Midnight Madness

Every so often, Toys R Us stores will host midnight toy premieres on the eve of their official release date. The closest thing I can think of outside of Star Wars is the Harry Potter midnight book release parties. It's been a while since I've attended one of these (I think the last one was for The Phantom Menace before even I joined the Legion), but since there was a store only 9 minutes away and I wouldn't have to worry about work in the morning (it was Friday, July 25), I figured I should take advantage of it. 501st Carolina Garrison members Dave Petty (TI-1626) and Jada Diaz (DZ-5232) handling organizing this event and I contributed the flyer.



It was great to see so many Carolina members again, and many new ones as well. We met at a local Jason's Deli and then arrived at TRU around 10pm where there were a few shoppers already lining up. I suited up in my TK armor for the first 40 minutes then switched to street clothes to facilitate an international 501st podcast call where we simultaneously counted down to the toy release from New York's Times Square with Northeast Remnant Commanding Officer Dion Rupa (TK-1217) and Taiwan Outpost Commanding Officer Roy Waung (TD-1668). You can hear the countdown from opposite ends of the world on Episode 21 of the 501stCast. This was also the only toy release event to feature an actual celebrity from the Clone Wars, pink astromech R2-KT!


After the madness, the 501st participants mingled among the emptied shelves (they sold an amazing amount of merchandise) and looked through the remnants. At one point, Carolina CO Cheralyn Lambeth (TB-0976) picked up the Star Wars Ultimate Visual Guide book and joked to me "Let's see if you're in here." Amazingly, we both appeared on a page featuring a group photo of the 501st from Star Wars Celebration III in Indianapolis. I exhibited an unusual sense of self-restraint regarding toy purchases, but in actuality this was simply due to the fact that I don't collect toys anymore. I walked out the door with a $10 Clone Wars lunchbox for my son. Click here for more event pics from DZ-6570.

The 501stCast Won't Stop

Well, it would seem that we are cranking out 501st podcasts faster than I can remember to blog about them here on my own site! We're already working on 501stCast episode 9 now, and have also debuted a fun new game show called Stump the Trooper where we test the knowledge of our 501st members and give out prizes to our friends on myspace.com/501stcast. The widget on the right column is your easiest way to listen from tk899.com. For the fastest distribution and notification, you can always subscribe to the podcast RSS feed through any podcatcher. Am I speaking a foreign language? The podcast feed is "Really Simple Syndication" which allows you to use a "podcatcher" or "aggregator" such as iTunes to automatically download each new episode as soon as it is posted. Here's a list of podcatchers (most, if not all, are free): http://www.podcatchermatrix.org/ Now go forth, and tell your friends.

501stCast Episode 6

The latest 501stCast is now available at 501st.com/podcast (or conveniently through the 501stCast player on the right column of this page). Since this was Episode VI, we gave the show a title that alluded to the Battle of Endor in Return of the Jedi and joked about how it would be 100% Ewok-Free (us troopers are still bitter about that whole "defeated by teddy bears" thing). As we started reviewing the stories in this podcast, it became evident that there were a few unexpected Ewok references so we had to change the title to 97% Ewok-Free to comply with galactic "truth-in-advertising" laws.

Holiday Greetings from Around the World

Back on November 14, 2007, I posted an internal request to the Commanding Officers of every unit of the 501st Legion to send me their New Year's Greetings in their native languages. I thought it would make a nice minicast for the 501stCast. Additionally, we needed something to round up the past year's greatest accomplishments of the 501st...the 118th Tournament of Roses Parade (I was there, baby!), Celebration IV and Celebration Europe, recognition in the Guinness Book of World Records, a trooper on every continent...the list goes on and on! Anyway, I received 29 different recorded audio messages from around the globe which I compiled into a single mp3 and released on New Year's Day. While the request was for a no-frills "Happy New Year from (insert your 501st unit name here)", I ended up with some very creative submissions, some of which I was able to recycle and edit into the overall message. Click here to check it out or just use the 501stCast widget in the righthand column to listen without leaving this site. Happy New Year from TK-899, a proud member of the international 501st Legion!

501stCast Episodes 4 and 5

Where is the time going?! Okay, the fourth and fifth episodes of our official 501st Legion podcast are now available for download at 501st.com/podcast. We've done our first "celebrity interview" with Star Wars author Karen Traviss (of the Republic Commando series) but it wasn't edited in time for Episode 5, so listen for it in Episode 6 in January 2008. I'm also doing some Skype (you do have Skype, don't you?) interviews with 501st members who participated in the New Year's Day Rose Parade in 2007 for a special retrospective 501stCast episode. Hopefully this will be out during the first week of January as well. Honestly, you should just subscribe to the feed instead of relying on me to blog about it here, but since I like to experiment with new things I just added a 501stCast widget to the sidebar for your convenience. Just select the podcast episode and press the play button (you may have to wait for it to load 100% before you get audio).

501stCast Episode 3

These official 501st podcasts are coming faster than I thought! This is old news now, but our third episode is already available for download at 501st.com/podcast. We resolved some audio quality issues and Rich Sigfrit (IC-9577) did an incredible job with the post-production editing this time around. Trust me, when we recorded the show, it was full of awkward pauses, mispronounced words, and inappropriate commentary! We post new podcast episodes every other Wednesday, so the next 501stCast will be available on December 12, 2007. But you wouldn't need to know this is if you simply subscribe to the podcast feed through iTunes or your favorite podcatcher.

501stCast Episode 2

Sticking to the schedule (which I personally feel is paramount to the success of any podcast), we have just released episode 2 of the "501stCast," the official biweekly podcast of the 501st Legion. This time around, we added Lor as a third co-host, just to see how it would go. As a result, the chemistry changed and we ended up scrapping the first take entirely. There was a lot of talking over each other (which is still evident in the final recording) and things didn't flow as well with three of us doing the reporting. I have a feeling we'll go back to the 2-host formula in future episodes. Anyway, enjoy: www.501st.com/podcast

501st Legion Podcast Launched

Finally, after several demos and countless Skype conversations, the first official 501st Legion podcast was published on November 1st, 2007 (although we are calling it our October 31 episode)! We still have a lot to learn as we delve into podcasting, but it's a great medium and adds a bit more personality to the 501st Legion's relationships with fans and the public. You can check out the first episode, subscribe to the feed, and view the show notes at 501st.com/podcast. If you have some show ideas, feel free to e-mail me or reply as a comment!