GalaxyCon Richmond was my first foray into trooping since joining the 501st. I guess it is a bit unorthodox trooping with an out-of-state garrison but after living in Northern Virginia longer than I have lived in NC it felt right.

In this post: Quick observations, photos and a funny/interesting story

Some quick observations:

1. This is not my first GalaxyCon (it’s my second) and it was pretty good except for chaos on Saturday. David Tennant was overbooked but he stayed 3 hours longer than he was booked and was welcome and charming with everyone who paid to see him (I did not). Charlie Cox was also really nice (didn’t meet him either).
2. Sarah Douglas was funny and very interesting to meet. As I told my wife when I saw her dressed as Ursa in Superman 1 & 2 it was confirmed that like women.
3. Sarah’s handler was a complete asshole.
4. Jack O’Halloran (Non in Superman 1 & 2) was hilarious and very kind. And we are birthday neighbors as his birthday is the day after mine.
5. Both Jeff Friday (young Clark from Superman 1) and Mark Pillow (Nuclear Man from Superman IV) were super nice.
6. We were supposed to get photos with Carey Jones (who plays Black Krrsantan in the Book of Boba Fett) but he had a flight change and had to leave literally 15 minutes before we got there. We went over to visit with Brian O’Halloran (from Clerks/Chasing Amy – no relation to Jack) and got a photo with him. He was so super nice and came around and high-fived all of us in costume. You can barely see me on the left (behind Quinn):

7. Everyone in Garrison Tyranus was SO NICE! I was unsure what to expect, mostly because of the “gatekeeping” attitude of other groups but I felt warmly welcomed. I really appreciate Quinn helping me “de-kit” (remove my armor/suit). I hope it made her day as well.

Photos!

Finally, a story:

One (of many) stories from this weekend:

Sunday I was coming out of our changing room after adjusting a fan that had fallen out of my helmet. Along my path was a kid having an EPIC meltdown. He was maybe 5 years old or so. I heard the dad say, “do you really want to behave this way in front of Boba Fett?”

I turned around and asked, “Is everything here OK?” The kids’s eyes got HUGE and the tantrum shifted immediately into a mouth-agape “I’m in trouble now.”

Dad responded, “No, I think we’re good now.”

I asked him, “any bounties on this one?” gesturing to the kid.

Dad said, “not unless he shows out again.”

I looked down and bent down to the kid and said, “you listen to your mom and dad, OK? I don’t want to see any bounties posted for you.” He nodded probably not understanding it at all. I gave him a fist bump and then returned his high-five as he was grinning ear-to-ear as they walked away — quietly — as we exchanged thumbs-ups. Made my Sunday.