Star Wars Celebration - Day 2

I was up early and out the door around 8:30ish. The convention center didn't open until 10am but I wanted to get in line early so I could try and get to the Hasbro booth as I read yesterday that they had an exclusive Ahsoka Tano 6" action figure and it had to be mine.

When Mike, Jason and I got to con we noticed a crowd of people mobbing around someone... come to find out that it was Anthony Daniels (C3P0) he was out mingling with the fans.

We weren't sure if there was a staging area for those who wanted to get in early so we wandered around for about a half hour before realizing that we had to enter through E into Hall D and get in this massive line. Jason found some friends while my brother had his family showing up anytime so they both left me to enter the line solo.

I waited about 45 minutes or so before the line started to move at 10am. The way they had these lines set up is that there were these long rows and as rows were filled you'd start a new row and so on. I was well in back so it took another 25 minutes for my row to even start moving.. I didn't get into the con until around 10:30.

I quickly made my way to the Hasbro booth and noticed that Dave Filoni was there signing a poster that I had seen yesterday and just fell in love with it. I quickly tried to find the end of the line but it was already capped. I then walked around the booth looking for this exclusive Ahsoka Tano action figure and realized that it was just a proto type they were revealing here at Celebration as an exclusive first look.

I had misread the article and this new action figure won't be out until 2016. Talk about being double disappointed. Not only is there no action figure but I just missed getting Dave Filoni's autograph on a poster that I must have now. BTW.. the action figure looked AMAZING!!

I walked around the floor for another 10 minutes or so taking pictures of the cool cosplayers before heading up to the third floor to get in line for the Clone Wars panel. This was the one panel of the entire con that I had to do. They were showing 4 unaired and unfinished episodes from The Clone Wars. The storyline was called the "Bad Batch" it was about 4 misfit Clone Troopers who were genetically altered and they have their own way of doing things. They are enlisted to do a "non-sectioned" rescue mission of fellow clone trooper Echo, who was believed to be dead.

I got in line about an hour and a half early as I wanted to make sure I got in this panel. We were put into a side room with a bunch of rows roped off. Here we sat and waited for the panel start. I had a nice group of guys around me and we chatted, watched the new Battlefront trailer and just hung out waiting to enter the panel room. Since I was by myself it was easy to find a fairly decent seat. Once the panel started David Collins who is the host of the digital stage (where we were) came out and chatted with us for a few minutes before bringing out the man himself.. Dave Faloni (creator of The Clone Wars & Rebels). Dave talked about these episodes for a few minutes before starting the first one. 

It was another fantastic story arch from the doomed season six. As I said they were unfinished. The actors voices were all recorded and they did a music pass but the video was all pre-vis. Which means it's like watching moving story boards. Lips don't move, very little body moment, when the walk they look like they are skating. StarWars.com released another sixth season storyline arch that looked the same way so I knew what to expect. But honestly the amazing story and voice acting you really fill in the blanks and don't even notice it after a while... at least I didn't.

Episode after episode my smile got bigger and bigger, I loved every minute of it. I really miss The Clone Wars. I mean I enjoy Star Wars Rebels but it's hasn't connected with me like The Clone Wars did. Maybe season two will, especially now that they have one of my favorite characters from The Clone Wars appearing on Rebels.. guess will have to wait and see.

After the screening of the four episodes they did a Q&A with Dave, several writers and the voice actor for the clone troopers Dee Bradley Baker. It was a fun Q&A, we got a little behind the scenes info about this "Bad Batch" storyline. We found out that there was another story planned for this group of misfits in season seven. We also find out that Echo becomes part of this group as well. I was thrilled that I got in this panel. And it was great to see the Dave was really appreciative of the fans, he made a comment about how wonderful it was to see a few thousand fans sit and watched four unfinished episode as though they were completed.

During the panel I got a text from my brother informing me that his family had arrived so when I got out I headed to the floor to find them. I spent the next hour walking around with them watching my niece and nephew eyes light up every time a costumed person walked by. One of my favorites is when this little tiny Ewok came up to them. They were thrilled to take a picture with her.

And thanks to Kenobi for insisting that we go up to the third floor we came upon the Mandalorian preparing for their "Death March", that's when they line up and walk through the con in a single file. It was pretty awesome seeing so many different Mandalorians.

After that I was hungry so I parted from my family and headed to the food trucks and grabbed another of those amazing corn dogs from the Viking truck. While at lunch my friend Kim found me and joined me for lunch. Afterward we found my family who were about to leave so I said my goodbyes. Kim and I headed back into the Halls and to the Celebration store. It was pretty picked through and they didn't have any official shirts, but Kim did find this awesome Admiral Akbar sushi set. As she got in line to pay for that (again huge line, an hour at least). I wandered the floor solo.

I text my friend Greg to see where he was and he responded. I found him and my buddy Brian and hung out with them for the remainder of the day.

After the con ended we headed to Mortans for an extremely delicious dinner. It was great getting to hang with these guys. I see them both so rarely and it's always nice to catch up on each others lives. We ate and chatted for a few hours. After dinner we said our goodbyes and I headed back to the hotel where I found my brother and Jason already in for the night.