BAZINGA[TK] Posted December 20, 2023 Author Report Posted December 20, 2023 (edited) Troop 13 and 14 : Christmas troops December 16 and 17, 2023 in support of the Pattison Children's Hospital. Yet another "bonus" troop for me because it is a three hour drive with usually bad weather but we are still without any snow here and most days above freezing temperatures so away I went! I really hadn't done much in the way of planning for this one as I was sure it would be a bust for me. This will be the last troop of 2023 and we have nothing coming up now for at least a couple months, but you never know when that may change and perhaps make possible another bonus troop for me this winter. I wouldn't have guessed I'd ever manage to get into this armor 14 different times in my first year. I was expecting five at best! This one was in a busy mall and we had just about a non-stop line for photos once things got rolling. They were both half day events but the second day we ran past the time we expected to be finished because there were still so many people in line and we wanted to do our best for the charity. Everyone sucked it up and got it done. Initially I wasn't sure if I would feel okay with breaking character and outfitting myself with a candy cane blaster and Christmas lights, but the cause was worth it and we have so much fun together that in the end I didn't mind. And, it was nice not to haul around a heavy blaster all day and just swing a light candy cane instead. It also made for a great way to poke the other members in the photobooth to see if they would react. There are always stories and my best one this time was a little girl who took my hand and was trying to lead me away. I may still be lost if I hadn't had to get back to work as this was repeated five different times each time she saw me again. There was also a little guy who probably wasn't a year old yet who would not take his eyes off me in the photo area to look at the camera so I had to step out so they could get a good picture with everyone else with him looking at the camera. Usually that age they just scream when they see me! I liked this angle because it klnda looked off-worldly like and because earlier when I was standing there by myself I apparently gave one if the mall security guys a mild heart attack. He was just arriving for his shift and looked up to see a stormtrooper looking down on him. I guess he wasn't expecting that! Always fun to hang out with Obi-wan. He told me he likes interactions with me best because (most times) I play the part to entertain the people: We seem to be not to sure about that Jawa... keeping our distance just to be safe: Our mando family. The kids are in the Galactic Academy and next year dad is working on all new costumes for them: Not very often I get to troop with @wook1138 which is treat. He provided the last round of Q&A for weeks while I was determining if I was going to pull the trigger on buying the armor. Now I just need to get him in his TK armor. I would still love to have more of us in it at the same time: Usually @GilesWoodward and I are never in costume at the same time so it was nice to work the crowd together as we patrolled the area. Once again, when us TKs arrive on the scene we attract the people. We try not to let it go to our heads (at least not too much): At the end of it all this cane just was too short to be of any use to my sore back and legs after standing so much: And that is a wrap for 2023! I learned a ton this past year and not once did it ever get boring wearing that armor. Exact opposite really. I even have the dressing part mostly tweaked now that I am almost able to fully get into it without any help (mostly need a set of eyes for the final check) and the icomm mic gets sitting in the proper position finally. If I could do it all without my glasses I'd slap the hardhat headgear back in for the final comfort fit, but even if it does take me five minutes to screw on that helmet around my glasses it fits darn well when it does get on and I have very good sight lines. Just keep those kids away from the first couple feet in front and it's all good! A number of reels made by one of our members: (1) Facebook (1) Facebook (2) Facebook Bart Edited April 1 by BAZINGA 2 Quote
