"Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?"
― Princess Leia Organa to a disguised Luke
Skywalker.
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2007
l 2008 l 2009 l 2010 l 2011 |
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Llandudno Victorian
Extravaganza 2007 (5th May - 6th May)
Had a really great weekend despite the five hour trip from
Lincoln to Llandudno, when it was only meant to be three and
half hours.
Friday night arrived at the hotel just outside Bangor around
9.30, which took us about 30 mins to locate, thanks to AA Route
Finder! Got to bed as soon as we arrived after having something
to eat, intending to make an early start.
The first day of trooping on Saturday went really well; apart
from one downside that ended up making me look very silly. Got
to Llandudno early and managed to find a space to park the car
down some little side alley, after first parking where Ben had
early, which unfortunately turned into a parking fine for him.
Found the rest of the team at the hotel around the corner and
relaxed in the sun for a bit while Kayleigh had an ice cream.
Then headed round the corner to the church, which ironically
looked nothing like a typical church since we walked past it
about four times before realising. After getting kitted up, we
headed through the back streets making are way to the beginning
of the parade, what was particularly funny was watching the cars
having to stop every so often to let us cross the road, much to
their disbelief.
We then began trooping for about an hour on the parade in the
boiling sun, which seemed to disappear the following day and be
replaced with dark clouds. Was great to see the kids booing
Vader and reacting every time I pointed a blaster at them. Made
our way back to the church and then disaster struck, my thigh
piece strap had come away from the plastic, stumbling my way
back to the church Kayleigh went looking for the car to find
some super glue. Unfortunately she couldn't find the car
anywhere, so thinking that she got
lost I went looking for her without my helmet on and holding my
thigh piece in place, looking rather stupid.
What made matters worse
was some old lady decided to ask me
where I got my armour from, not wanting to be rude but rather
bothered I shouted back "America" so that she would leave me
alone. Once I got the glue and fixed my armour Mick told me the
day was over and that the armour could come off anyway, how
typical.
Went out to the chippy that night and spent several hours in the
pub talking with Rich about costumes and laughing at Mick trying
to form some kind of unconvincing wig.
Sunday went rather better and seemed to pull more of a ground
despite the weather being worse. Luckily the armour held
together and managed to make it round without any problems. One
lady decided to stick her tongue out at me, just because I
pointed my blaster at her. After the parade a group of us made
out way up the hill to the tram station where myself, Pointy,
and Rich were told that we couldn't have a ride since we needed
to sit down on the way up and that wasn't possible for obvious
reasons. Instead we made our way back to the church and scared a
dog while on its lead, then Preecey bashed me over the head with
an inflatable hammer then knighted me. Despite the tram setback
a few of us made our way to the pier where we exposed ourselves
to the elements and posed for loads of photos with people
wanting to have theirs taken. Finally made our way back towards
the church and took our armour off for the last time. Had a
great meal at a restaurant across the road from the church, then
it was time to go home. Had to leave in a hurry so sorry if we
didn't say goodbye to everyone.
Managed to make it back to Lincoln in just over 3 hours, two
hours shorter than the trip there. |
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London's MCM Expo -
Excel Centre (27th May)
Had a great time despite only visiting the show on the Sunday.
The roads were clear and we managed to leave Lincoln shortly
after 5.45 and arrive at the Excel around 8.15, luckily we were
indoors since the weather all day seemed to never stop raining.
Anyway, met up with Ben, Rich, Anne, John, and Daryl in the
changing rooms and I helped Kayleigh get kitted up in her outfit
and out in the crowds for around 10.00.
The reception we got was amazing and for some strange reason
every so often a group of people wanted hugs and wouldn't leave
us alone till we gave them one, Kayleigh for a change felt over
dressed with the amount of weird costumes everyone was wearing.
This included one lad who carried around a large silver claw on
his hand (made out of kitchen foil I think) that was around 4ft
long, because of the weight it had to rest it on his head while
walking around. However, the best costumes had to be the two
Daleks that were driven amongst the crowds by two guys perched
inside the body. Apart from Kayleigh being 'stalked' by some
strange looking lass, she really enjoyed the morning. When 'The
Times' newspaper photographer arrived he took a series of
excellent shots where Kayleigh was surrounded by stormies,
shortly after we gave a interview to the reporter together as a
group explaining why we enjoyed costuming and what generally was
KOTE about.
We trooped for another half hour and decided it was time to get
some lunch and all decided to grab pizza, poor Rich had to rely
on Anna to pass him slices since he couldn't sit down with the
rest of us while in his armour.
Afterwards myself and Kayleigh switched places while it was my
turn to gear up and put on my stormie outfit. We decided to walk
up the main boulevard, while somebody shortly afterwards who was
rather over excitable decided to crab me and not let go until
Daryl told him to get on his way. We walk around the stalls and
generally posed for photos and messed about with the toys and
gadgets on display before we headed over to the dance machine.
Myself and Ben had a face off on the dance mats in front of a
huge crowd, while I did my best to move to the steps to the Star
Wars theme tune being played, apparently I won but to be honest
I was appalling. We carried on walking around the show posing
for everyone and generally making a nuisance of ourselves. Later
on around 4.30 we decided to strip off and head for the bar and
call it a day.
