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| Location | ||
| Buchannan Galleries, Glasgow 10:00 – 17:00 | ||
| Mission Report | ||
| Keen to capitalize on the level of organizational debacle of twelve months ago, Lucasfilm pushed the boat out for this years Tired Pun Day event at the Lego stores by making sure it was even more of a logistical nightmare for everyone. I like to imagine it came as a massive disappointment to them that the inaccuracies of the Gregorian calendar meant that maximum inconvenience was thwarted by 4th May having the gall to actually fall on a Saturday instead of midweek this year, but don’t doubt that they’ll double down on their seeming goal of having a punch up between 32 different costuming groups outside the stores at 10:48 on a Sunday morning over who has eminent domain in time for next year so they can eventually issue a moratorium over the whole hobby… While, like 2023, the discounts and GWP offers had been running for several days beforehand allowing the rabid fan element to already complete their intended purchases in advance of the event, because it did take place on a Saturday the venue started and remained throughout the entire day hugely busy. From the minute Andrew and I came out in costume just after 10:15 (thanks largely to the vagaries of the lifts which have clearly gotten bored with just working as intended for the last decade plus and nowadays just come and go, or indeed just… don’t, as and when they feel like it) at the entrance to the shop there was a queue for the Make and Take, a considerable number of purchasers and a veritable torrent of passers-by down the shopping centre frequently making the mental connection between the date and the Star Wars guys standing in the doorway just slightly too late until we called it quits around 16:45. Caveated slightly perhaps by being open face at this for the first time, but certainly in terms of public interaction it was by far the most talking in character I’d done in costume for many, many a year but I feel it was quite the busiest of the ten occasions we’ve taken part in this event. Indeed, I wonder what the type of parents who we’ve seen previously drop their kids off in the store and go about their own shopping like it was some sort of creche actually made of it. As I’ve implied the shop was stowed from morning to evening but the number of younger kids, the ones normally found playing in the brick bins and at the build a mini-figure stands for hours at a time without any resulting purchase, were largely absent and while families coming and going were still a large part of the turnout on the day, the demographic definitely skewed towards teenagers and adults actually keeping the tills ringing* with their disposable income. One slight issue was that the number of bodies migrating around meant the heat was oppressive even in the doorway. Last years sadly missed air conditioning had been repaired, but the overhead lights were switched on (possibly in oversight) after about an hour or so of us starting the troop which didn’t help. That said being busy and hot will always beat standing around bored and cool because the attendance is low, and it was busy enough that a short lunch and two comfort breaks aside the entire day passed without the need to enquire about the time. Another was a brief run in with a single security guard who decided after a couple of hours we were forbidden from crossing the tiled threshold along the storefront. The decree was quickly overruled by the Store Manager and many of his security colleagues stopped by to watch us, and some even posed for photos before and afterwards, so it was very individual opinion for the messenger to be shot over. Having somehow lost the knack of eating or drinking without smearing half the meal over it my requisite beard had been massively irritating me for the past month or so inclining me to promise it would be removed come 19:00 that night but on the journey home I came to reflect that perhaps all that personal annoyance had been far outweighed by the grins, bemusement, joy (and occasional scream) it and the presence of “Obi Wan” and memorably one instance of “Gandalf who’ll twat you with his f*****g laser stick” had contributed to the people passing through Buchannan Galleries that day and was somehow worth it. For the record, I still shaved it off ASAP though. *Or whatever the equivalent modern idiom for contactless card transactions is. “Keeping the EMVs dipping”? “Keeping the NFCs radiating”..? “Keeping the PDQs beeping”…? Great. Now I’ll be trying to come up with something for that the rest of the day… | ||
| Personnel | ||
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| Visual Archive |
142 Lego Store May 4th Celebration – 4th May 2024
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