BAZINGA[TK] Posted April 1 Author Report Posted April 1 (edited) Troop 15: Draggins Car Show in Saskatoon supporting Children's Easter Seal. March 29 and 30 although I was only able to make it for the second day. First troop of the year for most of the Saskatchewan crew. I had my second eye surgery five week prior to this troop and it will be another week until I get a new eye glass prescription so any long drives just are too hard for me to handle right now. I had wrote this one off because it was three hours away and there was no good logistics to get there and back. All was not lost though as a random conversation with a friend here led to the revelation that he was going up to the show for most of the day and was going by himself so he had room for me to catch a ride! One day for part of the day is better than no days so off we went. I had been reading communications from the crew from day 1 and they were short staffed and very busy. This show was two 12 hour days and they were trying to cover the entire 12 hours each day. I didn't fully appreciate how nuts it was until I got into it. I spent an hour at the club table then the next 4+ hours in armor with maybe two five minute breaks (a new personal best). By the end of it I didn't know if I was living in the SW universe as a stormtrooper, was hallucinating, was having fun or was just dreaming it all. At one point before the four hour mark I was going to shed the armor and work the table then someone said, "If you can keep at it longer it's really helping the photobooth when a stormtrooper is milling about." so I got in the flow of traffic and just kept directing them into the photo area. Well it was either me or a robot by that time, not really sure. I was on auto-pilot. There is always room for some fun though! This is my friend that got me to the show. Not a huge SW fan really, but a car fan. Also the first friend, not part of the costuming groups, to pose with me so it was kinda special for me. Just standing around by myself for a few seconds. The guy beside me is a big geek. The other two were there to humor him I think. He wanted me in the boat, but it required going up a ladder/step thing then a big step then a two foot step down into the boat. They assured me they all had emergency medical training if I didn't make it however I still had to decline the adventure of getting into the boat. However, after I left @wook1138 took a stab at it and got into the boat. Now I am bound by some kind or honor or challenge or embarrassment to find a boat to get into without getting hurt or climb a tree or some other feat of dexterity while in plastic. Oh dear. At least I was able to keep my head on my shoulders even though my neck and shoulders were killing me by this time which was around the four hour mark. I demonstrated how well I could blend into a car show. If you look very carefully you can see me. Oh look, some nice coloured lights! My friend acted as a handler to get me to this part of the show and he practically ran me there! He found it amusing and commented how many times I was pulled over for a photo. I hadn't even thought about it actually. As we were powering through packed areas of people I kind of forget I was the stormtrooper in the room. Nothing to see here, just taking a jog through a car show. It's perfectly normal. Carry on. I finally found the droid I've been looking for and this time there was no old man in a dusty bathrobe to tell me otherwise! One of my buddies built R2. He's in both the 501st and the Droid Builders. DOs and GMLs look away. There was only one of these photos taken at the end and I had a costume malfunction so the image needed a bit of touch up. I think my body was trying to tell me it had enough and it was time to get out of the plastic or it was going to let it fall off me. @wook1138 and I had a short photobooth session with just two of us contending with a number of rebels giving us the gears. I was there only for a quarter of the total time for this troop and I was sore and dragging my butt. I have no idea how the others managed it for much, much longer. I had another oddity with the icomm not working properly. I hope it is just the battery this time and not needed another repair. I have to check that yet. It would make a fast ticking noise then it would work for an extended period then stop working until it was unplugged and the process repeated. I fiddled with it a bit on those little breaks but really didn't have time to change batteries or mess with it. Next two troops are back to back over May 4, 6 and 7 so it will be a busy one. By then I should be back to somewhat normal vision (crossing fingers) and can get around to these longer drives again. I was really bummed when I thought I was going to miss this one. I didn't realize how much I needed to get to it until I was at it with my friends. I hadn't seen most of them since before Christmas. It was still just so much fun and almost everyone is excited to see us, talk to us and get photos. All the sore muscles were worth it. Bart Edited April 4 by BAZINGA 6 Quote
dblcross[TK] Posted April 1 Report Posted April 1 5 hours ago, BAZINGA said: I demonstrated how well I could blend into a car show. If you look very carefully you can see me. This is some of the best camouflage work I've ever seen done! 1 Quote
dblcross[TK] Posted April 1 Report Posted April 1 5 hours ago, BAZINGA said: I hope it is just the battery this time and not needed another repair. I have to check that yet. It would make a fast ticking noise then it would work for an extended period then stop working until it was unplugged and the process repeated. I fiddled with it a bit on those little breaks but really didn't have time to change batteries or mess with it. The battery needs to be replaced. There's a mod that helps you change out the battery for a bigger one that holds a charge better. 1 Quote
