Back from a great second European Celebration. Next time in Amsterdam, please
![Grin ;D](http://www.imperialshipyards.net/SMF/Smileys/classic/grin.gif)
Just kidding, Essen was just a great location. Easy to get to, lots of parking space at the convention center, fast moving lines (if there were any) and a wide variety of visitors from all kinds of countries. I had to speak English, German, Dutch and even a petit peu Français
![Wink ;)](http://www.imperialshipyards.net/SMF/Smileys/classic/wink.gif)
So, recap time then.
On Friday me and Craig (from Chicago, builder of the C-V award winning Carbon Freeze Room diorama) went straight to the Hasbro booth and stood in line for a whopping 10 minutes to get our Black Series Boba/Han packs. Then we went on to Mintinbox.net and over the course of the day collected their exclusive bounty hunter art card set. These are really beautiful and I will post pics of each card sometime this week. Furthermore we bought way too much stuff on the side
![Grin ;D](http://www.imperialshipyards.net/SMF/Smileys/classic/grin.gif)
In the evening we went to see RotJ in the Gruga park next to the convention center. What a great experience! The cheers when the big SW logo came into view, the reaction of the crowd when the Rancor died, the "it's a trap!" line, the booing when Hayden appeared as a Force ghost.... brilliant stuff!
On Saturday we mostly visited panels. Warwick Davis.... wow, what a great little show master. Please, have him host the Academy Awards next year! Anthony Daniels, Kathleen Kennedy and Dave Filoni were all very entertaining to listen to. I managed to find Marjorie and Arnie from SWActionNews and had my seven custom figures displatyed for the remainder of the celebration. At the end of the day I interviewed Markus from StarConstrux and we then both watched the pretty awesome docu Lost Secrets of Empire. Very impressive stuff.
On Sunday I mostly sat in a chair and in the afternoon I recorded short videos and took quite a few pics. At the end of the day I went to the collector's panel to score three free StarTots. I also bought two art prints from Spencer L. Brinckerhoff III. He is working on a three part set of prints, based on Vader quotes. Very cool and I will recieve ANH and Empire in a few weeks. Jedi hasn't been finished yet, but I will definitely order that one too.
All in all, I had an awesome time and some really cool discussion with Craig about Celebrations (he's a six time veteran) and the differences between the US, Europe and the Netherlands in particular.
The number of Slave Leias was a bit disappointing, though
![Wink ;)](http://www.imperialshipyards.net/SMF/Smileys/classic/wink.gif)
Well, at least that guy in Slave Leia bikini I saw at CE1 in London in 2007 wasn't there.... Eeeowww...