Star Wars Celebration V launches in Orlando with presentations, celebrities, collectibles – and yes, plenty of Slave Leias

in Disney, Events, Movies

The four-day geek mecca that is Star Wars Celebration V kicked off in Orlando today at the Orange County Convention Center. The mega-convention is the fifth official Star Wars-based convention and the first of its kind to be held in Florida.

An estimated 35,000 fans of the Star Wars universe will be attending Star Wars Celebration V over the course of the weekend, Aug. 12 – 15, 2010. They’re all coming here to meet movie and television stars, attend countless presentations on every Star Wars topic imaginable, bring home a few collectibles, and, of course, show off their own costumes.

The bottom of this article contains a slide show of more than 100 photos I took today while wandering the Star Wars Celebration V show floor for a few hours. But I wanted to highlight a few of my favorites here first:

AT-AT at Star Wars Celebration V
A giant AT-AT walker greets visitors to Star Wars Celebration V.

Stormtroopers guard an AT-AT
But plenty of Stormtroopers are on hand, so watch your step.
Death Star hangs above
On the opposite entrance, the Death Star floats above.

TIE Fighter with Imperial Officer
More larger-than-life displays are found on the convention floor, like this TIE Fighter.

Wampa attack!
Wampa attack! He's standing guard outside the Hoth Echo Base ice bar, presented by G4.

Darth Vader in Echo Base Hoth ice bar
Lord Vader chills out inside the bar.

Slave Leia in Echo Base Hoth ice bar
Meanwhile, Slave Leia gets a chill. Where's a Ton-Ton jacket when you need one?

Slave Leias
Speaking of Slave Leias... yep, they're here. And lots of them, just waiting for you!

Darth Vader looks on at Slave Leias
Lord Vader approves.

Boob-a Fett
But Boob-a Fett gave the Slave Leias some competition.

Slave Leia and Boob-a Fett
Seems like this Slave Leia and Boob-a Fett have become friends.

Slave Leia with Sith cheerleaders
This Slave Leia found a couple of Sith cheerleaders to hang out with. Wait - Sith have cheerleaders?

Darth Vader
Lord Vader commands us to stop glaring at Slave Leias. Moving along...

Troopers take on Han Solo protecting Leia
Many attendees got into the spirit by enacting small scenes in the various photo ops. Here Han Solo protects Leia (non-slave version!) from a few of Vader's Troopers.

Han Solos detain Imperial officer (with R2-D2)
These Han Solos (can "solo" be plural?) made sure this Imperial officer wasn't going anywhere. Artoo's just along for the ride.
Carrie Fisher autographs - NO PHOTOS
The biggest celebrities, like Carrie Fisher (yep, Leia again) were hidden from those who didn't shell out the big bucks to meet them and get an autograph. No photos!

Hasbro remote controlled flying Millenium Falcon
This Hasbro employee was having a blast showing of a remote control flying Millenium Falcon.

Star Tours Starspeeder 1000 crashed
Meanwhile over at Disney's booth, they crashed a (miniature) Starspeeder 3000 in honor of the upcoming Last Tour to Endor event, commemorating the "powering down" of Star Tours to get "reimagined" into a new experience.

Chewbacca in motion
Leaving for the day, I spotted this Wookiee bustin' a move near the exit.

I’ll be returning to Star Wars Celebration V tomorrow (and likely Saturday), so expect many more photos to come. I’ll also be featuring audio from the Disney-related presentations at the convention in the coming weeks on our podcast, so stay tuned for that as well.

Many more photos from Star Wars Celebration V:

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