Show Report: Star Wars Celebration Europe
Posted by CapnRex101,
Star Wars Celebration Europe concluded on Sunday and I was lucky enough to attend this brilliant event on behalf of Brickset. The convention celebrates all aspects of Star Wars, including the enormously popular LEGO Star Wars range which dominates toy shops across the entire world.
This was my first time at Star Wars Celebration and I share my experiences of the enormous event after the break...
I arrived shortly after 8:00am and collected a media badge which was kindly provided by James Burns of Jedi News. Queuing is an infamous aspect of Comic-Cons and similar fan conventions such as Star Wars Celebration but I was pleasantly surprised by the ease with which I was able to collect wristbands and tickets for various panels and exclusive products. At 10:00am the doors opened and the thousands of visitors entered.
A number of costumes from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story were on display and this exhibition was my first stop. I am sure that many of the characters shown will soon appear as minifigures.
'As director of Advanced Weapons Research for the Imperial military, Orson Krennic is obsessed with the completion of the long-delayed Death Star project. A cruel but brilliant man, Krennic has staked his reputation on the delivery of the functional battle station to the Emperor.'
'The elite soldiers of Imperial Intelligence, Death Troopers are encased in specialised stormtrooper armour with a dark, ominous gleam. These soldiers serve as bodyguards and enforcers for Director Krennic, a highly placed officer within the Advanced Weapons Research division of the Empire.'
'Specialist stormtroopers stationed at the top secret Imperial facility headquarters on Scarif, Shoretroopers patrol the beaches and bunkers of the planetary facility.'
Models of a few new vehicles were also on display and we know that some of these will be recreated in upcoming sets based on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
'With its starkly geometric hull shape and folding bat-like wings, the approach of a Delta-class T-3c shuttle is an imposing sight. Once it lands and deploys its passengers - the cruel Director Krennic and his squad of elite troopers, all sense of dread proves extremely warranted.'
'A streamlined variant of the classic TIE fighter design, the TIE striker is designed for atmospheric patrols over important Imperial ground-based installations. The versatile design can also soar into space where it can accompany traditional TIE fighters in chasing down enemy starships.'
After leaving the Rogue One exhibition I visited the LEGO stand which was cleverly designed to resemble 75139 Battle on Takodana. Unfortunately there was little of interest on show as the booth was divided between the display of a few recent sets on one side and the showing of excerpts from various LEGO Star Wars animations on the other.
Browsing the many stalls revealed plenty of LEGO Star Wars sets available for sale, although many were rather expensive as we have come to expect of shows like this one. Nevertheless, it was interesting to see sealed examples of such sets as 6209 Slave I and 7261 Clone Turbo Tank.
Shortly before noon I arrived at the Celebration Stage for the first major panel of the day: The creatures, droids and aliens of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This offered a great insight into how the fantastic costumes and puppets were manufactured for The Force Awakens and it was wonderful to see a selection of character heads on display including Wollivan, Vober Dand and Quiggold. I would be delighted to see any of those characters represented as minifigures and it was all but confirmed that Vober Dand will appear in Episode VIII which might increase his chances of inclusion in a future LEGO set.
Furthermore, the costume team invited a brand new Rogue One character onto the stage. This bizarre alien is an Iakaru named Bistan but he is currently better known as the 'Space Monkey.' I would dare to suggest that we might see a minifigure version of the character in September.
Hasbro frequently offers an exclusive action figure at Star Wars Celebration and an unmasked version of Kylo Ren was available on this occasion. I was concerned that queuing for this exclusive might be rather time-consuming but in fact it was remarkably quick. Hopefully LEGO will consider offering similar exclusives at future events and they will be distributed in a similarly efficient manner using tickets which specify a timeframe in which one can collect each exclusive.
The LEGO Star Wars panel run by James Burns and Duncan Jenkins is very popular every year and this was the next event on my schedule. The Star Wars Fan and Collectors' Stage holds 350 people but the number of people queuing far exceeded that and it might benefit from a larger venue in future. Several hundred polybags were provided by LEGO and these were given out to every attendee at the panel along with an exclusive medallion celebrating some of the earliest Star Wars toys produced by Kenner.
The panel was primarily focused on the enormous range of LEGO Star Wars products beyond the standard sets, from T-shirts and clocks to postcards and video games. This subject matter was of some interest to me but I think the panel would have benefitted from additional discussion of the sets and speculation about those which might be released in future. LEGO understandably wished to avoid discussion of upcoming sets which are confirmed but Star Wars Celebration would have been a perfect opportunity to reveal a new set and it is a shame that this opportunity was missed.
I am a huge fan of Star Wars Rebels and the season three panel was therefore a highlight of the entire day for me. This two-hour treat featured contributions from supervising director Dave Filoni as well as Tiya Sircar and Sam Witwer who voice Sabine Wren and Darth Maul respectively. The triumphant arrival of Grand Admiral Thrawn was revealed to rapturous applause from the audience and I was excited to see a selection of new vehicles which lend themselves to LEGO sets in the trailer.
