Vaguely Inconsistent
Three friends hanging out talking about life and all of our interests. Everything from Star Wars to sports.
Vaguely Inconsistent
May the Fourth Be With Queue
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Journey with us to Tokyo as we unpack our whirlwind adventure at Star Wars Celebration Japan! What begins as a lighthearted May the Fourth celebration quickly spirals into a laugh-filled recounting of our international convention experience, complete with unexpected wrestling and Star Trek tangents that showcase our geeky versatility.
We dive deep into the unique challenges of navigating an overseas Star Wars convention—from the surprisingly smooth badge pickup process to the chaotic store experience where merchandise flew off shelves and checkout lines stretched for hours. You'll feel the frustration and excitement as we detail the notorious bottleneck after the Lucasfilm Animation panel that nearly caused a riot, requiring security intervention to manage the crowds.
Our pin-collecting adventures take center stage as we hunt exclusive merchandise from vendors like RSVLT, Hot Toys, and FigPin, sharing insider tips on how we completed our collections despite language barriers and limited availability. The food situation provides its own entertainment, from the lack of water stations to our adventures trying Japanese versions of KFC and McDonald's outside the convention.
The Disney Parks panel reveals exciting updates coming to Smuggler's Run, with engineer positions getting a major upgrade featuring Grogu interactions. Meanwhile, panel reservation systems create havoc for friend groups, and merchandise sells out within hours of the convention opening.
Whether you're planning for future Star Wars Celebrations or simply enjoy hearing about convention mishaps and victories, this episode offers both practical insights and entertaining stories from three friends finding their way through an unfamiliar but thrilling Star Wars experience in Japan. What moments would you have handled differently?
Voice intro and music
Intro music by Alex Grohl
AlexGrohl - Pixabay
we're practicing our gang. Signs for uh for audio, only people uh, happy.
Speaker 2:May the fourth be with you, gentlemen.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yes, star wars you know I was all good about may the fourth today until I saw all the stuff about may the sixth, like when did may 6th get? Just jumped over?
Speaker 1:We can't diss the Mexicans for Drinko de Mayo bro.
Speaker 3:There's not a whole lot of Mexican Star Wars fans, man, it's okay.
Speaker 1:Right, but it gives the white people a reason to drink.
Speaker 2:Don't you remember a couple years ago when Mark Hamill was on Twitter and every day was something different. It was like may the 4th be with you and then the fifth was, you know whatever it was, and he went through like all 30 days and he's like yep, I'm never doing that again.
Speaker 3:I don't pay attention to that loser, so no.
Speaker 1:That, Luke sir.
Speaker 4:Ha.
Speaker 3:How you doing Tired.
Speaker 1:Yep, it's been a long weekend and broke. Like I said earlier, I'm glad that Celebration was last month and May the 4th came out of this month's allowance.
Speaker 3:Ain't no joke, bro. I think I sent you 800 bucks in two days.
Speaker 2:Man. I was so lost with your guys' fun conversation last night because I was like eight. I was like eight margarita, our eight margaritas in and like all of a sudden I'm reading this thing, I'm like, oh, that picture, that one picture looks pretty dope. And then you're like nope, and I'm like you, mother and you, but you were answering like something else that was in the thread and I was just like you, motherfucker, fuck you guys and then you're like wait what?
Speaker 1:yeah, I was like how am I teasing? You I literally said that's not too late for a pickup. I will pick it up for you hell, I got mine today.
Speaker 3:It wasn't even yesterday, that's how late it was. But I go lie. I'm sitting like I don't get what's going on here.
Speaker 2:Obviously you didn't get what's going on here either. I don't think you did either.
Speaker 1:My man started Cinco de Mayo early. Yeah, he did.
Speaker 2:Noon 1130. Let's go.
Speaker 3:That explains the margaritas. I don't get why he's drinking a margarita.
Speaker 2:Because I was at a Kentucky Derby may the fourth be with you Cinco de Mayo party. They had Because I was at a Kentucky Derby May the 4th be with you, cinco de Mayo party. So they had Bantha milk, they had mint juleps and they had margaritas. I did one Bantha milk but the Bantha milk's made out of amaretto and I don't. The taste of amaretto just doesn't, I don't enjoy it. So I had one Bantha milk because it was Star Wars, so you gots to. And then I dove right into the margaritas and then they kept refilling. The fucking cooler that had the margaritas I'm like oh no.
Speaker 3:No willpower at all, oh zero.
Speaker 2:I'm not. Hey, wait, wait, wait, hang on, I'm not driving, I don't give a shit man.
Speaker 3:Health be damned.
Speaker 1:Hey, I'm free this weekend, eight o'clock is when my cutoff happened, so now I'm fasting. It was a cheat day, it's fine. It's fine, so, but yeah, I got a new Rosalind Disneyland.
Speaker 2:Nice, nice. One of us here is going to be a little jealous. There's too much going on, though, Right. Lou Too much going on. I said that shit when we were in Honolulu, jack and I were texting. I think you were like I can't. I looked at the one dark side one and it was pretty cool. I'm like now there's too much shit going on there for Lou Jack's like. Are you right?
Speaker 1:but he keeps looking at it.
Speaker 3:I keep looking at it hoping it'll get better it's not working it's like it's a cool looking. It's like no, no, if I stare long enough, it'll be okay you'll see the.
Speaker 2:you'll see the ship man.
Speaker 1:You'll see the good in him yeah.
Speaker 3:It may take a month before that grows on me.
Speaker 4:But it most definitely has not grown on me yet.
Speaker 2:I'm kind of sad that Roosevelt stopped doing the koozies. I thought their koozies, the Star Wars ones, were pretty good.
Speaker 4:I think it's a summertime thing.
Speaker 1:As we get more towards summer, I think they'll have more.
Speaker 2:Well, now they have another fucking 50 prints that they didn't have last year either.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think when they did their sell six months ago I was looking at that, that and I was like man, I can just get all eight or nine, 10, 11 of these things. It was like for six bucks a piece.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I did the same. There's a whole pile in the kitchen now. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I like the um, the uh, binary sunset one, the one that's like Luke's farm. They did a really good. I they like, shrunk the image, which I thought was super cool, and it it came, I don't know it looks really I don't. I enjoy using them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they. They get a job with them. Kudos to them for that.
Speaker 2:I was, I was not when I first started doing all this and looking at Roosevelt's, well, and I mean, you know again, they're never going to sponsor us, but fuck roosevelt's for having such good shit like they are definitely. But I feel like there's so much above and beyond most, what other stuff we see for for star wars, stuff like they're I mean the quality of their stuff, even if it's not necessarily stuff that I'm into as far as like the prints and stuff that they used. I mean they're all dope like they all look super cool, and so it's always hard to be like I don't really like this print, but I really like wearing their shirts.
Speaker 1:Uh, okay, fine, basket like, yeah, I wasn't feeling the disney drops today though, nah, like the, the empire strikes back. Um poster shirt is kind of cool, but I'm like meh. Not for me. It looked too much like that assembled one that they had at Celebration. I just kind of meh on it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I mean it's still not a bad shirt. No no it's a good shirt.
Speaker 1:It's just not a Jack shirt. Yeah, exactly, but no, it's a good shirt.
Speaker 2:The other one was Re revenge of the sith one, revenge of the sith one which isn't horrible, but I mean guys, I went and saw two movies last week and it was tuesday, tuesday and wednesday night. Both nights I saw mugs walking in with fucking jedi robes, fucking pad maze and shit. I was like goddamn, this movie's been out a week and a half and you guys are still wearing your shit fucking good on you yeah good on you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was only out for freaking five days.
Speaker 2:We're talking about oh, I thought it came out the weekend before no, they came out the weekend, that came out last friday yeah, last, okay, so it's only been okay, I was okay, I thought it was friday. Friday to wednesday okay, I thought it was. I thought it'd been out, uh, the week before.
Speaker 3:So my bad yeah, and I came back, uh, came out when we came home, I think, from a celebration- yeah yeah, made a shit ton of money for a movie that's 20 years old though when I saw that I was I was tripping, it was like it got the number two movie of the weekend. Are you kidding me right?
Speaker 2:yeah, no shit only behind sinners which was fantastic. Also, sinners was fucking awesome. Like can we just go into movies real quick, like God damn. Like sinners might be my movie of the year, like it's I was. It was super tight, like even the parts where they're in the car, just like they're driving in the car, like I felt like even those parts super, like the dialogue in this movie Spoilers yeah, sorry, sorry, the dialogue there's a car in this movie. Spoilers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sorry, sorry Lou. I think it was on the trailer. Lou, you're fine, you're fine.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there was a car. You can't trust the trailers. We all know that.
Speaker 2:There's a couple Now there's a law Because of you. There's a couple one shots that are just. There was one one shot that I'm with going like, like, just it was. Yeah, it was a really, really good movie. I enjoyed it a lot. I like the fact that it was basically like two different movies too, like there was one movie about like guys setting things up, there was a B-plot, lou, you'll love it.
Speaker 1:Multiple.
Speaker 2:B-plots, and it wasn't just Jerry Seinfeld buzzing around. Come on, jack Button, I fucking bought you. I even bought you a thing to hit the button, and you're fucking dragging your feet on getting that set up look, when am I ever home?
Speaker 1:seriously, well, lu's thinking about it, jerry seinfeld no, no, no.
Speaker 3:Well, actually I'm thinking about the b plug, because I was like what I'm like. What did I watch recently where I didn't like the beep store story? Oh, it was Picard.
Speaker 2:Isn't there like five seasons of Picard? Or is there only three, three and then they're done, right?
Speaker 3:Yeah, they're done. It was five seasons of Discovery. It makes sense to talk Star Trek.
Speaker 2:And didn't they say this is like the last season of Stranger New Worlds 2?
Speaker 3:Am I the only one watching that? No, I just started season two.
Speaker 2:What do you think?
Speaker 4:I think it's fantastic as far as like a Star Trek I mean it's like my favorite.
Speaker 2:I think it's hands down my favorite Star Trek and I love Next Generation, I mean for me personally, I feel like Next Generation was it's more again looking back on it and going, oh, like I grew up with that right. That was where I first discovered Ashley Judd right and right. Jack knows, jack knows, wow, this is going to be the episode where Jack and I just agree on everything.
Speaker 1:Remember when this happened, and he's like yes, I do, yes, I do.
Speaker 2:My sexual awakening and fucking next generation.
Speaker 1:I mean they all been wearing them skin tight uniforms.
Speaker 3:They did wear them uniforms. Even when freaking Gates McFadden was here in Denver like three years ago, she was like 71 years old. I was like, are you kidding me?
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, it's like man Gilf For real though, gee Gilf. I got something that needs to be fixed between my legs. Come on now, Gates.
Speaker 3:Man.
Speaker 2:Dr Crusher.
Speaker 3:Oh, I'd crush her All right.
Speaker 2:You ain't you gotta worry about that dr crush her.
Speaker 3:So watching her. We've been watching her in freaking picard, which was shortly, I think around the same time, where she was in denver. It was just like, oh man, even, even marina yeah, all, like all the girls she still looks so damn good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all the girls, the girls from Next Generation, all age super well. It's kind of wild. I mean, that was what 30 years ago.
Speaker 3:Five. It was 87 to 94.
Speaker 2:See, we can talk about other sci-fi besides Star Wars.
Speaker 3:We're not narrow-minded. But yeah, picard, season three was basically a season-long episode of Next Gen. It was pretty good getting all of them back together.
Speaker 2:Just wait until Lou's not here one week and Jack and I spend the whole time talking about wrestling. Allie's going to love that episode. It's going to be her favorite one, oh man.
Speaker 3:Do you have your Roosevelt wrestling shirts? I did not have a lot of Roosevelt.
Speaker 1:Because, they're all newer guys. Yeah, if they went back to an Attitude Era, they got me a rock.
