Pictures from Toys R Us

Now that the weekend is now over, we've gotten all of our pictures in from the Williston event. Here's some of the highlights:

Mission Report: Williston Toys R Us Midnight Toy Release

The Vermont contingent of the New England Garrison turned out in its biggest gathering on Friday night at the Williston, Vermont Toys R Us to participate in their midnight Clone Wars toy release. The event saw three troopers, Andrew Liptak, Mike Anton and David Willard, appear, as TKs, to mingle with the small crowd of people who had waited in line for the opening. We also had three helpers, Stephen, Hayes and Ashley as wranglers, who took a number of pictures and helped us out when needed.
It was a small turnout for the store, but by 11:00, a small line had formed, and several people trickled in afterward, while we patrolled the aisles and posed for pictures. The store employees were thrilled to have us, and overall, it was a good, low-key event.
This was the first chance that I had to debut my upgraded armor, which worked fairly well - I had a couple of problems with my sniperplate, but for the most part, the glued sections worked well - I need to work on my shins, because I glued the parts on backwards.

+ 1 TK in VT

Vermont numbers grew by one more person today! Mike Anton, who came along with me for the Kellogg-Hubbard troop and whom I helped build armor with, was just approved. Welcome TK-2084 to the New England Garrison!

Pictures from Kellogg Hubbard Library

Here's a couple of pictures from this weekend's event at Montpelier's Kellogg Hubbard Library:

More to come soon, I hope.

Mission Report: Summer Reading Kickoff at the Kellogg Hubbard Library

On June 21st, two troopers from the New England Garrison trooped at Montpelier's Kellogg-Hubbard Children's Library start to their summer reading program. We were contacted by one of the librarians in preparation for another event, and agreed to come out to this one.

This was a pretty low key event. Perhaps twenty children, ages 5 to 10 or so, attended the event, which was intended to promote reading for children. Over the next month and a half, they are going to be working towards reading as many books as possible, and will have the chance to win an FX lightsaber if they read 12 or more books during that time.

We, (Recruit Mike Anton and myself) mingled with the children and posted for a photograph with each child holding the lightsaber. I brought along my spare TK and TB helmets, which they were able to try on. They were very excited to see two troopers in the flesh (or plastic, so to speak).

A couple of the kids were a little over-excited with our presence, and we had to make sure that they didn't hurt themselves or us. (Their parents stepped in only after a couple minutes). Ben, the librarian, posed for a couple of pictures with us, and took some pictures for the library's website or newsletter. We'll be working with them again during the July 3rd Parade in Montpelier in a couple of weeks. Overall, a good, short troop, very fun.

We didn't have any problems on our end, although Mike had misplaced his shoulder straps, which we were able to correct with several stripes of duct tape. I had some problems with one of my thighs, but we didn't have any issues on the floor.

Pictures will be coming soon.

Upcoming Events

Wow, things just got busy all of a sudden. This weekend, on Sunday, I've been planning on attending the Granite City Comic Con, in Manchester New Hampshire. It's a pretty small event, with probably 10-15 troopers attending, along with our Jabba the Hutt puppet. Should be fun.

Last night, while flipping through channels, I stopped on the news, where they mentioned an upcoming event, the Burlington Kid's Day, which is in it's 23rd year. Even better, the theme this year was Kids In Outer Space, which practically screams 501st. Check with our guys, there's some interest, check with the organizers, they'd like us to come, so two events this weekend.

And after that, next week, I'm headed down to New York City, to see my brother Dan play in a concert at Carnegie Hall, but because we're getting there early in the day, I'm going to try and pack my armor along and troop with the Empire City Garrison as there's the Movie and TV World Convention that day! Woo!