It has been 5 years now since I went to my first convention and to celebrate this anniversary (and to have something to post here in my blog :P) I will go and update weekly with all kinds of convention stories I have from those past 5 years.

I will of course start with the very first one that happened in 2001.

Dutch Starcon 2001
May 12, 2001

Guests:
Peter Diamond (stuntcoordinator, Star Wars IV-V-VI)
Warwick Davis (Wicket the Ewok)
Phil Brown (Uncle Owen)
Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett)
Gary Kurtz (Producer, Star Wars IV-V-VI)
Kenneth Colley (Captain-Admiral Piett)
Eric Walker (Mace Towani)
Alan Harris (Bossk)
Christine Hewlitt (Tonica Twin)

Looking back all those years I must admit I cannot recall all those guests anymore. I was under awe the whole day by everything.

It all started with going into line and wait for the entrance. Suddenly around the corner I was confronted with a at the time new phenomenon: People dressed in a costume. In this case it was a Royal Guard who was soon joined by Porkins, Boba Fett and Darth Vader. Except the Darth Vader I would get to know these people many years later.

The whole day went by in a rush, I bought some of my first merchandise ever (among the Millinium Falcon from Hasbro) and had my first contact with the actors.

The main part of enjoyment were ofcourse the actors:

I was hunting for autographs and got 1 from Colley for free on a white sheet of paper (I did not knew that they would sign in a session later. Nervously I also forgot the flash and mister Colley pointed me to it) and of course I was hunting for Bulloch too.
I caught him on some bad times (when I was going to the Q&A session, leaving from the Q&A and to lunch), so the second time he said: "After lunch I will have some time for you, so come back then."
I waited for that of course and suddenly I saw him again. The signing session was about to start and some chairs had to be moved. He asked me if I could help out, so I did and I ended up assisting the big Bounty Hunter Fett. I got the autograph on white sheet of paper and took a picture of him.
But the nicest gift was when I stood in line for Warwick Davis. When I arrived I suddenly saw that you had to buy an autograph with picture. He asked me what my name was and what picture I wanted. I told him that this was my first convention and I didnt knew that you had to pay for them and therefore I had already spend all my money on merchandise. He surprised me by pulling out a small postcard sized picture of Wicket and signing it for free for me.

And this was part 1, look for part 2 later the next week.