Speaker 3:Kun Ting Pai shirt. No WWF Era.
Speaker 2:It was WWF then, yeah it.
Speaker 1:WWF era. It was not WWF then.
Speaker 2:Yeah it was.
Speaker 3:WWF? No, it wasn't. And the attitude of the rock was not WWF yes, it was.
Speaker 2:A hundred percent. A hundred percent.
Speaker 2:Jack and I both owned a Puntang Pie shirt that we bought at an event that we went to Because that was the only like you could buy it from the shop. But it wasn't the same. It was like the coloring was different, it didn't have the same phrasing, but if you were at the event you could buy one that says who wants a piece of bootleg pie? And it had a piece of a piece of pie and it had the rocks logo on it and jack and I thought it was the. We were the coolest fucking guys in the entire room.
Speaker 3:We were we weren't I think now I'm gonna look this shit up. When did wwf?
Speaker 1:switch. It was like 2010 or something that they switched in, I'm gonna say 2007 is that I thought it was like a way long time before that.
Speaker 3:Not 2002, let's see 2001, so try that again so the rock was in wwf then, yep. You said 2010. No, no, no how could that happen in 2010 if they switched in 2001?
Speaker 1:The Rock has been in the wrestling since the 80s, bro, or like the late 90s, early mid 90s.
Speaker 3:He was like born.
Speaker 2:The Rock's debut was November 17th 1998 as Rocky Maivia at the Survivor Series. As Rocky Maivia.
Speaker 3:So he had three years in WWF, yep. So when did this story you're talking about happen?
Speaker 1:Like 99, 2000?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean Jack and I fit a lot of wrestling in between 99 and 2000 together. Dude, I was at his house every fucking Sunday to hang out and if it was pay-per-view. His dad just bought the pay-per-views, like his dad bought so many cheeseburgers from mcdonald's yeah yeah, in the morning I would go, I would get back then.
Speaker 3:So yeah, I would get, I would get off work I work graveyard.
Speaker 2:So I'd get off work at like 6, 30 or 7. I'd head right over to jack's house, wait until jack woke up, then we would go and get breakfast and go do our toy run and then we'd go back to his house and fucking watch wrestling Like, especially on pay-per-view, where his dad was always like, all right, it's ordered, yeah, like, and we watched. I mean that was like peak WWF right there. It was like 99 to 2000.
Speaker 3:No, oh God. No, it was not.
Speaker 4:Sir D-Generation X.
Speaker 3:You kids, yeah, you kids, lou, shut the hell up. I am Generation X. You kids, you're not.
Speaker 2:D-Generation X, though no no.
Speaker 4:New Age Outlaws Two words for that. Iron.
Speaker 3:Sheep, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls.
Speaker 2:Axol Jim Duggan.
Speaker 3:Superflyimmy snooker, y'all don't know the murderer. Okay, so you're supporting the murderer okay do you not know me, you not know me?
Speaker 1:hello, okay, that's fair, that's fair, that's fair. I watched it back then too. I'm just saying the attitude era of wrestling was was when.
Speaker 2:Jack and I, star Wars and wrestling that was when our DNA became intertwined. It was those two things.
Speaker 3:But besides that, and a $19.99 cheeseburger from McDonald's on special and 39 cents.
Speaker 2:Hell yeah, else, it was $1.99.
Speaker 4:Goddamn tariffs.
Speaker 3:Oh my god, no, no, no. 80s, 80s, late 80s, mid 90s, wwf After that it got fake. Wrestling still real to me until 1999.
Speaker 2:It got fake Wrestling's still real to me until 1999.
Speaker 3:Once we lost the Ultimate Warrior from holding the belt it didn't matter anymore. It didn't matter anymore.
Speaker 2:You left that loose whole wrestling relationship as just tied to the Ultimate Warrior.
Speaker 3:No, no, no, it was the switch over from Hogan to Ultimate Warrior was a thing. We actually had some real tag team troops going on.
Speaker 1:British Bulldogs, come on now, there was only one British Bulldog, sir.
Speaker 3:Oh, my God.
Speaker 1:It was the British Bulldog and he had his pet dog.
Speaker 2:And then he was with his, he got together with his brother.
Speaker 3:Oh my God, you guys are killing me. I keep forgetting you were born like 10 years after me.
Speaker 2:I was born 10 years after you, disrespect.
Speaker 3:Well, jack was Baby More like four, but whatever, close enough.
Speaker 2:Oh, talk about people exaggerating numbers. Lou's like I was voting and drinking alcohol when Jack was born, sir. That was actually only four years.
Speaker 3:Did you forget? I'm a Republican.
Speaker 2:We exaggerate everything Come on oh, that's fair, that's fair.
Speaker 4:Oh shit, All right.
Speaker 2:We totally.
Speaker 3:This celebration pod has gone way off track.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're already 27 minutes in and it's like we haven't even talked about the celebration at all.
Speaker 3:I cannot believe you guys don't know who the british bulldogs are. I do know I'm, I just laugh because it's funny as shit oh, you know demolition is lou.
Speaker 2:Do you remember axe and smash? Oh, my fuck really, mr. I know 80s wrestling no no demolition.
Speaker 3:I know it is wrestling. I just said I know that they were better in the late 80s, mid 90ss, that's all.
Speaker 1:I'm saying I'll give you, like the Bushwhackers.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, bush Heart Foundation.
Speaker 2:And demolition, but you don't even know what demolition is.
Speaker 1:Okay, look, the British Bulldogs were in 1984. I was a child. I don't even think I watched wrestling, that's what I was saying.
Speaker 3:That's why I was like I was born 15 years before you guys 15? It went from 10 to 15.
Speaker 2:By the end of the pod it's gonna be I was born 84 BC and you guys weren't even born until 1997. You guys don't even know. This is why I know what I know, because I saw Christ on the cross.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I didn't know shit until, freaking, the special edition came out. That's when y'all were bored.
Speaker 2:The special edition of the first Star.
Speaker 1:Wars movie you saw in theaters was Force Awakens.
Speaker 2:First movie you saw was Rise of Skywalker. What?
Speaker 4:That wasn't a movie. What are you talking about?
Speaker 1:You can see Duke's dreams.
Speaker 4:The first movie you saw was season two of Clone Wars.
Speaker 3:Boom. This is what happens when you have all this experience of being born 25 years before y'all. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Lou was like I was an extra and dazed and confused when it originally happened.
Speaker 3:Oh man.
Speaker 1:Based on Lou's high school.
Speaker 2:Yeah exactly Lou was actually the guy who. Oh man, Based on Lou's high school. Yeah, exactly Lou was actually the guy who.
Speaker 4:Oh man.
Speaker 3:Prohibitions suck, by the way, just so y'all know.
Speaker 2:Lou's like I don't even know how to survive the Black Plague. I mean besides my color, but you know, we just called it the Plague. Yeah, we just called it the Plague in my neighborhood.
Speaker 1:My stomach hurts now. That wasn't that much.
Speaker 2:Now we're just going to have 100 memes of all the shit that Lou saw, that we weren't alive for Lou's. Like I saw Super Bowl I, I knew what the NFL.
Speaker 4:That's why he's a Steelers fan. He's been there since they've been.
Speaker 2:I knew what the WWF was before WWE, and I also knew what the AFL was before the NFL. Motherfuckers.
Speaker 3:I told Lamar Hunt it was a good idea. And here we go.
Speaker 2:Why don't you call it the Super Bowl?
Speaker 4:Oh shit.
Speaker 2:Audio. People are just like motherfuckers. It's been 20 minutes and all you've done is laugh. Shut the fuck up, oh shit.
Speaker 1:They weren't visual gags Take two, take two.
Speaker 3:About celebrations, and that's what we were talking about all right, so three weeks ago.
Speaker 2:Now are we three weeks in past yeah, two, two weeks, two weeks so two weeks ago we all met in japan, which we talked about last week, kind of sort of, and uh, we all did a little while to get there because he was escaping the Hiroshima blast. But he actually was on the same Shinkansen as I was going back to Tokyo and he was like oh, it's my first time here. I'm glad I escaped. Those guys at Nagasaki better watch out.
Speaker 3:There was no Shinkansen when I was back there.
Speaker 2:Sorry, I was on the Shinkansen, Lou was on a rickshaw. Oh shit, Too soon guys Too soon.
Speaker 1:Oh shit, we're not allowed to live in the same city.
Speaker 2:In trouble all the time. The only reason Lou moved back to Denver is he remembers when it was established as a city before Colorado was even a state. Well, he crossed it with the Donner Party. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3:Oh my God, he was going the other way. The.
Speaker 2:Donner Party was like we're going to California. He's like, nah, you don't want to go that way, go back to denver, guys.
Speaker 3:Well, you know how I like any white women he's like you look kind of frail.
Speaker 2:I'm just gonna follow you for a little bit so anyway, god damn, uh, so I believe, so I believe it was held in their biggest convention center in Japan, or in Tokyo, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, it's where they do their anime cons, so obviously it's got to be a chasing convention center, the Makari Mesa.
Speaker 3:You're assuming, japanese people like anime, but whatever.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that was a little racist of me. It was presumptuous. I figured it was a cultural thing, you know, like how they'd be eating sushi and stuff.
Speaker 2:Much like Lou being 35 years older than us, they're also five years ahead of the curve on anime. Yes, so all the stuff that we saw two weeks ago is all stuff that's going to be super popular in the US in like five years.
Speaker 3:That sounds about right.
Speaker 1:I wasn't going to mention actually mentioned center.
Speaker 2:I thought it was laid out well. I mean, I thought it was weird how they make us, how they made us walk around to the back to like where the loading docks were.
Speaker 1:I thought that was kind of strange to begin with yeah, I was like wait there's doors and they're like, nope, walk through this corridor and go down this management, though just like so we're not lined up in the streets or something.
Speaker 3:So I guess yeah, because there's only so much space upstairs to line everybody up to go into those doors.
Speaker 2:Shall we just go back to Thursday. So Thursday you guys were supposed to land at like 3 o'clock, 2.30. Yep, and you ended up having an electrical problem. Lou plugged in too many devices into his usb port and you had to turn around and then you ended up being delayed by five hours. Yeah, that was horrible. So I went. So at that point I think there was kind of like. At that point there was kind of a little bit of tension, a little bit of a like you know, in the text threads and stuff. It was just kind of like this sucks. We wanted this all to work out and be able to do all of these things to kind of get organized. Yeah, it all worked out in the end, but I think there was a couple hours there of like, oh, like so I think it was like annoyed.
Speaker 1:I was annoyed Like my plan wasn't going, but I'm like I'll still go with Friday morning. Well, it was Friday morning. You know, as long as I make it Friday morning, I'm good.
Speaker 2:And I mean we can even back up a little bit and be like look like this whole process of getting the tickets, getting the hotel, getting all of that stuff just was not organized well at all, in my opinion. Like it just seemed very, very haphazard. Like, for example, lou transferred tickets to me for my friends but they weren actually my tickets. They were in like a gray area, yeah. So like when I went on Thursday to go pick, well, when I went on Thursday to pick up my tickets, they gave me my tickets and I ended up having to ask about Lou's tickets. And then they're like oh, and your name's on these other tickets. And I'm like how, how do you just not have them all under my like? Why did I to?
Speaker 2:I shouldn't have had to ask about Lou to get my tickets that he transferred to me. Right, it's one thing if it was all under his name and that was fine, but like the fact that girl didn't even like say anything until I said can you look up blue? And what tickets does he have? And she was like well, give me your ID. And I gave her the ID and then she's like oh, these tickets are yours. And I'm like but I shouldn't have had like to me. If you transferred them to me, I shouldn't have had to do that I think it was on their backend.
Speaker 1:We only transferred tickets and names so that we could use different email addresses to get panels and shit. Right. It wasn't like a legit transfer because they didn't do the what was it? Light resale this year. The light what L-Y-T-E.
