Jedi-Con 2008 – Day 2

Saturday, March 22, 2008 * Chatting – Daniel Logan – Saturday Night Star Wars Fever
At around 12 we headed home, got to bed at around 2, and had to get up again at around 6:00. We then met at the Maritim Hotel at 8:00 and at a quarter to 9 went into the fan area „Alderaan“ to set up the booth again. The first visitors were already there (strange, doors weren't supposed to open until 10:00?!), and then it was business as usual: staffing the booth in shifts, answering questions or looking around the rest of the con. 

Suddenly Daniel Logan (Boba Fett in AotC) came to the booth and asked for a Maul saber, simply grabbed a double-bladed saber and got going. Alex´ dad took him on and fought him, and after that Tim did too. When Daniel noticed that he couldn't beat Tim with a double-bladed saber, he ran over to Lukas and snatched the Luke ANH out of his hand. It didn't help much, Tim beat him again, but in return we got free autographs. That was a small consolation for us for Ray Park not being able to come.

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After that it was business as usual: a few fights were fought within the fan area aka Alderaan, info was given and sabers were tried out. Conversations often got more detailed, sometimes with info on every single piece on the tables. The Hyperdyne impressed people most, usually in comparison with a regular FX in terms of brightness, volume and feel (that vibration motor really makes a difference). Right after that (some even liked it better than the Hyperdyne) came the PlecterLabs saber, with its different sound banks, such as chainsaw or steel sword, or the iSaber function, which works as an MP3 player. Everything was demonstrated, explained, partly taken apart or used for fighting.

In between, Josef, body-painted as Darth Maul, came by the booth again; Tim, Alex and Lukas already knew him from Celebration Europe 2007 in London. He asked for a Maul FX for the costume contest. Of course we were happy to help him, just like a member of the Rebel Legion, to whom we lent a blade for his saber. In the evening the room was locked again, and we headed downstairs to see the Saturday Night Star Wars Fever show.

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Unfortunately the host was unintentionally funny, had no idea about Star Wars and messed everything up. During the costume contest, Horst first forgot to let the jury vote, made several bad slips of the tongue (e.g. Bob Fett) and kept cracking lame jokes (on the level of „Use the fork, Luke“), so that we had to stop each other from running up there and half killing him… When a con visitor proposed to his girlfriend and Horst once again had to recite a poem about kissing, we regretted that very restraint. Unfortunately Josef didn't win a prize in the costume contest; someone in an Amidala costume rightly won. A family with a „mini Wookiee“ took third place, at which a few people shouted „Kid bonus!!“. The white Revan, who used our blade in his show, showed that the color of his saber could be changed and then let the audience vote on which was best, and he won a prize as well.

The absolute highlight of the costume contest was 2 guys who, modeled on those donkey costumes where one plays the head and front legs and the other the rest, had made an AT-AT costume that was truly brilliant! Then came the playback band „Sarlacc Survivors“, whose performance really got the crowd going again, only for Horst to ruin it after the 2nd encore. When it was all over, we didn't really know what to make of it all and headed home.

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