Darth Aloha's Troop Log

[Veeds[TK]]

Looks like you've had a good year so far. I can't wait until I have my suit and can go on my first troop.

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

2014-08-28 - 2014-08-31 Fan Expo Canada

 

Is anyone tired of reading about this con yet? I already described my experience in Toronto in the newsletter. Clamps does a fine job of showing off the booth. That means I will use this space to post gratuitous photos of my hairy tropical legs. 

 

One of the things I did not talk about already is how popular the Aloha Troopers are. As a point of clarification I am not on vacation please do not call me Vacation Trooper. My character's backstory (I just threw up a little in my mouth) is that he is from Hawaii. There is no good way to communicate that to the people who are mobbing you for a photo. I am floored and fascinated by how many tweets and instagrams are out there of us.

 

Not only are we generally interweb famous, but we're StarWars.com Blog famous thanks to Mary Franklin. We stopped by the Lucasfilm booth and took some photos. I also managed to photo bomb a death trooper by smooching him on the cheek. Sadly she did not catch the rest of my molestation (someone needs to remind me that there are kids around sometimes) of that poor guy trying to act all zombie-esque. Check out Mary's post for more photos of us. I'm a fairly quiet and unassuming guy without my costume on but being featured on that blog and elsewhere really feeds my TK narcissism. The other irony is that I am totally not Canadian. 

 

Ok... speaking of narcissism... here are way too many photos (that I mostly stole from Pickles and instagram) for one post:

 

Buckets on

 

Buckets off

 

Before

 

After

 

 

 

 

 

With Clamplet and Clamps

 

Lucasfilm booth

 

501st dinner selfies

 

Clamplet

 

Best costume of the con

 

Death Star control room

 

An amazing 3PO (yes there's a dude in there)

 

---

 

Here are photos we downloaded from other sources like instagram:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eleventeen escalators (thanks Pickles)

 

Thanks for reading.

 

Aloha,

 

-Eric

Edited September 22, 2014 by Darth Aloha
Added escalator map

[Clamps[TK]]

Eric shall we book you a room for 2015?

[Pickles[TK]]

Eric shall we book you a room for 2015?

Yes!

 

Always room for more troopers!

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

2014-09-14 Granite State Comicon

 

It's con season! This one was up in New Hampshire.

 

No one has uploaded photos from this even yet so I'm just going to leave this right here until then:

 

 

-Eric

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

Nice stuff, as always Eric!

 

I seriously can't get enough of the Toronto Con!

 

I may have to build a "Troop Log" thread like yours. Seems to me to be a solid way to keep track of all of them in one easy thread.

[mikedwelle94[TK]]

I don't think I saw you. Were you there on Saturday?

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

I don't think I saw you. Were you there on Saturday?

 

Nope. I'm sorry I missed you. I could only swing Sunday

 

-Eric

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

I'm catching up on my troop log... going totally out of order.... 

 

2014-08-23 Dover Mini-Maker Faire

 

 

Up in Dover NH is a pretty cool children's museum. They had a little maker fair where some 501st folks showed off how to vacuform stuff and we wandered around interacting with the kids for the day. For me this is a perfect troop because it provides a non stop stream of kids to goof around with and take photos. 

 

Here are a few photos from the event:

 

Group photo

 

Stormtrooperguy shows off his mini vacumform machine and his happy face.

 

Hanging around the booth:

 

Sean weathers a clone? Really... what is he doing exactly?

 

Me and my favorite tie trooping buddy:

 

Droids... where are the droids.. you builder?!

 

Found!

 

So I'm totally out of sequence now... but this is New England troop #5 I think.

 

-Eric

[Pickles[TK]]

Love the demos going on.

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

2014-10-25 Halloween Comicfest

 

At the last minute I noticed this event. I didn't see it until our CO declined the event. This comic book shop is a half a mile away from my house. Sean the TS and and I stood on the sidewalk and tried not to cause any traffic accidents. It was mostly an exercise in getting grumpy road ragey Bostonians to relent and wave back to us. The owner of Comic Stop fed us and was super gracious. I'll troop this any day even if I don't live around the corner. There was only one photo from this event taken by the owner, who is the Robin in it. Sorry for the quality. 

 

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

2014-10-26 Lion's Club Halloween Parade

 

The Woburn (inexplicably pronounced Woo-burn) Halloween parade is a long standing tradition with the NEG. While only a couple miles long, the streets of Woburn were packed with people. 

 

We arrived around 1000ish and one of or members and his wife cooked up 5 dozen eggs, many boxes of sausages, and potatoes. Thanks the maker they did because we stood around in costume waiting to move for a few hours. The RL and 501st were at the back of the parade. We hired a school bus to take us back to the start point and I think we got back around 4something.

 

I should really rename this event the "Scout Jamboree" because there were a ton of those idiotic court jesters. I don't know about your garrison but ours get sillier and sillier as their numbers grow. There were times during the parade there weren't any TB's in front of me and suddenly they would come running from behind in full force after mobbing some kid in a star wars costume. "White armor back in formation" was something that was yelled by our handlers more than once. 

