Killerrqueen (Kimmie) and Ladyvader99 (Leia) had one mission at Star Wars Fan Days – celebrate geekdom in its natural habitat. Was this mission accomplished? They certainly think so! The convention promised them George Takei, Billy Dee Williams, Ashley Eckstein, and geeky memorabilia to buy as far as the eye can see. On that, Official Pix definitely delivered. Leia came prepared with a schedule full of everything awesome to check out, but as usual, Kimmie disregarded the structure and nothing went according to plan. Not that we’re complaining!

Kimmie’s Day

Hey guys, Kimmie here! Leia and I decided to write up our days separately – even though we spent the majority of the day together, oohing and ahhing and pointing at every turn. Don’t ask me, I don’t know why we did it this way either. But we’re sticking ‘em here in one post, so you can get a handy dandy little account of our personal days in one succinct package.

First things first – no convention car ride is complete without donuts. If you ever find yourself in a situation where you’re driving to an amazingly geeky convention and you are without donuts, stop what you’re doing and head to the nearest shop. Seriously. It could very well be the best part of the whole ride. Could I have freaked out because we were late and the things I wanted to see started at specific times and then we got lost only to have the GPS signal lost thereby wasting my phone battery that I needed because our camera guy left us high and dry without equipment the night before? I could’ve. But I had donuts. Single savior of all the panic-inducing things. You’re welcome.

After the Q&A, Takei sat down for an autograph signing.

So, as I mentioned, we were late. Lost. Unprepared. But determined to have a good time despite those things, because it could’ve been worse.  This is Star Wars Freakin Fan Days! This is an event I look forward to every single year. After finally arriving at the Irving Convention Center, I met up with Leia and we compared the event schedule to the schedule Leia had drawn up for the two of us to follow and I made a quick mental note to completely disregard all the schedules and just wing everything. Good idea, y/y?

The one thing I had no intention of missing, however, was the George Takei Q&A session at 1:30. Our ragtag group made our way to the 4th floor immediately and managed to catch the end of Jim Steranko’s session, where I used the glorious sitting down time to check my equipment, make sure my feet were still able and write out a few questions and must-sees for the day. Expecting that we would be required to leave and reenter for Takei’s Q&A session, it was a lovely surprise when Tracy told us all to move forward if we wanted to stay for Takei! The sentence was barely our of her mouth before I bolted and sat my smug, happy bottom in the first row. George Takei surpassed all of my expectations. From Star Trek reminiscing to Supah Ninjas updates, the man did not miss a beat in giving the fans everything they wanted and more. Knowing that my mere descriptions will not satisfy the fanboys and girls, I took out my FlipCam and recorded a majority of the session, stopping only to happily skip to the end of the line and wait my turn for question askin’. Unfortunately it was not in the cards for me that day, as there was not enough time for more than 5 or so people. Takei did such a wonderful job at answering questions that most included a backstory, and there just wasn’t enough time to get to everyone.

Scruffy Rebel is clearly no nerf herder.

Saddened but not deterred, Leia and I went back downstairs to the dealer room where we ran into the lovely Taffeta Darling who was covering Fan Days for G4′s Attack of the Show and rocking the most badassest Rystall Sant cosplay I’ve ever seen. After chatting with them and admiring her costume, Leia and I parted ways as I went to look for the Hughes the Force booth. Unfortunately for me, Leia found the very person I was looking for and snapped this photo of the absolutely beautiful cosplayer Victoria Schmidt, known more commonly by her intergalactic smuggler name Scruffy Rebel, in her Slave Leia attire before she vanished into mysterious Hot Girl air. We had planned to meet up at the con to chat, but my luck was clearly dry all day, as every time I stopped back at the Hughes booth she was never there. Strike two for Kimmie.

Not allowing myself to admit defeat, I resolved to talk to at least one person before the day’s end and decided to cheer myself up by watching the Kids’ Cosplay Contest on the 3rd floor. On the way there, who did we happen to bump into but the Action Flick Chick herself, Katrina Hill. Curse my distracted head, we only exchanged the quickest of hi, how are you’s and every picture I meant to take and thing I meant to ask flew out of my head, despite all the plans I’d made. After discussing the best cosplays of the day and lamenting my lack of one, I mentioned the Kids’ Costume Contest and our group became three people larger as we made our way to the 3rd floor. If I ever have a child, they will be exposed to nothing but Star Wars movies, cartoons and costumes, and I will be the parent proudly parading my child around as Padme or baby-backpack Yoda.

