Day One at New York Comic

New York Comic-Con is one of my favorite events of the year, and it brings no shortage of Star Wars content. Day one was all about walking the show floor and hunting down the Star Wars diamonds in the rough. You had your regular assortment of mystery boxes, T-shirts, collectibles, pins, coasters — you name it. There were artistic renditions of Darth Vader, Boba Fett, Chewbacca, and Darth Maul on display. All very impressive.

With that in mind, here are my “3 Thoughtful Things” from day one, through a Star Wars lens:

1) The amount of Spaceballs merchandise

Like many Star Wars fans, I am very much looking forward to the new Spaceballs movie.Spaceballs: The New One hits theaters on April 23, 2027 Benji Samit, and Dan Hernandez. Hernandez also wrote for the fantastic LEGO Star Wars animated series, so the pedigree is real

And everybody on the show floor understood the assignment. Spaceballs coasters, Spaceballs posters, Spaceballs hats. It was another way for everyone to earn money and it was terrific. I can’t tell you how many people I saw laughing at the merchandise, creating content with the merchandise, and buying the merchandise. We are all very excited about this movie.

Sidenote: Rick Moranis is one of my GOATs of acting. He is on my short list of people I would love to have dinner with.

2) The costumes keep getting better

This applies to way more than Star Wars. I loved the giant blow-up Minion walking around taking pictures with everyone. But I just love how screen-accurate most Star Wars cosplay looks these days. It is as if all of them could walk straight into the 501st Legion without any hesitation.

I love the dedication, the passion, and the time that fans put into their costumes and their craft. It is really cool to see. Talking to them, you can tell it is an absolute passion project, and they do it out of love for the galaxy far, far away. I took a lot of pictures of people dressed as the Mandalorian, Chewbacca, and Yoda. This is nothing new, but it impresses me every single time. It is one of those “I have found my people” moments.

3) Thrawn!

Thrawn is my absolute favorite character in Star Wars. So much so that I dedicated a large portion of my TEDx talk to him (watch it here). The amount of Thrawn books, art, and other things I saw dedicated to our favorite Chiss blew me away.

I was thrilled at the announcement that we are getting a comic with Thrawn involved: Ahsoka: Escape from Thrawn, covering Ezra’s escape from Peridea. I can’t wait to review that for Laughing Place. I am still waiting on stories from the gap in time between the Rebels finale, when the purrgil whisk Ezra and Thrawn away to Peridea, and years later when we find them in the first season of Ahsoka. I am very curious about that timeframe and what happens on Peridea in between. Maybe one day!

Overall, a very strong first day. There was a lot to see and a lot to enjoy, and I can’t wait for the panels on Friday. May the Force be with us all this weekend.