For the final day - we first went to see if we won anything in the 501st Droid Hunt drawing and, go figure, the
people right around us did. Tommy was able to find someone who had the entire Collectors Club patch set and I was
able to get some more pictures of the exhibit hall. I figure it goes without saying that the life-size TIE
Interceptor is a pretty awe inspiring site! I hope they display this at other conventions in the future. Also of
note is the amazing LEGO mural that was built by volunteers at the convention. They had such an overwhelming
response to it the day before they actually had to close it at one point to allow the workers to catch up! Once
completed, the mystery mural depicted a scene from Hoth with the "Gone With the Wind" Empire poster in the middle.
Because of the effort put forth by attendees, more than 1.5 million LEGOs will be donated to St. Jude Children's
Research Hospital by LEGO and Lucasflim. I finally got to attend one of the Collectors Panels - the last one which
discussed the possibile end of Star Wars collecting. It was an interesting panel and had some unique insights into
why collecting in some genres comes to an end and what precipitated their demise. I don't want to spoil the ending,
you'll just have to watch the panel at a future meeting! And, with that, ended Celebration V - after returning to
the hotel to re-pack for everything I was picked up by Mears transportation and brought back to the airport. The
flight out left around 8pm and then I left for New Orleans just before 10pm. Thanks to the time change, I made
it back at about 10:30pm Central Time. Jason picked my up and Tommy and I hung out briefly at his place before
heading home.
I'd like to thank everyone who had a hand in my going this year - Karen, Jason, Tommy, my father-in-law and, most
especially, Jenny. It was a whirl-wind trip - but one I throughly enjoyed taking, thank you all!!