Speaker 3:For the last couple of celebrations.
Speaker 1:They've used that to resell tickets.
Speaker 4:Like oh, I can't go.
Speaker 1:so let me resell tickets, so you would actually transfer it to people. But this year they didn't do it for whatever reason.
Speaker 3:resell tickets, so you would actually transfer it to people, but this year they didn't do it for whatever reason I don't know if it's the thing or they did allow you to transfer the tickets, but only until april 1st. That was part of the problem. That should have been allowed to go up until the day before the day of because, because the like, like jack, was saying everybody, uh, I could transfer the tickets and the tickets that I transferred to Jack, his family and Duke's individual. That happened, but, like Jack said, that only allowed you to try for raffles, to get a speed pass to the stores, panels, stuff like that. However, it did say it in the documents If I wanted to actually transfer the tickets to the person where they could do it all themselves, you had to have that done by April 1.
Speaker 3:Well, we didn't think it was going to be a big deal because we'd get there in time, because the idea is we'll get there early enough to go pick up our badges early enough so we don't have a problem on Friday morning. Like Duke said, in the end it did work out. We'll get to that later, but that had to have happened by April 1. Well, if we don't know we're going to be delayed for any reason, how are we supposed to know to transfer?
Speaker 4:everything over by April 1?.
Speaker 3:That's ridiculous. Yeah, there was an option. It was the deadline that was a problem to me.
Speaker 2:So, but again, to me, that's just that. To me is the entire celebration right, like it was something that should have been thought about and should have been, uh, should have been part of the process, but they just it was one little thing that just caused it to just not be right, right, like or workable right and it was, and I feel like that's that was the whole weekend was like. There were so many things where it was just like a little, you know, a little more thought, a little more effort, a little more again. Reed's been doing this for decades now. This isn't like their first time. It was like it'd be like if the three of us were doing a celebration for the first time. Sure, we're gonna fuck stuff up because we don't know, you know, we don't know what we don't know, right, but these guys have been doing conventions, not just even celebrations, for years now. I mean even. I mean I think lou even remembers the first time they did the World's Fair in like 20 and like 1910.
Speaker 3:It was before that, but I was at that one in Chicago. I know what you're talking about.
Speaker 2:But I mean, they've been doing, especially they've been doing celebrations for decades now you know, so they should know this stuff and it should be again. It's the same thing with Comic-Con, right. It's just, you know, there's some things that are organized well and some things that work out really well, and then other parts that are just still completely broken. And you're just like I don't understand, how are you not looking at these guys who are doing it right and go, let's just follow that because it works well. Instead, we're just going to have this clusterfuck where people have 84 tabs and three phones and two laptops open to all get into a queue for whatever, and then now we can't even talk about the queuing again.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think we probably talked about it in a past podcast, but there were so many people I was in line with that were pissed off because out of the three of us, jack was the only one to get the Ahsoka panel Right, and guess what? Jack's five other five people in his party. He's the only one that got it, so he's the only one that can go Right. By the time any of the rest of the people who had email addresses were able to sign in, that was gone. So now, ok, so now he's going to go to this one room and all the rest of them are going to go to. No, nobody's going to do that, you know, like it just. But yeah, I mean I was in line with people, especially people who had like ADA and stuff or accessibility Is that what they call it now? Medical is what it was Medical Okay.
Speaker 3:In Japan it was just medical.
Speaker 2:Medical, like, who were like, well, I want to go see this thing, but you know, I'd be in line with people and they're like, well, I want to go see this panel, but I can't have the person who I'm taking care of. They didn't get in. So, like you know, and again it all, it all worked out at the end but the fact is that up until that point you just didn't know, and so I think that was super, super confusing and also just frustrating. You know, um, the fact that they I mean it's fine if you want to treat the lightning lanes like that, because I think the lightning lane they were kind of loose with it. If you were with a group, everybody would get in, type of thing, but the panels and stuff should have been treated like you're with your party and your party gets.
Speaker 3:They did, though. If you were medical and you had a party with you and you went to the medical access line, you did get in.
Speaker 2:I'm talking about the raffle before I'm talking. The fact is, up until that moment when you're in the medical line, you didn't know that you were all going to get in or not. Right Like that. That, to me, is the frustrating part, because there's it's stuff that should, it's stuff that shouldn't have been a problem, but it caused problems for people, right like that. That's my point. Right is that they had this raffle that you were like, oh shit, like I got into this and you guys didn't, and we all were hanging out together and now it's like, well, fuck you, I'm gonna go to the andor panel or whatever and you guys don't get anything. Like, but yet we're all hanging out doing the same stuff. I'm just saying it just caused unnecessary confusion.
Speaker 1:Right again, like you were saying like I mean I'm not super mad that you know like I'm there with my family. Only one of us got the the panel right. I mean it is what it is right. It's not like. Well, I don't, I don't think they knew that you were coming with your family or your friends or whatever, right? So they're just seeing they're looking at like a seat, a seat, a seat right.
Speaker 3:One person gets a seat and that's it but they fixed it before, before you could be in groups yes, yeah, the last celebration was anaheim that we went to you could, so I don't know again.
Speaker 1:Why did they?
Speaker 2:right, but that's my that's. My point is that they have stuff that they have even fixed previously that they broke for this event, which made caused which I think caused disruption to people's schedules and people's timing, and that was very frustrating. Yeah, so okay. So then thursday I go and pick up the tickets that I can pick up. Um, meet up with you guys on thursday, which was cool, and then Friday we all get up in the morning, go and thankfully.
Speaker 3:Well, he didn't do breakfast with us.
Speaker 2:No, I didn't do breakfast I came down.
Speaker 3:later he joined us. Afterwards he came down.
Speaker 2:Thankfully the line for you guys getting badges didn't seem like it was too big of a deal.
Speaker 1:It took a while. It was easy, dude. It took a while. It was them pulling our pins.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the pre-order stuff.
Speaker 2:But the queue was way smooth, so whoever organized that, they did a good job with that line. I wish that person would have been in charge of every queue.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think getting word out early to come and pick your badges up and then enticing people with those shirts that they had to wait in line for five hours for suckers. Yeah, yeah, I think that helped. Just kind of day of everybody like cool, I got my badge already and we're just going in, but that well, he saw I was paid attention to some of the social media and the q.
Speaker 3:To get your badge on tuesday, the first day, was ridiculous, not just the t-shirt, the q itself was crazy. But looking at all the social media afterwards, wednesday and thursday were basically walk up to get your badge, I think.
Speaker 2:I think thursday night I sat in line for maybe an hour like it wasn't. It wasn't super bad at all to to go up and get.
Speaker 1:So get the bad but no, ours is walk up.
Speaker 2:I don't think I waited more than like five minutes to I do wish that q person would have actually done every single q in the event, because I think things would have been way better otherwise. But yes, the badge queue was was good yeah, no, that went smooth.
Speaker 1:Um, they pulled all of our stuff, so my backpack was full of the uh of pins before I even because you were not expecting my neck, you, you were not expecting boxes, not like that if I had known ahead of time that I could just open those boxes up and fit them all into one box, I would have done that. I would have made friday a way better day instead of instead of day 10.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, well, I mean, and the boxes?
Speaker 1:the boxes were yeah, they were huge. I don't I think they're still in the house. I don't think I brought them in yet, but yeah, but they were ridiculously huge for pins.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for pins with stands.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like the pin and stand could fit in about 10% of the size of that box, if that. Let's put it this way. I opened up 10, I think 10 of them 11, 12, 14. I opened up 14 on the trip back to consolidate 14 pins and stands fit in one of the boxes. That's how much of a waste space it was. I'm not going to say it didn't look good, because it did look good.
Speaker 2:But it was a waste, yeah, yeah, especially if you're going to take, I mean especially with the stand and everything. So obviously they wanted you to take them out of the box.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right with the stand and everything so obviously they wanted you to take them out of the box, right? So after that we just jumped in the store line.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we uh, we did the, we went to go spend that money, bruh we did the, the medical line, which was not bad at all um no we only waited, we only waited in that line it was like an hour and a half, I think, total right we got there about an hour yeah, I mean we got there early but,
Speaker 4:like once they opened nine but.
Speaker 2:But the point was it wasn't extremely early, like celebration two, where we were in line for five fucking hours in the snow in the snow right like outside, with no covering or anything like, so this was way smoother as far as that goes. So I guess that q person also did the the store lines yeah they had four lines.
Speaker 3:They had the lightning lane line, the vip line, the medical line and the regular um, and so we got into the.
Speaker 2:We got into the shop pretty quick. The shop wasn't organized super well not until day two.
Speaker 2:Yeah so the king the line, like basically for the, for the t-shirts and for the art prints. It was basically like a bar, like you would just push your way up to the front and get somebody's attention, and the people that were in front of you, they were running up and down because they were following the people, because nobody knew what the numbers were. Right, you'd say I want 8, 12 and 32, and they would be like, uh, like I know which ones are here and that's all. So then they would end up walking to the other end of the line and never coming back.
Speaker 2:So even if you saw somebody in front of you, unless you basically grabbed that person by the sleeve or a word, you were waiting for a while, my experience wasn't that bad because I had notes on my phone.
Speaker 3:I wrote down the number shirt that I wanted and the size and then gave the lady my phone.
Speaker 2:Oh well, there you go.
Speaker 3:And she just walked over. I saw her. She was just looking down and was like, okay, and I did it. You know me. It was an order number, order lowest to highest. So she was just going left to right because the numbers on the shelf behind the counter were left to right. She just saw it like, okay, I need a 13 medium, I need a 12 medium, a 13 medium, a 15 extra large, a 19,. And she just followed the line, then came back with the phone.
Speaker 1:Then she fucked it up and gave you a medium anyway.
Speaker 3:Then she fucked it up and gave me a medium Darth Vader instead of an extra large. That's my own fault for not looking.
Speaker 2:I think that goes back again. They're just coming up short, right. I think if they would have applied what they applied to the food hall to the t-shirts, it would have been a lot smoother. You get in a queue, they give you a piece of paper, you check off the ones that you want yeah maybe but you just did that. You said you just did that.
Speaker 3:No, no, I said maybe because day two it was done differently. Sure.
Speaker 2:Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah, but I'm saying that's something that they could have built on from day one.
Speaker 1:But I think the shopping is part of that experience. You don't want to. I don't think people want to order that way. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3:They want to browse I liked Anaheim where they for the cubbyholes. You walk up, saw the shirt and then was like I need an extra lot, so I pulled it from that one. I like doing that. I didn't like the behind-the-counter thing at all.
Speaker 2:And I guess I didn't go do the art print stuff Did either of you guys do that.
Speaker 1:No, no, no.
Speaker 2:But I mean, that looked like a nightmare as well. Yeah, that was a long one too. I agree, it looked disgusting, but it was weird how, like, everything seems super spread out, but like there was, like clusters of people everywhere.
Speaker 2:That it made it really hard to like, figure out, like, and there was no like, there was no directions. So you were like, oh well, I want this shirt or this pin or this, whatever. You end up spending 20 minutes wandering around because there'd be like, well, here's all the es. The empire strikes back pins, here's all the revenge of the sith pins, and then over here is all the celebrations, pins and so but, but there was no signage pointing you to any of that yeah, and there was nothing like yes signage, if they just had a giant thing on top of the bins for the the jedi rack yeah, or or.
Speaker 2:I'm just saying like a sign on top that's big enough for you to be able to see across the store that says revenge of the sys stuff. Okay, cool, I can go over there and there's the pin and the shirt and whatever like that.
Speaker 3:Could be more specific than that, like they had. They had gondolas up. Yeah, they. I've seen in my stores like I don't know target or whatever, even like ross's. They have the pull that goes up on the with the flag and they can just put pins here like badger pins. Boom, you know where they are, the red medallion coins over here, but there was nothing labeled.
