How often do you get freebies?

[Blaze]

Does anyone ever give you free stuff when trooping?

 

Have you ever received a freebie? (this includes free admission to places, tickets to ride stuff)

 

Has anyone ever tipped you?

 

(I know that's not the point of trooping but I also know a lot of people are pushy and insist a lot and feel bad if you don't accept whatever they want to give you. The tip could be then donated to a charity, of course)

[bluehickey]

Well, I'm still fairly new to all of this, but so far: free food, free t-shirts and water bottles.

[Merugear]

Man... I'd love some free water bottles

[Daetrin[Admin]]

Just food, usually. If it's a comic books store they usually give us a discount for that day as well.

[SuperTrooper]

You should never expect anything, but most hosts do provide water and sometimes snacks or food. I did get a fruit basket last year when I trooped at a local orchard.

[Daetrin[Admin]]

True - you should never require anything other than water. It's important that people troop for the right reasons, not free stuff.

[Dmian]

We troopers are trained to be self-sufficient.

[TK 6918[501st]]

Lately the Pacific Outpost has been getting hand made Leis for trooping with events related to the public library. I think thats pretty awesome

[TK-2126_MD[TK]]

Just free Movie tickets.... at first every time i explained that i couldnt they just gave me more.... so now i just say thank u.

[Murray1134[501st]]

Other than free food and water at the event, best I can say is I got a free Jeremy Bulloch autograph when we trooped his signing. I had money ready and everything and he just never charged us.

[TK-743[501st]]

Just free admission to a couple movies and free drinks and snacks during the troop.

[D-MAC]

Did a Troop at the weekend and got some great free bruises from some of the kids.....doe's that count

[Blaze]

Did a Troop at the weekend and got some great free bruises from some of the kids.....doe's that count

 

Yes

 

did they kick you?

 

[Blaze]

Um...what about getting free-admission to the places you troop at?

 

I can justify paying for the armor to entertain people and raise money for charity but I couldn't justify paying admission for each event I'm invited to troop at (carnivals, conventions, fairs, museums, aquariums, sporting events, theme parks). That would be cost prohibitive for me since I'm not made of money, unfortunately. Also, paying to work for free to promote other people and all doesn't sound all that fair.

So hopefully those places let you go there for free with a buddy to carry your stuff on your troop day.

[synaptyx]

I always take, or have food beforehand, or break for lunch. It's nice when your host looks after you and supplies snacks and refreshments. This weekend the UKG trooped Collectormania in Glasgow. We all got free entry to the event when out of costume too.

[bluehickey]

Yeah, most events you are requested to be at are free. Am I really the only one who has gotten a free t-shirt and water bottle? I got that on my first official troop in my armor, guess I'm spoiled and it's all downhill from here. <_<

[R2Dan[TK]]

I guess it depends largely on what kind of event it is. Promotional events (think Lego, or something for Lucasfilm like Clone Wars, or a new Star Wars game) you might end up getting freebies, or discounts, or some promo goods.

Children's birthdays, charity events, small town festivals... well, I'd say make sure you won't at least dehydrate and die

 

That's from my experience. Free entry has been a given at most events, especially if we got invited in the first place - of course you can't expect to show up in plastic at a big Sci-Fi con uninvited and demand free entry just because you're so damn cool

[Dargas[501st]]

the only two things I as for in an event is a place to leave the car secure and a place to change and hydrate.

 

ive gotten 2 t-shirts, food and water... oh an the guys at macdonalds gave me a few bobbleheads from the clone wars promo in a couple of troops i did as Vader there during the promotion! that was nice!

[Blaze]

So far so good.

- free entry -water bottle - bobble heads - sustenance -

[Murray1134[501st]]

I totally forgot, I did get a freebie at a troop. My first troop (solo troop no less) was for the midnight release of The Force Unleashed game. Game Stop was giving away a free figure if you preordered the game, the manager was kind enough to give me one, even though I didn't preorder or buy the game from them.

[TK 6918[501st]]

Best Buy manager gave me a copy of Episode 3 DVD for trooping at the DVD release...

[Blaze]

not bad. not bad. what figure was it?

 

toy - dvd - water bottle - shirt - free entry - food-stuffs

 

can anyone beat that?

did anyone ever fly you somewhere to troop?

[darren1970[501st]]

I got my bum felt TWICE by some lovely ladies at the Glasgow Collectormania troop.

[The Scotsman]

A few of my squad-mates had their fuel, accomodation and meals paid for, for a troop about 300k out of town.

[Tiepilot1138[TK]]

In addition to the occasional meal and drinks, everyone of our guys in attendance for our last National Night Out event was presented with a Manassas Park Police Department Challenge coin and coffee mug by thier Chief. Luckily our CO had a spare Garrison coin to give him as well. Completely unexpected, and Totally cool!