The Today Show

On Friday, I participated on the biggest troop thus far: NBC’s Today Show. This was an official LFL troop, one that was announced several weeks ago, along with signups. I submitted my pictures of my Clone Trooper, and was selected for the group. It wasn’t until a week ago that we were told what we would be trooping, and weren’t allowed to tell anyone. So, I worked on getting my Clone up to snuff, made a new blaster and on Thursday night after work, set off for NYC.

I arrived down there at 10:30, and met up with several troopers from my garrison and the Connecticut Garrison in the hotel that we were all staying at. We stayed up pretty late talking, and turned in for the remaining couple hours of sleep before we had to get up. At 3:30, our alarms went off, and we got up, dressed and carried our gear to NBC studios, where we checked in, met more troopers who were arriving at the same time. At 5, we did a walk through of what we were going to be doing for the morning, getting lined up and recieved our instructions. We then went back to the studio and suited up.

By 7 or so, we were finished suiting up, so we lined up, put our helmets on and went down to the street, where we crossed and waited for cameras. There was a little rehersal and changing of plans, and I ended up being on the first shift, rather than staying the whole morning. At 8 am, the show started, and cameras rolled. I was standing behind Al Roker, for his introduction, with a group of clones, and was on TV for just a couple seconds. You can see video here.

After that introduction, my time was done, although 10-15 clones and stormtroopers were retained for upcoming shots. I, along with three other clones went back to the changing space, got out of armor and went back down to watch for a little while, then headed up to Boston for the next troop of the night.

 

Woburn Parade 2009

This event marks the beginning of my third active year with the 501st Legion. The Woburn Parade has quickly become one of the major events that I would be loath to miss, and for good reason: this is one of the larger events that we come out in great numbers, and churn out some of our best work for.

In years past, the New England Garrison has done a number of large props: a life-sized Jabba the Hutt and Dewback for the past two years, we shifted gears and went with something just as cool, but not quite as big: Battle Droids for the 501st, and an Ewok Village for Alderaan Base. Both builds came off wonderfully, with our two battle droids, Fred and Ginger Rogers looking fantastic. The Ewok Village likewise looked fantastic, with several of our garrison member’s children posing as Ewoks.

The highlight here, however, was the first Clones from the NEG’s massive build recently, which churned out 20 new clone kits. Most of those are still in the works, but there were six of our members who had finished them in time to get them put together, although one was still building his in the parking lot. I was the only AOTC clone there, movie-accurate, rather than Cartoon accurate, which was pretty amusing.

The parade itself was a painful experience. While I’ve marched in my Clone Armor before, I made some small changes and/or put it together wrong this time around, and as a result, I’ve been aching for the past couple of days while waiting for the bruises and cuts to heal. 2.2 miles is a long way to walk in armor, and I was happy that the parade was over, but I was equally happy that I’d done the parade.

Pictures can be seen here.

Bristol, RI Walk Now for Autism

This past weekend was a good one for trooping. It’s been a couple of months, so I was thrilled to get back into it, and add a new state to the growing list of places that I’ve trooped: Rhode Island.

Because it’s a bit of a drive, I spend the night in Boston and met up with a couple other 501st members while down there. On Sunday, I drove about an hour down to Bristol, where I met up with Adam, Mike, Justin, Sean and Ann-Marie, where we suited up (Tie Pilot, an officer, TK and crewman) at the Walk for Autism site. I brought my Clone along, for its first troop as an approved costume.
I suspect that there were some organizational issues between the Autism people and us, but that really didn’t matter. We were surrounded by a number of people throughout the morning, kids and adults alike wanting pictures. Right as we started off, I was approached and hugged by a boy who looked thrilled that we were there. After walking around the park for about an hour and a half, we went to the front of the line, where we waved and cheered people on as they passed. We didn’t walk this time around, because everybody who was part of this had planned on going up to Waltham, where a droid build was underway.

See pictures here.