Speaker 2:You had to actually roam around to try to find what the hell you were looking for and I heard I heard some lady asking one of the staff people about one of the items and she was was like it didn't come in yet. There was a percentage of stuff that never even made it through customs and she was like hopefully it'll be here tomorrow. Well, that's, you know. That never happened.
Speaker 3:And also I mean, and that was one of the I think Saturday or Sunday Jack, I think it was Saturday when I was back at the store. I think Jack asked me about that.
Speaker 1:Because I think Jack asked me about that Cause, I think it was the 20th pin you want to the revenge of the suspense pin.
Speaker 3:Well, I actually went to a staff person and said, oh, those did not arrive and we don't expect them to, yeah, so so my guess is, just like every other celebration, it'll be on read site and in a couple of weeks, yeah, they listed some stuff already on the Star Wars store site, right, or Disney.
Speaker 2:Wow, I thought they did. I thought there was a few celebration things they had listed right after. It was like the Tuesday after.
Speaker 3:Oh well, amazon did.
Speaker 2:Yeah, amazon had some. Yeah, because Amazon sponsored the app. That kind of sucked, or really sucked.
Speaker 1:Yeah, amazon had T-shirts, had like the, the tote bag or something. Yeah, it was like it wasn't a lot it was.
Speaker 2:No, it was like the hat and the shirt, but it wasn't the tri logo shirt.
Speaker 4:It was just the regular logo.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I don't think the tri logo shirt ever showed up, right, we never saw that.
Speaker 3:I don't think I've seen it I saw, I mean we saw it on the website before, but we've never saw it in person when I was, when I was there looking for I can't remember, and this might've been Sunday Cause I think I was looking for a fleece, uh, that's that. Uh, uh, jack scale wanted and and it was like I walked up fleeces and hoodies, stuff like that. The far end to the left is where the logo shirts were. I was about to ask about it, somebody else did, and they said they didn't show up.
Speaker 1:It'll be fun. It'll be a race yeah.
Speaker 3:Granted, all of us that have tickets will have first dibs.
Speaker 2:It's going to be. On the plus side. At least we won't be racing for the badges because we got those yeah that was one of the fill out on Saturday. They did, so it's good, I didn't know I didn't.
Speaker 3:I don't understand why they sold out. That should just be an order until.
Speaker 2:Well, and really the only way you even knew that they were available was by asking somebody. Like they didn't have a sign up, because I think there was two. I remember seeing two things under that list. They had to go to a special menu on their page and it was the badges and it was something else that you had to like. It was like a special order.
Speaker 3:When I walked up just to do that, because I went and got all whatever I was going to get, forgot the badges, so went back in. And then I went and asked a cashier and they didn't know what I was talking about and had my supervisor. The supervisor knew exactly what I was talking about and it was in Japanese. I wrote it in my you know, google Translate, and I was like trying to buy or looking for a badge set is all I typed in. And then the guy went and got somebody else and he came over and saw it and was like, oh, grabbed a dude's tablet and instantly pulled it up, yeah, and then you just had to type in all your information yeah, you put in all your addresses that was the one that was.
Speaker 2:The one thing that we didn't do a good job of communicating with was that I didn't know that when you bought the badges you bought all three of them. I was like, oh okay. So my, when I was reading the text thread, because I think I was out of like I wasn't paying attention for a few minutes when that was all going on. So then when I came in I was like, oh well, lou just bought them for him and Jack, which is fine, again, I'm not. So then when I bought them and then like later that night, I was like, yeah, I got the badges and you're like I got all three.
Speaker 3:And.
Speaker 2:I was like all right, well, whatever that's right.
Speaker 4:Well, I got somebody who's got two thumbs is an idiot.
Speaker 3:Right, it worked out, because it'll get used.
Speaker 2:That being said, the badge art was fantastic, amazing, oh my God, it was so good. It's been really since the Jack, was it? Jack, joke, jock, yeah, jock. Badges that were the kind of the cartoony ones that he did, where you could actually go to. He was actually at the celebration. You could go get them autographed. Uh, he would autograph them for you. Um, those are the the, the ones that we had. I was kind of I was kind of bummed out that they didn't tell us who who did the art for him. They did because he was there. He was there. I guess I missed that part of it. Then I'm glad that they gave him the props that he deserved, because he did a really good job.
Speaker 1:There was actually an interview with him on StarWarscom even.
Speaker 2:Okay, so, yeah. So then that was our badge experience, or that was our store experience, mostly that checking out was kind of a pain in the ass. Which again they fixed the day after right, like it went way smoother on saturday and sunday but even you, you got screwed over.
Speaker 3:They didn't ring up two of my items. I had to go back and get them the next day and they didn't.
Speaker 2:They overcharged you for two items because his, my guy, his barcode scanner wasn't working so he was putting everything in manually. And again I'm I'm like by the time, the 20. It took him like 20 minutes to ring up the half a dozen things. And he's like okay, it'll be 15 000 yen.
Speaker 2:And I'm like okay like I guess, because at that point I just want to get out of there, I don't. I'm not like gonna like hang on, let me fucking make sure. And he said he was gonna double check. That's my fault for letting him for assuming that he was going to double check. That's my fault for letting him for assuming that he was going to do that. But I mean, it's whatever. It was 30 bucks or something, I'm not super bothered about it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it wasn't crazy, but again the principle right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, mine, like you said, they were double checking. They counted the items on the register, how many they had listed versus the register, how many they had listed versus the items they had on the counter for me, and somehow two of the badge yards, uh, weren't included. And I was like you know what? We were packing stuff up and I didn't have. I couldn't find the receipt at the time we were packing stuff up and all this. I was like maybe it's in duke's bag, maybe it's in jack's bag. And I was like but the next day I bought him again, again just in case. Uh, I didn't actually buy them. Turns out I found the receipt the next day and they didn't charge me for them. Even though they pulled them off the shelf, they didn't charge me for them. I was like I'm glad I did get them. That would have sucked. I would have sold all of them because I'm missing one.
Speaker 2:What's it be? Did you complete the other blind boxes? Yeah, we both did. Did you complete the other, the blind boxes you both have?
Speaker 4:Yeah, we both have.
Speaker 1:That actually went pretty smooth, I mean overall it went too smooth actually. I mean, I bought like 30 boxes of them.
Speaker 3:But even getting the Lothcats the next day, wouldn't it take me 10 minutes. I'm like, okay, I'm here to do this, I gotta trade to get Lothcats. 10 minutes later I had five.
Speaker 2:And that one staff member didn't have one but went and grabbed one and then came and found you guys. Right, I thought there was somebody who had. Yeah, we walked in first thing in the morning Because there was like four staff members.
Speaker 1:I'm like you guys got Lothcats Because we were ready to go.
Speaker 3:And they're didn't grab them yet. And then one of them just showed up out of nowhere and do it at my little ones. Yeah, yeah, ah, here's the back. Yep, sorry if it got stuck in there. So it's like, honestly, if that was maybe supposed to be, we thought was gonna be one of the hardest ones to get and we probably could have got a dozen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I mean, you put a little effort into it, it would have been easy um, and so then, after that was Roosevelt's right on Friday no, on Friday, that's when Lou and I were still trying to get our pins?
Speaker 2:yeah, we were sponsored and buy a certain amount of stuff and that's when my friend was in line at the Roosevelt booth and I went and joined him because I didn't have any interest.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I went to.
Speaker 2:Roosevelt's, you guys started working the vendors for the pins.
Speaker 3:And that one booth took like two hours.
Speaker 2:Again, going back to Hot Toys had, I think, the largest booth by far, but they had a bunch of stuff outside but the inside you couldn't see anything without waiting in the queue. If you just wanted to go in and look at what was around in their booth which I never went in their booth- Actually, you did not miss anything. But I'm saying their booth was so big, I assume there was stuff inside. Nope, it was 100% shopping.
Speaker 4:So that wall where you walk into the food mall, that was everything that was inside. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And that was it. But then they still had the biggest booth. That seems weird, it was a huge shopping booth Okay. So, you went from one queue to another.
Speaker 1:Basically Pretty much yeah, you go from outside, you go inside and then they have a winding queue where all the six-inch, the 12-inch figures are, and then they just let you loose into the shop and then everybody's just running around crazy buying shit.
Speaker 3:And then what they do is, as you leave, they're keeping track of who's leaving to let that many people back in.
Speaker 1:So it was just cycling the whole time. It was efficient For what it was. It was efficient In the end. I don't know why it was such a long line, because it shouldn't have taken anybody that long in the store, but I guess people are slow shoppers the store.
Speaker 3:But I guess people are slow shoppers that no I was going to say when I was in there I was one of those problem people because I didn't all the good stuff quote unquote good stuff was gone. I was just picking up the stuff that I knew I need to pick up for other people, so I grabbed that stuff. But I want to see what else was around in the store. Turns out it was a lot of repetition, like they had some stuff over here. The same stuff was over here.
Speaker 4:I didn't know that.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I did take the time to look at everything, even though what you, what they could have done to make it this is not even a harsh complaint, because it wasn't that bad Once you got in they could have done the comic con thing or whatever. Or the Funko thing where they give you a checklist and it's like I want this, this, this, this and this, because you would have had an opportunity to see it outside or in line with the little pamphlet I gave you because everything was in there. So once you have that, you could have checked it off and then you go through the store line and just hand them your thing.
Speaker 2:That's what Hasbro did last year right at Comic-Con.
Speaker 3:Was that Hasbro? Yes, yes, where you walked up and you had Comic-Con, yes, you had just a little checklist.
Speaker 2:Two of this, one of this, two of this, and then they grabbed that and would go to the back.
Speaker 3:Yeah they told you what the limits were and everything. That's what they keep people from killing time in the store especially. Here's the thing that really wasn't needed you didn't need time to walk to the store, knowing that all the items were around the outside and in the pamphlet and they could have doubled up the stuff on the outside if they wanted to and put it on the back side.
Speaker 2:Yes, they could have wrapped it where anywhere you were walking, there was the list. There was the row of things that were exclusive or being released that weekend or whatever but they only had that one on the main side.
Speaker 3:They even could have put more inside. So as you're doing the zigzag inside, you get to see it again. Yeah, if you really want all for your impulse buys, as long as they give you the. You know, like I got to admit this is going to kind of a super sidetrack, as much as the food line sucked if you were there at the wrong time. The paper with the little clip pen was very efficient but that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:They could have, they could have applied that across the board for everything, and I feel like it would have went that much smoother on so many things on on a lot of it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, uh, some of the problem would have been like a lot enough registers, like when we were in the n ski or n sky line and it took forever. They had three or four registers and it wasn't. It was going fast for the most part because people knew what they wanted. It was some a little bit of communication issue here and there, uh, but for me it was simple. You know, I just pointed you know it was like which means this and this?
Speaker 3:I literally, literally did that. It was for the four or five items that I got. I could hear on the side of me, though, there were people you could tell it was like, oh, they're having trouble with communication and what they want.
Speaker 2:Where a board or a clip or a piece of paper or an order sheet would have been.
Speaker 3:You could put it in Japanese and English, because I think everybody there either spoke Japanese or English and you guys got the majority of your vendor pins outside of a couple, right that? First one, All but one, I think.
Speaker 2:I thought it was two but it could have just been one. It was tops, tops was tops. I thought there was another one you guys had to go back to get.
Speaker 3:There was some I went back to get because I needed them for a girl. Okay, Okay, I had to go back because some of the ones she wanted was sponsor pins. Which man I had to go through that. Like that long-ass blue, I want to call it blue sky. It's a vendor out here in Colorado, but the N-Sky line.
Speaker 3:I had to go back to that one to get her Ewok pin. Then I had to go back someplace else to get the, the like the BB eight or something like that, and then Jack's oldest helped me with the third one.
Speaker 2:Well, so I. So, while that was you guys were doing that, I was in the Roosevelt's line for three hours.
