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Trooping: New York Comic Con 2009

Posted on February 17th, 2009 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Costumes, Food, NYC, Star Wars.

[Me, breaking out of my germ infested apartment, wearing stormtrooper handcuffs and sporting a stolen E-11.]

As I had spent the week with a triple digit fever, spending time in Midtown Manhattan with 60,000 of my closest friends was not high on my priority list, but I did, in the end, manage a few hours, plus a brief appearance at the Legion dinner.

[Snowtrooper making a withdrawl at the ATM.]

Too exhausted to suit up myself, I walked the floor with Kris, spotting him and helping him take some fun pictures…

[Myself with an R2 unit - wee!!!]

…and I served my time at the Legion table, which had such a hideous location this year that I proposed that next year, if we don’t get a floor on the main table, we don’t bother with the table at all.

[Myself with a Republic backpack, and a baby Rotta the Hutt - I want an ABS version of this backpack.]

I walked the floor briefly and looked at some of the toys and such.  The above $35 Republic backpack was very tempting, but I want a hard, ABS backpack, and this one, while supposed with cardboard, is still soft…and not right…  When someone makes these, send me a note and I’ll send a payment through PayPal.  Seriously.  I want one.

[Best costume of the con: the Incredible Hulk.]

I also saw some neat costumes, but this towering hulk, who easily cleared 7 feet, was quite impressive.  (I love seeing people’s creativity come out at cons.)

[Stout’s burger, with swiss and guac, and a side of sweet potato fries.]

After the con, the 501st and Rebel Legions headed over to Stout, on 33rd Street between 6th and 7th Avenues, where Danny and I indulged in burgers.  Burgers and fries run you $10, but you have to pay an additional dollar for each topping.  I wasn’t well, so it’s hard to judge, but it was made to order and was quite satisfying, even though I was dying, so if you’re in the area, give it a try.

[Steve Sansweet, head of Lucasfilm fan relations, I believe.  He looks like he could be my uncle in this pic.]

Steve Sansweet stole my chair when I stood briefly for some reason I can’t recall.  Now the temptation was there to forcefully reclaim my chair, but as I was still on the mend, and as it seems like a bad idea, I instead stole Steve I.’s chair when he stood for a moment (and Steve I. was nice and did not steal it back.)  Sansweet was a really nice guy, spent the whole evening with the Legions, and sat at out table signing trading cards for us to snatch up.  Good times.

Randomly:

{OM NOM NOM NOM!]

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Troop: The Family Center Holiday Party

Posted on December 14th, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Costumes, Star Wars.

 
[Troopers at the armory at Lexington and 26th!  Rob in the background, then left to right it’s myself, Kris, Danny, and Steve in the Rex.]

So, after endless complaining that we never get charity troops in the City, this event landed in our laps: a holiday party by a group called The Family Center, which offers services to children who’s lives are acutely affected by parental illness.  (For privacy reasons, I can’t put up pictures of us interacting with people, so here’s a slew of pictures of us geeking out instead.)

 
[Kris in his Vader, threatening Jolly ol’ Saint Nick with a lightsaber.]

For families who cannot, because of medical bills, afford to give their children the kind of Christmas they might otherwise offer them, they hold a holiday party, full of food, games, dancing (ever seen a stormtrooper do the electric slide?) and, of course, Santa Claus (we had fun with him.)

 
[Left to right it’s Danny, Steve, Rob in front of Santa, then myself and Kris.  One happy, dysfunctional family.]

Adults and kids alike were delighted by our appearance, and we had a lot of fun, too.  (Especially when we found the hummer parked out front, which Rom somehow managed to climb into, but I, for the life of me, could not.  Sitting in a chair is a talent I amaze troopers the world over with, but I’m afraid the special skills end when I have to lift a foot more than two feet in the air.)

[Rob in the Hummer bed and Danny standing by - I’m actually behind Danny, trying to figured out how to get up there, too - a task I failed in.]

Whenever it got too hot, we just slipped outside to enjoy the randomly cold day that New York City was offering us.  It’ll be 30* one day and 60* the next…and this is December in the Northeast, folks.  For some reason, we also decided it’d look cool to take a picture standing in the middle of a busy road like Lexington Avenue, making sure to get the Chrystler building in the background, assuming that out-of-towners will mistake it for the Empire State Building and somehow be impressed.  (Remember that we’re geeks.)

