501st Caught On Camera

Here’s a selection of pictures from Flickr of the 501st Legion:

Unknown Group Shot:

Weird Al Concert (Seattle)

Packed

Clone Bear

Metrocon (Florida)

FanExpo

Mini Trooper at GenCon

More GenCon

Clone Wars Releases

Clone at San Diego ComicCon

UKG TD in Scotland

Random Storm Trooper

Blackout Concert

501

501st Caught on Camera

Photo taken at the “Make a Dream Foundation” fundraiser:

Clone Wars Premiere:

Recruiting:

Tusken:

Clone Wars Screening:

Another Clone Wars Screening:

Seth Green and TC:

TK at Disney World (Apparently not a 501st Member, but a Disney cast member):

Me at at the Balloon Festival:

More Balloon festival pictures:

Barcelona Trooper:

You missed!

Clone and Biker:

Clones and Kid:

Clone Commander Franklin:

Clone vs Cyberman:

Mission Report: Balloon Festival at St.-Jean-Sur-Richelieu

As it turns out, yesterday was a long troop. The Canadian Garrison’s Montreal group, the Alliance Imperiale (a composite group of the Rebel Legion, 501st and Jedi Assembly, numbering around 30 members), attended the annual balloon festival, where the world-famous Darth Vader Hot Air Balloon made an appearance.

Leading up to the event, I was looking forwards to attending, but with the recent series of rainstorms that we’ve had here in the Northeast in the past couple of weeks, I was planning on canceling because of the long drive and expense, but as the weather forecast improved, I decided to go, especially after I found my passport. I’m very glad that I did.

At 7, I left home with my armor in tow, and reached St. Jean (just a half hour south of Montreal) by around 9 or so. (I anticipated an hour wait at customs, instead waiting for all of three seconds). I met up with Sebastian, the AI coordinator for the event, and around 10, the rest of the group, around 15 or so people arrived. We suited up around 11:30 or so, and started walking around the carnival that was in place for the balloon festival. The weather was overcast for the morning, with the sun starting to break out, and it was cool for most of the time. Around 1, the temperature went up and the clouds started to clear.

I took a break for about an hour and half when my thigh piece split at the seam, taking some pictures and wrangling for the group.

At this point, the crowds started to increase, and when I got back into my armor, there were hundreds of people who wanted our pictures. This went on for much of the day. I got a cramp in my rips after a little while, and started to take more breaks. Later on, we were joined by a couple more troopers, another TK and a TD and Officer from the Polish Outpost. All in all, we had two TKs, a Boba Fett, Vader, two TDs, three clones, a TX, Pilot, Death Star Crewman, Chewbacca, a Rebel Pilot and a Rebel Fleet Troopers, a Leia and a Mandalorian.

At 6, the Balloons started returning after their morning runs and started setting up. By this point, the clouds had all but vanished, the wind died down and it was the perfect weather for a launch, and the Vader Balloon was a go. It started inflating and we all went over for a series of group pictures.
The Vader Balloon is huge, and pictures can’t do it justice. It’s an impressive sight to stand next to it while inflating, and we had front row seats for the fifteen minutes or so that it took to get airborne. One it was in the air, and on it’s way out, we headed back to the tent, and posed for pictures until around 8:30, when most of us started getting out of our suits. All in all, probably 50,000 people attended the event, making this a huge one for the Alliance Imperiale. Altogether, three garrisons attended – the Canadian Garrison, The New England Garrison and the Polish Outpost. After the crowds started dispersing, and we packed up our gear and all headed out to dinner, which ran until around midnight, and we returned home around 1.