Speaker 3:Get out. I didn't realize it was that long.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and my friend and my friend who I kind of stuck in line with had already been in line for an hour before, so it was four hours.
Speaker 3:So for him four hours. I was like why was it so long? I forgot they had their credit card.
Speaker 2:The biggest problem that they had was that they couldn't do tap to pay, because to do that in Japan you have to have a Japanese-based bank account.
Speaker 3:Sort of. That was my understanding?
Speaker 2:No, they didn't, they were still entering it manually.
Speaker 3:I went there Saturday.
Speaker 2:So there was one that you couldn't tap to pay. You had to slide the card or put the card in, and that was only one of their devices. The other device she was still when I went through on Saturday she still had to enter it in manually.
Speaker 3:So that's weird.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm glad I missed that too, because saturday night I went and did mine okay, then I then I don't know what the problem was, because friday both days I went she had to manually enter in my card well, to be fair, I went later than you.
Speaker 3:I went the end of the day on saturday. You were earlier, so maybe went later than you. I went the end of the day on Saturday. You were earlier, so maybe they had it fixed by the end of the day. I don't know what happened on Sunday.
Speaker 2:Nobody did that. Booth was empty. That was long. I guess they only had 200 pins of each of their exclusive pins, so they sold out immediately. There was a guy ahead of us who was talking about how he'd sold one online for a set of them for 250 bucks, and I was just like dude, go fuck yourself. Sounds like you could have done more than that.
Speaker 2:I felt like even with the limits, everything that was exclusive, that people had any there was any interest in at all, it was gone by early Saturday morning. Early Saturday morning there wasn't all the Hot Toys stuff, the majority of the Roosevelt stuff, all of that type of stuff where there was a hype for it. They weren't limiting it out by days or anything else. And even if they were limiting it by two they weren't punching your card. You would just go hop back in line and could go back through and buy another two.
Speaker 3:I'm okay with that, though. I'm okay with that because that means somebody else had an opportunity to get in line and they chose not to.
Speaker 2:But I think because they weren't, you know. So I think by Saturday a bunch of the exclusives were all gone.
Speaker 3:By lunchtime Friday.
Speaker 2:When I was going through the line on saturday for roosevelt's to get the other shirts, uh, the guy came out like at least twice, and was like marking things out, saying sold out, and then he would update with, like the sizes that they had left of whatever the exclusive shirts were but my friend bought the jacket so they had a roosevelt's darth vader samurai jacket samurai jacket.
Speaker 2:That was actually super cool and like a hat that actually I. I don't like the hats with the, with the slider in the back or the clips, because my head's too big but he wore it and it was sharp like they those. The shirt and jacket combo was super sharp like and I was like in line to go with and yeah, no shit, so annoying the jacket was cool, looking all right and to be honest with you.
Speaker 2:On saturday, when I was in line, I was like fourth in line and I was like, well, if I go up there again like my friend did nothing but talk about how comfortable the jacket was and everything, and I was like well I go if I'm, if, if I'm, if it's still available. When I walk up and literally I was four people and he comes out and goes, sold out and I went. Well, decisions been made Like thank you, thank you for saving me $75.
Speaker 3:But. But you're not wrong, though.
Speaker 4:The pin sold out on Friday for the weekend over at hot toys, the flower, I think it was the, the Anakin, and the flower trooper sold out on Friday also, and and.
Speaker 3:Again, they did not allocate for the days. Not everybody does and not everybody wants to, because they want to make sure everything sells. They don't want to risk it, I get it. You don't want to try to ship that stuff back, anything that doesn't sell. Which is why Fig Pin, for example, on Sunday they were doing two for one on their stuff because they did not want to bring it back because the cost to do so, I get that, I'd be more, I don't know. I'd worry about that on Saturday. Friday I would have limited one per person, knowing you have a hot item that's limited to a thousand pieces, I don't know what the number was or 250 or 500 or whatever, whatever.
Speaker 3:On Friday I'd have an allocation and then I'd be one per person. Go through the allocation, see how it's doing. If you see that you plowed through your allocation and all that, okay, great, you have an idea of what to do for Saturday and Sunday. It's like oh, it's not selling as fast as I thought it was Fine, cut the allocation and cut the limit. But for the first day I would have maybe given it a try. A day and a half, honestly.
Speaker 2:Saturday morning Midday.
Speaker 1:Saturday.
Speaker 4:I'd be like eh, we're doing okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, otherwise or shit, we need to get these moves.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly Because everybody that missed it friday is coming back, saturday morning exactly, and they're going to be the first target, and that's for them to do two per person. I'm not opposed to that either. I don't think there are people who still I used to want to display one box one open one, so the two per person. Not, and again, I'm definitely if, if, like like you know duke was saying about the whole people get back in line. I'm like, let them.
Speaker 1:I mean, if you wait in line, you wait in line.
Speaker 3:I could have went through the Hot Toys line instead of the InSky line to get my sponsor pin. My priority for me was I wanted the pin set. So you know.
Speaker 2:I guess I was. Later than I would have done that, but you know, I guess I was later than I would have done that, but I you know it's like I guess I was just equating it to Comic-Con, where they punch cards right, Like you'll walk in and there'll be places you go where they're like OK, like you've bought your one or you bought your two or whatever, and you're done for the weekend.
Speaker 3:That still doesn't apply, though, because you had you had a Friday, Saturday, Sunday badge. They punch your Friday badge how.
Speaker 2:Why, though Because you had a Friday, Saturday, Sunday badge they punch your Friday badge. How do they know? I mean, that was, I think that's a screw-up on Reed's part, as far as, but you're right, I mean if I had a Friday, Saturday?
Speaker 3:Well, Comic-Con doesn't do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, but you're also. Typically, I don't think people are buying Friday, saturday, sunday badges, are they? Then they're not getting preview right, but some people can't make preview.
Speaker 3:Let's say, if you were trying for preview night and you didn't get it, you're going to try for a four-day next, without preview night. If you don't get that, you're going to try for Thursday let's say, saturday sells out first. You're going to get a Thursday, friday, sunday badge. So now you have three opportunities to go to, but at least it's limiting you by day, right, so it's, it's, it's a, it's a limit.
Speaker 2:You're you're, you're not, you know. And again, yeah, if the guy wants to wait in line for four hours, sure, but I, and again, I mean, I think it's just an allocation thing. Like Jack was, see how it goes, you put out 150 flower troopers and you see, you see how the sales work through the day, right, and if you blow through them in the first hour and a half, you know that, hey, we're fine. We could do another 150 on saturday and another 150 on sunday, and we'll probably be fine, right, especially when it's something so limited like that. It's one thing if it's just like it's premiering at con, it's premiering celebration, but there's no, it's not a limited to any degree, right, you just get.
Speaker 2:But if you're saying, if you're saying there is 250 Anakin's that have the the Sith eyes, ok, that's going to sell, like to not go, oh, I don't know if it's going to sell out, you're 100 percent selling through all those.
Speaker 2:There is at least 250 people who are going to be like, I fucking want that, especially for hot toys, where hot toys has a huge community of people who love all the shit that they put out and they always buy every single limited release, right? I can't tell you how many times I've seen something online or got an email where they're like oh, like this, and you click on it 10 minutes after it releases and it's like sorry, the limited is sold out, the one with the three extra heads and the two hands is sold out, but you can buy the regular one. That was my only thing, right, excuse me, leveling the playing field and again, I guess for me, my whole experience for Celebration was frustrating, that even things like that also proved to be frustrating, you know, so that was friday, right? I mean, we didn't really well, the food food court hall no, no, no food hall complete.
Speaker 2:no, they named, they labeled it food hall, like it wasn't food court. So, yeah, we've all done celebrations, uh, comic cons, you know all the different types of expos that you can go to and every single one of them that I've ever been to. You wander around and there's little pockets that have, you know, the burger place and a drink place and whatever, and a little set up of tables. This was not that. This was like at the very, very so number one, there was no water anywhere, there were no water stations, there was no refill stations. So, even if you had a bottle, you weren't refilling that motherfucker.
Speaker 2:The only places that you could get water were there was some vending machines in different places throughout the convention center, which again is not not. I don't think that's an adequate answer when you have 85 or 95 000 people in an event and you don't give them access to water, like, come on, um, you know comic-con. Even the hotels have, you know, the jugs of water and in all the ballrooms and stuff like that. So at least least you're. If you're not, if you dehydrate, it's your fault, it's not because there's no water.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and all the bathrooms in Comic-Con in between the men's, women's, whatever. There's the water station yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so. So this, even even the bathrooms you couldn't use the sinks to fill up the water because the faucets were too low, like it was the whole situation as far as the water goes probably to me was the most disappointing part, just because, like if there was people who had medical conditions and needed water and you know you go in on friday like people learned, I think saturday and saturday brought their own stuff, but also the only.
Speaker 2:the fact that the only place that you could sit down was after you went through the line. You had to go through the food hall line and order food in order to be able to sit in the seating area where they had benches and tables and stuff, I don't know. That to me was kind of tacky. The fact that there was nowhere else in the entire convention center that was easily accessible, that there was nowhere else to sit or take a break or whatever.
Speaker 3:That's not true. Upstairs had a bunch of city seating area when, I mean, I never went upstairs.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, there was a ton of seating upstairs, okay.
Speaker 4:A ton of seating, a ton of vending machines.
Speaker 1:There was an actual food court where you could get food. Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah upstairs. But again, there was nothing directing you to that right. Everything just said go to the food hall. The only way you knew is if there was stuff upstairs was if you happen to go up there, or you heard about it. Yeah, somebody told me right, you were standing in another line complaining about how there was nothing, and somebody would say oh, just go upstairs like you're right, they didn't even tell me.
Speaker 3:I overheard it, somebody else. Somebody else was complaining and somebody else told that person like, oh, if you go upstairs, blah, blah, blah, I blah. I'm like, oh, now, I didn't do it until Sunday and even then I wasn't doing it to go do food or drink. I was doing it to cross the street to go back to the store for the last time before I was heading out to go. Do you know a?
Speaker 2:night bus. So I guess the other big thing that happened on Friday was when people almost died. That was Friday right With the animation pickups and everybody getting. Was that Friday? I think it was Friday, because Saturday they fixed it. Yeah, saturday was yeah, so Friday we were going against.
Speaker 1:We were officially going against the river. You remember All those people were coming at us and we were trying to leave, oh my God, fish, going against the river. You remember all those people were coming at us when we were, so we end up.
Speaker 2:We end up staking a spot in the food hall after being in line for hours. I end up watching everybody's shit for like two hours while everybody goes and does stuff. They come back and pick me up and pick up all the stuff from the store, because it was a half dozen bags, eight bags of stuff and and so we start making our way out. So I think we were getting ready to leave. Right, we were, we were done with the day and we so the the the very end.
Speaker 2:So Hall seven, where the food hall was, was also where the giveaway area, the redemption room, was, which, at Comic-con, is in, is like a mile and a half away in a different, in a different hotel, and you know what. You put all your tickets in the thing and they have everything set up for you. They only have the amount of tickets, the amount of posters that they have is the amount of tickets that they have, right, so you can go anytime and go pick up all your shit from this one spot. Well, they decided to put it right at the end of the food hall. So on Friday they only had one door open and the door was cut in half by the. There was some scaffolding that was up promoting With some directions and promoting celebration, and we're walking back. I think we were leaving at that point right. We were getting ready to head out, we were leaving.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we were leaving that point right, we were getting ready to head out. We're leaving. Yeah, we really.
Speaker 2:And then, um, there was a 20th anniversary lucasfilm animation panel that all three rooms were part of yep which was, I think, the first one, right, that was the first, like the first big panel, I think the first big panel that all three rooms were in the same. So, yeah, right, because then, because then Saturday was Andor and Ahsoka and then Sunday was Visions, so they basically the panel let out as we were working Our way back, they gave everybody Tickets, so it's three rooms. I mean probably a thousand people, maybe more A couple thousand people.
