Today I am so excited to be on the new episode of Blast Points! Jason and Gabe invited me on the show to talk about my research and the blog, as well as to tell them some bits about Celebration Japan 2008 in this final lead up to Japan 2025. Here’s some visuals and additional resources to go along with our chat!
Listen to the new Blast Points episode HERE!
As an example of how much has changed since the 2008 event, here is the map of how much of Makuhari Messe was taken up by Celebration THEN.
And here is that same map for 2025. BIG difference. Wow.
These are the Clone Wars statues that were standing outside of the “Digital Theatre”, which I believe was the same as the “Main Stage”. Photo credit!
Here’s an extended quote from Fantha Tracks describing the content of the Clone Wars movie panel, which was listed as a 30 minute panel held twice a day every day of the event.
“The Clone Wars footage was amazing. Three different clips were shown. Obi-Wan, Cody, Anakin, Rex and the clones battling countless Battle and Super Battle droids as well as spider droids on the world of Christophsis. Anakin and Rex make a very dramatic and unconventional flanking move to turn the tide of the battle against the droids. Several clones lost heads or limbs and became cannon fodder.
The next clip was a fun clip with Anakin and the new character Ahsoka. Anakin’s padawan (who rivals Padme and Leia with her wit and character) attacking a Separatist outpost atop of a mountain. “Race you to the top!” The massive AT-TE actually ascending the mountain, the battle droids are zany almost a stooge quality or a Gomer Pyle shtick. I loved how the battlefield is turned on its side as ‘sky guy’ and ‘snips’ race to the top. I think fans will love Ahsoka, she is a very cool character.
The third clip was Kenobi and Asajj Ventress in a fierce lightsaber duel with Kenobi’s famous quips that ended with Kenobi at the business end of Asajj’s lightsabers. The Clone Wars looks amazing…on all levels.”
Here’s a picture from The Lair of Takeuchi panel featuring Dave Filoni, Matt Wood, and director Atsushi Takeuchi. Wearing white is the panel host. There’s also this quote describing the footage that was shown: “New footage was shown…10 minutes of an episode centered on Grievous, although Grievous himself wasn’t in the clip. Kit Fisto, Nahdarr Vebb, Clone Troopers entering a house of horrors, with statues of the Pre-Cyborg Grievous and an armory of sorts showing the limbs of the cyborg general.” Quote and photo credit both go to Rebel Scum.
Mark Hamill also had his panel twice that weekend, he’s pictured below and you can watch a quick clip from one of the interviews HERE.
Below you’ll see the Japan “3 Day Premium” badge, basically a VIP equivalent, and the goodies given to those 3,000 ticket holders. This included a piece of authentic Ewok hair, also seen here. Photo credit for all three!
So I discovered that the poorly-translated-by-Google “beard dance” is actually “The Hige Dance”, also called “The Moustache Dance”. The pic labeled as such is below, from the Young Jedi Academy stage that had plenty of awesome programming throughout the weekend. Photo credit
Check out this beautiful Star Tours display from the show floor! The back of the fixture said “From the creative forces of Disney and George Lucas”.
Next up the amazing creations that made up the photo ops on the show floor…the seriously stunning Dewback, the Falcon hallway, Jabba on his platform, the snow speeder, and the speeder bike.
One of the other amazing things featured at this Celebration was The Vader Project. This truly requires it’s own individual blog post, so look forward to that in the future, but in the meantime, here’s a few of the seriously incredible helmets, and you can see the full collection here.
Here’s the George in carbonite that was guarded by a chrome trooper.
The Collecting Track panels at SWC Japan 2008 included “International Collecting”, “Plush Star Wars”, “Unproduced Toys”, and more. Costuming panels and collecting panels were on the same stage in a rotating schedule each day. The giveaway was a set of 12 medallions, which you can see below.
And finally, Rebel Scum’s archives feature great photos of all the exclusive shop items, including shirts modeled by familiar faces. Perfect. No notes.
Now as a bonus for all of you blog readers, something I forgot to mention on the podcast! Sculptor Lawrence Noble was creating a bust of Luke Skywalker live throughout the weekend. This isn’t the only Celebration he did this at, and it’s pretty awesome. My favorite find is that Mark Hamill went by the booth to see the finished product! (Photo credit for both pictures)
Of course, there’s much more to say about Celebration Japan 2008, so look forward to more posts in the future! In the meantime, be sure to check out all the sources linked in this post.
Thank you so much to Jason and Gabe for having me! And if you’ll be at Celebration Japan next week, be sure to catch Blast Points talking about “The George Lucas Super Live Adventure” on Friday, April 18th at 4:30 on the University Stage and find them on the Holonet News stage Saturday, April 19th at 2:30! And as always, shout out to the Chill Group 🙂
the celebration database 