I was exhausted from the long day, and ended up returning home at 5 am, after stopping at two rest stops to sleep briefly. All in all, it was a fantastic troop, and I’m very, very glad that I was able to make it up this weekend. It was the first time in years that I’d been to Canada, and I can now say that I’ve trooped internationally now. I did have a little trouble with the language, as I don’t speak much French. Fortunately, everyone in the group spoke excellent Eenglish, and I was able to get by without talking too much to people who took my picture. What was also wonderful was the weather. It was perfect for a Balloon festival (which I had also not been to in years), and the crowd was wonderful, with tons of children, who were really excited to see us, in addition to the parents. Plus, it was fantastic to troop with the Montreal troopers. All in all, a very, very memorable troop, and one of the best that I’ve ever been on.

Pictures will be coming shortly.

Fallen Trooper: Nick Ring

It’s with great sadness that I post this: TK/TC 5986, aka Nick Ring, from the Canadian Garrison, passed away the other day at the age of 22. From what I understand, he underwent jaw surgery, and while in recovery, suffered from cardiac arrest. Legion members are asked to respect the family’s privacy at this time – further details should be available at the Canadian Garrison forums.

Joint Ops Mission Report: Burlington Kid’s Day

Burlington, Vermont held their 23rd annual Kid’s Day in downtown Burlington, with a theme of Kids in Outer Space. Despite short notice, members of the New England (1) and Canadian (3) Garrisons were able to come together for the first time for the biggest 501st event in Vermont yet. We arrived at 8:30 at the Burlington YMCA, and suited up for the parade that kicked off the event at 9:30. Our small group consisted of a TK (Andrew), two TCs (Marie and Stephen) and a Rebel Fleet Trooper (Luc). The parade started just above the downtown area, and lasted about a mile, all downhill, making it an easy walk for the four of us. While marching, we were quite the hit, as this event was primarily parents and younger children. There were many smiles, and lots of waving and high fives through the entire walk. Many kids were dressed as astronauts, but there was also a Rebel Pilot somewhere in the crowd.

After the parade, which ended at the waterfront, the event was essentially a small fair, with demonstrations and vendors. The Burlington Fire Department, Green Mountain Power and WOKO had booths, as well as various other community organizations. For several hours, we walked around the area, posing for pictures and talking with the guests. This was a very positive event, and we went for several gaps of time without the need for wranglers, as we had several help us out at various points in the day. Frank and Hayes showed up to help out, as well as a friend of mine whom I’ve worked with. Frank couldn’t stay too long, but Hayes picked us up when we walked up to Church Street, a merchant street.

After our time on the waterfront, we made our way up the hill to the down town area, where we stopped by Quarterstaff Games and walked around there for a couple minutes to get our helmets off, before making our way up Church Street. We stopped by an Irish bar Ri Ras, for some water, to the amusment of the patrons and bartender, and then continued up the street, posing for pictures. We’d hoped that the R2-D2 Mailbox was still standing, but it looks like it had been removed. After getting to the top of the street, we turned around and returned ot Memorial Auditorium, where we desuited and packed away our gear. We then returned to Ri Ras for a post-troop dinner (none of us had eaten since early morning), where we had a good meal and talked for a while, before going up the street again to do some shopping, then returned home.

Overall, this was a fantastic troop with a really good reception from the crowds. Early estimates prior to the event was that there would around 10,000 people there. I’m not sure if we saw that many people, but this was certainly the largest event that we’d been to, and the one with the most troopers present.

What was also fantastic was working with Marie, Stephen and Luc, from the Canadian Garrison. Because of the short notice of the event, they were the only ones able to come down, but they are well on their way towards a Squad up there, and they will be keeping us informed of when they do events, so that at the very least, I’ll be headed up to give them a hand, and they’ll try and make it down for some of our events. It seems that this would be the start of a good collaboration.

Free Comic Book Day Pictures

This is a couple days later than I wanted, but here’s the collection of pictures that I found on Flickr from this past weekend:


A couple of unknowns:




Cloud City Garrison in Seattle:

Florida Guys at Tate Comics:

Southern California Garrison:

Trooper and Vader in Washington:
Golden Gate Garrison:

Canadian Garrison in Ottawa:

Me in Burlington,

Garrison Carida:


Carolina Garrison on patrol: