This year Star Wars celebrated its 40th
Anniversary since release of the first movie Episode IV A New Hope in
1977, launching a new era of science fiction adventure in the
cinemas. All across the world, fans celebrated 4 decades of the
franchise with the largest most prestigious convention taking place
at Star Wars Celebration Orlando (SWCO) in April.
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| UNITED IN THE FORCE! Photo credit: John Gullidge. |
Not to be left out, Malaysian fans got
together for our very own Star Wars Day 40th Anniversary Celebration
at Sunway Pyramid Shopping Centre from 15 to 21 May 2017. Whilst many
Star Wars Day events around the world take place around 4 May, i.e.
May the 4th, this celebration date is actually closer to the actual
anniversary day of the movie release on 25 May, 1977.
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| Fans gather at the Blue Concourse for a Lightsaber Flash Mob on Saturday. Photo credit: John Gullidge. |
This fan based event was indeed put
together by fans for fans by 4 local fanboys: Julian, Ng, Daniel and
James. As the Organising Committee, they worked tirelessly since last
year to unite 20 fan communities to celebrate their love for Star
Wars with the support of Disney / Lucasfilm, partner brands, and
Sunway Pyramid, one of our country's premiere malls. These are the
participating fans and communities:
Costuming Fan Groups:
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| Costumers from various fan clubs get together for photo ops. Photo credit: John Gullidge. |
Lightsaber Fan Groups:
6. Sabertrio
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| Jedi Academy by Force Arts Stunt Team (FAST). Photo credit: John Gullidge. |
Star Wars Inspired Artists:
8. Jon Tham
9. Bone Alfie
10. Michael Chuah
11. Dave Liew
12. Tintoy Chuo
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| Artists showcase their Star Wars fan art. Photo credit: John Gullidge. |
Star Wars Inspired Fashion Designer:
13. Venus Lim
Geek Pop Culture Community:
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| Outpost Productions with the fan clubs at the Blue Concourse. |
Toys Collector Fan Groups:
15. Chancellor Peter (SW Vintage
Collector)
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| Franchise brands like Hasbro, LEGO, Uniqlo, etc. at the Orange Concourse. Photo credit: John Gullidge. |
These are the franchise brands
represented at the Orange Concourse showcasing and retailing their
products throughout the week:
- Hasbro
- LEGO
- Hot Wheels by Mattel
- Funko Pop (by Sheldonet)
- Royal Selangor
- TGV
- Uniqlo
- Toys R Us
- GL Design
- UrbanTee
- Hot Toys
- Gamer's Hideout
Outpost Productions was glad to have
been invited as one of the fan communities to represent Geek Pop
Culture in Malaysia, of which Star Wars form a huge fan-base. We
setup stall over the weekend of 20-21 May in the Blue Concourse
showcasing Star Wars fandom at events from other parts of the world,
and doing our small bit for charity. We offered a Hasbro AT-ST Walker
toy and LEGO Micro-fighter on raffle with ticket sales donated to the
Spastic Children's Association of Selangor & Federal Territory (SCASFT), the adopted charity for this event.
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| Our contribution for charity. |
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| Winners of our charity raffle prizes: Tan Kok Hwee (left) and Andrew Mark Fernandez. |
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| Children from SCASFT pose with fans. |
Here's coverage by the Malaysian
Insight over the weekend:
Read-up more at their online article
Celebrating 40 years of Star Wars.
One of the participation fan clubs,
Star Wars Modellers Malaysia (SWMM) also put together their video of
the event showcasing their fantastic scaled models on display as well
as other fan activities:
Whilst we are unable to give every
participating fan community their due (we were rather occupied
ourselves), we do wish to highlight the very awesome Star Wars
inspired Fashion Show by Venus Lim of Costurera Haberdashery on
Sunday.
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| The Blue Concourse packed for the Star Wars inspired Fashion Show on Sunday. |
The 25 minute show showcased 14 outfits inspired from Star
Wars plus 7 canon costumes in 3 chapters as well as a lightsaber duel
performance by Force Arts Stunt Team (FAST). For those who missed out
being there in person, here is video of this very unique Fashion
Show:
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| Venus Lim of Costurera Haberdashery with her Star Wars inspired outfits modeled during Fashion Show. Photo credit: John Gullidge. |
Browse these Facebook photo albums
for great shots by John Gullidge. His 6 photo albums from the whole
week provide the most complete record of the whole event. Thank you
John!
