Those who know me know that I am a big geek. I’m especially a big geek when it comes to Star Wars. For years I have had aspirations of attending Star Wars Celebration in one of the various cities in which it was held. This year was no different. Celebration IV was held in Los Angeles last spring. It would have been perfect for me to go to except for the fact that I couldn’t convince myself that the $2,000 it probably would have cost to go was money well spent. I was bummed by the conflict within myself until Holly told me that I could go to Mountain-Con instead. This seemed to satisfy my inner geek.
Mountain-Con III took place this weekend at the University Park Marriott. Holly and I decided that since they have activities for children, and since ours seem to enjoy sci-fi, we would take the whole family. This was an excellent decision because everyone had a great time.
When we arrived, the first thing to do was get registered and pay for our admission. Alex and Hannah were free since they are both “three and under” and Holly and I each got a discount for being students. The day was off to a wonderful start; any time that I can save money, I’m going to be happy.
We headed downstairs to the convention center which was an amazing sight. Right at the bottom of the stairs were David Prowse, the actor who wore the Darth Vader costume, and Garret Wang who played Ensign Kim on Star Trek: Voyager. But that wasn’t all. There was a plethora of actors and authors signing autographs and mingling with eager fans. We walked around the floor just checking things out and saw a lot of things going on. It was almost too much to take in for my first convention. It was all very cool.
We decided that it would be a good idea to attend the panel discussing how to enjoy your first convention. It was a bit boring for the kids so we left a few minutes into it and headed to Kid-Con outside. The kids were able to paint some starship miniatures and make costumes from scrap material. Hannah and Emma both loved the costumes that Holly made for them but when I tried to do something for Alex, he ran away. I guess he wanted no part of the costuming aspect of the convention. They all had a lot of fun and couldn’t wait for the Death Star pinata later in the day.
After a few hours doing things that the kids wanted to do, we decided to go get some lunch in the hotel restaurant. While we were eating, Felix Silla, the actor who played Cousin It on The Addams Family TV series and Twiki on Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, decided that he was hungry too and came and sat at a table not far from us. During the course of the meal, he was waving at the kids, especially Hannah. Later in the day, he saw Hannah walking and started talking to her. He was very kind to her but she was terrified of him. I think that it has to do with the fact that he’s so small.
Once we were all fed, Emma decided that it would be a good idea to attend the panel called “Are You Smarter Than A Padawan?” Basically the point of this particular panel was to test your knowledge of all things Star Wars. There was a time when nary a geek could out geek me when it came to Star Wars trivia. Holly threw my name into the pool of contestants and I proved that it is still the case. There were some hard questions asked but I knew the answers to all of mine and most of my competition’s. I was pretty amazed that I managed to beat out everyone. There were a lot of people there who really knew their stuff.
Before we left to take Holly to work, I stopped by David Prowse’s table to get a Darth Vader picture signed. I was amazed at how nice he was. He asked if I had a camera and offered to let me take a picture with him. I came around to the back of the table and crouched next to him and he told me to get up and sit in the chair next to him. Then I was instructed to put my arm on his shoulder and smile. It was very neat.
We left the convention to take Holly to work at the hospital. I still hadn’t gotten Femi Taylor’s autograph and the kids wanted to destroy a pinata so we headed back to the convention. (Femi Taylor played Jabba the Hutt’s dancing girl in Return of the Jedi.) When we arrived, I noticed that David Prowse was going to be speaking soon so we killed a bit of time by sitting next to Chase Masterson’s table. Pretty soon, all of the members of the 501st who were in attendance gathered in front of us for photos. There were a lot of stormtroopers and one really cool Boba Fett.
I should mention that the kids loved the costumes. They kept telling me that they weren’t really bad guys. Hannah was especially fascinated with them. That is until she met up with a guy dressed like Darth Nihilus. She froze and started screaming. It was funny but I felt really bad for her.
We sat in the David Prowse’s presentation for about an hour. Emma seemed a bit bored and Alex fell asleep but I had fun seeing clips from before he was Vader. There were quite a few Frankenstein parts. I guess that’s what actors that are freakin’ huge get offered.
Five o’clock finally rolled around and the kids and I headed out to the area where the pinata was being destroyed. Emma loved this but the other two were a bit reluctant to swing the “lightsaber” at the Death Star. Once it was finally destroyed though, Alex and Hannah ended up getting their fair share of candy.
All in all, the day was amazing. The only bad thing was that I missed out on getting Femi Taylor’s autograph. I guess that I should have gotten it earlier in the day but I didn’t want it to get messed up by carrying it all over the place.
We can’t wait for next year’s convention. Holly wanted to attend some of the panels discussing Harry Potter and there were loads of panels that I wanted to attend. We may get a 3-day pass next time for the two of us and leave the kids at home. If you want more information so that you can join in on the fun next year, visit Mountain-Con’s website.
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