Attendees were also treated to an exclusive viewing of the first double-length episode of season three, entitled 'Steps into Shadow,' which features the return of Y-wings to the Star Wars universe and also sees Brom Titus making his second appearance in the series as a recurring thorn in the side of the rebels.
I left shortly after 7pm but was able to pick up the exclusive Loth Cat plush which was available from the Star Wars Celebration store just before leaving, nicely rounding off a very successful day!
The organisation of the entire event is remarkable and I hope that it will be similarly impressive in future years. Perhaps the only aspect which requires significant improvement is, ironically, that related to LEGO. The LEGO stand itself was very poor and it would have been wonderful to see a new product unveiled at the event, particularly given the enormous number of visitors in attendance.
I highly recommend Star Wars Celebration to all Star Wars fans and look forward to attending the event in Orlando next year!
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32 comments on this article
What is a loth cat?
Um, the Space Monkey isn't in the first wave of Rogue One sets. Nice writeup, though! Those new troopers look terrific.
Hmm. Never mind the new characters, when are they going to do Luke Skywalker in an orange pilot outfit as a Keylight?
If Thrawn's Star Destroyer's name is the Chimaera, like in Legends, then I really hope that this is the next Star Destroyer set. It would be a good opportunity to give us Grand Admiral Thrawn and Admirals Titus and Konstantine (and perhaps Govenor Pryce) in minifigure form. The Skystrike Academy could also be an opportunity to give us new TIE Bombers and Interceptors, as they are well overdue remakes.
Great overview as always!
I also attended on Saturday, but attending with a 4 year old it was not possible to get there early enough to get a wristband for the Rebels panel, the panel we really wanted to attend.
I personally think the queuing approach is very outdated and unnecessary approach to distributing wristbands/tickets to attendees.
We still mostly enjoyed ourselves, but I think they could do a much better job of making it family friendly. For example show the very popular panels in full (i.e. first 2 episodes of rebels) in viewing areas. That may may even been preferable for those with young children.
Re Lego, you are spot on, it was disappointing and a missed opportunity for Lego.
My daughter did enjoy making the little x-wing and little tie fighter and picking up the polybags.
But only a minimal amount of Star Wars Lego sets on display, and an obvious lack of Star Wars sets for sale. I couldn't walk a metre without seeing another figurine for sale, I was wondering the whole time where was the the Lego Star Wars sets stand being sold by Lego themselves.
I was gutted to miss it. I had a 3 day pass but costs (hotel and travel) plus time off work proved to be a big stopping point.
@James"Bucky"Barnes - It's an animal which has appeared a few times in Star Wars Rebels.
@PicnicBasketSam - We will have to wait and see.
@Dr.Doom - There was a wide selection from the last couple of years. I came away with 5001709 Clone Trooper Lieutenant.
@CapnRex101 we basically had the same schedule! I went to all of the panels you did- surprised I didn't see you. I do agree about the lego panel- it was a little lame. I walked away with the tie advanced prototype polybag, which is a shame because already had it. thanks for the amazing coverage!! :)
@Dr.Doom Polybags available from the building zone were: FO TIE fighter, A Wing, Kylo Ren's shuttle and the FO star destroyer.
At the Lego event it was more of a lucky dip. I got an A wing and my son git a clone lieutenant minifigure. A quick glance in the box revealed they had Hoth Han, Stormtrooper sergeant, Yularen minifigures plus the polybag build mentioned above. There may have been other builds too (intact I'm sure there were) but I only had 2 seconds to peak.
I was hoping that somewhere at the event would have the FO General or the A wing pilot. I did see a couple of FO generals for around £20, but no official availability. Bit disappointed really. Rebels panel was great though - looking forward to sets from this season, especially the minifigures!
Our free polybags were:
30279 Kylo Ren's Command Shuttle
30277 First Order Star Destroyer
@PicnicBasketSam i'm pretty sure space monkey is in the leaked picture of rogue one minifigures. not sure though, the picture isn't very good
THRAWN!!!!!
I really hope LEGO does a set for the T-3c, with Krennic and some Death Troopers.
Sounds like Lego needs to work a bit to improve this section (they could have revealed one or two of the Rogue One sets that were leaked and which I forgot what they are).
I think the 'space monkey' is played by Warwick Davis? So if we did see it in minifig form it would be another great addition to his numerous minifig iterations
@Chouju_X[SPAM]- Leaked images suggested that such a set would make an appearance.
Can't wait to get the Admiral Thrawn minifigure !
@Andhe he's not played by warwick davis. when they brought space monkey to stage, warvick davis was in the stage too. they also told the name of the actor, but i can't remember it.