 

I finally got to meet a new fellow RT-MOD trooper from Rhode Island. He and I are easy to pick out in the photos. Randy's kit looks great. 

 

Photobombing scouts photobombing tiny Captain Rexs is a full time and exhausting occupation:

 

Marching

 

How awesome is our Mon Mothma?

 

Yay New England

 

This... this right here says it all:

 

Proper parenting:

 

So.. many.. scouts:

 

OT bitches... OT!

 

Yes.. the guy on the ground is the NEG CO (the CO of the RL was wearing her scout... because irony)

 

The group:

 

 

Ok... that's New England troop #8

 

-Eric

[Huntzman]

Seriously, this has to be one of the all time best photos ever !!!! I have one son who constantly does this to me in photos, it's become a running gag. I truly can empathize with the good Sith Lord !!!! 

 

 

2014-08-09 Boston Comicon

 

This pretty much typifies my con experience no matter where I go. It is really hard to take myself seriously. The Vader in this photo is your Bounty Hunter's Guild Detachment Leader Bob aka Webchief:

 

 

 

[Dougal[501st]]

What a trooper!!! Looks like lots of good times!!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

I still haven't written a troop report for Rhode Island Comicon but I am getting a ton of pressure from the Canadians to write this one... 
 
This is a jointly written troop report from Pickles and me. We both have the same set of photos so it made sense for us to combine efforts. Her narrative is in green mine is in purple. 
 
2014-11-16 - 2014-11-17 Strong Museum of Play - In Another Galaxy Weekend
 
On November 15/16 the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, NY held its annual ‘In Another Galaxy’ Star Wars weekend. Both the museum and the always-welcoming folks of Garrison Excelsior hosted a gaggle of us Canadian Garrison types for a memorable 2 day troop! 
 
I enjoy traveling and meeting members from other Garrisons. This troop seemed like a great opportunity to do just that, hang out with some of the Excelsior folks, my favorite Canadians and if course get to see Pickles. If you've ever been on a school trip when you were young and stayed in a hotel you'll know what our nightlife was like. From what I remember we regressed heavily and it is a huge wonder no one was seriously hurt... at least from the photo proof the next day (most of us were hurting in our buckets the next morning)
 
We were organized into shifts at various stations around the museum throughout the day mostly standing around for photo ops. There was enough variety for most of us, unless you're a royal guard. (the crayons stand next to the emperors throne all day each day) The museum staff all wore jedi robes as they directed folks in and around our stations. 
 
The Canadians trucked their entire badass booth from FanExpo down from the Great White North. We spent all of Friday night loading in and setting up the Death Star and Tantive IV walls. The effort was well worth it once the kids started pouring in. To see so many children and parents sporting Star Wars t-shirts and fun costumes was maybe the best part of the weekend. It was two days of a lot of "parenting done right." 
 
Canadian Garrison TKs:
TK-6093 Andrea “Pickles” Loar
TK-25267 Charles “Clamps” Bowes Actually, Clamps only brought his Tusken (and no TK-repair kit!) so he doesn't count!   Feel free to 'boo' him in every post possible, lol. Or maybe just put a TK boot square in his cod. 
TK-9418 Ken “Pony Boy” Morse
TK-34624 Paul “Butters” Young
TK-3417 Phil “Ham Cam” Fabroni
TK-16180 Steve “Squeaky” Chiu
TK 14127 Mike “Narc” Brace
 
Garrison Excelsior TKs:
(Sorry if any are missed!)
TK-9510 Peter G. Myhalenko
 
Special Guest, New England Garrison TK:
TK-9674 Eric "Darth Aloha" Brager
 
A cute little event patch was made for the event. 
Because that's just what I need is another patch in my life. 

 
 
Some of the sets and props we brought down to the U.S.

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 
The first area that Eric and myself were stationed was the museum entrance, greeting the very excited kids (both little and big! haha). There was a carousel next to the entrance and it didn't take long before we had to inspect the ride to ensure it was up to Imperial code.
It was fun to stand behind the pillar by the front door and see everyone's reaction as two Stormtoopers were guarding the entrance to the museum. 

 
Of course the horsey stopped in the up position forcing me to slide my butt plate off the saddle and nearly fall over. It wasn't fun or pretty.

 
 
Later on we picked up a few items at the mini Wegman's Grocery store.
Throwing diapers in our cart was super funny because it isn't. Asking kids to restock the items I couldn't reach also tickled me and confused the younglings quite a bit. I was not able to bend down far enough to push the micro cart. 

 
 
Squeaky made himself comfortable and enjoyed a book.

 
 
Narc and Peter worked on their blaster shot avoiding techniques.
There is no spoon.

 
 
There was quite a lot of rebel shenanigans going on while we tried to keep order.

 

 
 
There may also have been some Imperial shenanigans.

 
 

 
 
I could not contain my delight when I saw where the Emperor's chair ended up being staged. I was next to rolling on the floor, incapacitated with laughter as this photo was taken.
Ironically when Pickles picked me up from the airport she took one look at the baggage carousel and said "F you stripey bag" That is Pickles herself on the throne, so to speak. 