BAZINGA[TK] Posted May 8 Author Report Posted May 8 Troop 16: "The Empire Strikes Back" movie night supporting the Schizophrenia Society of Saskatchewan . May 2, 2024. I missed this one last year when they played 'A New Hope" I was still struggling with the vision after the eye surgery. I was able to tie it in this year with the Fan Expo a couple of days later. One of my friends recently had their adult son diagnosed with Schizophrenia so this was a good way to support them as well. The friend is currently working on a Rebel Trooper costume so perhaps next year he will be involved too. I'm a bit disappointed he didn't fall in line with the empire, but will welcome the additional target friend/trooper at the events. Not much to do at this one. We had a major weather shift the night previous so my sinuses were screaming bloody murder the entire time. An hour is what was required and that's what we did. I would have liked to stick around to see the movie however we would have missed the first 20 minutes getting changed out of costume and some of us hadn't had a chance to eat yet so we went for food instead. They had us on the stage and the crowd could come up for photos and conversation if they so desired. There wasn't enough room in the lobby for all of us and not create a traffic problem with photo taking. It was kinda cool just with the black stage as a backdrop and because our change area was backstage we could hear the beginning of the movie real well when it started! @GilesWoodward was a spy this night. He wore his newly approved pilot costume. He gleaned important information on the rebellion from the two on the right... Bart 2 Quote
BAZINGA[TK] Posted May 9 Author Report Posted May 9 (edited) Troop 17 and 18: Saskatoon Fan Expo supporting Make-A-Wish. May 4 and 5, 2024. This is my first anniversary troop! A lot has happened in the last year with more troops than I ever thought I could get to in a year. A year ago at this expo I was terrified to get into that costume and troop around in public. Even standing in the photobooth was intimidating. Now I regularly wear it for 3+ hours in a stretch, walk around in crowds without a handler and generally am reminded by officers that, "I'm not at my post." (which isn't true, I'm always where I should be when I said I would be). I can actually see quite well wearing the bucket even with my bad left eye. I could stand to have the bucket a bit lower, but my glasses don't fit as well if I drop it too much. I did have a kid hugging my leg at this expo who I couldn't see at all. We made a proposal to the Expo organizers about what we could do for them and they loved it! When it was all over they said we were a highlight of the weekend. They gave us a large space on the main drag of the vendor area plus a separate change area. We spent most of the day before setting up plus the two full expo days plus the tear-down the evening of the last day. It was an exhausting three days however we had fun and did deliver everything we said we would do. This photobooth shift was a lot of fun. Not only could I interact with the Jawas and their sticky fingers I could also interact with the people getting their photos by warning them to watch their wallets and purses. It was also the shift slot where I received a major burn from a 11 year old kid who told me my pose was just, "Basic." :-( The three of us ran with that line the rest of the time in the booth time slot trying to see who could come up with the best insults. This guy came around our booth a couple different times. He was very interested in the costumes and the clubs. I made a point of going to his booth for a photo and to further encourage him to join. Our local numbers are still small so we are always in recruit mode. I really like this photo that @wook1138 shot. @GilesWoodward is the other TK. @GilesWoodward and I spent some droid hunting time together at this expo. He's usually pretty busy in command but this time we had some shifts we could both troop together. We shook down the citizens looking for those droids and issuing warnings about repercussions for having possession of stolen droids. Yeah, we took some lip from a few people who thought they were Jedis but we quickly suppressed that kind of nonsense. Needless to say we had a blast in the droid hunt and I think it is safe to say we will be out together again doing more of the same. Finally, after many years, I got a photo of my friend and I. He was another inspiration in getting me to join up. He's been in the 501st for maybe 5 years now but hasn't trooped much. I convinced him to come out for the expo. He's also a droid builder. That is his R2 unit. Here is it troopers! It's proof of our abilities! We started to experiment with a nerf shooting gallery as another revenue stream for the charity. We called it, "Pew Pew Trooper