My Mando Experience

Star Wars Celebration 2022: This is The Way to My Mandalorian Experience

Star Wars Celebration 2022 (SWCA22) was epic. Definitely one of the cons I’d say that will go down in my con-experience history. For me, it was all about the Mando. Let me explain. If you’ve been following SKKAW.BLOG via social media or here on our website, you’ll now I’m a HUGE Mandalorian fan *ahem, understatement, cough cough. I mean I did make my own Beskar and Darksaber! For more on that, check out my related Darksaber post here, and Mando inspired cosplay build post (to follow).

Overall, if there was a theme to MY Star Wars Celebration experience, it would definitely be The Mandalorian. From the moment I arrived at Star Wars Celebration on Friday (May 27), to the highlight of my experience on Saturday (May 28), I had Mando feels all the way. If you’re as huge a Mando fan as I am, and are interested to see my Mandalorian themed adventure throughout SWCA22, read on below!

The Mandalorian Experience

If you’re not familiar, The Mandalorian Experience was an exhibit at Star Wars Celebration that included almost every prop that I am aware of from The Mandalorian show. I mean, I believe, if it was an important prop for the show, it was there! This exhibit was also unannounced until just prior to the convention. So it was a surprise to con-goers too.

I wont go into details on how I discovered this exhibit, for that you can check out my Con Stories post here. What I will share is what jumped out to me at the exhibit, along with all the photos and video(s), (yes video!) I took from the exhibit. Let’s take a look.

Basically the exhibit was at the faaaaaar end of the convention center. I mean, I think the Star Wars team was really trying to make us fans work for it. Or, true to the Star Wars cannon, it was indeed: far far away. . . Ok, ok enough of that! When you first get to the exhibit, you’d see darkened room entrance. Almost, shrouded in mystery or giving the effect of taking you away somewhere. The transition worked:

And then you’re greeted by the Razorcrest cockpit, piloted by Mando himself (mannequin).

Turning a corner into the main exhibit, you’re greeted by a few familiar faces from the show:

Then, after seemingly feeling like you were taken through a portal in space, you are greeted by this:

I mean look at that Naboo Starfighter! It’s amazing. I didn’t know they actually created the entire ship, for real. Being there, being around it. It was phenomenal. And to top it al off, they even had a Grogu in the ship.

And it wasn’t animatronic, it was one of the actual puppets from the show. I mean someone was actually puppeteering Grogu remotely, so if you waved at Grogu it actually waved back! It was awesome.

From there, you were free to roam the exhibit and see the various themed displays. See below:

They also had many of the props from the show, see below:

Yes, even the Darksaber!

Here are some more costumes, including Ashoka and Bo Katan Kryze:

Some of the supporting cast costumes:

They also even had a full Rancor head! I mean, look at that!

Also on display were various concept art, see a few of these below:

I also liked that they shared some of the small props, like the currency (credits) and Sabacc cards:

At the end of the exhibit, you’re greeted by Paz Vizsla, the Mandalorian cameo of Jon Favreau (Mando on the left). I think it was a great touch, provided Favreau himself was the driving force, I was told, for The Mandalorian Experience at Star Wars Celebration.

If that wasn’t enough, we even made a video of our experience! Check it out below:

But my Mandalorian experience didn’t end there. Like I mentioned in my Con stories post, which you can find here, and my self-made cosplay highlights post, which you can also find here. So I wont go into too much detail, but I will share some of my adventures going around SWCA22 as my self-made Mando. For more on that, keep reading below!

Self-Made Mando Cosplay Adventures

My main goal for SWCA22 was to share my self-made Mandalorian (Din Djarin) inspired cosplay with all the amazing con-goers at SWCA22 , as well as get celebrity photo ops with the Mandalorian cast wearing my cosplay. My biggest challenges were getting my cosplay to the convention in one piece! I had a lot of challenges, see my SWCA22 cosplay adventures for details here, but suffice it to say (spoiler alert!) that I was able to get get over them all. TBH, I was so proud and grateful for how this cosplay build did during the con.

But here’s a visual tour of my self-made Mando cosplay adventure, which included meeting sooooo many amazing SWCA22 cosplayers:

And on top of that, I was able to get my my celebrity photos wearing my Mando cosplay and self-made Darksaber. I was particularly grateful of how shiny my armor looked, and how my Darksaber looked as well. These photos will be a great way to remember such memorable moments from the con!

For instance, Katee Sackhoff (first photo) was especially careful with the sword when I told her it broke. I was so worried it would break while she held it, but she gracefully carried it. Totally epic! Giancarlo Esposito also did did the same! Carl Weathers gave me a fist bump, and Temura Robinson, after looking me over, gave me a very appreciable grin. It was all so worth it.

Final Thoughts

I hope you enjoyed My Mando Experience from SWCA22. I tried my best to share all my Mando related adventures so that other fellow Mandos, who didn’t get to join us at SWCA22, can possibly enjoy and appreciate these as well. Always remember, This Is The Way!

Are you a Mandalorian fan or have similar Mandalorian themed adventures from Star Wars Celebration 2022? Go ahead and share them via comments below!