With the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes over, I wanted to share my experience of attending Edmonton Expo 2023. I attended all three days of the convention where I had such a fun experience! Most of my typical convention experiences were based primarily on guests attending the event but this time around I found myself being less attracted to the guests attending the event and more into going to the event and having the opportunity to hang out with like-minded fans and share my love for fandom.
Guests
Edmonton Expo had so many awesome guests this year when it came to Lucasfilm representation with guests from The Mandalorian, Kenobi, and Indiana Jones. The first guests the expo had announced were Giancarlo Esposito and Carl Weathers. Giancarlo plays Moff Gideon in the Mandalorian well Carl Weathers directed Chapter 12: The Seige and Chapter 20: Foundling of the Mandalorian along with playing Greef Karga in the series. Although my meeting with Carl and Giancarlo was brief it was a fantastic experience getting to chat with both Carl about his approach to directing and Giancarlo about the bond the Mandalorian has created within my family as we have made it such a strong tradition to watch every new airing episode together. The next guest fan expo announced was young Princess Leia herself Vivien Lyra Blair, this was the guest I was most excited to see personally because I love Leia and when they revealed young Leia in the Kenobi series I was beyond emotional seeing them continue the Leia legacy so on the Friday of the expo me and my friend Eilly picked up M&M's at our local drug store before heading to the expo to give them to Vivian as a gift because Carrie Fisher was well known for giving fans peanut M&M's well signing autographs for fans. We ended up talking with Vivian's mom about Vivian getting to pass on Carries Legacy and how excited we were to see her grow and hopefully get to play the role of Leia again in the future. Well, Vivian was just excited we brought her more treats to snack on throughout her day. The last Lucasfilm-based actor attending the fan expo was announced the week of the convention and that was John Rhys-Davies who plays Sallah in the Indiana Jones series and Gimli in Lord of the Rings. I had the amazing chance to meet John in 2017 when he attended the Edmonton Expo that year and he proved once again to not disappoint me because of how much of a class act he was with posing for pictures with everyone who was volunteering their time with the expo for the weekend along with signing free autographs for those volunteers.
Edmonton Expo this year also had so many fantastic voice actors from Knights of the Old Republic and Jedi Survivor. The first voice actor announced was Jennifer Hale, known for many amazing roles from Cinderella to Commander Shepard to Bastila Shan. Sadly I could not afford to meet Jennifer but I had the chance to watch her meet fans and the interactions made my heart so happy. The last voice actor guest announced was Richard Horvitz who is best known for his role of Moxxie on the YouTube series Helluva Boss but Richard also plays the role of Turgle in Jedi Survivor and anyone who knows me well knows I am obsessed with Turgle so I was very excited to see Richard at Fan Expo. Panels
There were so many amazing panels being hosted over the fan expo weekend from interviews with celebrity guests to fan-hosted panels on making droids and turning your love of the Star Wars community into giving back there were so many amazing panels to enjoy throughout the weekend!On Friday of the Edmonton Expo, Some of the panels I missed were Defend the Galaxy with Carl Weathers, Helluva Voices with Richard Horvitz and Mass Effect with Jennifer Hale. I was really sad I ended up missing all the panels due to having other events on the show floor I ended up attending throughout the day on the Friday of the fan expo.
On Saturday of the Edmonton Expo, I found myself not attending any panels because of how busy of a day I had. Some of the panels I missed were Star Wars Trivia along with Join the Rebellion with Vivien Lyra Blair.
On Sunday of the Edmonton Expo, I found myself attending one panel and that was an introduction to droid building. I ended up attending an Introduction to Droid Building. I have always had an interest in the art of making a droid but was never sure where to start so in this panel I found myself learning some building methods and getting a peak into some of the droids on display and how they are built. I did end up missing two Star Wars panels the first being turning your love of Star Wars into community giving because I have seen this panel before hosted by members of the Rebel Legion and 501st as they talk about the work they do for the community well being dressed up as some of our favourite Star Wars characters. The second panel I missed was Giancarlo Esposito's panel, I found myself missing this due to opting to spend time with my friends at the Star Wars Edmonton Fan Force booth where we found ourselves chatting about Star Wars all weekend with like-minded fans but I will chat more about that later in the post.
