Chicago's Navy Pier was the site of this year's CHITAG (The Chicago International Toy and Game fair)
Bikerscouts on the indoor Merry-Go-Round.
On November 21st & 22nd 2009, Members of the 501st Legion Midwest Garrison participated for the 4th consecutive year at CHITAG, the Chicago International Toy & Game Fair www.chitag.com showcasing house-hold name brands as well as independent game creators.
Members of the Midwest Garrison were there to host the Star Wars breakfast and play "Droid Hunt" with fair-goers on Saturday as well as meet & greet the thousands of kids who came to the fair over the 2-day event.
Some info about the fair:
Preview and play with the hottest new toys and games on the market, meet the inventors and enjoy a Star Wars “Droid Hunt,” Chicagoland Sports Mascots kick off Toy Drive for the needy, entertainment by Radio Disney and more at the Chicago Toy and Game Fair (ChiTAG), Saturday, Nov. 21 and Sunday, Nov. 22 at Chicago’s Navy Pier.
Fairgoers will be able to meet toy and game inventors, including celeb/actresses Daryl Hannah and Hilary Shepard, inventors of Liebrary; Leslie Scott, inventor of Jenga; Bruce Lund, inventor of TMX Elmo and founder of River Forest-based Lund and Company Invention, LLC; Chicago area resident John Spinello, inventor of Operation and Reuben Klamer, inventor of The Game of Life and winner of this year’s Toy Industry Association Lifetime Achievement Award.
A Star Wars Breakfast featuring Star Wars characters and prizes, chess tournaments in the Renaissance Knights Pavilion, and a free Games in Education conference for educators are just a few of the many fair events planned. For full event details, visit www.chitag.com.
Fair hours are 10 am to 6 pm on Saturday and 10 am to 5 pm on Sunday. Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for children. Children under three are admitted free; Scouts in uniform, teachers and librarians are also admitted free of charge.
“ChiTAG is the nation’s only public toy and game show and this year’s event will feature something for everyone. Kids, teachers, parents, toy and game enthusiasts and other curious minds are invited to play and learn,” said Executive Director Mary Couzin.
For the third year, ChiTAG, along with sponsors, including the Toy Industry Association and Lund and Company Invention, LLC, will also hold the Young Inventor Challenge. Students 18 and under are invited to submit original game and toy inventions by October 31; details are available on the web site at www.chitag.com. Voting for the Young Inventor Challenge winner will take place by popular vote during the fair.
ChiTag exhibitors and sponsors include Hasbro, Lund and Company Invention LLC, Family Time Magazine, Discovery Bay Games, Buffalo Games, Rio Grande Games, ideasplash, Playthings Magazine, Top Trumps, Out of the Box Games, Strong National Museum of Play and the Toy Industry Association.
We were invited out to Navy Pier on Friday morning to do some live morning news TV promo spots. The local networks asked if some of us could stick around to be on the live news at noon as well. So we had some time to kill and things to play with & on......
Check out these videos of our bikerscouts trying out a new bike by Razor:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/41064945@N ... 720569177/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/41064945@N ... 720569177/
On Saturday morning, Members of the Midwest Garrison appeared for the sold-out 3rd annual "Star Wars Charity Breakfast" sponsored by Hasbro & Top Trumps. There were toys provided by Hasbro for every child attending the breakfast!TB 0101 wrote:Friday morning's training started out fairly standard, with a lecture on safety from Capt. Rex.
Unfortunately, TB 9442 made the mistake of snoring with his mic still on, which immediately led to a heart starting (or stopping) round of calisthenics.
...prior to which he was thrown into a nearby tree for insubordination-ahem, advanced crash training.
Now highly motivated (perhaps by Capt Rex's blaster being aimed from off camera), the scouts began training on a static course:
After the day's final lesson in the fine art of using foliage as a screen...
instead of as a landing pad...
...the scouts were forc-rewarded with a ride on the pony...
After the breakfast, we played a Droid Hunt with badges created exclusively for this event by Star Wars artist, Cynthia Narcissi :
This super-cute badge is a game in itself!
Sandtroopers collecting badges from some children.
The AWESOME prizes for the Droid Hunt game were donated by FatHead, Hasbro, LucasFilmLtd and more! Fathead sent a giant life-sized stormtrooper wall sticker and the grand prize of the droid hunt was an Anakin lightsber. (I believe it was donated by efx) Hasbro donated a ton of Clone Wars toys, figures, vehicles and more!
You can see some of the pile of donated prizes in the booth here.
CHITAG gave the Midwest Garrison a booth space in the convention hall this year again and THOUSANDS of children who attended the 2 day event were tattood with many different styles of our tattoos.
Cheryl with her tattoo case at our booth.
I would like to send out a BIG THANK YOU to Mary Cousin at CHITAG and everyone else at CHITAG who are always so nice to us.
A HUGE THANK YOU to Cynthia Narcissi for designing the Droid Hunt badge!
A GIGANTIC THANK YOU to HASBRO, FATHEAD, TOP TRUMPS and all who helped with donations of prizes.
AND of course a TREMENDOUS THANK YOU to all of the Legion Members who participated in this event!
Participating 501st Legion Members included:
Patrick Q Higgins
Aimee Jorgensen
Jim Tampa
Cheryl Whitaker
Chris Schwarz
Joe River
Steve S.........
Brian Troyan
Kathy van Beuningen
Jason Sands
Robert Hamilton
James Norman
Rob Miller
Eric Scheurman
and more*
More Member Photo Albums:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/41064945@N ... 720569177/
http://s33.photobucket.com/albums/d74/v ... de/ChiTAG/
IL-Chicago-ChiTAG-Navy Pier-11/21/09-11/22/09