Speaker 2:And all of them Are sprinting to go to the redemption room, which now we are between them and the redemption room, and it just stopped, yep, like and we were there for 20 minutes, 25 minutes, like kind of like you would move five feet and then stand for 10 minutes they would move five feet. You would stand for, like, um, they ended up there like people almost got in fistfights, like people were yelling at each other. Uh, we had the and or one way out, one way like people started chanting one way out like it was uh.
Speaker 3:Well, I say at the end, at the end for us, because after that is when, when jack finally joined, because duke and I and and uh, jack's oldest we got through it well, so uh go ahead, sorry look I'll say we just got through it before jack, so we got through. It was like I thought he was behind us.
Speaker 2:He's dead he got swallowed. Well, so the funny, so we are all wearing. The funniest part about that is so all three of us are wearing our beach shirts from comic-con that weren't announced, and and so they're. I think, they're probably really rare as far as the grand scheme of Roosevelt's right Like. I feel like those are rarer than the rest of them that they announced, since it was an unannounced one, and so I I think we saw one other guy that morning, yeah.
Speaker 2:Right had the beach shirt on, and so we stood out from everybody else, because everybody else is wearing dark black clothing and Lou and I and Jack's oldest finally, like fish our way through. They tried, some people tried to like go around where we were coming from and everybody that was going the other way started screaming at them to get the back of the line, like no, don't go that way. And I'm like, oh, thank god. So like a bunch of people followed us and they were like thanks for wearing those shirts. You got us through, like we just followed your shirts, and it was just the.
Speaker 2:It made that whole thing just funny because they were just like thank you, and we're like we got you, like it was, but it was. It was a, I mean, police, police. I think the police were called like somebody called the police and showed up to break up the line or organize, and then they made a point after well, to just loosen things up Right Like they did open up another door after that and they made it a point during all of the panels after that to say if they had a giveaway, you don't have to go right now, there will be enough for you.
Speaker 1:They did have enough. On Sunday you could go down there. You could have picked up all the posters without even going to the panel. Yeah, so yeah, so that was I didn't do that animation poster was pretty sweet, well, especially because I had that animation poster was pretty sweet, well, especially because it had.
Speaker 3:I didn't know that was an option, you just walk up to the table and ask for one.
Speaker 2:There was. I saw something on I think it was Reddit, that they were saying that there was a character on the animation poster. That was somebody who was oh, it was from the Robot Chicken guys, the detours show that was supposed to have come out like 10 years ago and then they they never. They made like 50 episodes or something, but they never actually released it, yeah I guess.
Speaker 2:I guess one of the characters, or the animation style care of that character, was in the poster, oh cool. So they were like, well, now it's canon, because it's in the poster. So then that was friday, um, and we all bailed after that, right, we headed back yeah, I think that was dinner that night yeah, yeah, that was a, that was a, that was a long day, uh.
Speaker 2:And then saturday, um, you guys got up and split and I met with my friends who were joining, who had come to japan to hang out with with, you know, with me, during that the trip where you guys got there. Uh, we all got we had gotten them saturday badges. So we all met up and walked in as anthony daniels was being interviewed on the live stage, which was cool for them.
Speaker 2:I've seen anthony daniels a dozen times so I was just like whatever, whatever and I was like, okay, guys, if you want to hang out here, I'm gonna go back to the range builds booth, right, um, and then you guys just you know when you start we'll work together, type of thing. Um, one of the people that I was with was super excited about the art show, which ended up being super, super disappointing. Um, because all the other celebrations we've ever been to, number one, there's an artist alley. So there's even above and beyond the art show, there's always somewhere where you can go and see a ton of people who've done Star Wars art or had been commissioned at some point to do Star Wars art. They didn't have that at all. They had a few of the bigger names peppered throughout the exhibition halls, but not a dedicated spot.
Speaker 2:Um, and then the uh art show. Outside of the two people who were bait, or three people who were based out of japan, all the american people or us I'm going to say us, but there might have been people from canada or wherever if you weren't from japan. The only thing that they had on their table was the print that they the art print. And so my friend who was super excited about seeing the Artist Alley and seeing the art show, was pretty disappointed, so I felt myself justifying a lot, going like well, it's because it's Japan. Like, come to Las Vegas, it's Los.
Speaker 3:Angeles. It can only bring so much with it. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I agree.
Speaker 2:How was your game on Saturday?
Speaker 1:Saturday we Started off at Topps. That was right we did so. We went to Topps because you had to go through their booth and experience all the stuff they were there to promote To get their sponsors. Which was actually cool.
Speaker 3:I wasn't mad.
Speaker 1:we did it um I wish.
Speaker 2:I wish anything afterwards, yeah I do wish the card game was. I don't know what I would expect out of it, but I tried the card game for a little while and just got bored with it. Like it just the one from 25 years ago yeah, the one that they were promoting the card collection or whatever, like where you'd buy packs well, there's the game that was like in the late 90s uh, that came out after magic.
Speaker 3:And then there was just like that was in the late 90s, that came out after Magic, and then there was just the regular collecting set.
Speaker 2:But I thought the card collecting set was what they were promoting at the booth. I don't think so.
Speaker 3:Okay, I thought there was a digital one. Oh no, I don't know about a digital one.
Speaker 1:They made us download that app. Remember the first thing we did we had to download their card app or something they did. They made us download that app.
Speaker 2:Remember the first thing we did, we had to download their card app or something. Yeah, I did the card app when it first came out. I don't remember it being a game, though. No, no, no. You basically just earned coins or paid coins, and you could buy packs of cards, oh, okay.
Speaker 3:Once you went to the experience and got your Darth Maul pin, they were offering to buy, I guess ahead of time I don't think it was exclusive, it was like six packs for $100 or $120. I was like Jesus, $20 a pack for whatever this pack is. They didn't ask me. The line was starting to back up, so it worked out. I just got my opinion and then she said, hey, would you like? Everybody in front of me it was we'd like to buy this, we'd like to buy this. One person, did one person pass. I was like when I heard her say it was 120 for six packs, I was like, uh, no, because I would have considered it like if it was the old school box of tops cards you get, you know, 30 packs, uh, whatever, and it's 100 bucks, I probably would have been, and a guaranteed autograph, like yeah, because it's one per box, you know I, I I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 3:I probably would have bought it if that was the case.
Speaker 2:When she said the box was $120 for six packs, I was like yeah, I would definitely want to know more about that, because I would definitely at least want a chance to get my money back on that. Because, I would say probably 95% of Star Wars cards are not worth the pack.
Speaker 3:That you bought.
Speaker 2:The only ones that are. They look good. I'm not going to lie.
Speaker 3:I mean they had some good looking cards there. Going through I was like, oh, I like this style, I like how they did this and like, but no, maybe it's because I'm used to buying magic boxes when I played and it was no, 36 packs for 100 bucks, 15 cards per pack, or back in their early 90s, um, when I was buying the marvel cards and stuff like that it was like the marvel flare, the flare, the flare.
Speaker 3:Yes, the masterpiece card, same thing. I'd buy a box because then I'd almost get my whole set. Then I go back to the store and buy the individuals that I wanted you know to finish out the set with trade, and that wasn't how it was. So, that being said, boost is great.
Speaker 1:Were you old enough to buy those baseball cards when they came in a cigarette packs back then, lou?
Speaker 3:well, I, I was, uh, at that point I was working for the company, so I was pretty up.
Speaker 2:Okay, and for the company he means he was working at the store that they were selling them at and yes so you?
Speaker 3:yes, somebody had to promote it. You have to remember, back in those days you had a person who actually went door-to-door out doing this type of stuff. After that, I think, roosevelt or Figman, you went that way, I went to.
Speaker 1:Ensky yes, because you went to go get your extra vendor.
Speaker 3:No, no, no, I did go get a brace.
Speaker 4:A wristband.
Speaker 3:I got a wristband. Then I went back to finish up the sponsor pins.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I think that's when I went to FigPin and there was nobody there and I was looking for the overflow queue, I'm like there's nobody here.
Speaker 3:Lined up at the back of the wall. Here you know there's nobody here, I'm like, okay, I guess I'll take one of everything that was weird, though in japan, very different than fig pin in celebration anaheim and an sdcc yeah, very different.
Speaker 3:yeah, I don't think nobody knew anything about it or something, but Cause it was at the end of the day when I went back there to get the, to get the Ahsoka set, and I and I didn't get the the other set because they told me they didn't have their celebration stickers. I remind me to email them about that. And then they said we were expecting to get them in tonight. So I was like, oh well, I'll just come back on Sunday then and buy them then and then, just jumping ahead, they still didn't come in. I went back on Sunday, I did get those pins, but they weren't no stickers.
Speaker 3:So I'll have to email them and ask them. I saved my receipt.
Speaker 1:It's actually on your Facebook account, dude.
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I went on there because, um, I was buying other stuff and I clicked on my account history and they're on there. That's super cool, all right, but it's funny because I put it in dollars, so I'm like I spent 151 000 on big pins. The fuck is this order?
Speaker 2:oh, it was yen also.
Speaker 4:Fine also, um not surprising not surprising, like I mean doorables or fig pin.
Speaker 3:Yep, I would totally expect that to be a yeah, when you see that the end of july on your credit card statement, it's like okay, that's legit. But I think yeah. So I ended up going back to n sky and then I went to the one that had the little squishies. Was it Happy something?
Speaker 1:Happy.
Speaker 4:Robot or something with an S.
Speaker 3:Either way, I went over there to finish that setup, and then I think that's when I went to Roosevelt's to meet you, right, and then you were going to get the shirt for Old Girl and then I was gonna go back to the store, I think yeah, do the low catch. That's when we split, yeah, and then so you had the extra wristband that ended up going to duke later in the day yeah, yep, because then I hopped in behind you yeah, because I'm not a savage.
Speaker 2:I'm not a just going to cut in line like most of those assholes.
Speaker 3:Um, yeah, so I went, I went over to the store. Uh, at that point I think I took a picture for you guys and it was a five hour wait for the regular line. Um, uh, right around lunchtime. So I go inside, uh, get, like I said, I forgot those pins, those badge art pins, the day before. So I grabbed that, a few things here and there, some of those red coins I thought were cool after the fact. So I couldn't get a set because they had sold out on Friday, like Ahsoka and somebody else had sold out on Friday. So I did that, did my pin trading. It got five little cats, like I said, in 10 or 15 minutes. I expected it to take a lot longer, so nope. And then I was about to leave.
Speaker 3:I purchased, walked out, actually left the building. I was still on the sidewalk right there with the queue of all the people, and then that's when Jack reminded me about badges. I'm like shit, turned back around, went inside, went straight to the register, and that's when I told you that story already and got that done. Then I left again and I didn't at that point, I just wanted to sit down. So I walked over to the food truck area food truck area was freaking awesome. So many choices, so much of everything not surprising. Not surprisingly, the hamburger actual hamburger, not the Japanese hamburgers. And so much of everything Not surprisingly the hamburger actual hamburger, not the Japanese hamburgers. The actual hamburger line was the longest. It was the one thing that most people could relate to.
Speaker 2:It was really good, though the burgers were really good, though we did them later in the day.
Speaker 3:In the food court, in the food truck area. Yeah, I ended up getting a crepe of all things, so I wasn't, I wasn't that hungry.
Speaker 4:So I was like, oh, this crepe is good.
