Sunday started off just like every other day- in line waiting for the floor to open.
Just like every other day, too, there were some great costumes to photograph while waiting. Check out the scottish Stormtrooper (complete with kilt!) and the vintage Princess Leia action figure. The hands! Look at the hands!!
I was happy to spot some familiar
Throughout the con there was a lot of swag to be had at some of the vendor booths, but at no time during the week had I ever seen a giveaway line like this one! Cartamundi gave out an exclusive lenticular playing card each day of the show, and if you had collected the previous three earlier in the week you got two cards to complete the royal flush on the last day. During the previous three days the line had been pretty mild, but on this morning it wrapped all the way across four or five aisles of the floor. Luckily it moved pretty quickly and I was able to get both my cards and my brother's, since he'd had to leave to fly home early Sunday morning.
After the Cartamundi line I jumped right back into another line at Del Rey (no photos there, unfortunately) to have their special sampler edition book signed by no less than five Star Wars authors- so cool!
At this point I'd seen pretty much everything on the show floor (that I wanted to see, anyway), so I wandered aimlessly about, taking photos of whatever caught my eye and waiting for my first panel of the day to start.
Even though Sunday was the slowest day of the show, there was still plenty of cosplay about.
There were lots of Padmes in the costume pageant, but I didn't see nearly as many of them actually on the show floor as I'd remembered from Celebration V. I made sure to get a photo of this lovely dress, then, when I spotted it (and the girl in it, of course) outside the 501st exhibit room.
Vader's cape looks like it's all billowing in the wind and everything, right? What you can't see is the Stormtrooper underneath it, waving it around for effect- ha!
The chalk art mural was nearing completion during the morning session- I wonder how much planning goes into making sure that the art is not only finished in four days, but also takes four days to complete?
You never know when a lightsaber battle is going to break out around here!
Everyone repeat after me..."That's no moon!"
The distressing on these Sandtrooper costumes is awesome. Tim Holtz would be proud. :)
I knew that I (and my feet) would be very tired on Sunday, so I planned to attend more panels than usual, starting with the White Armor Troopers presentation put on by the 501st.
Out of all the Star Wars costume options, this one is probably the most expensive and most time consuming (multi-person dewback and bantha getups aside) out there, so of course it's the one I want to do, right? I really need to get in touch with the local garrison, order a kit, and get on this!
Only at Star Wars Celebration can you be on the elevator behind Darth Vader...
Next up on my panel schedule was The Essential Guide panel, hosted by Essential Reader's companion (coming out next week, yay!) author Pablo Hidalgo.
This book looks simply amazing, due in large part to the massive amount of new, original artwork it contains. It clocks in a 496 pages long (squeee!) and covers 147 novels and other books along with hundreds of other short stories and original works (for 410 total), giving a short synopsis and important information for each one. If you've been wondering where to get started reading Star Wars books or just want to get an overview of what's been published so far, then this is the book for you.
And that artwork I mentioned? Absolutely incredible! There are 150-160 pieces going into the book, and we got a peek at several of them during the panel.
There are maps. Star Wars maps, people!! This makes me incredible happy.
There are depictions of important scenes from so many of the books...
...and character portraits to help put faces with so many of the new names that have been introduced in the Expanded Universe.
Ever wonder what Allana and her pet Anji look like? Here you go!
Han Solo in his quest for Warlord Zsinj...
...the Young Jedi Knights outside the temple on Yavin IV...
...and there's more than one Mara Jade piece- so awesome!
And the best piece of news, in my opinion, from the panel? The Essential Guides will be published as eBooks! That's great news for my overfull bookcases- it takes so much less space to store an iPad than a nearly 500 page book.
I tried to make it into the Closing Ceremonies right after the Essential Guides panel, but they'd filled to capacity while I was still in the other room. I'm so glad that I didn't make it, though, because what happened next was super cool.
I happened to look over the balcony to see a parade of R2-D2s below me...
...so I ran downstairs to try to get a few photos in.
And when I looked across the line of astromechs rolling past, I was thrilled to spot non other than Jen from Epbot/Cake Wrecks in her amazing Lady Vadore costume! Jon and I had spent part of the previous afternoon trying to do a little Jen spotting on the main floor, but we kept missing her (probably because we kept popping out to go to panels). I was quite happy to finally meet her and her husband, and they were so sweet and gave me one of their fabulous Darth Vader/My Little Pony pins...and also one for J!!
You can read more about Jen's fantastic costume here- she's so crazy talented!
Closing Ceremonies was the last panel on my wishlist for the day, so I decided to head back onto the main floor for one last look around as things started to wind down (Sunday was also a shortened day at the con).
There were still plenty of great costumes about, like this Gonk droid costume that looks like it was made using two Rubbermaid bins and a ton of hard work.
One last look at the Lego group build, which a lucky person actually got to take home with them!
True story- I was on the phone with my brother recounting my Jen-from-Epbot encounter when I looked up, saw this guy, and said to Jon, "I have to go. There's an Indy trooper."
Is it considered a paradox if fictional characters meet themselves in a comic book?
This image from the Lost Tribe of the Sith comic poster gave me another great costuming idea! So many ideas, so little time.
You know things are really winding down when the chalk mural is finished.
And the Tattoine diorama was looking pretty complete, too.
One more round of costume spotting including a Sand Person...
...Darth Vader on holiday...
...aaaaaaand....this.
Lots of lasts today, including one last look at the Japanese vegetable carvings, where even more new additions made appearances.
And one of my very last shots of the show (and my last usable one) was Santa Vader at the Hallmark booth.
By Day 4 I was reminded why I'm happy that these only happen every 2-3 years- I couldn't handle anything more frequent than that! Celebration is always so tiring, but such a blast at the same time. I'm really looking forward to the next one!