Managed to make it home around 8.30 and just looking forward to
falling into bed before an early start tomorrow. There’s a
collection of photos below and hopefully I will be uploading all
the video content tomorrow night, including mine and Bens dance
off. |
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Donnington Download
Festival (8th - 10th June)
Fantastic event to be a part of, even though I was not quite
sure what to expect, but it's something I would seriously
consider doing again.
The first day went well for the most part, apart from getting
lost to start of with and not being able to find 'Camp KOTE' for
nearly an hour. Let this be a lesson to you, don't bother asking
any of the marshals for directions, you might as well ask them
to put a monkey on the moon. With a little help from Shell I
managed to find everyone and get my tent up and unpacked and
meet a few news faces and some that I knew. It wasn't long
before we got kitted up and was heading for the main VIP
entrance, a special mention to Mr Phil for help in getting me
kitted up in my armour. Usually Kayleigh is on hand to strap me
in, but thankfully he was more than helpful. We split into two
groups, while the others headed for the market area myself,
Preecey, Jo, and a couple of others hit the VIP bars. That was
after some women tried to pulled my head off and take my helmet
home as a souvenir. Inside the bar area it was pitch black and I
had to rely on Preeceys's white armour just to guide me around.
It went well despite a few idiots who kept pissing about with
our armour, from what I heard Pointy got a boot up the arse. We
head back after about and hour or so and helped ourselves to
some food from the nearby food tent.
The evening show was pretty crap, we hung around for about two
hours, then only appeared on stage for what felt like five
seconds. However, it wasn't a total waste since we saw plenty of
near naked girls and midgets. No one else seems to share the
idea that if we can recruit some midgets we can have our own
little Ewok/Jawa army.
The heat on the Saturday following morning was unbearable and
left me only being able to troop for the 11 to 12 stint, since I
nearly passed out posing for pictures. Myself and John joined
the crew and left the others to bake in their costumes, hats of
to those guys by the way. I did wear my armour once again though
in the early evening and again posed with the rest in the market
and VIP areas. The highlight of the day had to be seeing Shell
in her new costume, it looked simply amazing and I think I told
her that about five times. The reception we got for the whole
weekend was simply amazing and it was even more intense when
Vader was on the scene, Dave has to be one of the best Vader's
out there. The KOTE BBQ was great and watching Marcus trying to
swallow a whole fish was pretty impressive, but not as funny as
the Brokeback Mountain
style cowboy hat Si decided to wear (he said it's straw but I
don't no what difference that makes) .
The evening show on the Saturday night was a lot better and left
us with a longer stint on stage in front of the crowds. Doug put
on an excellent show on stage spinning his double edged
lightsabre, which frankly surprised a lot of us since he dropped
it twice in quick succession while practicing backstage. The
crowd liked the show we put on for all of five seconds before
the audience decided to start throwing their cups at us, filled
with something that ranged from possibly beer to something less
pleasant, but again you'd have to ask Pointy about that one .
Again one highlight before we went on stage was the group shot
with all the girls backstage dressed as school girls, with me in
the middle with my hands around a couple of their waists.
It was not all good though; Sunday was a disaster from start to
finish. I got up early to pick Kayleigh up from Lincoln, which
took me an hour to get there and we'd planned to get back ready
to troop at 1. However, just as I was leaving Lincoln towards
Newark my car broke down and left me unable to get there in
time. I managed to get it back to my house and have had to pay
up a load of cash to get it fixed (there goes my Tusken for a
while ). A particular mention to Shell for offering to pack my
stuff away for me for when I came back to pick it up, however, I
managed to crab a lift and just arrived in time to see those
that were left going out on their last troop of the day. Felt
sorry for Kayleigh more than anything since I know see wanted to
have a look around Download. |
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The Who Shop –
Blackpool (25th August)
Arrived at Tesco's car park around
9.30 to meet up with Mick, Helen, Simon, Vic, Phil, Mark, Tamika,
and Daryl. I luckily managed to find them since bumping into Tamika
in Tescos after she was walking along in her own little dream
world.
Thankfully Simon drove most of us to The Who shop, where we were
welcomed inside only to faced by what must be
the smallest changing room I've come across,
and of course we met Rich, Anne and
Tony who got their early. We got changed and then made our way
out to the front of
the shop. The reception we got
from the public was quite impressive and with Mick towering over
the stormtroopers, especially myself, we certainly looked the
part. Kayleigh enjoyed wearing her new Padme outfit, but was
disappointed that she didn't get as much attention as she
usually gets when wearing her Slave Leia outfit.
We then walked in formation down to the sea front and made the
most of some good photo opportunities. This included saluting
the parade of fire-fighters pulling along a fire engine,
followed by being set upon by a group of women on the beginnings
of their stag night, which certainly gave me the chance to get
to grips with them. We then made our way back to the shop, but
not before the typical 'Blackpool welcome' of a bunch of drunken
idiots shouting abuse at us from across the road, which Mark
decided he would respond to by waving his fist in the air at
them, possibly not the smartest thing to do.
After lunch we then made our back to the changing room to get
kitted up again and stood on show out the front of The Who shop
for another couple of hours. The main highlight seeing Keith
Harris, who it seemed was only recognised by both myself and
Simon, and ironically he wanted a photo with us. We headed back
to the changing and after getting taken back by Simon, we made
our way to the The Outside Inn or The Inside Out Inn.......not
really sure. Again the lad wearing the 70's outfit with the huge
wig on trying to be serious with us, and the party of attractive
looking girls on yet another hen night have to be the other
highlights. |
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