Speaker 3:I figured I'd get a crepe, eat dessert and if I'm still hungry then I get some proper food. I think I had like a banana caramel cream, something. I'm like oh my God, it was so good. So, and then I ended up sitting down and met this one girl from Kansas who's living in Japan and in the Netherlands. All in couple came and said the table for people you know like hey, anybody sitting here? She's like no, go ahead. And then there were two open seats. So a couple came by and like can we sit join? It's like yeah, so I ended up chatting with them for like 45 minutes. So I ended up chatting with them for like 45 minutes. I chatted with the girl, I think her, and her husband. She's ex-military, her husband is still in the military, so he was deployed someplace and couldn't make it. So I was chatting with her for a bit. Then the two showed up. Then we all chatted for a bit, then the two left and another guy showed up, and that's the guy that was there at the end of the day Jack.
Speaker 1:Oh, that was still there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the Scottish sounding dude or whatever, or the British sounding dude. So I ended up leaving the two of them and went back inside and it's kind of like roaming type of thing. I think I went and got my own fig pan and was just picking up whatever last minute stuff I was getting from my folks. I was there for quite a while because we didn't stay all day saturday. Um, it was go in, do some more shopping and then, when all was said and done, I went back out.
Speaker 3:I I think I think I helped one of my friends from colorado. Actually I picked up a jar jar funko for him and chatted with him for about an hour on the stairway in between the hallways. Then I went back over like I did my shopping, went back to the uh food court and the hallways. Then I went back over, I did my shopping, went back to the food court and the guy that I was there three hours previous was still there. I joined him again at his table and just sat and waited for Jack and the group to come by.
Speaker 1:What else were we doing? I was with the girls. Is that the day you saw Nibs?
Speaker 3:Jack went to a panel also.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we went to one of the fan panels. Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:It was for Jedi Survivor, but it was just these girls that have a podcast talking about it. So I took a nap. I didn't realize that that's what that stage was for, so I had a nap. But then you also went to Ahsoka too, right? I didn't realize that that's what that Sage was for, so I didn't know.
Speaker 3:But then you also went to Ahsoka too, right.
Speaker 1:No, the wife and little one went oh that too went, yeah, okay. And that's when we found out about Lothal's that will also grow you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, probably.
Speaker 1:Starfighter was Friday, right yeah so when we saw that we were actually in that long-ass Insky line when Levy and Ken came out and they announced it there. That was kind of cool. I mean, we were there for that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we were right there and the stage was right in front of us.
Speaker 1:Hayden was out there everybody saying happy birthday to him. I guess it was his birthday that week. No, I mean it was fine, but gosh, what did we do the rest of the day After that?
Speaker 3:Well, I know we left early, I know that much.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't think we were there. We definitely weren't there until close.
Speaker 2:That's when we went to KFC that night night, that was KFC night, because I didn't join you guys for KFC night. Yeah, friday Was Friday, a Lawson's night, and the hotel the rice the green tea rice night, right yeah.
Speaker 3:That shit was good yeah.
Speaker 2:That was all we had. We had the Lawson's after after, but then we did the green tea rice to kind of just try out what they had there for the for the late night menu. Because then the following because it was free. Sunday night was sunday night was when we did the 7-eleven right yeah, you guys did yeah, well, no, you were with us. No, no, no, no, you were gone.
Speaker 4:You had left that was gone.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you, you're right, that was thursday. I thought was the 7-Eleven night.
Speaker 2:You're right, because that was the first night we.
Speaker 3:No, no, no, it would have been Friday.
Speaker 1:Or Saturday.
Speaker 3:No, because Saturday we did KFC.
Speaker 1:Okay, then it must have been Friday.
Speaker 3:It had to have been Friday. It was a long walk to 7-Eleven.
Speaker 1:It Freaking tourists. I don't know what we were doing. I guess we finished off that.
Speaker 3:But I must have been doing something With the girls, if Lou was already gone? Yeah, I was. I was about an hour. I probably waited about 30 minutes to 45 minutes For you guys outside Just chilling.
Speaker 1:So what did you do? You and me had already gone through and got all our vendor pins together. That's when we got the clothing spray. Yep, because you and me had already gone through and got all our vendor pins together.
Speaker 3:That's when we got the clothing spray Yep, which worked well. That was great, right. Yeah, that's right, because he had to use it for his Portland shirt.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know what I did with the girls then Saturday.
Speaker 3:I don't know.
Speaker 3:I think maybe you were just finishing your panel, maybe, and then, just joined me and as soon as you were done you came and met me outside the food trucks, yeah, and then we left because we were trying to avoid a little bit of rush hour. Yeah, so it was that 4.30 to 5 type of range. We were just at the cusp, yeah, so I think we got on the first train in like quarter till 5. Yeah, so we were like stuff off and it was like okay, we started looking. We wanted to find a sushi place. We took like 45 minutes walking around the area looking for a sushi place for the oldest.
Speaker 1:Uh, sushi in fricking Tokyo, that was weird.
Speaker 3:Dude. To be fair, we were outside. We weren't even in.
Speaker 4:Tokyo, but we were.
Speaker 3:I don't even know what the hell town we were called Uh. But, we were. I don't even know what the hell town we were called, but either way, again with an O, were we?
Speaker 1:okay, I thought it was a Y. Yeah, it's like Yachio Yachio.
Speaker 3:Yachio. Yeah, I think you're right.
Speaker 4:I think it was Yachio yeah.
Speaker 3:Either way we we walked around. We didn't find anything that really stood out that we wanted KFC. That was across the street from the hotel. It was definitely different. A little bit of a language barrier at first. We're scanning the menu with our phones to try to understand everything. Then the lady asked a question. We had no idea what she said, so I had her do it in the Google app. It was just here to go.
Speaker 1:We're looking around. We're like what do you mean? How am?
Speaker 3:I going to eat here bro. There's no place to eat here it was upstairs I looked and they had security cameras and they were upstairs. You go, it was a full area to eat like, like bigger than some american kfc restaurant seating area to go up there. So we told them to go. Then we got our food, ended up staying here and I I apologized for the lady. It's like we didn't know. Like we didn't know.
Speaker 2:We went upstairs.
Speaker 1:She's like whatever American Leave yeah.
Speaker 3:It took us maybe 10-15 minutes just to order because we had to figure it out.
Speaker 4:I enjoyed what I had.
Speaker 3:I enjoyed my macaroni salad and my chicken. Yeah, it was fine. I think we didn't do much after that.
Speaker 2:Well, I showed up, and then we went back down and got chicken nuggets, as we did.
Speaker 3:Yeah, every night chicken nuggets and a beer man or some alcoholic yeah.
Speaker 1:Now we went to bed. Get it back again on Sunday to finish out the celebration Sunday was late.
Speaker 3:Sunday was late day.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, sunday was. We will plan to be there when, after everything is open Not by much they open at 9. We got there like 9.45.
Speaker 2:We weren't sleeping in that much I did not join you on that Sunday. I ended up going elsewhere.
Speaker 3:Wait, didn't you show up with your friends later that day?
Speaker 2:No, that was Saturday. Sunday we went to.
Speaker 1:Wayno Park.
Speaker 2:We went to Wayno Park and went to all that giant market, the street market.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I didn't go at all on Sunday to celebration.
Speaker 3:Jack, what was yours? We got there. We were just screwing off, we got there I went to the store I we went inside. Oh, I had to go get my fig pin and the other pins from um the other three booths, whatever it was sales. I think they're called yeah sales sales force sales one, sales one.
Speaker 1:So I did that, I know, I think I think we did it too we were just right ahead of you though, because you were doing getting your other stuff, and then I went to do my sales.
Speaker 3:One stuff, because then I had to ask you like, where the hell's fig pin? I remember asking you about that again. No, no, no, it wasn't fig pin, it was the self. Yeah, because fig pin?
Speaker 1:I wouldn't. It was twink. You didn't know where twink was. Yeah, or twink was and we went together.
Speaker 3:Fig Pin, that's when we helped that lady.
Speaker 1:not trade the fancy, yeah the glitter, and then she gave it to my oldest.
Speaker 3:Right, it was like oh, thanks for saving us, we got an extra one anyway, you have any trade. No, we didn't buy any of those. Okay, well, here you go. Anyway, that was pretty cool. So Sunday was basically a lot of last minute. Just last minute shopping whatever last minute stuff we needed and going through you know what, Take that back. I did go to Roosevelt's because that's when I got myself Chewy's on Yep because you were iffy on it.
Speaker 3:I was, and then it was like wait, we could do matching at SDCC, because we'll tell you which day. I was going to say, we'll tell you which day. So you're wearing it too, it too. But yeah, because I didn't want one at first, but a little girl want to wear nice, how'd it go? How'd it go? How'd it go?
Speaker 2:no, I'm talking about yeah, like, because usually, usually you count your uh shirt, and they are, and it has, since it has a japanese writing on it which I need to probably translate. They were, um, every, just like, led right into. How was japan like? Because they all saw it.
Speaker 3:Oh, got it, and then I would show off that it has the fold-over that Jack showed us To cover up the buttons. Wait what I haven't opened them either.
Speaker 2:On the shirt. You see how you see the button. They actually added an extra flap that matches the picture and covers up the buttons.
Speaker 3:Only for that one.
Speaker 1:That one and the Haunted Carbonite one.
Speaker 3:It's the first time I've seen them do that with those full panel shirts like that. The anime one that we got there, yeah the Haunted Carbonite one.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's badass.
Speaker 3:Okay, that's badass. Yeah, I haven't opened any of those yet. Still sitting in a pile. No, that's super cool. Let's see what else Sunday got there did that shopping.
Speaker 1:Sunday is when I did do panels, though. We went to the Disneyland panel for the updates on the Disney rides. So Smuggler's Run runs getting a big update when amando and grogu comes out next year. Um, being an engineer won't be the the bitch seat anymore where you put little kids, because now you get to chat with grogu. He's going to pop up on the screen and um engineer also gets to pick which planet you go to, because now you get to pick which planet you go to. Oh, that's cool, yeah, and they're already testing it, because it's just a video game, right? If you've been on Smuggler's, Run it's just a video game.
Speaker 1:So they just go there in the middle of the night, boot that up and they're playing fucking Mando and Grogu Smuggler's Run. I'm like you mother.
Speaker 3:How terrible for them. Right and.
Speaker 1:How terrible for them. And then nothing else really new. I mean they talked about how they're adding all the Ahsoka and Andor and Mando to Star Tours in Tokyo that we've had since last season of the fours. Nothing about Rise of the Resistance. They talked a little bit about how they brought Luke in for Disneyland.
Speaker 3:That's Cloud Galaxy's Edge. Wait, oh, that's only for Season of the Force, yeah Well good, I mean, they say that now Right.
Speaker 1:Hey look, they did the limited for Hera and Chop and Sabine. I mean they're sticking to it pretty good. But I mean they're sticking to it pretty good.
Speaker 2:They always have them available, so they have them available for.
Speaker 3:Limited for Sabine. Didn't we see Sabine in December? No, oh, you're right, it was last May and then again today or yesterday Also, I guess I'm getting a Star Wars.
Speaker 2:I'm getting a Star Wars Nate shirt because the friend that I was with the one that bought the album box, him and his girl, went to Disneyland last weekend. So he texted oh shit, I forgot to go pick up his. I gotta go pick up his package. I forgot to go pick up a package for him. I suck. He was supposed to text me and let me know when it showed up. So I got to go do that after we get done with this.
Speaker 1:And then we watched the season finale of Rebels. I was like, nah, that's cool, you know whatever Excellent Star Wars, right, but it was in Japanese and it was still really good. And then we stuck around the, the closing ceremonies. Uh, it turns out that 70 of the people there first celebration, which I think explains a lot of the issues that were had. Um, then they announced it's going to be in la in 27 I don't know, wait, I don't know how that connects because? Because they don't know what they're doing either.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but I didn't find the fans to be a problem.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the people there weren't a problem.
Speaker 3:I didn't find them to be a problem.
Speaker 2:They were just as confused as we were.
Speaker 3:The one thing I will say and I don't know how true this is, but I would probably put money on that Cluster F bottleneck that you ran into People at SDCC who had been there a while, they would have figured it out. The fans would have figured out how to make that worse? Yes, definitely.