 

If you are unfamiliar with the reference, watch this:

 
 

Nothing but cod.

 

 

Pickles guards the boss' boss on his Lego throne.

 

There was an amazing little Vader that regaled us with the song of our people (Imperial March) on the accordion.
One of the stations we were assigned to was a theatre were we stood long periods having our photos taken as kids came up to the stage. I have to admit that this kid made the experience really surreal. Who brings an accordion to a toy/game museum? I kept thinking "Did someone dose my aker mic? Is this really happening?"
 
Please note Narc and I. We are the Tower Troopers with Pickles in the middle. (stupid shin kept riding up!)

 
 
As you could tell, Narc and Eric are ridiculously tall   As we trooped the event, I was constantly assaulted with, "Aren't you a little short for a Stormtooper?". This was typically followed by a deep voice (Eric) telling me, "You're welcome!" >.> lol

 

 

A few more RT Tower Trooper photos. 

 

 

Hunter in the AM on the right is also north of 6 ft. tall.

 

 

Leading the charge through the blast doors:

 

And finally some group photos! 

 
For those who don't recognize it, those are the Sesame Street stairs.

 
 
It was a fantastic weekend! I even got to show our XO a little love!
Nothing says PBS kids television like two TKs making out. You can kinda see Oscar's garbage can to the right of the stairs. 

 

You can't stand around a Rebel blockade runner for long before we show up and crash the party.

 

 

 

 

This isn't an awesome photo but I should point out David Ramsey's willingness to die. He laid on the floor, possibly napping, for quite a while.

If you are able to you should try and make this troop next year. The ever grateful Museum folks treated us like royalty. Many thanks go out to Nicky and Darren "Data Droid" Blum for managing to herd all of us plastic space kittens all weekend. Their hard work before and during the event is nearly thankless. 

 

-Eric and Andrea

[Captain_Wordo[TK]]

Great job, troopers!

[Clamps[TK]]

TK-25267 Charles “Clamps†Bowes Actually, Clamps only brought his Tusken (and no TK-repair kit!) so he doesn't count!   Feel free to 'boo' him in every post possible, lol. Or maybe just put a TK boot square in his cod. 

 

 

What was that you say? I couldn't be bothered to hear you, I was busy playing some Pinball and Donkey Kong in the Arcade:

 

 

 

 

PS: Hybrid Mini Clamps says 'eat my Tatooine filled shorts!'

 

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

oops I mistakenly deleted this post the first time after posting the previous (and very long) report from me and Pickles...

 

2014-12-20 Children's Hospital Boston Visit

 

A bunch of us went to visit a Star Wars fan with cancer at Childrens Hospital. We walked around the floor and visited with other kids as well. R2 of course stole the show. This was a heartbreakingly fun troop... and what its all about. 

 

 

This was New England troop #10 for me and I think #12 overall for 2014. 

 

-Eric

[Captain_Wordo[TK]]

oops I mistakenly deleted this post the first time after posting the previous (and very long) report from me and Pickles...

 

2014-12-20 Children's Hospital Boston Visit

 

A bunch of us went to visit a Star Wars fan with cancer at Childrens Hospital. We walked around the floor and visited with other kids as well. R2 of course stole the show. This was a heartbreakingly fun troop... and what its all about. 

 

 

This was New England troop #10 for me and I think #12 overall for 2014. 

 

-Eric

 

 

Great job, troopers!

 

These posts belongs together

[Pickles[TK]]

Always a blast trooping with you guys!

[Narc[TK]]

The Galaxy Weekend was awesome for my first troop! It is high on the list of must dos for next year! Much love to you brother RT Tower Trooper Darth Aloha and sister Pickles for the wicked report!

Edited December 24, 2014 by JulioTheGeek

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

2014-12-27 Galaxy Blood Drive
 
New England troop #11 for me this year. 
 
Put on by the Rhode Island Blood Center the theme for the blood drive is "Star Wars vs. Star Trek" and blood donors were encouraged to donate in the name of their favorite franchise, and costumed characters from both franchises are invited to participate. Of course Star Wars won 14 to 7 with a total of 21 blood donors.
 
Sadly a few troopers and Enterprise crew left before we could take a group photo. I am clearly not the TK in this picture. My man Randy is wearing RT-MOD after all, so I can see how you might mistake us. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

[Pickles[TK]]

There was an amazing little Vader that regaled us with the song of our people (Imperial March) on the accordion.

One of the stations we were assigned to was a theatre were we stood long periods having our photos taken as kids came up to the stage. I have to admit that this kid made the experience really surreal. Who brings an accordion to a toy/game museum? I kept thinking "Did someone dose my aker mic? Is this really happening?"

 

Please note Narc and I. We are the Tower Troopers with Pickles in the middle. (stupid shin kept riding up!)

 

 

 

Here's the video, thanks to Mrs. Narc!

 

[Narc[TK]]

Mrs Narc says you're welcome!

[SCTrooper[TK]]

Hey Eric, you make a bad A$$ Vader!