Cosplay
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| Mara Jade by La Forceressse Obi-Wan by SaskaTatooine Kenobi |
Throughout the weekend at the Edmonton Expo, I was very lucky to come across so many awesome Star Wars Cosplayers who were kind enough to stop for photos and give me permission to feature them in this post. If you see yourself in these photos please email me and I will gladly send you the photo along with crediting you in this post! Merchandise & Artists Ally
I was really lucky that on the Friday of the convention, I was able to explore the whole show floor and see what everyone had to offer there were four lightsaber vendors including CR Sabers, Xtra Life Toys& Games, Alky Solutions, and TVX Sabers. The first saber vendor I came across over the weekend was
Alky Solutions, I was originally attracted to their booth because I saw the character-based custom lightsabers they had like
Cal's and
Leia's but what got me more interested was getting to speak with the vendor Kyle. Kyle is a fan through and through and you could see his excitement in the way he spoke about the sabres he had for sale along with the way he could go into detail on the mechanics of each sabre and how fantastic each of them are. Not only did he offer character sabers at his booth but he also offered custom-designed sabers inspired by other characters outside of the Star Wars Universe like Cruella Deville the
Cruella Saber became an instant favourite among my husband because of its sleek design with beautiful etched details and classic black and white colour scheme we became instantly obsessed with this saber and plan on adding it to our collection eventually.
Alky Solutions offered a great warranty policy along with on-demand customer service if anything went wrong with your saber purchase along with great pricing for character sabers starting at $200-$1000 depending on the character you were looking for.
Xtra Life Toys& Games at the convention carried more of the standard non-character based saber with 12 colour-changing RGB and 13 standard signature sound fonts with saber hilts coming in a wide variety of hilt styles and colour options with their prices ranging between $100-$200 Canadian depending on the style you were looking for. The vendors at the Xtra Life Toys& Games booth were incredibly helpful and knowledgeable about their products gladly letting us pick up and sample out whatever sabers caught our attention teaching us how to turn them on and off and use the 12 colour-changing features! My favourite saber from the Xtra Life Toys& Games booth had to be the Fury of the Jedi in the shade gold because of the simplicity and sleekness of the design and it is a very lightweight and easy-to-carry saber that is great for a beginner like myself!
After coming across so many fantastic lightsaber vendors, the next booth I found myself being instantly attracted to was KCS Collectables. With a massive selection of Black Series, Vintage Series, Archive Collection and Hallmark Collectables this booth was a must-see for me as a collector of all the Star Wars Hasbro figures. KCS Collectables had such a great variety of Black Series figures I have yet to see in stores in Canada at reasonable prices for collectors!
The next vendor I came across over my time at the Edmonton Expo was a crystal shop although I am not a big fan of crystals, this shop appealed to me because of their crystals in the shape of the Millennium Falcon, Darth Vader and Stormtroopers. the way these crystals were shaped and reflected light was beyond beautiful and I thought overall they were a unique item I would not often see at a convention!
The last vendor I wanted to highlight was an amazing artist we came across well in artists ally David Joyce art. David's art had my husband and I stopped in our tracks walking through the artist's ally we absolutely fell in love with his illustrations of Revan, Maul, Vader and the Emperor along with his illustrations from films like Into the Spider-Verse and Venom!
Haul
Over the weekend of the Edmonton Expo, I found myself being tempted by so many things but I found myself only purchasing one item over the whole weekend because I did not have a big budget for spending for the convention. My purchase of the convention was my Vivian Lyra Blair Autograph. I was so excited to add her autograph to my collection and place hers right next to my Carrie Fisher Autograph and have both Leia's together.
Edmonton Star Wars Fan Force
When I wasn't spending time roaming the floor, attending panels or meeting guests at the Edmonton Expo I could be found at the Edmonton Star Wars Fan Force booth chatting with fellow fans about our love of Star Wars well we helped raise money for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society by selling off items that were donated to the booth by members of the fan force. The big item we were raffling off was a 3D-printed Helmet signed by Giancarlo Esposito! Together we raised $1784.00. I loved the time I spent with the Edmonton Star Wars Fan Force because not only did I feel like I was part of a community of like-minded fans but I also felt like I was in a safe space where I could talk about my opinions about Star Wars and instead of being made to feel like they were invalid or be made fun of I was heard out and welcomed into a community that made me feel safe. I found myself on multiple occasions throughout the weekend crying because of how welcome and valid I felt as a fan who has not been accepted in community spaces for so long so I want to say a special thank you to the fan force for making me feel seen and valid throughout the weekend! I had such a fantastic time at Edmonton Expo 2023 seeing all the awesome collectables, attending some amazing panels and meeting some really fantastic guests. I can not wait till the next expo but until next time I am Chloe from Chloesfandomlife and you can find me on all of the following social media platforms below
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