As seen at STAR WARS CELEBRATION VI • RETURN TO TATOOINE DIORAMA BUILDERS
Orlando, FL, USA from August 16 to 19 2012
post production Celebration VI RETURN TO TATOOINE FAN RECOLLECTIONS
Welcome to the OFFICIAL Star Wars Celebration VI Return to Tatooine Diorama Builders workshop site featuring my EXCLUSIVE CREW COVERAGE not seen anywhere else on the web.
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Sunday, August 19 2012
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Feel free to share your Celebration VI Diorama Workshop experience with us – Good or Bad – Help us make the next ones better with your input. Simply send me an email to DIORAMAWORKSHOP.COM@GMAIL.COM and I will add it to this page. You can also comment at the bottom of the page about the comments 🙂 LOL. I will get the ball started, please Don’t be shy !!!
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FRANK DIORIO : This one was bittersweet. In what should have been amazing, turned out to be the one I have the most bad memories of. But first, the GOOD: To see my Diorama Crew Family again, priceless, we have come to be such a close tight group of friends, it’s just so much fun that I will truly miss the day I stop doing these workshops. Seeing the fans again, some who have been coming since 2002, to see their kids now late teens and some with toddlers of their own now coming to build. It’s so very rewarding. The fan generosity with the fan toy donations, amazing. and the faces of the kids on the Sunday when we gave them all away. That’s always so much fun to do and see. Booth size was the BIGGEST EVER, and part of the bad 🙁 The concept was great but I was overwhelmed with issues. OH !!! but first, the COOLEST BEST SURPRISE for me, was to have C-3P0 himself, Anthony Daniels agree to record his iconic voice to workshop specific dialogue like “The odds of burning your fingers with hot glue are 27,000 to 1” and “Master Frank, so great to see you back again at Celebration with a brand new Diorama Builders workshop. To spend 1 hour with him recording this and having it loop during the 4 days is PRICELESS.
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Now the BAD: The booth space, as cool and flattering as it was to have 100 feet wide, the crew was the same number as in past conventions, and we could not see everywhere and help the increase in builders. Add to that a NEW concept for us, a closed off War Room to keep all our production side a little less public, right in the middle of the booth, worked against us as the perfect shield of vision and allowed 2-3 little brat kids to come and grab close to 100 action figures from the diorama display on Day 2. Because of this, I had to remove ALL figures, which made everything look like a ghost town for fans when taking photos. Because of this and the chaos of the Barge, later on that, The thought of putting them back up for the final Sunday display and photo op just zoomed past my brain. I was FURIOUS when I saw bags of HUNDREDS of fan donated toys not placed in the diorama. At least we found the bags in time for the kids giveaways so all was good in the end regarding the toys, but for the archives, the photos are just sad for me 🙁
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The other BIG reason I hated this show is trying to put too much on my plate with promises made before the show that forced me to spend every spare minute I had rushing and finishing the god damn giant Jabba Barge LOL. Steve Sansweet from Rancho Obi-Wan was bringing it home to his gallery for public display and it had to be ready. I was working on this barge ALL THE TIME, I could NOT go to dinner with my friends, I could not go to swim or have drinks with them after closing, I was at the booth, in the dark every night until security kicked me out. The Barge was put on it’s pallet Sunday, without a Sail, and with still wet paint. Not Good. It looked AMAZING, but the plan was to finish it 2 days earlier to have it on display by the Sarlacc Pit. That never happened 🙁 Since this convention, I have scrapped group builds and NEVER promised anything I wasn’t sure I could deliver.
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