Star Wars Celebration Europe (London) 2023 - Hayden Christensen, Mads Mikkelson, Katee Sackhoff Joining As Guests

Well, well! Red Dot Diva just published an article about the first wave of guests for Star Wars Celebration Europe (London) 2023 , and more guests were just announced by Official Pix. Official Pix are the folks in charge of the autograph hall and photo opportunities.

The additional guests announced are Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker/ Darth Vader), Denis Lawson (Wedge Antilles), Mads Mikkelsen (Galen Erso), Katee Sackhoff (Bo-Katan), and James Arnold Taylor (voice actor in The Clone Wars, Tales Of The Jedi)!!

Star Wars Celebration Europe (London) 2023 Announces First Wave Of Guests - Anthony Daniels, Ashley Eckstein and More

Star Wars Celebration is an official Lucasfilm event that brings together Star Wars fans from all over the world to enjoy everything about the franchise. The bi-annual event is organised by ReedPop, who are also the organisation behind New York Comic Con.

Red Dot Diva had tickets for Star Wars Celebration Anaheim (SWCA), which was supposed to happen during summer of 2020. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the event was cancelled and postponed to May 2022. At that time, Red Dot Island continued to be on lockdown regarding out-going flights till a few months later. That means that Red Dot Diva was not able to make it to Anaheim last year either.

Fortunately, her good friend and Star Wars buddy Ashley managed to help score 4-day tickets for Star Wars Celebration Europe (SWCE) 2023. SWCE is set to light up the galaxy at London's ExCeL Centre from 7 to 10 April 2023! After all that pent-up Star Wars feels, Red Dot Diva is more than ready to party with the fans who will be converging at the event hall that Easter weekend. Finally, she will be travelling overseas for the first time in 3 years since the pandemic lockdown began.

Singapore Comic Con (SGCC) 2020 CANCELLED - So What Now?

Even as cases of Covid-19 has been decreasing recently, Red Dot Island is still at DORSCON Orange. The local government has been very cautious about re-opening businesses and social activities, so it is not a surprise at all to see ReedPop's announcement that the local pop-culture event of the year Singapore Comic Con (SGCC) 2020 has been cancelled.

Celebrate Star Wars Day Online with Fightsaber Singapore on May the 4th

Sigh. Remember the pre-Covid-19 pandemic days??

Those were the days when local Star Wars fans here would gather physically to celebrate May the 4th Star Wars Day by interacting with costumers and cosplayers, ogling at wondrous toy collections, learning how to fight with a lightsaber, or simply enjoying each other's geeky company.

Earlier in March 2020, the organisers of May the 4th SG had wisely announced that due to safety reasons, there will not be a public event held this year. Then, Circuit Breaker happened, and no gatherings were allowed by law anyway.

However, it will be the school holidays next week, and the younglings will be off from HBL sessions. So, parents and their children can take part in a May the 4th celebration online with our favourite lightsaber performance and costume group, Fightsaber SG! 

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The school holidays are around the corner and so is May the 4th! This Circuit Breaker will not stop us from celebrating Star Wars Day and so we'd like to invite parents and children to participate in our exciting activities the next few weeks! We'll be organizing activities that you can take part in, all from the comfort and safety of your home! Watch this space the next few days as we announce more details on the activities and how you can also stand a chance to win prizes! #fightsabersingapore #fightsaber #starwars #starwarsday #maythe4th #maythe4thsg #sgunited #stayhomesg

A post shared by FightSaber Singapore (@fightsabersg) on Apr 29, 2020 at 7:20am PDT

Rebranded Singapore Comic Con (SGCC) Shifts Dates to 7 & 8 Dec 2019!

The signs were already there during last year's Singapore Toy, Game and Comic Convention (STGCC). Remember the huge signage made out of post-its with the new name, near the food court? It was a hint of what's to come concerning the rebranding of Red Dot Island's main pop-culture show.

Since then, there has been a fair amount of hearsay with bits of information flowing through from exhibitors and those who signed up for booths at this year's Artist Alley. However, for most local fans, things have been kept on the low-down... Until last night. 

At an exclusive fan party held at retro gaming bar NINETEEN80, ReedPOP Singapore made three important official announcements to a group of about 25 specially invited fans. 