 
[Geeks in plastic on Lexington Avenue with their backs to the soon-to-be oncoming traffic - and you thought geeks were smart!]

In other random geek news, Danny broke out his new Elite TK for this event: it’s awesome and makes me want to do a new TK as well, but it will have to wait ’till next summer…I’ve already got another project or two on my hands for the moment…but all in good time…

[Danny in his new elite TK: “I was trying to pose like I was thinking of how to ask Santa for a new blaster rifle.”] 

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USA: NYC: Village Halloween Parade

Posted on November 3rd, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Costumes, NYC, Star Wars.

(Can’t label it as a troop as it wasn’t an official event…still, I was trooping.)

[These awesome skeletons start off the parade each year.]

It’s that time again: yes, the time when all the women and gay men of New York City use Halloween as an excuse to dress up like prostitutes and hit the streets, massing in downtown Manhattan along 6th Avenue.

[Randomly ran into Havoc at the 43rd Street costume store!] 

We were supposed to be walking with the Kostume Kult, but we lost that pretty early on.  We headed forward to find a less crowded area so Danny could run (cause, unlike normal troopers, he can run in armor.)  I found a small marching band and danced along to the beat - a dancing stormtrooper can make just about anyone smile, I find.

 
[Left to right, it’s Danny, myself, Danielle, Denis, and Ian]

We had a few people come out and join us.  Denis (TK-7333) from the French Garrison came out and spotted us, along with his wife, Danielle.  Eric came out to do photography for the event.  Other than that, I saw Ruby, Jen, Ralph, Jessica, Ian, Coop, and a number of other troopers that I didn’t recognize.  There were also two giant wookies.

 
[Ruby and Jen, in an awesome pair of costumes at Batman and Batgirl.]

Ruby learned that night that he can tickle me by reaching in the side gaps in my armor…obviously, I need to close those up somehow…  It’s not very effective armor if I can be taken down without a single shot being fired…  “Ticklish soilders fall in battle”.  The shame…

[It fascinates me how I still look girly, even in stormtrooper armor.]

Now, the down side to the event was that dancing around caused my suspenders to looser, and my ab and back plates were slipping, which in turn caused my thigh pieces to slip, and eventually pinch the back of me knees as they came in contact with my shin armor…  It was horribly painful.  When we got home I checked…I thought it was just a bright red armor bite (I was insanely tired) but in truth, it broke skin and bled.  I know this because I have scabs on the back of my knee now.

[Myself (TK-7888): Stormtrooper giving high-fives to the crowd…awesome image.]

Sad of a story as that is, there is still the warmth of knowing I made hundreds of people smile…  I wonder if my new dancing stormtrooper routine has made it up onto YouTube yet?

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Trooping: Anime Festival 2008

Posted on September 28th, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Costumes, NYC.

[Myself as the Kitty Trooper…who knew it would be so popular?]

The 501st trooped New York City’s Anime Festival.  I wasn’t going to go, but Ray and Skutch conned me into it.  Skutch wanted to troop the line, so I volunteered to head out early for that, only to have Skutch out of comission with disease and the line to be all of 20 hardcore fans.

 
[The Kinko’s Copy Ninja…brilliant.]

It actually took Ray and I a while to find the convention…we were beginning to wonder if it really was being held at the Javits Center.  I had been told this was as big as NYCC…ah, the lies.  It’s no bigger than Big Apple Con, though the aisles are wider, at least.

 
[Myself with the Robot Chicken Scientist…AWESOME!]

The big difference between the comic cons and the anime cons is that at the anime cons, you might think that costumes are required to get in the door: EVERYONE is dressed up (though admittedly to varying degrees.)  At comic cons, costumes are limited to hired and volunteer staff, plus perhaps a hardcore few.  So largely, this post features costumes.

[Gingi from Shrek - it would have been even better if a leg had been missing, or if he had been on crutches.] 

I guess the boring thing, to me, about the anime festival, is that you don’t find the same variety in costumes that you find at a comic con.  Comic cons have people dressed up as just about anything that anyone ever found an excuse to obsess over.  Anime is almost exclusively girls in short skirts and boys with big weapons.  That may have its appeal, but it isn’t as interesting, IMHO.

[Myself with the No Face from Spirited Away…this was a briliant costume…the person’s got the neck craning down to “look” at me.] 

