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.

New VT Events

A couple of developments lately with the Vermont side of the NEG. Over the past couple of days, we’ve confirmed or at least begun to think about attending a couple of events in the area.

March 10-15 – Montpelier’s Geek Week, run by the folks over at the Langdon St. Cafe, for the third year running. We don’t have anything nailed down yet, but this is an event that we’ll miost likely see one or two armored figures walking around for.

April 25 or 26 – Vermont Maple Fest, in St. Albans, I trooped this last year with fellow member Jerry Kolvas, and had a very good time with that. Hopefully, we’ll get more troopers to this one, this time around.

Mission Report: Toys for Tots, Williston VT

This weekend, we had one of our best events thus far in the state – promoting Toys for Tots in Williston Vermont with the Marines and Toys R Us. I was very happy that we were able to get some form of turnout for this, because it was somewhat last minute. Despite that, we were able to get four troopers together to help promote the event.

Two of our troopers (Sean and Vivianne) came up from MA, as one was supposed to be in the state to pick up something in the first place, and they were able to carpool. They arrived in Montpelier around 12 or so in the afternoon, and I led them up with Mike. We arrived in Williston around 12:30, then checked in with the marine and the store contact. They led us to the back where we suited up and came out to the front, where we stood around the table. There, we encouraged people to donate to the charity, and over the course of the day, the store’s staff had to empty out the three big boxes five times, which was apparently above normal for them.

While we were first there, Mike and I grabbed a couple of signs and went out by the road. There was a lot of honking at us as cars drove by, and I think that we turned a couple people to the store. While we were out there, the manager of a local restaurant came out and talked with me for a little while. He was apparently interested in armor, and invited us in for food later on.

The reactions of the crowd was fantastic. Often, we would see a little kid ahead of his parents, come through the door and stop dead at the sight of us. We posed for many pictures, and encouraged a number of donations, either in the form of toys or money. We stayed for four or so hours, and took a short break by going out to the restaurant across the street to meet the manager, who was thrilled to see us. We posed for a bunch of pictures there as well, and later returned for dinner.

Overall, a very good troop!

Pictures

Mission Report: Spirit of the Tower

Earlier this year, I, along with a couple members of the Canadian group Alliance Imperiale trooped the Burlington Kid’s Day event, way back in May. The event went over well, and our contact there, Martha, recently invited the 501st to troop a small event that they had over in Burlington on Saturday, Spirit of the Tower. Essentially, this was a ‘haunted trail’ sort of thing, where people walked along a path, and along the way, encountered small skits. While we didn’t have the time or organized anything for this, we covered the entrance, where a long line had formed  before the event even started, with over a thousand tickets sold over the weekend, the proceeds going to the Burlington Parks Department (around $3000 or so).
Mike and I suited up just before the event started at 5:30, without a wrangler. My sister, a recruit, was going to help out but was sick. This wasn’t a huge problem, but there were a couple of times when hyper, unsupervised children were running around amok, and we had to back off into the middle of the field to make sure we didn’t lose parts or anything.
We were a huge hit, according to Martha, our contact. We had a ton of kids come up to us, literally jumping up and down in excitement, and a lot of parents were thrilled to see us as well. We posed for countless pictures (unfortunately, my camera was in the car) and was highly entertaining to all. By 7:30, the line was still wrapped around the park, and we took a short break of some food that the volunteers provided, sandwiches, and spoke to a couple of the organizers about what we did. We’ve been invited to next year’s Burlington Kid’s Day (May 16th). After we stopped walking around, we realized how cold it had gotten, and only trooped until about eight, when we packed up and left, as it was also very dark by that point, and the park wasn’t terribly well lit.

Overall, a very fun troop! Hopefully, I’ll have a couple pictures coming soon.

Mission Report: The Force Unleashed Midnight Release, University Mall

Last night, Mike (TK-2084) and I (TK-3220) went to the University Mall to support two stores with their releases of the highly anticipated The Force Unleashed video game. Over the weekend, I inquired at both stores, and as it turned out, both were eager to have troopers appear for the event. Because both were just a couple hundred yards from one another, we were able to patrol between both while we waited for midnight.
Both stores had moderate business that night, as the mall closed up at 9:30, when we arrived and suited up. Each had about ten people hanging out during the wait, and we spent the time posing for numerous pictures and answered question about the 501st Legion and how to get more information, as several people were interested in joining. As the clock went closer to midnight, more people arrived, and Mike and I decided to split up, and each took one of the stores. I took Electonics Boutique and he took Game Stop, where we helped get people into line. One of the NEG recruits, Frank Jones, showed up to help for a short amount of time while he waited to pick up his own copy of the game.
The staff at both stores were thrilled to have us. EB, where we changed and mainly trooped at, was very, very happy about our presense, and wished that they’d known about us earlier – the manager was telling me that she spent the weekend looking up what we did on the internet through our websites, and was very impressed. Overall, this was a very, very good event for us up here in Vermont – there were a number of people, and some who were very, very interested in what we do, which will hopefully translate into some new members.