Note: Most photos here credit to John Gullidge.
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| Our Outpost Commander Richard Chua facilitating discussion on the Fan Panels. Photo credit: John Gullidge. |
Outpost also put together a series of
Fan Panels for the event offering fans the chance to share their
personal stories and passion for Star Wars. Moderated by Outpost
Commander Richard Chua, the four panels featured different facets of
Star Wars fandom as follows:
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| Collectors Fan Panel (left to right): Richard (moderator), Oppie (SWMM), Sanjiv (SWMFC) Bryan (PVM), Chancellor Peter, Ng (LOM). Photo credit: John Gullidge. |
Collectors Panel:
- Oppie of Star Wars Modellers Malaysia: A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, a small band of model makers formed a group. It was designed for people with a passion for building and creating. A group where you can grow and share ideas, while creating your own style and form. A genuine passion for creativity and a meeting of the same mindset. The group is designed to help modelers develop and share their skills. A unique place to learn and perfect your craft. For those of you who love model making, whether it be scratch build or working from a kit, this group will provide great deal of input from fellow modelers, who have experience and talent in the art.
- Sanjiv Indran of Star Wars Malaysia Fan Club (SWMFC): The club was established in December 2011 by a group of fanboys who shared a passion for that beloved galaxy far, far away. As a nonprofit organization registered with the Registrar of Societies Malaysia, SWMFC aims to promote the timeless space fantasy saga by uniting fans across the region, as well as organizing Star Wars themed events for its members and the general public. Community service is a hallmark of our society, and we strive to bring the joy and excitement of growing up with Star Wars to the next generation.
- Bryan of Pop Vinyl Malaysia: A group formed to bring collectors of Funko products together, now 1.5 years old and reaching 600 members.
- Peter Lai, a Vintage Star Wars Collector. Better known as “Chancellor Peter” in the International Vintage Star Wars collecting forums and Facebook Vintage Star Wars collecting Groups, he has been a lifelong collector since getting his first STAR WARS figure in the Christmas of 1979 and collected well into the Internet era. Evidently, a completist at heart as he has put on display the full range of Vehicles, Playsets, Creatures, Display Stands and Collectors Case released by KENNER PRODUCTS from 1977 to 1979, complete in their original STAR WARS packaging.
- Ng of LEGO User Group of Malaysia (LOM): The group was incepted in 2013 by brick enthusiasts and has since become the fastest growing LEGO fan club in Malaysia with over 10,000 online members. LOM's vision is to share the love of LEGO to Malaysians and unite Adult Fans of LEGO. At Star Wars Day, their members have built scenes from Episodes I to VII including Rogue One.
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| Chancellor Peter's collection of vintage Star Wars toys from 1977-79. |
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| Moderator Richard Chua (far left) with the Saber Masters (left to right): Tintoy Chuo, Alan Cheong, Jason Ngiam, Saber Dad / Vincent Wong. Photo credit: John Gullidge. |
- Tintoy Chuo of Lightsaber League Malaysia (LLM): LLM is a gathering of like-minded individuals who admire the elegant weapon, from a more civilized age. Lightsaber fans from all over Malaysia to come together to talk, share, participate, and source stunt sabers.
- Alan Cheong of AC Lightsabers (ACL) helps Star Wars fans purchase, modify, customise and upgrade their lightsabers. Alan himself literally hand crafts lightsabers right here in Malaysia and therefore can customise hilts to specific requests for unique designs tailor made for a fan.
- Jason Ngaim of Sabertrio provides high-grade aluminimum hilt illuminated stunt lightsabers for Star Wars fans to duel like the movies. Sabertrio's sabers are made locally as to be much more affordable to Malaysian fans.
- Vincent Wong, more commonly known as Saber Dad in the local lightsaber community, was one of the early adopters of LED saber technology. Armed with almost a decade of saber building knowledge, he does servicing, installations, conversion, and custom builds.
