Event report: Christmas Club Meet 2021

 

What a day!!!

Prior to the meeting/event starting, members had carried out COVID testing 👏🏽

(some members weren’t able to attend unfortunately, because they had already tested positive 😕, though all are well).

Big thanks to you and everyone for thinking of others, hopefully you were able to watch the live streaming and be still part of the day’s events.

Myself and Mike B were up early and were first to arrive at the venue to find Sam just unlocking the doors. Our early arrival was to be able to help set things up. We didn’t have to worry though as others had traveled down and had stayed over the night before.

Not long after, Lee arrived and we all set about unloading his car and setting up the 39.1% race track. Picture below:

The 39.1% A-LT race track being assembled

Yes, Mark T is wearing PJ’s lol
(He was fully dressed underneath)

Next up was the, above picture, cool display stand, brought along by Giles’s R.

As the official 10am start time drew close, more members arrived. Paul F with his Tire 2, R2-D2.

The test track had people testing their ‘driving skills’ with the really fast 39.1% droids. The surface doesn’t help being polished lol so controlling them was NOT easy.

Video of the racing, seen in these pictures, can be viewed on my YouTube channel, see link below.

Check out my YouTube channel for my video highlights of the day.

And…..also watch the day’s events via the Droid Builder’s YouTube channel for the recorded live stream of the day.

The day was for builders, old and new and not just Astromech’s. We had pit droids, a Christmas Gonk droid as well as Mr Baddeley’s custom design builds, including his massive RC controlled, Jawa Sandcrawler!

Some of Mr B’s other attending projects.

There were some emotional moments as we remembered the untimely passing of Pedge, who we had been raising funds for. He succumbed to his illness, Motor Neurone Disease 😞

There was a 1 minute clap in remembering him and his positivity right up to the end.

This is one of the three parches that were made as part of fundraising for Pedge.

Click on the link to watch Pedge’s interview with Sam & Lee

The second moment was for Lawrence ‘Loz’. He suffered a stroke. He was in the process of building a styrene R2, but was unable to finish it. So members organised LozCon and attended a day of building and construction of Loz’s R2 body. He was in attendance to say thank you to everyone who had helped and supported him and ghat he wished he had been a member of the group sooner as he loved it.

He presented two (3D printed) medals to the two organisers as recognition and thank you.

Steve as a great looking Lobot.

Loz, taking a rest next to R2 & R2-KT, who has been mostly assembled by Olivier S.

Mini R5-D4, one of Mr Baddeley’s.

The after/evening started to wind down as those with further to travel headed home. There was money raised for charity, a few MOT’s were carried out, by Darren P. A well needed meeting of people, some we’ve not seen since the last Xmas event which was a few years back now, pre-COVID!

Laughs and memories were shared & even a few surprise guests attended, Amanda W & Stuart B, was REALLY good to see them and a nice surprise.

Someone left there mobile phone, but hadn’t gone far before realising…..am sure they appreciated the group photos left on it lol :D

Lastly for those able to, there was an evening meal at a local restaurant, before myself and Mike said our goodbyes and headed off back home to Bristol.

Another great time had by all.

Check out the video links for more content of the day. Please like thumbs up and share with those who are interested.

Thanks to everyone who attended and here’s to more events next year.

Happy Holiday’s

Merry Christmas……..

From myself and R5-D4