Calmed by the adorable kiddos and with my head back on straight, I went down to the dealer room once more to look for what I wanted most, which was Star Wars swag made for women. I had been forewarned that the Clone Wars adorable Ashley Eckstein would be attending as a special guest and immediately started prowling the dealer room in search of a HerUniverse.com swag booth. None could be found unfortunately, but before that could turn into a strike three, I managed to catch a glimpse of the one autograph table that had been booming for hours on end and who was behind it but Mrs. Eckstein herself! Ashley was all sorts of accommodating as usual, chatting nonstop with fans, posing for pictures and even sitting down with the two of us so that I could finally accomplish my goal of talking to someone that day! Her demeanor with fans is absolutely admirable, and could very well explain why certain other special guest’s booths not twenty feet away remained relatively empty for the duration of the day. Ashley explained everything – from the fact that the booth was needed next weekend in NYCC to the reasoning behind the creation of HerUniverse.com. In the end, it was more like talking to a gal pal than an actual interview, and was by far the brightest point of my day – even with the equipment mishap from earlier! We didn’t have enough time for pictures and an interview, so hopefully we will see Ashley again sometime soon to add photos to our collection.

With a great end to an even better day, we skipped out on Saturday night’s afterparty and hopped over to a local burger joint where we continually geeked out about everything that had happened. Even the torrential rain could not dampen the amazingness that was Star Wars Fan Days. I can’t wait for the next Official Pix event! I’ve included both videos for your viewing pleasure, and with that, I’ll hop off my soapbox and hand the page back to Leia so she can tell you all about her experience!

Check out my interview with Ashley Eckstein here!

And the George Takei Q&A session -

Leia’s Day

We can see why the Fett was so entranced.

Yeah, that’s right. Late. I’d originally planned on getting to the convention before 11am but nooooo, there had to be a crap ton of road work so I got lost and now my passenger thinks I’m a terrible driver. ThatSucks.JPEG.

Anyway, I completely missed the Shoot-A-Trooper event in the morning, where one could hurl Nerf things at Stormtroopers. I was psyched for the chance to penis slam a couple of the 501st’s finest but alas, it just wasn’t in the cards. Instead, I took pictures of a Delorean and cruised around the dealer room with my buddy until Kimmie arrived. During this time, Julie Benz and Jaime King were doing photo ops but a giant sized Death Star D20 distracted me – as did several other items way out of my price range. I’m talking to you, John Barrowman autographed print. Had I known Jaime King was going to leave immediately after the photos, I definitely would have tried to meet her!

Kimmie joined us just as I made my first lap around the dealer room, merely scanning the wares as I vowed to circle future purchases on my second time around. I took my time, appreciating things like custom Bratz dolls that look like fuckin’ X-Men and posters of the zombie versions of Star Wars (c’mon “The Living Dead Strike Back”!). As I turned from a large stack of Star Wars tiles that could be used to pimp your bathroom OR as coasters, I spotted a lovely lady cosplaying as Rystall Sant. Of course I zoomed for her, as I wanted to take a picture and/or molest her and it turned out to be Taffeta Darling covering the convention for G4! After chatting her up quickly, we made a bee line for the George Takei Q&A (hey, that rhymed) which Kimmie filmed and is now up on our YouTube.

After leaving the Q&A with my heart full of love for Takei, I took as many pictures of cosplayers as I could and stood in line to talk to Ashley Eckstein. This is the only time I encountered something negative which was in the form of a media guest constantly snubbing her fans. Not cool! Ashley on the other hand, was charming and personable and agreed to chat with us later. I talked briefly with Timothy Zahn (oh yes, of the Thrawn trilogy fame) and watched Peter Mayhew in awe for 20 minutes before checking the time. I wanted to see the kid’s costume contest and the Hughes the Force screening but unfortunately missed most of the costumes and all of the screening -_- It’s okay though, because I had an absolute blast!

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