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Thursday, November 19, 2015

Events: D23 Expo 2015 (Part 3)


Part 3 of my D23 Expo 2015 trip! Be sure to check out Part 1 and Part 2 if you missed those.

Saturday morning started off like any other day at the expo...waiting in line! That's just how it rolls. I got there bright and early so I could have a chance to make it to the Disney Store line before it got too long (yes, I did that instead of waiting for the Disney live action panel- crazy I know!). The Disney Store there at the expo was selling some exclusive items that I was trying very hard to get; so I did my best. 


Unfortunately my best wasn't good enough this time around...Below is what the Disney Store line looked like by the time I got in! It was a already a three hour wait; and yes, I waited.

While I was in line, several items that I was looking to buy sold out. By the time I even reached the front of the line, I'm sure most of that stuff was up on eBay for triple the price :P Oh well! I was still able to get in and ended up buying some other cool items. 


Below are some pics I took around the store. There was some pretty neat stuff! If you're interested in knowing more about any of the items below, be sure to let me know and I'll try to answer any questions you might have.

pixxa planet shirt

Here's what I ended up purchasing: Toy Story 20th Mug Set, Pizza Planet Truck Lithograph Set, Cars Fillmore Hawaiian Tee, Cars Lightning Mcqueen Hawaiian shirt. Check out my full write-ups on each of those by clicking the links! 


I then made my way over to the Pixar booth once again to check out some stuff I had missed previously. They had a really awesome Inside Out display featuring some stunning concept art and maquettes! Check out most of it below-


I was also able to catch [most of] a really insightful presentation there with Albert Lozano, Character Art Director for Inside Out! During this "mini panel", Lozano shared some of the secrets of drawing the five emotions from the film and discussed the inspiration for their basic shapes. 


As mentioned yesterday, in the center of the Pixar booth was a Good Dinosaur concept art slideshow that ran on a loop [basically] all day. It was so beautiful and captivating! I found myself going back to watch that numerous times and was able to get shots of just about every image shown. Check it out- 


I was glad that I stayed around the Pixar booth for a while since I was able to catch another mini panel that took place there! During this 45 minute presentation, Greg Dykstra (a character sculptor in the art department at Pixar), talked about and demonstrated the process of creating a clay maquette...specifically Butch the T-Rex from The Good Dinosaur

He began by showing the basic wire armature and talked about that for a bit. He then brought out a rough sculpt (an armature with some clay forming the basic T-Rex shape, which he called "the middle stage") and started "chunking on" additional clay to help form the character even more. Finally, he brought out the extremely detailed final sculpt that he had worked on for the film (which took him about three weeks to complete). It was so impressive to see how someone can create a three-dimensional sculpture based on a 2D drawing. You can actually check out the whole panel HERE on YouTube if you're interested!

Greg Dykstra the good dinosaur

After that was done, I rushed over to the "Pixar Secrets Revealed!" panel but unfortunately missed it. So from there, I headed over to the "Toy Story: 20 Years Later" line to start waiting. Though I was in standby line (not guaranteed to get in), I still made it! Yah, I was pretty far in the back, but I was still so happy to be in there. I'll take what I can get!


For a lifelong Toy Story fan, there couldn't have been a better way to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the film than by sitting in a room with the filmmakers behind the animated classic. During this presentation, filmmakers [John Lasseter, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich, Galyn Susman, Ralph Eggleston, Bob Pauley, Sharon Calahan, Eben Ostby and Bill Reeves] sat down for a "round table" discussion about Toy Story. Most of the stories shared were ones I had heard before, but there will still some golden nuggets there scattered throughout. It was an overall great time and I was honored to be there!


The night was coming to a close...but there was still time to fit in a few more things! After the the Toy Story presentation, I was able to meet up with a friend that I had made through the Disney social media world over the last year or so, but hadn't actually met in person before- the fantastic Giovanni D.! We were able to hit up the expo's "Dream Store" together and ended up buying even more stuff. It was a blast! We had a lot of fun. Good times man- hope to meet up again next time!




d23 expo store
Disney Dream Store

The last thing I had wanted to do was to spend more time checking out the John Lassester Hawaiian shirt exhibit. This was so cool to see- especially since no wait was required (for once)!

For more info on John Lasseter and his love for Hawaiian style shirts, check out my recent post HERE


Another cool thing that I was able to accomplish during Saturday was I completed my "Trading Card Quest" collection! Check out my full post on that HERE for more details.

There you go! That was more or less just about everything that happened during Saturday. Man, was this a whirlwind of a weekend...but oh so fun. Be sure to check back tomorrow for part 4 (the finale) of my D23 Expo 2015 trip. Until next time!

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