It's official - the seaside variants of Stormtroopers are called Shoretroopers! But it seems odd that we were treated to many images of Stormtroopers wading in the water too - I can only assume the specialised troopers called for backup and there weren't any Shoretroopers to spare. However, regular Stormtroopers never turned up in the assault on Hoth...
Thanks for the detailed report Capn' - I wish I was there myself, particularly to see official models, props costumes and monsters but also for that Rebels panel. But the Lego showing sounds like a very poor effort - I can only imagine TLG are throwing all their marketing weight behind Comic Con instead.
I unintentionally caught sight of leaked Rogue One Lego pictures when a friend (who knew I was into Lego Star Wars) just said "have you seen these new Star Wars pictures?" so naturally I wanted to have a look - but then saw they were leaked. I won't say exactly what was there but I'm pretty sure everyone will love what's coming!
So it seems most of the Capn's guesses were right. Hopefully the price range was also right because I will buy the smaller sets with no hesitation. Hopefully the fall battlepacks will allow me to build an army of Death Troopers and Shoretroopers.
Um, did nobody else besides The Rancor see those images about a month ago? I can't find them back, but I'm pretty sure there was no Space Monkey.
Thorough report! What an experience it must have been to attend... thanks for sharing!
Any hints given from as to when Rebels will air?
It is rather disappointing to see that LEGO did so little for this event. With the exception of CE2 in Essen three years ago, all Celebrations had Exclusive sets to be distributed, but it seems the European venues do not get this option.
At CE2 I was one of the MOC builders there and it was a truly exciting venue to be at. I had contacted both LEGO UK and the Brickish organisation for attendance with MOCs but both failed to come back to me. Seems now that there is no room for SW LEGO MOCs at these sorts of venues; a real pity.
I went on Sunday and had a great time :-)
@CapnRex101
I'm surprised you didn't mention the building zone in your review. Although a few others have mentioned it in the comments, of course.
For those unaware, you queued up (via a large Lego Death Star) to build either an X-wing or a TIE fighter, which they placed on a large X shaped set of shelves: X-wings to the left, TIE fighters to the right. You then got a free polybag. As well as 30279 & 30277 mentioned by AussieSamurai, there was also:
http://brickset.com/sets/30276-1/First-Order-Special-Forces-TIE-Fighter
http://brickset.com/sets/30272-1/A-Wing-Starfighter
Although I definitely enjoyed myself, I was very disappointed by the queueing system. We arrived at 09:30 on Sunday and were only able to get wristbands for the Ray Park panel; I was told the Carrie Fisher panel was full by 08:15 (or was it 07:15?), so there's no reasonable chance I would have been able to get in. I found that really frustrating and quite a bizarre system. At least I've been able to watch it on YouTube now. But unfortunately, the Closing Ceremony & Saturday's Rogue One panels don't seem to be up there.
I was really impressed by the wide selection of Cosplay at the event. Some people looked just amazing in character. At least my other half didn't get stalked by a Jawa, unlike Secret Cinema where she couldn't shake one off :-)
And some of the life size models and sets that were on display were brilliant. Some people are so dedicated! Now I want to build a functioning life sized R2 unit out of LEGO.
Great summary of the event. I was the last person allowed into the lego panel - and the queue behind me was huge. We all got a polybag as did anyone who built an x-wing or a tie fighter in the building area. I got in around 8am to see the wonderful events people taking x-wings and tie fighters apart to prepare for everyone coming to put them back together again. A couple of us lent them a hand (including a guy called Sean who was dressed as an xwing pilot and actually worked on the force awakens lego game). Good people. In the panel, i asked the question about the Hoth set - which was truthfully answered "Lego have made amazing sets all these years but this time they dropped the ball". Well said. Where the heck is the Cloud City we are all longing for? - Would have been my next question.
I also was disapointed with the Lego presence and felt they had missed the boat somewhat. There were a couple of stalls with second hand lego sets, but the prices seemed a little on the high side. Imperial Shuttle 10212 and Tantive IV 10198 are two that I recall.
Managed to get all 4 polybags from the building area.
There was also another Lego based panel on the Sunday "Lego Star Wars:The Force Awakens - From Silverscreen to Videogame". This had people from TT Games and LucasFilm and explained the process of creating the game from the film. There is more levels to come as DLC later in the year. In the Q&A session after, the question of Star Wars appearing in Lego Dimensions was asked. After looking at each other, the response was "We can't comment on that at the moment"......
Excited to see these characters as minifigures! Excellent pictures and summary
Excellent summary! The Rogue One characters are looking great and I am excited to get a proper look at the sets.
If anyone has an a-wing medallion they would be willing to trade from the Lego collectors panel I would be able to offer my spare millennium falcon one instead. The Lego panel was full by the time we came out of the panel before it and is the only one we need to complete our set! Thanks
THRAWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Shoretroopers? I despair.
@CapnRex101: How do you write a review?