Firetop

On Sunday afternoon we took Maria for her second trip around the M25 to the ExCel centre in London, her last visit being to the London Baby Show - but back then she couldn’t see much from inside the womb! Now almost two weeks old and gaining weight & height rapidly, we took her for her first initiation into the fantasy realm of Star Wars for ‘Celebration Europe’ (you can’t wait too long). In honesty this was obviously more for me (and Suzie_Q) - getting out of the house is recommended when faced with the relentless onslaught of feeding, nappy changing and sleep deprivation. Maria was so impressed that she slept her way around the exhibition stands despite the pumping Star Wars tunes and sound effects, luckily for her we managed to get her photo taken with Bounty Hunter ‘Boba Fett’.

At £23 per adult to get in, Star Wars Celebration Europe certainly wasn’t cheap, especially considering that the bulk of what seemed to be in place were exhibition stands selling Star Wars memorabilia and collectors items. However, for those with slightly older children there was the ‘Toys ‘R’ Us Jedi Training on Dagobah’ area, and a very large inflatable assault course with a massive queue. Suzie_Q, faced with hoardes of fans dressed as lightsaber wielding Jedi warriors, finally discovered that I’m not such a hardcore Star Wars geek; for those people there were presentations taking place on new characters etc. for forthcoming game releases. I’m sure there must have been a few film re-enactments over the course of the three days that the event ran for too. I loaded a short video clip of Celebration Europe to youtube to give a flavour of the event.

With hopes of finding the Autograph Hall still populated with Star Wars actors on its last day, I brought along my 1983 Return of the Jedi annual and had it signed by actor Anthony Daniels who played the multi-lingual droid C3PO - no photos allowed when signing though (I got told off). I also had The Phantom Menace album signed by Ray Park who plays Darth Maul; an unusual chap who insisted on a left-handed handshake - not sure what that’s all about but at least I could snap away. We only stayed at Celebration Europe for a couple of hours what with the Maria to placate, hopefully I’ve added some value to my extensive Star Wars collection though… which will be paying for Maria to go to University in 2025.

Technorati Tags: star wars, celebration europe, darth maul, ray park, anthony daniels, c3po, autographs, boba fett

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