Mission Report: VT Lake Monsters Game

This was a really low key event – just Mike, myself and my sister (wrangling). It was halloween night at the game, and I think that we were really the only ones in costume, aside from the event staff and a bunch of kids. We got there around 6:40 or so, suited up and walked around behind the stadium for a while before finding some seats and watching – we went back and mingled inbetween innings. A bunch of kids came across us and were thrilled (a couple overly so) to see us. We had one 12 or so year old following us around quite a bit. :-\

 

The best thing we overhead last night was “I got to high five a storm trooper!” – one young girl, probably 9 or 10, was absolutely thrilled to have seen us. We handed out a bunch of our NEG cards to a couple people, including one guy who runs a con up here called Carnage, which will probably be happening in November and another couple cards to the venue staff. 

 

No pictures unfortunately, because I left my camera at home on the kitchen table. 

 

I got out of armor at the bottom of the fourth inning, to relax and enjoy the game a bit, but Mike stayed in pretty much until the end – he ended up signing a bunch of autographs for kids with books – very amusing. 

 

Overall, fun event!

Frankentrooper

Picture of Frank, who’s almost (99%) done with his TK. Can you pick out what pieces go to what armor type?

Hopefully, Vermont will be getting it’s 5th active member soon!

Pictures from the Clone Wars Release

Just a couple for now, but here’s a couple of images of Frank and I from the Majestic 10 Clone Wars release:

More here: http://501neg.com/photos/displayimage.php?album=972&pos=6

Ignore the fact that I’m missing my neck seal. More pictures will hopefully be coming soon.

Mission Report: Clone Wars Release, Williston, VT

With the release of The Clone Wars, hundreds, if not thousands of the 501st Legion turned out to troop at their local theaters across the country and across the world – it is certainly a unique opportunity, and in Vermont, members of the New England Garrison turned out to troop at the Majestic 10 Theater, where we were greeted with enthusiasm from the theater staff and moviegoers.
This wasn’t the best troop, because of some problems on our end. Four of the six people scheduled to show up failed to do so, leaving us without a contingent of wranglers (more on that in a moment) and minus one trooper. Despite that, Frank (an NEG recruit) and I had a good time in armor, especially with the first screening of the film. We had spent the prior night getting Frank set up with a new leg, and it worked out pretty well for the evening.
We ended up arriving a little late, because of traffic – it took me about 35 minutes to get in and out of Burlington, and by the time we arrived and were in armor, people were already getting seated in the theater. This worked to our advantage, in the end, as we achieved a good amount of surprise when we walked into the theater. The 7:10 screening was pushed back a little, and had a lot of younger children present, who really had a good time seeing us and taking pictures.
Among my other difficulties was that I arrived and found my gloves and baklava were missing. Still not sure where they are, but I was able to troop without them. When Frank got out of armor, he ran across the street to a localWalmart and picked me up a cheap pair, and I was able to use my jacket, which has a good collar, for a neck seal, which worked very well.
There were two birthday parties present at the theater that night, which we both crashed at the request of the theater – one was on the main level, and the 10 of so kids were somewhat shocked my our presence, I think, and they really loved it. The second encounter was upstairs, when we met them mid-tour through the theater’s operating level, and they were a bit more enthusiastic.
The theater was very thrilled that we were there. The manager, Mike, remembered me from the Revenge of the Sith screening, and was literally bouncing around the place with a huge grin on his face. He took a ton of pictures, which he promised to share with me, and I’ll stick them up as I get them. The theater even went as far as to put up “Welcomes the 501st Legion” on the sign out front, but we weren’t able to get a picture of it, unfortunately.

The second screening at 9 didn’t go over as well – it was a very small audience, mostly older people (30s-50s) and the just don’t have the same enthusiasm as children do, although we got a number of compliments on our suits from some of them. I was grabbed roughly by several college-aged guys who wanted a picture, which is what I was afraid would happen without wranglers. My helmet was spun around and was pretty upset about this, and the fact that we were down a trooper. I’ve always thought that the more we have the better. I felt bad because we told Mike that we had three confirmed, and ended up with only two.
We were able to watch the film, and I saw it one and a half times, although I forgot how uncomfortable sitting in armor can be over that amount of time. All in all, it was a decent troop, although I need to remember to get to places much further in advance.

I would like to thank the Majestic 10 and their staff for the enthusiasm and excitement that they brought to the event, and for the posters that they gave us – we had a great time with them, and hopefully, we’ll be back in the theater.