Northfield Labor Day Parade

This was my first troop in 2 months – I really missed it. Last year, Mike (TK-2084) and I trooped at the Labor Day festival in Northfield VT, right down the street from Norwich University. It’s the oldest such parade in the state, and it’s a large one. The Corps of Cadets from the school marches, and there are people from all over. We suited up after the parade (with just two of us, there was no sense in being in the parade, although hopefully that will change) and made circuits around the town square, getting pictures taken and generally having a good time.

Pictures can be seen here.

Mission Report: Lowell Spinners

It’s been a little while since I’ve trooped – real life has kept me away from the Legion, unfortunately, and most of my duties had been placed on the back burner. This past weekend, however, I was able to get out for my first troop in a long while, a baseball game at the A-Level team, the Lowell Spinners. They had put together a Star Wars Day, and the New England Garrison fielded around 25 people to the game in costume to pose for pictures and to sign autographs.

The event was a huge success. I ended up getting there a little late because of some family matters, and suited up upon arrival. This time around, I brought out my clone, which is in the middle of the submission process (about time!). This guy’s a little harder to put on, because of the way the parts are shaped, and I’m slowly learning which ways to put things on and together so that they stick. Once suited up, I went with a small group to the stadium’s entrance for about a half hour, before returning back to our changing area to assemble for the opening pitch. We lined up on the field in two rows, Vader threw out the pitch, along with Chewie, and from that point, we mingled with the crowds along the top of the stadium. There were many, many children in attendance, all of whom seemed to want our autograph – which is hard when you’re in armor. We posed for countless photographs, and walked around for a couple of hours. The crowd was remarkably well behaved, which was a very nice change from some of our other events.

All in all, a fantastic event! My pictures are here.

Free Comic Book Day, Earth Prime Comics

This past weekend was the annual Free Comic Book Day, and for the second year running, I trooped up in Burlington for Earth Prime Comics on Burlington’s Church Street Marketplace. This time around, I was joined by Mike, proving once again that two troopers are better than one. Oddly, we had three wranglers for the two of us, Stuart, Stephen and Josh. Stuart was in charge of pictures, and the other two were there for backup.

Mike and I arrived at Earth Prime right as they were opening, and we suited up, talked to the people in charge, who had stuff for us to hand out. We hung around in the store for a little while, then took off up and down the market place, after taping a couple of Free Comic Book Day logos to our backs so that people would know what we were doing. Armed with a couple handfuls of free comic packs for kids, we walked up Church Street, and almost right away, we were asked to pose for pictures, and this continued as we walked up. By the time we reached the top of the street, we’d handed out all the comics, and Josh went back for some more.

We made several passes up and down the street. There were a couple lingering college students who were excited to see us, but as usual, it was the little kids that really made the day. There were a ton who were absolutely thrilled to see us, including one little guy who was literally bouncing up and down when he saw us, and was extremely excited to take a picture with us.

We got out of armor around 12:45 while a short parade went up Church Street – something to do with UVM’s hockey team – and got lunch, and suited up shortly thereafter to walk around in front of the store. Apparently, we attracted so many people that the store ran out of the free stuff. I was interviewed by a news crew that was on the street about FCBD, which was interesting, although I haven’t seen the footage or heard if it even made it on the air.

Overall, it was a very fun troop! Pictures can be seen here.

Trooping Weekend

This weekend was a busy one for 501st activities in Vermont. We were able to do two troops up here, one in Northfield, and the other in St. Albans – a Relay for Life and the Vermont Maple Festival, respectively.

The Relay for Life was a new experience for me. I’ve done a couple walks for Autism in armor, but not one of these, and it was an interesting experience, and far more somber than the Autism walks. One of my fellow VT guys, Mike, was in charge of this one, and with another trooper coming up from New Hampshire as a Jawa/Jedi, we composed a small team that made a number of laps around Norwich University’s Shapiro Field House. While there, we also participated in a couple wiffleball games (Ironically, Justin, our Jawa, was the best hitter out of the three of us). Justin also participated in a short dance competition, which made Mike and I wish that we’d brought along a video camera. The last part of the event (before we left, anyway) was a walk around the track in rememberance of everyone who had passed away due to Cancer, and for those who were suffering from it right now. I thought back to the recent news of an uncle on my Mother’s side of the family, who is currently suffering from lung cancer. It was a somber moment, and an emotional one for a number of people in the group. We walked in silence between us, our armor creaking with each step. We retreated to where we stored our gear, changed and left shortly thereafter, and headed to my apartment, where we got dinner and talked for a couple hours before turning in for the night.