Training". If I was on a patrol shift I would swing by now and again to challenge cocky citizens to a head-to-head battle. The player would get 8 darts and have to make 6 shots for a raffle ticket. In most battles I gave them the two darts THAT I DIDN'T NEED so they could have a better chance of hitting all the buckets. Yes, a crack shot stormtrooper. Many bruised egos and comments from people behind such as, "So there is a stormtrooper that can actually hit the target." Well duh. That was a lot of fun. I made sure everyone in our clubs knew about it too! haha We don't usually do a buckets off photo so when they decided we should I had to quickly un-screw my head, which is a performance in itself, but I got it off in time for the photo. We're missing four people here that couldn't be around for day 2. It's about 3/4rds of our Saskatchewan crew that came out for the expo. So much fun with this group! Some media that has come up: https://www.facebook.com/reel/376837368038015 Starting at at 3:25: There is a bit of dry spell for troops again now. Likely not going to have more until June unless something pops up suddenly. Bart Edited May 10 by BAZINGA 4 Quote
BAZINGA[TK] Posted June 17 Author Report Posted June 17 (edited) Troop 19: Collectimania Meet and Greet. 15Jun24. These photos from Eric Sali one of our members in the Mando Merchs. Third time for this little event. We did it as a meet and greet as we try again to recruit members in the capital city of the province. There are currently no members and we could really use the help on the ground there! The venue this time was in a mall and we are 99% sure there was no A/C going. It was a tad warm even without the armor on. I think the first time ever the sweat was running down the inside of my shoulder bells! Come for the collecting, stay for the mania! I thought the droid would be bigger.... My partner in good (and bad) deeds. @GilesWoodward Always on the look out for some suitable off-duty clothing. A jersey. Maybe a hint for @jsilvius and @revlimiter perhaps... No wild stories for the most part in this one. I did have a lady grab my arm and yank me closer for a photo. Almost pulled me off my feet since I wasn't expecting it! Also got one or two leg hugs from some kids. Just as we were packing up we spent a good amount of time in conversation with a guy who seemed quite enthralled with the idea of the 501st so we are hoping that on a follow up contact with him maybe he will be that new member we've been looking for. We are going to try and recruit handlers too so we can lead them into joining up later on. We'll get then one way or another! Two weeks to the next troop. It will be a new one for some of us and the furthest yet I will travel at about 4.5 hours away. There may be a parade involved for added fun! Bart Edited June 28 by BAZINGA 6 Quote
BAZINGA[TK] Posted July 1 Author Report Posted July 1 Troop 20: Humboldt "Boldt Con" June 29, 2024 / another meet and greet and raised funds for the Pattison Children's Hospital. This was our first troop at this small town event and furthest I've travelled yet to one. It was our Canada Day long weekend so we were short on staff however we usually make it work and three of us had fun doing it! The organizer was very happy we were there and told us that the presents of the 501st at his event has given their little collectable con legitimacy. One of our members (Mara Jade among others) showed up this day as someone else completely from another genre and in another area of the con. A turncoat or just some kind of different and po'd Sith happening here? She had a great costume though either way! Photo by Douglas Brecht (our local Ben Kenobi) All photos below by @GilesWoodward. Trying to do my best impersonation of the trooper on the banner... I do think I am better looking... Nasty creatures those Jawa. Let go of it! Me drawn as Han Solo during his transformation to a TK. I had a blast talking with the artist during this. She said she has never done a stormtrooper before. It has given me an idea for a future project. Sure it may be considered contraband to some but it's still what I grew up with and love. Next troop is July 20 and that is the local one for me! WooHoo, a five minute drive! Bart 7 Quote
Sithping[TK] Posted July 4 Report Posted July 4 Great pics, Bart! Looks like you've been having a blast 🙂 Quote
BAZINGA[TK] Posted July 5 Author Report Posted July 5 Yup! There has not been a bad one yet! Bart Quote
