In the following video, we take a look at our convention program from Star Wars Celebration IV, which contains a grand total of 42 Star Wars celebrity autographs!

We have both been collectors of Star Wars autographs for many decades – it’s a hobby we very much enjoy, with the autographs serving as souvenirs of celebrities we have met or seen at various events, and we currently have over 180 Star Wars autographs, including George Lucas, spread across photos, toys, books, and other collectibles.

Celebration IV, which was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center, May 24th to 28th in 2007, was the second Celebration event in the US that we had attended, and was in fact our honeymoon. While we were there, we caught up with a good friend, Star Wars actor Gerald Home, who played Tessek and Mon Calamari Officer in Return of the Jedi and who was attending Celebration as a celebrity guest. Gerald sadly passed away in 2021. I’d known Gerald for more than a couple of decades, since before he started attending Star Wars conventions, and we had caught up with him in person previously when we visited his home town of London, as well as each time we crossed paths with him at a Star Wars convention. At Celebration III he introduced us to many Star Wars celebrities, during the convention and after hours, but at Celebration IV, knowing that we are avid autograph collectors, he went one step further and went around as many of the guests that he could that were in the autograph hall with him, and got them each to sign their respective photos in a copy of the official Celebration program, as a gift for us.

The resulting souvenir book is now an absolute treasure for us, commemorating the celebrities we saw at the convention, the experience of the event itself, and our friendship with Gerald.

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We had so much fun at the Armageddon Expo in Christchurch, held in April 2023 – and bought some fine additions for our collection. From a Star Wars Loungefly backpack, Director Krennic Pop! Vinyl figure, to getting an autograph from Katy O’Brian and more – we can’t wait for the next event!

Check our our shopping haul video –

First up, we stopped by the Appleby Games booth – they had a few Loungefly mini-backpacks, and I spotted one that has been on my wish list for a while. This classic Stormtrooper design has Rebel heroes pictured on a lenticular insert in the helmet lenses, very cool! I had seen it starting to show up on sale from a few places, so I asked the price – half off! So now I have a new Loungefly mini-backpack for my collection.

Also at the Appleby Games booth, we spotted this Funko Pop! Vinyl figure of Director Krennic from Rogue One. We don’t have many Pop! Vinyl figures from Rogue One, so we’re definitely keen to fill that gap in our collection, so this figure was a great find.

A big highlight from this Armageddon Expo was a Star Wars guest – Katy O’Brian from The Mandalorian! She plays Communications Officer Elia Kane in season 2 and 3, serving Moff Gideon. We attended her panel, and of course had to get her autograph. She was so lovely, and had some really fun stories from her time on the Star Wars set.

I always check out the range of Star Wars pins at the Kyber Forge booth, and of course I found two more to add to my collection – a fun ‘Fly Casual’ design and an ‘elegant weapon’ lightsaber pin.

Keeping up with our Armageddon Expo tradition, we stopped by the Sweet booth. Because Star Wars Day was coming up, we decided to treat ourselves – to a huge Mandalorian lollipop!

Lastly, a fun surprise from my daughter – a Mother’s Day hard candy assortment also from Sweet. I love all the little designs on the candy. I’ll be saving this to enjoy on the day, but it was a lovely gift to round out the weekend.

So a slightly smaller haul in terms of the number of items we brought home compared to previous events, but it’s been a while since I’ve bought a Loungefly bag at an Armageddon Expo. The mini-backpack is definitely the biggest single item I’ve bought at the event for a while, but it was such a good deal I wasn’t going to leave that one behind, even if I had to carry it around all day as well as all my usual shopping bags. A fabulous weekend as usual, and we can’t wait for the next Armageddon!

May the Force be with you!

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To celebrate the animated series Star Wars Rebels, fans have designated today, 5th March (in the US), as #RebelsRemembered Day, in honor of the day the last episode aired in 2018. To celebrate #RebelsRemembered I’m taking a look at the Star Wars Rebels content in a collecting hobby we really enjoy – autographs.

Back in 2019, our local Armageddon Expo convention in Auckland, NZ, hosted four Star Wars voice actors – that coincidently all provided voices for Star Wars Rebels! It was so exciting to see Steve Blum, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, Jason Isaacs, and Sam Witwer all at our local event. We are not able to attend overseas conventions as often as we would like, so it’s fantastic when Star Wars actors visit New Zealand conventions, and we definitely take the opportunity to see their panels, and meet them while getting an autograph!

Steve Blum – is most well known to Star Wars fans as Zeb Orrelios in Star Wars Rebels, but also voices a number of other characters within that show. Blum has made significant contributions to the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO game (Andronikos Revel, Baron Deathmark, and more), and did additional dialogue recordings for stormtroopers in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

Mary Elizabeth McGlynn – voices Governor Arihnda Pryce in Rebels, but is also notably a voice director for Star Wars: Resistance.

Jason Isaacs – has a huge filmography behind him (including Harry Potter and Star Trek: Discovery). His contribution to Star Wars is as the voice of The Grand Inquisitor in Star Wars Rebels.

For our Sam Witwer autograph, it was a tough choice trying to decide which image to choose, but in the end we went with Darth Maul from The Clone Wars, so technically it’s not Rebels, but since it’s the same voice actor/character, I thought I’d include it here as well.

Sam Witwer – has a long list of roles in various Star Wars materials, headlined by Darth Maul in The Clone Wars, Rebels, and Solo: A Star Wars Story, and Starkiller in The Force Unleashed (I & II). Witwer also provided the motion capture performance for his character in The Force Unleashed games. He has also provided the voices of Star Wars characters in Resistance (Hugh Sion), Secrets of the Empire, Battlefront (Emperor Palpatine), Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Disney Infinity, and Kinect Star Wars.

Of course we hope to add more Star Wars Rebels voice actors to our autograph collection, but it’s a great start. It was such a pleasure to meet these four actors in person, they were absolutely lovely to talk to.

We’ll be celebrating #RebelsRemembered all day with more Rebels from our Star Wars hobbies and collections – check out other posts here

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A prize amongst our Star Wars collection is this George Lucas autograph, written inside a wedding card that was given to us just before we got married. A very special gift that means the world to us!

It was acquired by friends living in Hollywood, California at the time (thanks Theresa and AJ), when George was attending an event on Hollywood Boulevard. Also attached inside the card, for provenance and posterity, is a photograph of George as he was signing.

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We are very saddened to hear the official announcement that Peter Mayhew passed away on April 30th (US time), aged 74 years. He was at his home in Texas, with his family at his side.

We are fortunate to have meet Peter when he visited New Zealand many years ago. He attended the Armageddon Expo conventions here twice – Auckland in 2002, and Wellington in 2003. And of course, we saw him many times on stage at the Star Wars Celebration conventions in the US.

Peter played Chewbacca in the Star Wars movies, from A New Hope in 1977, and up until contributing a few scenes in The Force Awakens in 2015. His graciousness and passion for attending public events to make himself available to fans is consistent with the experiences reported by those who have had the privilege of meeting him when he has appeared at conventions around the world. Peter was an enthusiastic storyteller, recounting tales from his filming days with positivity and fun detail. And of course, the extent to which Peter’s physicality and mannerisms contributed to the characterisation of Chewbacca the Wookiee will forever be cemented in our minds as a significant aspect of that much-loved character. He will be missed.

Check out Star Wars NZ for reports on the Armageddon Expo events Peter Mayhew attended –

• Auckland Armageddon Expo 2002 Report
• Wellington Armageddon Expo 2003 Report

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