Sunday started as normal - with a mad panic rush to the Convention Centre in the hope of getting an exclusive R2 and Yoda maquette before they sold out. At 9:30am, when there was still no sign of the shuttle bus on the horizon and all hope was rapidly disappearing, we set off on foot - reckon we might have won a prize had we been competing in the Olympic 10000m fast-walk.
Our VIP passes allowed us into the entrance hall before anybody else, but we were held up at the doors to the Exhibit Hall, able to see the Gentle Giant Ltd stand but unable to hit it until the clock struck 10. As the seconds ticked away we planned our strategy - 'you go that way, I'll go this way, whoever finds the front of the line first stays there!' Eventually the doors opened and everybody burst through. only to be told that there was no queue yet and that we should all dissipate. yeah right! I found what looked like the start of a line and stood there despite being told that it would do me no good and that I should move away. All of a sudden a previously secretly hidden queue emerged from nowhere and started filing through to near where I was standing. Now, I'm not quite sure what happened next, either the queue formed around me or I stealthily ducked under the rope and cut in to it. it's all a bit of a blur really. however I did feel the need to hastily change my appearance by throwing a sweater on and tying my hair back before the Gentle Giant Ltd man who witnessed the occurrence had a chance to get to me and throw me out. Five minutes later Hugh appeared from around the corner going 'la la la la la, I'm with this girl, she's been holding my place for me' and ducked in next to me. And that's how we ended up being lucky enough to get hold of two of the maquettes, one for us and one for Matt & Kristy who had been stuck queueing outside. Seriously though, it was ridiculous, no 'normal' people had a hope of getting into the queue in time. Most days it was capped before we got there despite having front of line passes, using Jedi mind tricks and boldly barging our way in - crew, media and exhibitors got all of the plunder before the public got near. With only 100 pieces released each day, if you weren't in the queue before it first got capped, you didn't have a hope.

Next on the agenda for the day was to hit the autograph hall. We stood in line for a little while for Anthony Daniels who walked down the queue with somebody's C3P0 handbag going 'oh no, do I really look like this???' and setting out a few guidelines before sitting down to start his signing session. In front of a group of fans he was hilarious, but he didn't talk much person to person, we only had time to say who we wanted the autograph made out to and to get someone to take the one quick posed photo that we were allowed before being ushered on. Unfortunately, our one quick photo turned out all blurry and we weren't allowed a second, which sucked. In the end we decided to just go round and queue again in order to get a better one.

We then headed back to see Temuera Morrison to exchange the XL 'Home of the Clones' t-shirt that we had given him for a L. He was very excited to see us, said he had been hoping that we would pop by again soon as he had given his other shirt away to some Japanese lady that was desperate to have it! Tragically this meant the Star Wars artists (Dave Dorman, Mark Wolfe) that had their names down on a waitlist for that one elusive XL had to suffer the sheer disappointment of missing out on such a highly sought after item - however we did promise to send them both one upon our return. So anyway, back to Tem. as soon as the L tee was handed over he proceeded to strip down and put it on. Being the lady that I am I averted my eyes away from the bare chest in front of me as others happily snapped away with their cameras.

As the celebrity queues were fairly short at this time we continued in our autograph mission convincing most of the people that we talked to that they would really like to come down to New Zealand (seriously, we should work for Tourism New Zealand!) Dave Prowse, Peter Mayhew, Jeremy Bulloch, Jake Lloyd and the authors Karen Traviss and Troy Denning all expressed an interest in coming next year and we gave Ray Park and Matt Wood our cards to get in touch if they make it down to Queenstown when they come over for Armageddon later on this year. We also said hello again to Rena Owen and Daniel Logan who both gave us their contact details and sizes so that we could send them 'Home of the Clones' t-shirts. Kenny Baker obviously wasn't feeling very well and was making a huge effort just to be there and sign photos, with the assistance and encouragement of his lovely friend. My heart went out to him, he seemed to be really struggling. Huge respect and thanks to Kenny for being there and putting up with the strain of long convention hours - I know we all appreciated the chance to meet him. As we walked over to Rusty Goffe and heard him singing 'oom-pa lum-pa dum pa di-do' I finally realised why it was he looked so familiar, if less orange than I remembered. We talked to him about coming to NZ and trying to beat Warwick Davis's score at Frisbee golf.