BAZINGA[TK] Posted August 1 Author Report Posted August 1 Troop 21: Swift Current Market Square July 20, 2024 / raised funds for "The Center" which is a youth centre. Currently this is the only local troop for me where I can enjoy a short 5 minute drive verses hours of driving. I sort of inherited this troop from TK55810 who moved out of the city this spring (leaving me as the only local 501st or another other club member here). She had been involved in this troop for long before I was even seriously thinking about becoming a 501st member. It was a bit of a run around as the city normally organized this market and I had made all the arrangements accordingly for a change area at city hall and tents but they ended up turning the whole event over to a third party so I had to start again with an organizing group that was green when it came to the normal troop that had been done here for years. Thankfully it came together pretty much last minute and was a success again. We actually had open access to the city council chambers, no less, for 7 of us to change and come and go as required. This space was directly across the street from the market which made for easy access and we needed it as the air temp quickly climbed to over 30C for most of the 4.5 hours we were trooping. Regular breaks were a must. All photos from my sister-in-law Theresa Busse with one exception as noted on photo 2. Stepping out from city hall the heat immediately was evident, but some of us had done this one before and had a good idea of how we would deal with the day. Not all of the characters managed the entire day. The mandos needed extended breaks. The TKs did it all with just a couple hydration and snack breaks as did everyone else. Photo below by TK55810. The charity brought along a big fan and we had two tents to set up a base camp and do some photos for people. The fan was a lifesaver. I don't think we could have done the day without it. It enabled us to make little tours in the sun and have somewhere to come back to every few minutes. We just started and were waiting for the opening bell. They kick of the market each Saturday in summer with the partner of the week ringing a bell. In this case the partner was "The Center" with us as the support cast. We were led to believe this was a bigger deal than what it was. It was over in 5 seconds with no real mention of the purpose of the SW characters being there. So the photos started off a bit slow until we were able to spread the word that we were there supporting the youth centre. This is something to work on for next year now that the new organizers have a better idea of what we were about. That said we still managed to supplement the donation the city gave to them so we were happy about that as was the charity. Of course there is always time for clowning around. Not sure if this was my style or colour.... Well it was hot. We might have been considered dogs, but I don't think so. Usually we get "robots" comments. TK55810 came back to town for this troop. This guy had to show us his Star Wars tats. Thankfully just on his arm. Always reminds me of my working days when a customer showed me his SW tat on the calf of his leg with his leg up on my desk to do it... I spotted this boss man walking around so I went after him for a photo. While it is true people like to get their photos with us it seems extra special to them when we ask them for their photo. He was beaming as were his parents. The last march of the day is across the street and down the block to a toy store. This has been a tradition since the beginning and I'm sure traffic wonders what is going on. The toy store is always super cooled with A/C and they give us a cold drink. This was the hardest half block walk of the day. The heat on this stretch of the block was even warmer than where we were set up and that walk felt like it went on forever. We're already coming into our end of season time here. The next troops are back to a long drive. I'm hoping to get to at least one of them in August at a race track. There is also a multi-day Star Wars day at the children's hospital but with the timing I'm not sure if I can do both. The hospital would be a first and it also makes me nervous but we'll see. Bart 9 Quote
BAZINGA[TK] Posted September 19 Author Report Posted September 19 Troop 22: Small But Mighty 10th Anniversary Childhood Cancer Gold Walk in Saskatoon 14Sep24 I passed on three previous troops as they were all very short and a long drive to get to. I was also going to pass on this one for the same reason then we learned that the only other major troop in the province that was to be held the last weekend of the month was cancelled by the organizer. I was already missing everyone so decided I would make the troop regardless of it being just two hours long. It might now be the last troop of the year for me as our local GEC wants to step back from the roll and I don't know who will be able to fill his boots to pull much else off before the end of the year. I'm not entirely happy about this news at all. The floor covering in this gym was like a minefield. Every step we had to make sure we weren't hooking ourselves under parts of it and doing a face plant. Thankfully no injuries. We were at this event to be another activity for the kids and families to do. We did a photo booth and a small droid hunt. Most of the activities were contained in a school gym. I don't really need to say it was fun but I will say anyway that it was fun! They all are! All photos by Tim Edwin Paul. I think this one is telling my counterpart lies. He wants to be let go: After navigating the floor for two hours the steps up to the trailer deck were easy: The crew that came out for it. I wasn't going to let the prisoner get away again: So maybe another troop at the end of October if I can fit it in my busy October month otherwise.... hard to say when the chance will come again. Bart 5 Quote
