Earlier this week, my buddy Gary invited me to go to the Ross Park Zoo in Binghamton, NY for their annual "Star Wars Day." The idea of "Star Wars Day" is to have people come dressed in their fan-made costumes and meet and greet visitors to the park. Some of these guys have amazing costumes, and do this event to help bring in more biz for the zoo. Plus, they all happen to love kids and enjoy seeing a tyke's face light up when he gets to meet a stormtrooper, or a jedi, or Darth Vader.
The point of all that exposition is that I went to this event in a negative frame of mind: I was tired, it was rainy and humid, and I would have to put up with geeky Star Wars fanboys for five hours. (No offense meant by the latter comment.) With my expectations so low, I was pleasantly surprised to find that A) the day wouldn't be a total bust despite the bad weather and B) the small number of fans that showed up were really cool and down to Earth. They were not what I expected at all.
These guys and gals all have normal lives and created their costumes as a fun hobby. This isn't a way of life for them, it is just a fun distraction that allows them to share their creativity and love of George Lucas' sci-fi franchise. So please, allow me to apologize to you COOL Star Wars fans for stereotyping you.
In any case, it was a fun day and I managed to get in some training as a "handler" (i.e. a roadie for people in costume at conventions and other events) and I managed to get some decent photos of these SW-Fans in action. CLICK HERE to visit my Photobucket Album and check out the rest of the pics. (Just a side note: My buddy Gary is the Snowtrooper seen above. He was proud to be the only cannon fodder there!)
Of related interest is the website mentioned to me by two of the gents who attended the event at the zoo: www.mandalorianmercs.org. This fan group is comprised of folks whose costumes apparently did not fall within the strict guidelines of other (apparently elitist) fan groups, so they started there own and already have a good many members with some very cool suits of Mandalorian armor.
Well I'm turning in the for the night, so enjoy the pics and have a wonderful night b-movie fans. Blog ya later!
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