COLLECTORMANIA MIDLANDS - NOVEMBER 1ST & 2ND 2008

On paper this convention looked like it was gonna be pretty good, a strong line up of guests were originally announced, with a fair few Star Wars actors, some first time attendees.

Sadly as time got nearer big names like Richard Dreyfuss pulled out and the reality ended up being very disappointing.

Held over two days with some guests doing one or the other and some (supposedly) doing both. The show was very poorly attended both days and the day I went on Sunday it was almost dead.

Some of the Star Wars guests didn't even bother to show. Dave Prowse was meant to be there on Sunday but never showed and Chris Parson who was listed as a both day signer, took a dump on Sunday after the wash out of Saturday, which was a real shame.

I have never seen Kenny Baker’s table so quite and the other SW actors like Mike Edmonds and Laurie Goode were twiddling their thumbs also.

All this said I did get to meet and talk with a couple of guests I hadn't met before and got to ask a few questions of them.

CHRISTOPHER MUNCKE

Christopher told me this was his first ever convention appearance and I was the first person to see him so hopefully things went well for him.

In 1976 Christopher spent just one (long) day filming his scene as the Imperial Officer who reports to Lord Vader outside the Millennium Falcon, after its capture on the Death Star.

This was the only scene he filmed, he did not have any other scenes and everything he filmed is in the movie. His dialogue was dubbed and he knew this was going to happen as he was told that as Dave Prowse’s dialogue was so poor on set they would re-record the whole scene later. Interestingly Muncke is American but still got dubbed, most of the British actors got dubbed into American voices so one may have thought his voice would've been kept. In between takes he spent his time chatting to Dave Prowse and Kenny Baker but

didn't interact with any of the leads.

He auditioned for the role via his agent and recalled to me that when he met with Gary Kurtz and George Lucas he was shown storyboards that laid out the story for the whole nine film saga. If this is true it is the first time I have ever heard that (I think these were actually the storyboards/paintings for STAR WARS that Lucas had on his “borrowed” office wall at the FOX offices in Soho Square, London circa December 1975-Editor). He commented to me that the storyboards featuring Luke Skywalker he saw showed a young man he felt looked very similar to himself and for a moment a hoped he may get cast in a lead role. Soon after working on SW he went on to appear in Roger Moore’s Bond movie "The Spy Who Loved Me".

Christopher now lives in the UK and hopes to attend more events in the future.

I found him to be very pleasant and it was nice to see a new face on the circuit.

DAVE HOLLAND

Dave Holland appeared in the first Star Wars movie as an extra, most notably in the Rebel Briefing room scene as he is standing directly in front of Han Solo and Chewbacca (he’s also in the Rebel Hangar Bay scenes-additionally shot at Shepperton-Editor).

He spent three to four weeks on the movie in the long hot summer of 1976. He enjoyed his period on the film as he had a lot of time to sit around outside in the sun. Many days he would be sitting around chatting with both Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford, both of which he said were very friendly and happy to chat with everyone.

He was paid £10 per day with the exception of the day he had his close up alongside Harrison Ford. For this he received an extra £3 that day.

At the time of SW he was just an extra/bit part actor but in 1979 he became a stuntman.

He has recently been working on Joe Johnston’s "Wolfman" and just did stunt co-ordination on Coronation Street (top UK soap opera for non UK readers).

He has also worked on the Bond franchise, appearing in "Octopussy".

Dave was a really nice guy, super friendly and more than willing to talk at length about his career. Although he does admit his memory is not what it once was and he can't recall a great deal of detail about Star Wars.

So, despite the poor turn out and couple of no shows, it wasn't a completely wasted trip.

I enjoyed meeting the new faces but clearly the demand for some guests is waning and being a bit more selective and restrictive about their appearances would help in the long run.

Ian Trussler

Check out Ian's PDF images at:   www.starwarsaficionado.com/collectormaniamidpics.html

Caption info: a capped Ian meets Christopher Muncke, and then Dave Holland in his colourful pink jumper!!