BAZINGA[TK] Posted October 28 Author Report Posted October 28 Troop 23: Gas City Expo in Medicine Hat Alberta 26Oct24 I was lucky to be able to arrange myself to get to this one. October is a busy month for me and the original date for this with the 5th. The 26th was a tough one to fit in. It is my second time at this event. We had a few more troopers this time which made it much nicer. The organizers treat us well with private and secure changing areas as well as food and drinks. This is much like a meet and greet although the organizers do have different organizations they support with the entry fee. A highlight from this one was a little boy that was sort of following us two stormtroopers around at a distance. I asked him if he wanted to troop with us and help look for rebels which is was eager to do so he made the rounds between us for a good amount of time. I thought he would get bored and disappear, but nope, he hung on to the end. Sadly none of our people were around to get a photo of it. Photos from various members in attendance. They all got jumbled together. This one was almost like us. At least in terms of the colours... The Klingons were across the aisle from us so did a few things with them. Star Trek has always been my favorite Sci-fi. I have a broken sight guard... hmmm, don't know when that happened but looking back at some photos it was after the July troop. Should be fixed before the next one. This Klingon thought he was being funny... These guys wanted to get into a battle. We had to decline the beating. This Fallout guy usually has the best booth layout at this little expo. The gang's all here. Probably the only bad part of this troop was the cement floor and standing on it all day. We were all pretty tired. It wasn't held in the regular location which had carpet. I don't normally pay much attention to the vendor badges, but it was brought to my attention that TK55810 and myself were on this one. The organizers took the photo last year. If the weather holds I'll be back up in Saskatoon for November 16 for a meet and greet and to hash over some "business". Our local GEC is going to step back from the role at the end of the year and we'd like to ensure we have at least one in the province so the group has to come up with a plan. Or we will have to strong arm him into staying on longer! Bart 5 Quote
BAZINGA[TK] Posted Monday at 07:40 PM Author Report Posted Monday at 07:40 PM Troop 24: Annual meet and greet in Saskatoon 16Nov24 We do a little meet and greet every November and try to combine it with an armor party or general bring whatever you want to work on party. Not a lot of space to move around so not a lot of photos this time. I guess the bigger news out of this one is I volunteered to be the local GEC ( @GilesWoodward is taking a break from the role and I tried everything to change his mind to no avail) so we can have someone in this big province I live in doing this job. In the last couple of months no one was willing to put up their hand to lead it. There are big shoes to fill for sure as Giles did an incredible job. I'll take on a lion's share of that role but since we are so spread out I'm going to be getting some boots-on-the-ground help from our local GML too and we'll also rely on sister clubs for a few tasks as well. Most, if not all, our events are multi-club so we have a tight group to help pull off these appearances. The other groups are well up to the task for support as needed. Should be fun, interesting, exciting and a bit anxious at the same time. I've been in coordination roles before, but never on a province wide scale with everyone so spread out to complicate it. It's good to know I have the support of many going into this. Hey, you look very familiar... End of the day. This was probably the shortest amount of time I've been in my TK. We had so many members coming and going that we only had to take on about 90 minutes each. That was fine this time as there isn't much room to walk around and a lot of breakables in every direction so standing in one spot gets tiring quite quickly. I'm not liking the direction this story is going... We have a year end Christmas troop in about a month and I'm hoping to get to that because it was so much fun last year. Always a weather concern at this time of year for travel. As it was, I just got to the venue for this troop in time when some freezing rain started to really ice up the roads. Thankfully it was short lived, but a reminder that we're in our anything can happen weather mode now for the next 6 months. 1 Quote
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