Same problem with the vendors.  Every few tables is selling the same set of plushies, or the same type of costumes, or the same array of imitation weapons.  I get bored.  But then, there are the random creative costumes that bring joy to my day…

 
[I always see a couple guys dressed up as Mario and Luigi (who I found out that day I know through a degree of separation) but today I found two girls as the Mario brothers…but the tall and skinny one had the Mario costume on…I was confused…]

Having gotten dressed around 9:00am, I was pretty tired by early afternoon (whether the exhaustion comes from work or my classes or an oncoming illness, I know not, but I’m not the trooper I was this past summer.)  I unsuited a bit early, put on my glasses, which don’t fit under my new helmet, and stumbled around the floor.

 
[There’s an Obi-wan quote from Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, when Anakin turns to the Dark Side, and Obi-wan declares: “Only a Sith deals in absolutes.”  This t-shirt: “Absolut Sith: Only a Sith deals in Absolut” is a pun on that quote…and it made me smile.]

We found ourselves self-important, strutting around with our “Professional” passes on.  I’m not exactly sure what we’re professionals of, but hey, it’s not a label that I’m going to push away.

 
[Self-important off-duty troopers, left to right, it’s Lou, myself, and Crashley.]

We also found the need to scream and shriek like giddy school girls every time we saw Rob, our fellow stormtrooper who stayed suited up until the very end of the convention…  I know.  We’re lame.

 
[Trooper groupies.  ‘Nuff said.  Left to right, it’s Lou, Crashley, Rob, me, Jen, and Ruby.]

6 comments.

USA: NYC: Shanghai Cafe

Posted on September 22nd, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Costumes, Food, Star Wars.

Note: I’m blogging because I can’t sleep.

[Ahh…xiao long bao…makes me miss Shanghai…]

Every now and then Ray and I will end up fantasizing about Chinese food, and while I may not know where to get the good stuff in town, he certainly does.

 
[Normal, pan-fried dumplings]

We went to Shanghai Cafe in the Manhattan Chinatown at 100 Mott Street.  It’s a medium-sized place, nice and modern, but nothing too fancy.  Piles of steamers are stacked on the counters in the front window where curious tourists can watch…though there’s not much to see.

[There’s gotta be a specific name for these, but I don’t know it…half dumpling, half steamed bun…100% delicious.]

We decided to make it a dumpling night.  In addition to the xiao long bao (or soup dumplings or steamed juicy buns or whatever you want to call them) we ordered plates of a variety of dumpling types - plus a plate of onion cakes.

 
[Onion pancakes!]

Ray ordered in Cantonese.  I later made a request in Mandarin.  Confusion with the wait staff ensued.  In the end, they decided to speak Mandarin to Ray, leading to further confusion.  I forgot they used to do that to me back in the day when I was dating an ABC who didn’t speak Chinese.  It’s like they’re thinking: “The white girl couldn’t possibly be speaking Chinese…these people must be ventiliquists…but I’m not fooled!  I’ll speak to the Asian.”

 
[We should get Skutch this hat for Christmas…]

Oh well.  Afterwards, we went walking up Broadway.  We found a $150 pleather coat for Skutch, plus this trendy hat (omg I can’t believe he can actually pull off this look.) We also went to visit the costume shop by NYU, and while it was disappointingly closed, they did us the favor of leaving a Ruby’s (Rubie’s?) Stormtrooper armor set up on a mannequin in the front window, where we stood around for a good long while, taking pictures and making fun of it.  Cause our armor is better, yet costs less.  Yes, we’re armor snobs.

 
[Ray did not recognize me because I dressed like a girl…]

All in all, not a bad night.  Hit up the bookstore.  Missed the cupcake shop.  Can’t have it all…  Oh, and there was that bit about posing as newly-wed buying bedsheets (huh?) so we could get into Crate&Barrel to use the bathroom…  I think everyone knows damned well if I were married to either of those geeks, we’d be getting our bed sheets from Pottery Barn Kids!

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Trooping: Pottery Barn Kids

Posted on September 19th, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Costumes, NYC, Star Wars.

[Left to right, it’s Danny, Mike, and Ray at the Pottery Barn Kids release of the Star Wars bedding]

So, more corporate troops, which aren’t exactly our favorite, but there were tons of kids here, who were very excited to see us, and the store did promise to donate cash to a charity on our behalf.  (On the other hand, they watched us like hawks and didn’t even offer a friendly employee discount - bastards.)

[Stormtrooper holding a baby - love it] 

It was thrilling to see the Millenium Falcon quilt, the Star Wars sheets, and the “A Long Time Ago” pillows…  It was depressing to realize that even a sheet set ran over $100…I couldn’t afford anything.