We got up around 8:30 in the morning and got ready for the day. Our next troop of the weekend was the Vermont Maple Festival, up in St. Albans. This was a troop that I did last year, with a Vermont member, Jerry, and had a lot of fun while doing so, and I was excited to be trooping with a larger group, expecting a total of seven people (4 Stormtroopers, 2 wranglers and a Jawa), but unfortunately, one of our guys couldn’t make it. Nonwithstanding, we made quite the impression again this time around, posing for hundreds of pictures from the people attending, and made a lot of kids day. We ran across a couple of people who had seen us this year, and one kid was armed with a lightsaber. We only trooped for a couple of hours before returning to our cars for a final picture. It was fantastic to troop with Jerry again, and I think that before long, we’ll have a strong and active Vermont group.

Finally, we went to lunch, and from there, Mike, Stephen, Hayes and I went to a rented barn where we worked on a short viral film that we had been planning for a little while on our forums, entitled Target Practice. This was my first oppertunity to perform as a stormtrooper in front of a camera and green screen, and the end result should be funny. We’ve also shot a couple of short teasers, one each for me and Mike, which will hopefully be online soon.

Here’s pictures from the Relay for Life, Maplefest and the Video shoot.

Lazer Tag Video

Remember that Lazer Tag event? This is what happened:

Arlington Patriot’s Day Parade Pictures

This past weekend was the Arlington Patriot’s Day parade. I haven’t had time to write up a proper mission report, but click on the picture for a lot more.

Mission Report: Lazer Gate Charity Night

Last night, the 501st New England Garrison and Lazer Gate of Fall River, MA, held a large charity event in which patrons could battle Imperial Storm Troopers in Laser Tag. In all, we raised over $2000 in charity for the Jimmy Fund, and sold out the venue for almost the entire evening.

This was an event in which a lot of planning and preperation was put into. Many thanks to Adam, Eric and Dion for their hard work getting everything together. We have been planning this for a long time. Back in February, we filmed a teaser spot that aired on Youtube and at the venue, and there was a lot of interest going into it. I believe that we also had radio spots to boot.

There was even a bit of a storyline – players were trying to retrieve the plans for the Death Star, and ran into Imperial Stormtroopers. We were postitioned on the second floor of the playing area, and came in at certain times, etc.

I wasn’t intially going to go down for this, but once I saw just how much interest there was in the event, and what it was going to entail, Mike and I were both very interested, and drove down on Friday Afternoon. We ended up running a little late with a stop to remove all of my car’s tires to scrape out the mud that had accumulated, causing the car to really vibrate and rattle – there was no way we were going to endure that for four hours. Once down in Boston, we ran into traffic on I-93, and anded up in Fall River by 5:30.

There, we suited up and got ready for the games. Each trooper was outfitted with a vest, and we deployed to the top floor, and waited. Over the next four or so hours, we ran around the place, shooting and getting shot at by the players. As to be expected, it’s hard to see out of a Storm Trooper helmet to begin with, and with the place being incredibly dark, it was difficult to see anything. I was further hampered by my lack of glasses, so I ended up shooting at anything that moved, and soon got the hang of how to play the game.

It was an incredibly fun evening – I had to take a break for a game because I was overheating (running around builds up a sweat) but we were back into the game shortly thereafter, and we got a ton of excellent reviews from the players and staff of the place. Hopefully, we’ll be able to do it again in the future.

Mike and I left straight off, and ended up back in Vermont by 3:30 in the morning, exhausted. But, satisfied that we’d accomplished another fantastic troop, helping to fight cancer by shooting kids with lasers. Hm…