I just showed this post to the Hungarlings. They loved it! The eldest says he's going to do a Mandalorian, and the youngest wants to do a Sand person costume.
Both say they're going to you for help 
I just showed this post to the Hungarlings. They loved it! The eldest says he's going to do a Mandalorian, and the youngest wants to do a Sand person costume.
Both say they're going to you for help
In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :
I know two Tusken's and would be interested except the masks are notoriously small inside and definitely no room for my glasses.
Today and tomorrow is Brick Fest Live in Cincinnati, I'm helping both days, donating Gonk19 and a mouse droid for the display.
Brickfest Live ended up being pretty fun, even if I didn't costume either day. There's me sitting at the end of the tables, handing out trading cards and talking up our clubs both days. The kids were nonstop, and we were warned that would be the case. But 99% of them were pleasant and grateful, the parents were cool as well.
Saturday morning I drove down at 730am to bring the Gonk and mouse droids for the display, we had a decent size booth. The Cincinnati leader had a pit droid he 3D printed, so we had a few good props for photos. You can see my mouse and his pit in the bottom right. Gonk19 was on the left of the backdrop.
I left at 1230pm, I was pretty beat after the 2nd round of dental surgery the day before. I went back down Sunday around 1130 to help out the afternoon and grab my droids/help pack up. Another busy day and some different people so it made for a fun day. Stayed at the table & didn't feel as tired at the end this time.
We were almost done and an official came around and gave everyone swag like the pin, official event LEGO brick, keychain, etc. I grabbed a pink Halloween bucket from T-Mobile next to us for parades, turned out it has LEDs too. Made for a fun weekend even if I felt a bit like I was hit by a truck (aforementioned dental surgery on Friday).
Next event for me probably isn't until the big Childrens Holiday Parade the day after Turkey Day downtown. Finalizing the details to post (I'm in charge) and trying to decide if I feel like driving the Crosstrek in it, or walking like normal. Would be nice to not freeze for a change.
This randomly came up in my FB feed today.
In reply to AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) :
Nice, one of our PR posts, Ian did that one. The Vader is a Cincinnati school teacher, and one of my favorite people.
Last night we had our first Xmas parade and tree lighting, at The Greene in Beavercreek. I can never got off work early enough to make it up there in time, have to be there like 4-430pm with traffic and parking. I set up the group chat, about 13-14 characters. Next Friday is the Children's Holiday parade and tree lighting in downtown Dayton, I'll be driving the Crosstrek in it. Hopefully less gunfire this year, starts at 7pm.
Smaller group this year, but the Dayton Children's Holiday Parade had less gun fire this year, and went off as normal. (SWMBO is the brown jawa on the right).
I drove the Crosstrek this time, so I didn't worry about a costume. I wore a Santa hat with the windows down, my light up gloves went to her because she forgot hers. I added 2 strands of lights to the roof and a light up bow on the front, but apparently the multi jumpstart/battery thing she let me borrow doesn't like 2 strands of lights for more than 30-45min and was almost dead by the time we got going.
I did get a photo before it died. Forgot the 501st Legion magnets too, I was too occupied figuring out the lights and mounting the bow to remember them. Oh well. I need to find a cigarette lighter plug thing for 12v stuff for the future. I used to have an old transformer-thing for my ex-wife's laptop but it died at an overnight RX 5 years ago.
It was quite cold, a few people took turns sitting in the car before the parade started. And it was handy to store coats/blankets/Darth Vader's helmet box. Trying to find the video they shot.
Jerry, out of curiosity... When you see "normal" folks, do they seem to resonate more with the traditional Luke-Leia-Vader OT costumes, or are the recent Disney shows and movies taking a bigger spot? What about for younger people? What about the prequels, CW, and Rebels?
I really enjoy this thread and all the updates you provide for it.
In reply to mtn :
I think it depends on the age and when they joined the fun. Older types seems to like the OT characters, kids sometimes go for newer ones like the TV shows. But then again, newer shows are re-introducing OT characters like the original stormtroopers so it's mixed.
Then again, it's a running joke that any character in a black costume (TIE pilot, gunner, etc) is Vader! #notvader
Yesterday was a small event, a local market for small biz vendors. The jawa and his wife both had moms there vending, and his wife as well, so it was kind of a family thing. Galaxycon in Columbus (& illnesses) kept the trooper count low, but we had fun. I bought a few small things for SWMBO & the TIE fighter did as well. We went out onto the street a few times to wave at traffic, I think we got a few to stop in that wouldn't have otherwise. (We also almost caused an accident when a lady stopped to take a photo & the car behind her didn't like that.)
At the end I stopped to talk to our contact, turned out the event also was raising $ for the local community (Xenia) and needy families, so that made it even better. Rt 68 Vintage Toys was right around the corner, so I enabled the TIE and we stopped in. I bought a $45 item, he almost bought a $500 Razorcrest & I'm pretty sure he's going back for it. :)
Busy weekend & I didn't even do anything on Sunday...