 
[Myself, with the Star Wars bedding that I can’t afford]

It was also slightly offensive that it was labeled as a “Dream Room for Boys”…  I really fight sexist stereotypes in my classroom…it’s upsetting to see how pervasive it is in society.

 
[Myself and Danny in the back room…woah, that sounds more exciting than it was…]

Small troop - Danny. Ray, and myself from the 501st, with Mike appearing as rebel scum - Pete bailed.  I’ve come to realize that it’s really very rare that I troop without Ray and Danny…I guess we’ve become the hardcore city troopers.  (Kris, yer slackin’!)

[TK-4452 at T&K Cleaners]

It was fun taking picture in uptown Manhattan…we found a T&K Cleaners (funny because “TK” stands for “Stormtrooper” in our geeky world) and some cops that were actually very cool (I love NYPD).  Afterwards, we found a delicious mexican spot on 1st Avenue called Cilantro…I’ll have to blog about that, too.

 
[NYPD, writing up the Star Wars geeks…]

3 comments.

Trooping: Brooklyn Cyclones Game

Posted on August 18th, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Costumes, Star Wars.

[Waiting around at the WB office, left to right, it’s Lou, myself, and Danny.]

Lou, Ray, Danny, Eric, and I all met at WB’s office to head down to Coney Island on Friday night for the Brooklyn Cyclones game.  (As Brooklyn lacks a major league baseball team, I default to being a fan of the Cyclones, our minor league team.)

 
[Left to right it’s myself, a mascot, Eric, Lou, another mascot, Ray, and Danny.]

This was our last scheduled troop with WB…I think we’re all in agreement that we’ll miss the shiny, black, chauffered sedans that picked us up at home each day and carted us around the city…who would want to schlep armor around on the subway after an experience like that???  Though, the way things look right now, I doubt I’ll have to drag my armor around again before October…kinda sad, really.

The plan was for Danny, our lone clone trooper that day, to throw out the first pitch…and that would have gone off without a hitch, I imagine, had a horrible storm not come our way.  After one little tornado on Long Island and some flash flooding in the Bronx, somebody decided, as the torrential rains came pouring down over the open-air stadium, that perhaps we should delay the game.

 
[Eric being screened by security with the metal detector wand.]

Another hour after that, the two teams conceeded the game to Mother Nature, and our Imperial army unsuited and packed up.  We piled into our van and headed back into the City, to a BBQ place in Times Square called Virgil’s (after making a detour to Jim Hanley’s Universe to pick up the hyperfirm rifle that Danny had forgotten there on Tuesday.)

 
[Do troopers ever mix up their armor pieces???  What a mess!]

We feasted on piles of fresh, hot hush puppies, dipped in maple syrup butter, while waiting for our main courses to arrive - piles of ribs and wings, pulled pork and beef brisket…mmm…  And as I ate, I couldn’t help thinking that I probably wouldn’t eat that well again until the Christmas party scene rolled around again…also a bit depressing.

 
[Our last WB/ECG team dinner at Virgil’s in Times Square.]

Still, I was grateful for the fabulous treatment Lucasfilm and Warner Brothers ensured us.  Perhaps next summer we’ll have the chance to troop with them again when the new live-action Star Wars TV series premiers…

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Trooping: CW11 and Planet Hollywood

Posted on August 15th, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Costumes, Star Wars.

[Live on the news at 6:51am, left to right it’s Bob O., Ray, Wally, myself, Eric, and Coop.]

Even shorter than our 7-minute Weird Al troop was our CW11 morning news troop…private, chauffered cars came to collect us each from home at 5am so that we could be on air for…perhaps a minute…30 seconds is more likely.  But you could hear the crickets chirping in the newsroom when the news reporter we were standing behind randomly walked off stage, leaving us standing alone, doing our best impression of armored deer in headlights, as the seconds crawled by in an agonizingly slow fashion.

 
[Left to right, myself, Bob O., Wally, and Eric in Times Square.]

After that, two troopers went to work and the remaining four of us went to road the streets of Chinatown and Times Square, whiling away the hours until our next brief troop at Planet Hollywood.  I picked up a set of Galactic Heroes figures at K-Mart, and a new Clone Wars coloring book at Toys R Us.

[I colored this page of Ahsoka Tano from my new Clone Wars coloring book after taking a long nap on the couch.]