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| Photo credit: John Gullidge. |
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| Artists Panel (left to right): Richard Chua (moderator), Dave Liew, Bone Alfie, Jon Tham, Michael Chuah, Tintoy Chuo. Photo credit: John Gullidge. |
Artists Panel:
- Dave Liew the co-founder of Fearless Ideas & Designs providing art direction while managing an impressive work flow with a tight turnaround for a wide range of clients. He is also a stalwart members of the 501st Legion and won best fan-made Star Wars social poster for the 2011 Japanese Tsunami Relief Effort.
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| Dave has littered his art piece with Easter eggs for fans. Photo credit: John Gullidge. |
- Bone Alfie is a full-time graffiti artist. With 16 years experience in the field, he does commission art for clients such as Petronas. His personal style tends to be distorted, deformed or monstrous versions of the subject matter.
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| Bone's distorted art style of a Stormtrooper. Photo credit: John Gullidge. |
- Jon Tham is a graphic designer who infuses manga art into his work, capable of drawing manga style portraits and caricatures, designing anime characters, conducting art classes and, on many occasions, raised funds for charity through his art. He experiments in colour pencil art and produced quite a number of fan art ranging from Star Wars, Batman and Transformers.
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| Jon's manga-influenced version of Force twins Luke & Leia. Photo credit: John Gullidge. |
- Michael Chuah is a Malaysian comic artist and well known designer. Over the years, he focuses on the development of comic art presentation and its contents, as well as its character and graphic designs. His comic, 《Gengkey》 had a line of vinyl toys and character design collection artbook 《GENGKEY 100 : The Character Guide》. His other notable works are: 《Office Survival》、《KO Campus》、《Monster Chaos》、《Three Hours To Master》、《Horoscope Fever》 and many more. He contributed the Fan Key Art for this event collaterals. Thanks Michael!
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| Michael's comic edition of Darth Vader. Photo credit: John Gullidge. |
- Tintoy Chuo of Fusion Wayang Kulit. Founded by Tintoy & Take Huat, Fusion Wayang Kulit teams up with Mr.Pak Dain, the 13th accredited Tok Dalang ("Master Puppeteer") of the Kelantan Traditional Malay Shadow Play, to revive this dying traditional culture by merging it with fusion element & enhancing it with various multimedia components.
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| Tintoy with his art piece of the galaxy's most famous smugglers, Han Solo & Chewbacca. Photo credit: John Gullidge. |
Each artist contributed a special Fan Art Drawing for the event to be auctions for charity with proceeds donated to SCASFT. The five pieces are exclusive fan art pieces are now up for silent auction starting from RM1,000 per piece. If interested to bid for them, please call Ms. Kimberley of SCASFT at 6016-225 9886 to submit your bid.
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| Art pieces (left to right) by Bone Alfie, Michael Chuah and Dave Liew are being auctioned for charity. Photo credit: John Gullidge. |
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| Our 40th Anniversary Fan Panel (left to right): Richard (moderator), Rafie, Nightress, Julian, Allen. Photo credit: John Gullidge. |
The Force is 40 Fan Panel:
- Rafie is a familar face in the local fan community, being the current President of the Star Wars Malaysia Fan Club (SWMFC). He revels in dabbling in both the Light and Dark Side of the Force, but committing to neither.
- Nightress love for Star Wars comes from watching A New Hope but delved into costuming during the Prequel era. She is a member of the Rebel Legion inspired to recreate screen accurate costumes to support the fan community's charitable causes.
- Julian Kong is the Force behind this Star Wars Day 40th Anniversary Celebration event. Please thank him and his comrades in arms, Ng, James & Daniel, for bringing us together.
- Allen Yap is founder of Cosplay-FUN Malaysia (CFM) with the mission to help Cosplay in Malaysia gain more positive acceptance & exposure as well as present cosplay as a healthy interest / craft for all ages, races and creed. Allen is a Star Wars fan at heart and strives to be a Jedi Master.
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| THE FORCE IS 40! Photo credit: John Gullidge. |
Thank you again to everyone contributing their time for the passion of Star Wars.
May the Force be with You!
Disclaimer: Star Wars and other trademarks are copyright to Lucasfilm and/or Disney, referenced here for fan service announcements without intent to infringe.
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