex]

This sounds like my closet! You must love your spouse a lot to liquidate all of that. How did you get rid of it all? I have a bunch of X-Files and Star Trek stuff to get rid of. You'll have to pry the SW stuff out of my cold dead hands though!

This is how I downsized and changed my focus in collecting habits because in a sense I was at a point my life in which life events changed my outlook in collecting.

Prior to 2006 I was a huge 3 ¾ collector. I was basically a carded/boxed collector but would buy loose on occasion because I had these dreams of doing kick *** dioramas and such. If you click on my profile on rebel scum and click the link you can see the collection at close to its 3 ¾ height. I was impressed by what I had done since I started collecting in 1999.

In early 2006 I learned we were going to be parents to our 2nd child. Fast forward about two months later on Sunday morning my wife wakes up to discover she is lightly bleeding. We call the on call doctor to ask what we should do and they told us to come in 1st thing Monday morning to have a sonogram done. We thought she had a miscarriage and that perhaps was the saddest and longest Sunday of our lives.

So we go in the next day and come to discover that everything was alright and that there was a second heartbeat detected. We were having twins. So our sadness quickly turned to happiness.

Well I started to cut back on my collecting because of the addition of two more children on top of the one we already had. I reduced my collecting trips. I was going out every Saturday morning at 4 am with a friend of mine to hit a bunch of stores. Gas prices were making their way into record territory and it was hard to justify the gas expense as the return on finding new stuff wasn’t paying off. I wouldn’t be able to do this with twin babies needing the attention that they would need so it was good to get into the habit before they were born.

I also had to curve my buy everything/anything that had Star Wars on it. That was a real challenge as it was almost a compulsion to buy buy buy all that was Star Wars.

But at this point I didn’t want to sell my collection.

Another factor was that my wife hated my 3 ¾ collecting because she said my space looked like a warehouse and I was spending too much money on it. She was right. I was. So she was somewhat pleased to see I was starting to change my habit.

Well the babies are born premature about 1 ½ months early so we spent out time split between the hospital and with our oldest daughter who was 3. During this time and even a little after they came home I wasn’t buying anything.

Fast forward to early 2007 and the Saga carded figures were just coming out and I couldn’t keep up. I didn’t have the time to hunt and to be honest with you I remember adding the Saga Vader (Hoth version) and I remember saying, “What the hell am I doing?”. I already had umpteen Vader’s in my collection and it looked no different than the carded Vader’s I already owned.

The thrill was gone. I decided it was time to sell.

I put aside some items for my kids to open and play with when they got older. Mostly PotF2 figures which I knew wouldn’t be worth selling for there is no value in those figures in the secondary market along with some other items.

When I was ready to sell I first offered local collectors first dibs. Not so much out of consideration but out of practicality. I didn’t have to ship anything.

I than started with the big items. Ship and playsets. I listed them individually on eBay and they sold for pretty much MSRP or a bit more. I also sold off my store displays. The ones I didn’t sell I threw out. I moved on to miscellaneous boxed items that I thought has value (Convention exclusives, legos, display pieces, action fleet, etc). I than did lots of clones, aliens, Jabba’s palace, vintage figures, etc. I moved on to individual figures that had value and than lots of figures by line.

I didn’t sell my Star Wars books, comics or Koto pieces and I kept a few display pieces.

It took me a little less than 3 years to wrap it all up. I would get burned out on occasion from eBay and classifieds so I took a month break here and there. Plus I hated wasting my entire lunch hour at the ever so slow post office.

I didn’t stop collecting though. The money was helpful while we were done to one income but I still enjoy Star Wars and collecting. So for the last three years I had become a Gentle Giant collector. I ended up buying a ton of GG on the cheap since the market and economy has really made it a buyers market. I don’t pay retail and I invested in a bunch of display cabinets from IKEA so I can properly show off my stuff.

I remember the hardest thing with stopping 3 ¾ was the urge to not buy. The time that sticks out in my head was I was in Target and there was this battle pack with Snow Bunny Padme, and those robots she fought on Illum. I remember picking it up because it was marked down to $5. I walked around the store for 30 minutes buying other stuff I had come in for and said to myself, “No. I don’t need this” and just put it back.

I can easily walk into Target now and still like looking at what Hasbro is doing but I don’t ever feel like I’m missing out. I don’t miss going to Walmart at all. I go to Walmart maybe once a month. Now that feels good.

Even at Celebration 5 me and my buddy, who use to be a 3 ¾ collector but sold it all and kept almost nothing from a massive collection and is now solely a video game/arcade cabinet collector, barley spent anytime in the Hasbro section.

I don’t have that urge anymore and to be honest with you even if we didn’t have twins I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be collecting 3 ¾ figures as there is just too much to keep up with. Plus it’s expensive compared to 2006/2007.

I do have to keep to a budget that it is a real challenge at times because there are sometimes so many great deals that I want to buy everything at one with GG.

I am very happy with my current collection as I love the way it display and it doesn’t feel cluttered.

 

[CaptainAlex]

The droid room sound very cool!
Speaking of an artist alley, there is an AMAZING giclee of Hans Solo at the Art of Disney. It keeps calling our name, lol.

The kid's room and crafts sound right down ds's alley. I'm assuming there are additional fees or were they included?

Does a published or online program guide become available before the convention of all the events?

I'll have to check out that giclee at Art of Disney. Thanks.

They release a pdf of the programing before the Celebration from what I remember. I remember planning out what panels and stuff I wanted to see.

The kids room was included with the price of the badge (ticket).

It all sounds like so much fun! Star Tours is awesome!! So far, I've been on it 3 times. I love what they've done to the queue and the ride experience! I've beaten all odds, we have had the same ending all 3 times. But each of our beginnings were different! Sounds like you will be staying at Disney close to the same time as us.

I have read that there are tons of combos to how one can experience the new Star Tours. I think the endings have the least amount of combos overall.

We are going at the end of the month. Can't wait!

I keep re-thinking our options. Til I add in the $20 a day for parking at the Hilton and the walking, I wonder if it would be that inconvenient to stay at Disney and drive to the convention center?

We drove from our hotel off of I-Drive to the convention for the two days me and my buddy attened. It was easy in an easy out with plenty of parking to be had. It actuslly worked out because I would just walk out to my car with my new collectables ans throw them in trunk. Saved me the hassle of dragging them all around. I think parking was $10-$12. It was not $20 at the last Celebration.

 

[lovethattink]

I'll have to check out that giclee at Art of Disney. Thanks.

They release a pdf of the programing before the Celebration from what I remember. I remember planning out what panels and stuff I wanted to see.

The kids room was included with the price of the badge (ticket).





I have read that there are tons of combos to how one can experience the new Star Tours. I think the endings have the least amount of combos overall.

We are going at the end of the month. Can't wait!



We drove from our hotel off of I-Drive to the convention for the two days me and my buddy attened. It was easy in an easy out with plenty of parking to be had. It actuslly worked out because I would just walk out to my car with my new collectables ans throw them in trunk. Saved me the hassle of dragging them all around. I think parking was $10-$12. It was not $20 at the last Celebration.

Thanks for the info! Next time I'm at Epcot I'll take a pic of the giclee and post it. Having a car at the convention center does sound handy. The $20 is how much the Orlando Hilton charges their guests to park. So to stay at the Hilton we have to budget $20/day for parking + the $10-$12 for the convention center.

 

[CaptainAlex]

Oh I see where you got the $20 figure from. That stinks that they charge for parking at the hotel. It's like the $20 fee I paid per day at the Mirage in Vegas when I was there at the start of the summer.

A money grab is what it is (in my best D.V.D. bad English accent)