Friday I left early to do the Woodland Lights trail walk in Dayton, only 10 minutes from my house. The weather was MUCH nicer than last year! We nearly froze in 2022, I know we walked two characters back early due to the temps. But this year it was mid-low 50s and perfect, I'm wearing the purple holiday jawa in a long sleeve t-shirt. Also a bigger crowd, likely same reason, and we had fun. I got at least 3 hugs from kids.
Saturday was busy itself. At 1pm I had a funeral for the wife of the husband/wife that own my small company (cancer), and the Cincy leader requested help for a troop that was for kids with terminal illnesses. I realized I would kind of pass it on the way home (Spring Grove cemetery) so I offered to join a little late. I ended up getting there just as they were leaving the dressing room, I chose the AT-ST driver to be a quick change so I joined them 5 minutes later.
Matthew 25 Ministries puts on a huge event for these kids and their families, it was quite the walk from the car to our area. I've been fumbling with my dentures a bit, but when you see 5 year old kids in electric wheelchairs and O2 tanks, you get humbled real fast. One little girl in a manual wheelchair was the happiest person I've met in the last month, and kept wheeling around looking for her sister to take her photo with that speeder bike, and joking with us.
And that bike was made by someone at M25M, not us! It's huge for multiple kids to sit on, a ramp behind it for easy access, and kids were wailing on it all day. Occasionally I'd pop a piece back on, or shove one of those cables back into it's spot, but it was quite resilient.
When it was almost over, we took some time to goof off and decompress. The scout trooper got pix on the bike, I decided the driver needed to test out another ride two spots over from ours.
Just a head's up, this Friday is the Cincinnati Cyclones Star Wars night.
Decided to take a break from events, skipped the hockey game. But Saturday we had the Wreaths Across America event at the VA cemetery in Dayton. A handful of us showed up & this year was MUCH nicer than freezing our asses off in 2022. Small group but here we are. They had about 4K wreaths to lay, at first we only did one each. But after a bit a few more tractors and trailers brought wreaths after the initial rush after the ceremony.
A bunch had wandered off thinking it was over, so we ended up laying a few more. I also helped break down the boxes they arrived in. I found a few Navy vets and said their names as I laid them down, ribbon bow at the top. This year they focused on a different section that had flat headstones, vs the vertical marble looking ones. Should make for a good PR post tomorrow, I'm always trying to show we're not just nerds in plastic costumes.
Found out last night that the snowtrooper got approved. I didn't expect anything until after the holidays. Ready for the ice skating event in January when it will likely not be 63F anymore.
Last troop of the year, the Cincinnati Symphony did The Last Jedi with the movie in the background. I've been doing this troop for many years and didn't pass it up in 2023. I don't have a sequel-era costume so I figured light sabers are always fun, and went with Count Dooku. Had quite a few kids recognize me right off and even choose to stand with me. Once again we split into 3 groups, I was with the Jedi librarian and Finn.
SWMBO was a handler again, and the only one taking photos this time (Saturday, the Friday event had other people). We had a few minutes before the doors opened & I decided I wanted to get some photos in the dark with the saber. It was also windy, and that definitely helped. She took 10-15 photos ;) I liked this one as one of my favorites.
See you in 2024. I'm already signed up for a couple events in January and February, and there's a funeral service on Thursday I hope to do if I can get out of work for a few hrs.
Yesterday was my first funeral as a 501st Legion member.
A young man passed away in a house fire in December, he was a big Star Wars fan, and we were requested for the service (I believe a member knew someone). 8 of us showed up, I got the ok from work to slip out for a few hours (only 20min away and started at 11am). Vader, Kylo, two stormtroopers, and a few others for a good mix.
Two of us stood on either side of the urn during the viewing, and rotated out to stand in two rooms, then we all stood on either side during the service an hour later. Not going to lie, my back was killing me after standing still almost 2 hours but I'm glad I could do it. Everyone wore Star Wars shirts and a few ladies wore Leia-inspired hair. The urn was a Death Star, light sabers everywhere. A slide show running had him as a kid and plenty of Star Wars toys and costumes.
I wore my stormtrooper because here was no way in hell I was wearing anything without a face-covering helmet. The only time I really choked up was when his little brother put his head on mom's shoulder to comfort here. Oof. Too many teenagers for a funeral.
There was a lady that took a couple photos, never found out if she was family or funeral home employee, so not sure if I'll have any for this one.
The snowtrooper costume got approved on Xmas day, so I decided it's the perfect costume for an outdoor troop at a skating rink in a couple weeks.
The fans in the stormtrooper are almost 6 years old and no issues, so why reinvent the wheel? Ordered the same basic setup.
