Expo Fun

Tosche Station has been lucky to attend almost every Calgary and Edmonton Expo. We have used this opportunity to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada.  Through donations and raffles, we have raised over $23000 for this charity over the years so far.  Along the way, we have met and had some great interaction with many of the Star Wars guests that have also attended the Expo.  From the very first Expo in 2005 with the late Peter Mayhew to the ever popular gentleman Anthony Daniels in 2014. We have met many awesome Star Wars guest at our booth throughout the years including, Ray Park, Matt Wood, Daniel Logan, Brian Herring and even Carrie Fisher came to visit our booths.  It has been a ride we will never forget and we look forward to each and every year.

The Booth

The booth has grown and changed since the start of the first Expo. Since 2010 we started using the booth to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada. Every year we all purge our collection and donate all our extras to the booth to sell. We also make a hand-carved deck chair for Raffle. More on the Chair below.

See a small gallery below of our presence at the Expos.

The Expo Guest (Star Wars guests)

Every year we eagerly await the guest list to be announced for the Calgary & Edmonton Expo.  We have been lucky to have met some great celebrities and have them swing by our booth for a few photos or Signatures for our charity raffle.

2007 Meeting Ray Park for the first time.

  • 2007 Ray Park @ the Expo

  • 2007 Ray Park & Kris J

  • 2007 Ray Park & Ryan M

At the 2007 Calgary Expo we were happy to meet Ray Park and get him one of our first Shirts

2008 Matthew Wood Stops by the booth.

In 2008 The Calgary Expo had 2 Star Wars Guests. The first was Matthew Wood, He was gracious enough to stop by the booth for a few pictures and we also gave him one of our shirts.

2008 Daniel Logan at the Expo.

In 2008 The Calgary Expo had 2 Star Wars Guests. Daniel Logan was also given one of our Tosche Station shirts. 

2009 Ray Park returns.

In 2009 Ray Park was back at the Expo again. This year we gave him one of our version 2 of the Tosche Shirt.  He was stoked as I guess he works out with Daniel logan and he said that Daniel always wore his Tosche shirt so he recognized the logo right away.

2014 Anthony Daniels First Expo

We had Anthony Daniels come by the booth and autograph our C-3P0 chair, I actually had gone to get his autograph and brought a picture of the chair to ask him if he could sign it for our charity raffle when he had time. He immediately turned to a full line of people behind me and said” Have you seen this chair? ” pointing to my phone with the picture of it.  “I’ll be right back.” We immediately took off toward our booth. It was pretty crazy, his people at the table didn’t’ know what to do.   We arrived at the booth and he signed it a took a few pictures. It was truly amazing how he just dropped everything to help out our charity raffle.

Ryan M.

 

2016 BB-8 (Brian Herring) at the booth (Edmonton Expo)

Our second Edmonton Expo had us meeting Brian Herring (BB-8 Puppeteer). We had asked him to come by the booth and sign the chair for our charity raffle when he had a chance. about an hour later he came by and hung out for a bit. He offed to sign anything BB-8 as all the money raised from our booth goes to charity.  On the Sunday he said he wanted to draw the winning ticket for the chair and we were more than happy to oblige. 2:30 on Sunday Brain swung by the booth and drew the name, I started to call the winner and he took my phone and proceeded to tell the person they had actually won the deck chair.  It was a pretty cool moment and the winner was totally surprised that Brain had actually called and chatted with the winner. 

Ryan M.

 

2018 Anthony Daniels finds the booth.

It’s Saturday morning of the 2014 Calgary Expo.  I took advantage of my VIP access and entered the autograph hall a half-hour early.  I headed over to the Tosche Station booth to check in with the other Tosche Station folks first thing.  No one was at the booth yet, except for an elegant, slim gentleman all dressed in black, with white hair.  He was admiring the C-3P0 chair that we had made for this year’s Expo.  I’m freaking out inside, thinking to myself “OMG OMG OMG…I think I know who that is…” 

I took a deep breath to steady my nerves, switched into “tour guide mode” and greeted Mr. Daniels. “Good morning Mr. Daniels!  How do you like our chair?”.  I was so starstruck, I totally forget what questions he asked me.  I remember telling him a bit about our club, and how we raffle off a chair every year to support The Lymphoma & Leukemia Society.  Shortly thereafter, a couple of other club members arrived at the booth.  Mr. Daniels graciously autographed the chair for us and took a few pictures with us and the chair.  It was one of the most memorable and unique celebrity encounters I’ve experienced at the Expo, and it was absolutely wonderful to meet him!

Corey H

 

2018 Darth Maul (Ray Park) in Edmonton.

2018 Edmonont Expo had us meeting Ray Park again. Ray was extremely busy at this Expo and we actually brought the chair to him to sign for us as he couldn’t’ leave his booth. We had tons of compliments on the chair and even Doug Jones (Star Trek Discovery, Hellboy), who was signing autographs at the next booth came over to take a look. He laughed and asked why he should get a throne.  Ray liked the chair.  

Ryan M

 

The Chair

Since starting to raise money for charity we have made and raffled off a custom deck chairs at each Expo, we attend.   These chairs have progressed and changed throughout the years and are a highlight as people are always wondering what we have come up with for this year’s Expo.