#1 - STGCC Has Been Rebranded as Singapore Comic Con (SGCC)
The event's lengthy name - Singapore Toy, Game and Comic Convention - has always been a tongue twister. Red Dot Diva noticed that guests usually fumble when they need to mention the show's name at a promotional video or during interviews. Many local folks (especially those who are not so hardcore) sometimes call it Singapore Comic Con for short.

Also, the new name is more in line with all the other pop-culture conventions that ReedPOP organises internationally, like New York Comic Con, Oz Comic Con, Seoul Comic Con and Indonesia Comic Con. ReedPOP assures that other segments like toys, will still have their presence at the show even though it is not mentioned specifically in rebranding.

The show's acronym/ hashtag itself though, is rather unfortunate. It is a running joke that SGCC stands for Serangoon Gardens Country Club, so... will there be a pop-culture mini golf competition at the show? Red Dot Diva thinks that will be quite a fun and novel idea. Hahaha.

Apparently, SGCC was chosen over SCC in order not to cause confusion for those who associate the latter's acronym with Singapore Comics Community.

NYCC 2013: Many Exciting Guests, Exhibits and.... The Nerd Machine!

New York Comic Con (NYCC) just seems to get bigger and glitzier each year.

Red Dot Diva first attended NYCC in 2011, and the number of more TV or movie-related panels and guests have increased in the last two years.

Still, NYCC is a far more comics-centric convention compared to San Diego Comic-Con. The number of creators attending as guests in NYCC is any comic fan's wildest dreams. And the space set aside for Artist Alley is mind-blowingly huge, with rows and rows of comic artists eager to connect with people who are or will be interested in their work. Also, since NYCC has a far less hectic crowd than Comic-Con, the chances of one meeting and having more time with their favourite comic creators or artists are fairly high.

Check out the very LONG list of comic guests here!

NYCC 2012: An Alternative to Comic-Con?

This is the 7th year of New York Comic Con (NYCC).

The event is run by the good folks at ReedPOP (whose local setup, by the way, also runs Red Dot Island's STGCC). And from all bets, attendance numbers for NYCC 2012 is set to garner another record high.

Considering the recent "mainstreaming" of what used to be the geekier side of pop-culture, the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center will be jam-packed with noobs and old-timers come October 11 to 14th 2012.  Fact is, the three-day and four-day tickets have already been sold out a couple of weeks ago. And NYCC has never quite "sold out" this much, this early before.

Sigh. Signs of the times.

STGCC 2011 Day 1 - Before Doors Opened

When Red Dot Diva foggily woke up at 7.45 am Sat morning, she read a tweet from ReedPOP's Peter Tatara saying that a line for STGCC was already forming at Level 3 of Suntec. Then, she noticed that his tweet was sent an hour before she had even crawled out of bed!

When she arrived at the Suntec convention hall at 9.20 am, there was a line snaking round the 3rd floor towards the main escalators. This evidently showed the level of interest for this year's STGCC despite all the complaints and naysayers.

From the way, the hype has been going, Red Dot Diva was well aware that most of the early folks were targetting for Hot Toys' gorgeous limited edition exclusives - the 12" action figures of (Batman (Batman Begins)), Shadow Predator and Ironman Mark IV.

Who Is Coming To STGCC 2011?

That's the simple (and yet not so simple) question on everyone's minds.

Well, other than the ticketing prices, of course.

Finally, in a Straits Times article published this Thursday, Reed Exhibitions announced the ticketing information and two returning guests for the Singapore Toy Games and Comic Convention (STGCC) 2011. The convention will be held at the Suntec Convention Centre on August 20 - 21 this year.

Aspiring local and regional comic creators will be glad to know that Marvel's Senior Vice President, Creator and Content Developer and international travelling-foodie CB Cebulski will be back on the Red Dot Island. He will be spending more time reviewing portfolios and sharing with fans about Marvel's upcoming books.

The other familiar guest is Italian artist Simone Legno - a hot favourite with fans around the region. Thanks to his Tokidoki brand name. Simone will also be working on a limited edition "Zip and Cody" figurine just for STGCC 2011.

But who else will be coming here??!?