While getting TDH involved could have made the presentation better, I think another problem we are completely missing is the amount of time we had for such a varied group of costumes.
Agreed.
Outside of a couple exceptions (Vader) I would say that Bounty Hunter costumes are some of the most detailed and complex costumes you are going to see in the 501st. On top of that you have a lot of hardcore and fanatical people who work on them. I think having only an hour to devote to four difficult to build costumes (and I know we would have liked to see even more in there) did a huge disservice to those that were there to pick up a few new things.
Again, agreed.
Whether or not the olive branch is extended to TDH next time, I definitely think a good hard look needs to be put on how much time is given to cover all of these costumes. Each one of them could probably have an entire hour devoted solely to them so having less than 15 minutes each is clsoe to a crime. Then again maybe the intent from up high was for these talks to give the audience the basics, an idea of what they are getting into, and a pointer to online resources they can access on their own time.
First, if TDH is still around in three years for CVI, an olive branch won't be necessary as we will be much more proactive on this type of thing. Not saying that in an ugly way, just saying, we weren't even aware of these things and now that we are, we will take a more aggressive approach next time.
Totally agree on your opinions about details and time devoted to each character.
While I missed the Droid Builder panels (which sucks since I am in the proces of building an R2) just looking at their panel titles gives me an idea that they had a better handle on how to present their material with ones focused on basic and advanced techniques etc. I think the problem we face is that they only have to have panels on droids while we are looking at multiple panels on all kinds of costumes. The schedule could have gotten very busy pretty quickly if we handled things that way.
No doubt, the R2 Builders have it together and are someone to look up to and imitate.