After some research on location, I put them on either side of the eyes facing each other. Put velcro on the crown of the helmet for the battery, doesn't rest on my head anyway.
It ain't as fancy but it's very functional. And it should be easy to swap to another costume helmet. (Another helmet? Stay tuned.) Next up is replace the broken sunglasses with welder visor or something. It works, but the PO ended up smearing quite a bit of glue and this already has terrible vision.
Yesterday was the wreath cleanup at the Dayton National cemetery, and a few of us crazies braved the cold and 45mph winds. Not many others did, usually a decent crowd including JROTC and scouts, this year maybe 10 other people. All picking up like 4K+ wreaths...
I decided to try that 2 wheel cart this time, moderate success when I didn't dump them all over (twice). And Friday night I remembered the old racing suit a car friend gave me a few years ago. Very warm and I didn't have to worry about burning in a fire. That was a long 1.5hrs of work. But we had lunch at the Dublin Pub afterwards, then after groceries I spent the rest of the day and night on the couch under a blanket and pets.
Sunday morning it was 14F, we still had some snow on the ground. I wanted to get some photos in the new costume, never know when it'll snow again around here.
I was ok with the backyard but SWMBO was ready to hit a local park with a river on the edge. What the hell, why not? Good test run for tomorrow's troop at an ice skating event. I did break a strap and see some velcro almost ready to let go.
Well damn. The ice skating event got canceled last minute because it's too nice out.
They can't seem to freeze the rink while it's upper 40s and humid. I was wondering if that would be a problem, been decent most of this week while before that was single digits and high winds.
Anyway, here's some repairs I did last night. Glued strap on a knee plate broke, another was on it's way out. Some velcro patches on the boot straps needed replaced along with a missing Chicago screw. Guess I'm ready for whenever (maybe next Friday but forecast is pretty similar).
Friday night the skating event actually happened, even though it did almost hit 50F again. Not as many costume characters available this week but we still had 8 or 9, a decent number. I had joked about going on the ice with these green things, a few talked about trying to actually skate. I asked the contact if we could go out without skates, she said our boots were probably ok and if we wanted to try...
Me and the other snowtrooper hit the ice, it actually had some texture from skaters so I probably could have walked the whole rink. We got a few photos standing on it and finally found two of these things available. Grabbed our silly photos and gave them back to two kids. Towards the end a jawa and Bobba Fett put on skates and went out for a little while.
SWMBO helped as a handler this week, and said they gave us a E36 M3load of comp'd tickets for food and drinks. So after about an hour I decided hot chocolate sounded good, a handful of others thought so too. (Compare this to the Dayton Dragons baseball that doesn't even give us bottled water in the dressing room). I was glad to get a troop in this costume while it was cold, I need to make a few tweaks but it went pretty well.
I think Techfest at Sinclair College in a couple weeks will be the next. Probably old reliable stormtrooper.
Already had two costumes I'm working on, one very ready and the other still a ways to go. Then someone on a Facebook group mentioned Macy's was offering these boots very cheap with free shipping.
berkeley. I want to do an ISB officer (guys with the white tunics) someday, and have most of the other parts. $36 later here they are. Just need the tunic itself and a rank bar.
TechFest at Sinclair College happened again this weekend, I only did Saturday this year. Even with 6" of snow the night before, we had a decent crowd. I helped with the ribbon cutting ceremony again (stormtrooper), and made it about 3hrs or so. After that my back was really bothering me, and I ended up not eating anything before I left except coffee and most of a banana. I changed out and felt my hands shaking, decided I needed a hamburger and some sugar. Stayed a bit extra out of costume before driving home.
The short one is the daughter of a Cincinnati member, and he put a lot of effort into getting an Ohio chapter of the Galactic Academy, a club affiliated with LFL that's open to 17 and under. They can make any costume they want, detailed or casual, and join our shenanigans. She was fun to hang around, I kept nudging that Tribble-thing with my blaster and she kept pushing away saying "no, don't shoot the tribble!"
I went over to the antique computer display (because I'm a nerd) and heard someone say "aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?" I replied my usual "a little" holding two fingers up. Walking away he caught up to me and said "hey I didn't mean to sound like a jerk back there, that's a line from ..." I stopped him and said "oh I'm quite familiar with it, I've heard it a couple times in this costume". 
Last year one of our 501st members learned his son would need a new kidney. One of our other members volunteered, got tested, and this morning was the transplant surgery!
Yesterday a bunch of members Ford Econoboxed both from the Ronald McDonald house to the hospital across the street (Columbus). Definitely a case of Bad Guys Doing Good.
In reply to Jerry :
Thanks Jerry that is a fantastic story.
In reply to DrMikeCSI :
It really is. The father reported this morning that both his son and the donor are doing very well. 
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