Stars Wars in Jakarta

A few weeks ago there was a Star Wars convention here in Jakarta. When my neighbor Prateek asked if I wanted to go with him, of course I said yes. Who could turn that down? The chance to see a bunch of Indonesians freak out over Star Wars? Um, yes please. I imagined full on cosplay and people going ga-ga over Leia and Luke and Han... I had to see this.

Now before I get into detail, a bit of background on what Star Wars is to me. Honestly, it's never been that big of a deal. I like it, and I can vaguely remember my Dad taking my brother Jeff and me to see it (I think it was at the Harbor Theater in Lakeside), but I don't remember which of the three movies it was, nor did I have a bunch of Star Wars action figures or anything like that. I've just never been into it the way many guys from my generation tend to be. I mean, come on, Luke Skywalker is cool and all, but he's no GI Joe. Those guys were awesome. I definitely had those toys and I may or may not have strung rappelling lines down the stairs and across the living room of my parents' house. It was so awesome! But I digress... back to Star Wars.

I really wasn't sure what to expect here. Would it be small and not that big of a deal, or completely over the top and ridiculous? I was hoping for lots of Asian style geekiness and some good star wars ridiculousness. Only one way to find out...

Walking into a nondescript office building, the first thing I see is this banner, pointing me towards the festivities.

Star Wars Day Jakarta!

From there, it opened up into a series of semi-connected conference rooms filled with paraphernalia, collectibles, and other random Star Wars stuff. The first room was people in costumes posing for pictures.

Looks just like the real Luke Skywalker. No difference at all. None.

Is that a peace sign/gun combo hand gesture?

It's the world's DEFINITIVE imperial costuming organization. Duh.

In the next room we found tons of action figures, huge set props, etc.

This was my chance to turn the tables on all the Indonesians who normally take my picture.

These are all made of Legos. 

More Legos. Seriously.

Then there was the stuff for sale/trade (I think)

He's so dreamy 

Wait, what? Angry Birds Star Wars? Really?

Um, wrong convention?

This picture made me laugh. Yes I know I have a weird sense of humor, but come on, it's a storm trooper eating noodles. It's funny. No? Meh.

Storm Troopers gotta eat too!

So far, it was tamer than I was hoping. Very few people were dressed up except the official parts of the show. I was about to leave, but then Prateek mentioned that one of his friends was supposed to be running a booth and we hadn't seen him yet. So we ventured off and found him. He wasn't just running a booth. He had created an Imperial Academy flight simulator game.

It was the most impressive thing there, and of course Prateek signed up to play it. He was soooo proud he got the high score.

Prateek (in the helmet) celebrating his victory over a group of children.

Once we witnessed the glory that was Prateek's "victory", it was time to call it a day. Overall, it was a pretty tame experience, but entertaining nonetheless. Having never been to a Star Wars convention in the US, I don't have anything to compare it to. But, I'm going to go ahead and assume it was similar, just more Asian. Much like my entire life over the past year. Hiyo!