Speaker 1:Like everybody going this way, going the right way, it would have been right side here, it would have been self-corrected for sure.
Speaker 3:We would have corrected that, and then the people on the right would have went through, got there and then circled back around to the line, it definitely would have been self-corrected yeah, I think we would. We would want to figure that out, but that 70 percent might have been part of the problem there, but they don't know how to they have.
Speaker 1:You're not used to it and they you know the culture walking on the left and all that. That was weird. Yeah, I caught myself doing that at disneyland all weekend, like shit, I don't walk on the left anymore, it's on the right. So that caused some issues this weekend. But yeah, so that's what I did. So we came back from Disney Tokyo and went straight to Disneyland. Anaheim.
Speaker 3:No, hold on Back up, because after your panel on Sunday did you guys just go back? No, no, you went to the mall, didn't you? Yeah, we hung out at the mall where the station walked around that mall.
Speaker 1:It was like a bougie ass mall over there yeah, it was a very fancy yeah you know, we, we can't afford to buy anything, even though we were japan rich and they were like, well, fuck it, let's find a mcdonald's. So yeah, no, we went over to mcdonald's. It was around the station, like you know. When we left, you just go straight to the station. If you go left, there's a whole another mall back there. We also got baskin robbins um, I was really tempted to do taco bell yeah, we want to, I'll be real um right I would
Speaker 3:I would just for a beer honestly I was gonna say my friend that I got the uh jar jar, for he raved about it because he was like I know it's Taco Bell, but the fact that I could buy a beer is what did it for me.
Speaker 1:So we went to McDonald's. I thought it would be a repeat of KFC, where I don't speak the language. It's going to take forever. No, they had a kiosk that you switch to English and then bingo.
Speaker 4:Get a little tp for your place sitting yeah, all right, yeah, no, we ordered it um, I got a, uh, I got a teriyaki burger, which is delicious, the wife got a samurai mac, which was a soy sauce.
Speaker 1:I think it had egg on it, like the eggs they give you on the did have the biscuits in the morning, so it had one of those eggs on it. It was pretty good. The girls just got regular food. I got a potato and cheese stick or something. No potato and bacon or something. It was delicious. It was like you know we get apple pies. They have fucking potato pies. It was actually pretty good Potato pie. You know we get apple pies.
Speaker 3:They have fucking potato pies.
Speaker 1:It was actually pretty good potato pie and little one got a happy meal, avi, and they gave her some weird ass doll I don't even know if it was licensed or some, just like some bootleg shit. They got a diso or donkey or something oh my god, that's hilarious. And then, after that, we went to baskin robbins and, uh, we got some ice cream and then we took the train back early night. Shit, no, it was dark.
Speaker 3:It was dark before we got on the train, yeah yeah oh wow, you must have met them all for a while we were yeah, I mean, we made sure.
Speaker 1:Oh, wait, wait I forgot, yeah, I forgot.
Speaker 3:Plus, you actually stayed to the close.
Speaker 2:They were there until 5 o'clock.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm thinking y'all were gone at 2 or 3. No, you didn't even get to the mall until like 5.30.
Speaker 1:We also saw our own Japanese. I dared Big One to go ask if he knew not like us, but she wouldn't do it.
Speaker 3:Was that at the mall?
Speaker 1:Yeah, he was singing outside of the train station. You know where that baseball thing was. There was trees and stuff over there. He was over there.
Speaker 2:They call them idols when people are out singing and stuff. I learned that while we were there, because that's what they hope, right, right. They hope that somebody walks by who hears them, who actually has some influence and can make them a, make them a deal. So they call it idols or idling or whatever Like cause basically you're American idling, right Like you're trying to get that.
Speaker 3:Okay, all right.
Speaker 1:But you're just a street performer.
Speaker 3:They do that here too, yeah, I was going to say it's like okay for them. I guess street performer isn't a phrase, so idle.
Speaker 1:You're a poor that doesn't have a real job, sir.
Speaker 3:Man. Well, as we wrap this up, I'll finish my Sunday leading up until conversation next week. So after I left Jack and the group in the morning, I don't know 10, 11 o'clock.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was probably close. Yes, we did our art. We picked up all our art prints and you took those back.
Speaker 3:We did that. Yeah, we consolidated our art stuff because, because I was going back to the room, I was going to Osaka that night overnight, I was going to osaka that night overnight, I was going to hang out and and I wanted to kill some time and all that and ended up killing time in shinjuku because that's where my station was. My bus station was to go to osaka for world's fair on monday. So jack and I did our art printing. We consolidated. I went back to the store just last minute stuff just kind of looking. I think I ended up buying like three things like, like, like some other of those, those metal coins, those red coins. I think I ended up getting like a like a, a Han and a and a the go with the layer that I, that I got, and I think a Luke and me. I think I ended up getting three more, Um and some, I don't know something minor. Oh, I know what it was. They were doing shirts. Every day they had a specific shirt you could go in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they had a daily shirt.
Speaker 3:And this one was Ahsoka oh nice. And since, oh girls, into Ahsoka, I waited the 45-minute process to 45 minutes was like 20 in line and then 25 for the shirt. So I got that shirt and then, once that was done, I was like, okay, it's still early enough, I'm going to go back. My bus wasn't until 1130 at night, so I was like I'm going to go back to the room, drop all this stuff up, shower change, get ready for the next day and all that, take a nap and go from there. And so, as I was leaving from there, and so as I was leaving, I was leaving and there was some Japanese girl, probably 20 or so.
Speaker 3:She looked young, got out of the store line. She was in the regular store line and she just was walking. The same way I was going to go back to the station. I caught up with her and I tapped her on her shoulder and I was like English, she's like a little bit. I was like were you trying to get into the store for something specific, or like I just want to look around? I was like hang on.
Speaker 3:So I pulled out my lightning lane pass that I had for Sunday and was like well, I have a lightning lane pass. If you want to use it, I'm done. I'm not going back in. It hasn't been used yet, so it's still scannable. So if you want it, you can take it. It. She understood what I was saying. She's like, her eyes got all big and she was super excited. It was like oh my gosh, you know, thank you, thank you, thank you. So I gave it to her and she turned around and if she, if she was older, she, she was a looker, I ain't lie, but she looked a little too young. It was like oh, she reminds me of my niece.
Speaker 3:No, we can't go there, we can't go there, so yeah, so she went back. I don't know whatever happened to her. Hopefully she got through and got something. I don't think I went straight back to the station. I think I did. I took a long way Instead of the way we were going, just to see what else was around there. I took a long way. Train was fine. Going by myself it was perfectly fine for the first time, I think. Perfectly fine. Got back to the hotel.
Speaker 3:I think I ended up taking a nap first. You did.
Speaker 3:You said you were taking a nap. I took a nap first, then got up in the evening I don't know six or so. So two, three hour nap, took a shower, obviously unpacked my backpack, only put in there what I needed to go to Osaka, took the train down to Shinjuku and was just hanging around the nightlife of Shinjuku for a bit, found myself a ramen place for dinner. That was kind of cool. Very touristy in Shinjuku. It was definitely foreigner, I won't even say American, Just a lot of Europeans, that's for damn sure. Oh my god, I found more Europeans than I did, Americans, especially Australians, but that kind of makes it closer. So hung out in Shinjuku Was super cool and it got to the point where it's like, okay, I should probably walk towards my butt, since I don't know what the hell I'm doing I want to make sure I get there and not miss this thing.
Speaker 3:Uh, so I'm heading back to the station and and there's again street m&m, just some japanese dude just with his machine just wrapping away, and I'm walking towards him. That's where my station area was. I'm walking towards him. All of a sudden, everybody's kind of stopped and looking up and I had no idea what's going on. So I do the same thing I turn around and look up. That's what I thought it was, that freaking 3D cat.
Speaker 4:Yeah, in.
Speaker 3:Shinjuku. That was on my list to do but I wasn't really planning on doing it. Then I was just kind of killing time to get on that bus. I was like I don't want to miss, so I turn around, I eyeball this thing. I'm probably watching it for half an hour. It's kind of ridiculous because the cat would do something for like 30 seconds. Then you get like five minutes commercials. Then the cat would do something for like 30 seconds. Then you get like five minutes commercials, then the cat would do something for 30 seconds. It was kind of weird. But at the same time it all just happened. I'm listening to Japanese Eminem just go at it and I'm sitting there just kind of going and just doing my thing. It was like all right, all right, this guy's got it going on and by the time I was done I turned around and bought his CD.
Speaker 1:I don't have nothing to put it on, but I bought a.
Speaker 3:CD. It was a CD. I'm leaning over now because I found it in my bag. Today I got a CD. I have not even opened this bad boy. As far as I know, it could be a blank disc. Let's open this right now. Let's see. This is what it is Some generic Wow.
Speaker 4:I think I should have a sticker that I bought from Price when they went out of business. Dude for real.
Speaker 3:But it was. I think I ended up hearing like four of his songs and the last three. The first one, I wasn't really paying attention to. The last three I was paying attention. No idea what he's saying, but the beat was pretty damn good. So I was, like, you know, for 2 000 yen, you know like 13, like why not?
Speaker 1:so uh, did that you just helped spark his dream I did like exactly.
Speaker 3:He's like a black guy's dancing to my shit and give me support.
Speaker 2:You know, you know he was he went home and told this story to his mom and dad. Absolutely Not realizing.
Speaker 3:what he really needed was you two fuckers to give him dabs and me, the wrong guy, to give him dabs.
Speaker 4:But that's okay, that's all right.
Speaker 3:He's still happy. But yeah, that was. Once all of that was done, I worked my way to the station. I got there about 45 minutes to an hour before they were going to board, asked information to make sure where I was going and everything, and they told me what track number and well, I guess, whatever they call them there in the bus stations, whatever my area was, it was like D11. I remember that much. It was like D11, go chill here and then wait for the 1130 because it was obviously a bunch of buses.
Speaker 3:Oh my God, all the rumors you all hear about the efficiency is not a joke. They had buses in queue. So let's say I got there at 1015, or not 1015. I got there like 1030, 1045. My bus was at 11 30. We're going to board at 11 20. So every bus, the four buses or three buses ahead of me, they would say like 10 50 at 10 40, a bus rolled up literally on the dock. 10, 40 rolls up, um. They do the whole announcements, most of it in japanese, and then they have the overcom thing, intercom thing in.
Speaker 4:English.
Speaker 3:And then 10.50, that bus was gone. And then next bus, let's say you know 11.10, 11 o'clock, 10 minutes exactly bus pulled. It was like the shit was just waiting there and just waiting and waiting. It was like, okay, now you can't come early, can't come late. Punks showed up, they loaded and if you weren't there they just left your ass. There is no whoa our manifest says they're supposed to have. They don't care. It was wild to just watch 45 minutes of just this perfection. I was like, oh, my OCD was so happy just this perfection.
Speaker 4:I was like oh, my OCD was so happy.
Speaker 3:I'm just sitting there with my Pokey Sweat. They had a video machine there and I needed something for the ride right. So I grabbed two bottles of Pokey Sweat and yeah, it was something, it was something.
Speaker 2:But we'll hear about that next week.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we can get into Osaka. The bus ride is pretty straightforward, but we can get to Osaka a little bit next week.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Disney and Osaka.
Speaker 1:Hells yeah. But so happy Star Wars Day from all of our wrestling and fucking Star Trek fans.
Speaker 2:Star Trek fans. From all your Star Trek and wrestling fans, happy Star Wars Day.
Speaker 3:When God said let there be light, I flipped a switch.
Speaker 1:That means it's time for me to go to Beck's. He's old as fuck, he is old as fuck.
Speaker 3:He's got work in the morning. Man, he is old as fuck. I knew Burger King when he was a prince.
Speaker 2:Fuck, alright, bye, cut, cut it out.