At 1:30pm we headed in to the Concourse stage for 'An Hour with Anthony Daniels', hosted by Jay Laga'aia. With our VIP passes we were able to get great seats in the second row right in front of the stage. Both Jay and Anthony were hilarious. Anthony easily amused us all with his Star Wars stories, injecting lots of C3P0 quotes and actions into his tales and getting the whole audience to chant like Ewoks.

Leaving the Concourse Stage while the Q&A session was still going on enabled us to get to the Petree Stage just in time for 'Billy Dee! The Lando Diaries'. I was keen to hear the interview with Billy Dee after missing him talk at Armageddon. Hugh, however, was not so enamoured after being called a sandcrawler by one of the reporters covering the Billy Dee story in Wellington (he was wearing Dean's Boba Fett costume at the time!) so he wandered off to check out the stalls, buy clone prints from artist Brent Woodside and to check if we won anything in the Droid Hunt (we didn't!) Anyway, the host, Scott Chernoff, made it hugely entertaining with snippets of Billy Dee at his most charming playing on the big screens at various points during the interview (the highlight being a skit showing Billy Dee charming 'the lady-dees' and then a very well edited version of the same piece showing Billy Dee trying to charm Scott, running his fingers through Scott's spaghetti, touching his face etc etc - hilarious!) Billy Dee himself was on form and responded well to Scott's humour. He even took a photo of Scott's "interesting" face so that he could paint him at a later stage.

A couple of hours later we were back at the Concourse Stage (this time with seats in the front row) for 'The Force of the Fetts' - Jeremy Bulloch, Daniel Logan and Temuera Morrison on stage together, again hosted by Jay Laga'aia. Jay drew attention to the fact that each guest he brought out was less well dressed than the previous one, he himself being the smartest with a full suit and tie on, Daniel next with a suit but no tie, Jeremy with just a shirt and finally Tem with a t-shirt and hoodie on. He likened it somewhat to the regression from mankind (himself) to ape (Tem). Tem responded by proudly showing off his Star Wars hoodie and new 'Home of the Clones' t-shirt to the whole audience, pointing out the wording on the front of the t-shirt to the accompaniment of whoops from his 'bros' in matching attire in the front row.

Hugh took off at this stage to pick up a few tips from the guys at the 501st Costuming: Clonetroopers session. I remained in my quality seat for 'The Wookies Always Win', an hour with Peter Mayhew and Michael Kingma (Tarfful). Those guys are giants, both towering over Jay Laga'aia.

There were some beautiful moments during that hour including Michael and Jay kowtowing to Peter and shots of the big walking carpet himself finally being given the medal he deserved by Carrie Fisher. Peter was asked if he actually said anything whilst filming as Chewbacca and recalled only one instance where he said 'The old man's crazy' to which Han Solo responds 'You said it Chewie! Where did you dig up that old fossil?' Obviously this was dubbed over with bear noises later. Jay then played a sequence of scenes with various things that Chewbacca might have been saying dubbed over the top, such as the groan 'Where's my medal' at the very end of A New Hope and the scene on Endor just after Han gropes Leia.
Chewie: 'Boo!' (as he pops up from inside the AT-ST)
Han: 'Chewie!'
Chewie: 'Yeah, wassup?'
Han: 'Get down here, she's wounded'
Chewie: 'Oh, OK then' (disappears back inside)
Han: 'No, wait!'
Chewie: 'What now?' (pops up again)
Han: 'I got an idea...'