We put in a good 30 minutes at Planet Hollywood, which makes my 18-hour troop at Toys R Us, or even my 10-hour troop at NYCC, seem rather trivial.  After taking hundreds or photos in the press room at Planet Hollywood, we stumbled around between the tables to meet and greet people having lunch. 

 
[Our troopers, post-troop, with one of the wonderful folks from WB.]

I was just getting annoyed and pulling out my camera to photograph my fellow troopers when someone from Warner Brothers told me I was done and could go change and order lunch, which the good folks at WB were covering.  (I had a ribeye steak, rare, and a double chocolate fudge brownie a la mode, served with two iced teas…then I got back in my chauffered car, after swinging by WB again, and fell asleep on the ride home.)

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Trooping: Clone Wars Toy Release at Times Square Toys R Us

Posted on July 29th, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Costumes, Star Wars.

[Me, TK-7888, storming Manhattan.]

So, one of the dumbest things I’ve done recently was to volunteer to do an 18-hour shift, outdoors in July at Times Square…and encased in plastic, of course.  The event very much lived up to its namesake, “Midnight Madness”, and I probably wouldn’t do another TRU event based on this experience.

[Myself and Skutch, who broke out his new Clone armor…so jealous.]

But where the event faltered, my fellow troopers stepped in and helped me out.  Skutch brought me lunch, Ray came straight over from work to do crowd control, and Kris went back out with me and stayed by my side when the crowd started getting crazy.  A friend used to diss me for always seeking out a community, but this is why I do it: the Empire City Garrison is a community of geeks that take care of each other.

[Myself/TK-7888 with a random munchkin: Little girls like Star Wars too!  Get ‘em while they’re young!!!]

And on the bright side, I got to bring smiles to hundreds of peoples’ faces, munchkins and adults alike.  When I wear armor, women crawl all over me and call me handsome, and Crashley reports having her rear pinched and grabbed on a regular basis…if only they knew what was beneath the armor…

[Crashley, TB-3083, now known as the Time Bomb Trooper, wearing the “small countdown clock vest” that Toys R Us prepared for us.]

Speaking of Crashley, who did the 18-hour troop to me with me with a 20-pound laptop-like apparatus on a canvas-covered steel frame strapped to her chest, here she is.  I started calling her Iron Man, as the laptop was reminiscent of Tony Stark’s arc reactor, but later she earned the nickname of the “Time Bomb Trooper”, and that seems to have stuck.

[Rows of geeks in plastic - yay us!]

The great thing about big events, though, is getting all the people together.  Hardcore geeks from New York, New Jersey, Pennsyvania, (and maybe Conneticut?) all schlepped in to put on our nerdtastic Star Wars celebration.  Mostly the inner-city folks do the inner-city gigs, the Long Island folks do the Long Island gigs, and the Upstate folks do the gigs upstate.  It’s nice to see people again and start to put a few more names and faces together.

[Myself, TK-7888, in a pedicab in Times Square.  Next time I’ve gotta get a picture in one of those horse-drawn carriages near Central Park.]

And then, when it’s all over, Rebels and Imperials all hit the bar across the street from the toy store together for some very much deserved food and alcohol.  I think I got home around…3am?  I left home at 5am.  22 hours.  On two hours of sleep.  Suffice to say that I spent most of Saturday sleeping.

[Me, in the break room after the event, getting a massage….  See that smile on my face?  Money can’t buy that.  I didn’t even know anyone was taking a picture.  That’s pure pleasure right there.  I’m still savoring it.]

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New York Comic Con 2008: Anna the Dancing Stormtrooper

Posted on April 21st, 2008 by Anna Zhan.
Categories: Blog, Costumes, NYC, Star Wars.

I attended the New York Comic Con with the Empire City Garrison of the 501st Legion this past weekend - my first troop!!  Who knew that I would randomly do something bizarre and crazy that would draw a crowd and get me on YouTube?  Yeah…you all knew…

The videos linked to below are the result of a stormtrooper being asked to dance by an African dancer, who was promoting a manga called White Shaka Boy.  The crowd quickly gathered on the empty corner.  Camera and camcorders came out.  A Princess Leia happens along our party and joins.  Yeah, Princess Leia, a stormtrooper, and an African dancer…words cannot describe…

Luckily, that’s where YouTube comes in.  The video starts here, but my moment to shine comes in the second half of the video.  Enjoy!

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