This past weekend we attended Armageddon Expo, a national pop culture convention held across New Zealand, this time in Palmerston North, on August 3rd and 4th. This event is a 6 hour drive south from our home city, and the first day of the convention coincided with our daughter’s birthday, so it was a special family weekend trip away.

Check out our highlights video from the event –

We always love attending Armageddon Expo events around New Zealand, as there is always lots of Star Wars entertainment to see and collectibles to buy.

A last minute guest announcement two weeks before the event was especially exciting for us – Ivanna Sakhno, the actress who played Shin Hati in the Ahsoka live action series! Ivanna is currently here in New Zealand working on another film project, and was able to fit in an appearance at the convention over the weekend.

Our daughter is a huge fan of Shin Hati, so after gathering costume supplies, we helped her put together a Shin Hati costume, all made in the week before the convention. She had a great time meeting Ivanna in costume, a really special birthday treat for our daughter. Ivanna was absolutely lovely to meet in person, and of course we had to get her autograph as well for our collection.

We attended Ivanna’s main stage panel, which had a few stormtroopers from the local NZ 501st Legion garrison there as supporters. Ivanna talked about her experience filming the Ahsoka series, sharing some great stories, and also spoke about working with the late Ray Stevenson who portrayed Shin Hati’s master Baylan Skoll.

We are always impressed by all the wonderful Star Wars costumers in attendance at every Armageddon Expo, and we love to stop and take a quick photo of as many Star Wars costumes as we can find around the convention.

As usual we spent a fair bit of time at the Star Wars costume club booth, as we are members of both the Rebel Legion and 501st Legion groups. It’s always a great spot to catch up with our friends in the clubs, check out all the wonderful Star Wars costumers gathering for group photos, and groove to some iconic cantina music.

Shin Hati herself Ivanna Sakhno also stopped by the booth to take a group photo with Star Wars costumers, an absolute highlight.

On both the Saturday and Sunday of the convention, a cosplay parade was held on the main stage, where fans can show off their costumes, whether they are bought or made, all are welcome at any skill level, and there’s always a fun variety of Star Wars costumes in those shows.

We had fun browsing the wide range of dealer booths around the convention floor, to check out the variety of Star Wars items available.

At the Retro Nerds booth (previously known as Cameron Percy Antiques), we had fun browsing through their range Star Wars items, and checking to see if they had any figures on our shopping list. From vintage figures to prequel era figures, Black Series and Funko Pop! Vinyl, there was lots to check out, so we always end up spending a while at this great booth.

The Palmerston North convention is a little smaller than our home city Auckland event, but there was still plenty of great booths to browse. We spotted Micro Galaxy Squadron vehicles, Star Wars Shatterpoint sets, Star Wars Unlimited starter sets, lots of Funko Pop Vinyl figures, Star Wars board games, jewellery including earrings and pins, Star Wars comics, and assorted carded figures at several different booths.

We always check out the cool lightsabers at the Kyber Forge booth, I’ve got my eye on a few neat sabers there. In the end, our picks from this event were Funko Pop! Vinyl collectibles. We found the Galactic Convention exclusive Hoth Princess Leia figure, and in a great bundle deal, we got the Luke Skywalker and Han Solo each with TaunTaun deluxe figures – I love tauntauns, so happy to finally add these two to our Funko Star Wars collection.

Palmerston North is a long drive from home for us, but we always have a great time at each and every Armageddon Expo convention. A last minute Star Wars costume project for our daughter came together so she was able to meet a favourite Star Wars actress in costume, an absolutely special moment for her on her birthday.

We are so grateful that Ivanna was able to make time in her current filming schedule to attend the convention. It was a really special weekend for our whole Star Wars obsessed family. While we catch up on sleep from the long drive home, we are already planning for the next Armageddon Expo in October – in our home city this time.

May the Force be with you!

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