Celebration Europe 2023: Droid Builder’s assemble

This year Star Wars Celebration is coming BACK to the UK. Representing Europe, all droid builders will be attending……

Well, that is still what we hope will happen. As many of you will know, the ticket situation was an absolute nightmare for being organised. Myself and others, signed up to purchase four day passes, but the small print, meant that even though you were in a queue, it was still a random selection…….well that’s NOT a queue, and us Brits know how to queue 😂👍🏽

Then on Thursday 5th January I got an email from the Ibis hotel, cancelling my reservation!!

Double checked it wasn’t a hoax 😳, nope!

With no reply to my emails, I phoned them to ask…..there’s been a block booking! And it automatically sends out a cancellation notice! They were no help at all and even gave me the same email direct to the hotel I had already used.

Soooooo…… Saturday was spent searching for hotel rooms for the required dates.

The good news, was I was able to find a room with twin beds (not a double 😂).

The bad news, is that it was further out and more money 😒. I didn’t book it though, as after not hearing back from the hotel, I Tweeted about the situation, and ‘@‘ the hotel directly!

Within a matter of hours I had a response AND a DM saying someone would be in contact. After a few days I received another DM & an email confirming that my cancellation had been an error and that my booking was now reinstated.

This was a relief, but still the ticket issue was still outstanding. This matter was eventually resolved between the organisers and the R2 group organisers.

THE South West Builders Day 2022

 

🚨 It's that time again!!! 🚨

The South West

Droid Builders Day 2022

This year, it will be being held inside the M-Shed Museum,

next to last years event, but due to a

Mars base being built by the local council

on the spot we occupied, we will be now inside.

Members of the UK R2D2 Builders Club will be in attendance, along with props and work in progress droid builds. Builders will be on hand to answer your questions and of course

there will be plenty of photo opportunities.

Checkout the event via this YouTube video below,

featuring Mr B.

There's an event page up on Facebook, so go 'like' and share for others, thanks.

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We will also be joined by

The MK Garrison

click logo above for their website

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The M-Shed Museum

Checkout the links to Bristol's living museum [link]

The Working exhibits [link]

#bristol #mshed #droidbuilders #starwars

** YouTube - click/watch/subscribe **

Don't forget that there are loads of video's up on my

YouTube channel,

so go click the link, watch,

thumbs up and subscribe 😎👍

#youtube #jamesR5D4 #videos

You can also find me on Twitter, for Blog/video updates,

latest events I'll be attending this year 2022 as

well as info on the UK R2D2 Builders Club / Droid Builders UK

Droid Builders UK - limited edition collector challenge coin

 Advert for the Droid Builders UK

Droid Builders UK

have available a new challenge coin,

all are individually numbered

and will be distributed

as per the date of your order.

Only 100 coins have been produced, so they won’t be available for long.

Celebrating 11 years of Droid Building

Numbers 1 and 100 will be auctioned for our chosen charity,

details to follow.

Postage includes tracking.

New to Droid Building.....??? Then check out this guide to getting started.

 Building a Droid can be a bit daunting, but it's something that everyone can do. Yes, some will take years to complete whilst others have built them within 6 months.

All the different types of builds, material options, are all documented on the forums:

• www.astromech.net      [World]
• www.astromech.info     [UK]

The UK one is more a corner of the Club for builders local to each other for help/advice/events etc. We also have members from around the world.

clicking on this logo takes you to Rob's website

Thankfully one of our members, Rob H, produced a helpful guide as a way to get an understanding of how to build your Droid.

It has already been updated to V1.4 as it now includes additional information relevant in these times. If the below link becomes un-accessible, use the above logo link to his site, there you will be able to find the guides section.

So here's the link to your

Droid Building Guide

[PDF format]

Tutorial - Remote Control Drive setup - Droid Builders UK

 The video tutorial I made for the Club, is now up online.

Dual Remote Control Drive setup Tutorial for Droid Builders Live,

is a 'how to' video showing how to connect up the speed controller,

transmitter and motors.

click on the link above to watch over on the Clubs You Tube Channel

#youtube #droidbuildersuk #ukr2d2buildersclub #speedcontroller #rctransmitter

Throwback Thursday: Celebration Europe 2016

What can I say!!

I had attended events before and was really excited to be joining builders from not just the UK, but also from Europe and further still. Some I’d only chatted with online in forums.

But I was not expecting the overwhelming feeling of excitement that hit me a few days before the event had even opened lol.

Arriving, unloading R5 and my gear, walking into the massive Star Wars arena was awesome!!

Builders Club swag merch.

But I'll leave you the following links to go through to get the full picture:

Celebration Europe 2016 - part 1

Celebration Europe 2016 - part 2

Celebration Europe 2016 - part 3

Celebration Europe 2016 - part 4

Celebration Europe 2016 - part 5

.......Celebration Europe 2016 - part 6.......lol, no there is no part 6, think 5 was enough.

Just one of my highlights.....being stood two feet away from Andi, who was casually sat on the Star Wars stage....me trying to be casual and giving her a 'hi' smile.....whilst trying not to Fanboy out over her 😍 hahahaha 💗💗💗

Meningitis Now - Joanna (R2-JY)

This story, which is close to our club members, went up online last week. Please read and share to help support, thanks.

Click the link below for Joanna's story...

A Force for Good

To loose someone is hard enough, but to loose a child.....😢

Attending Bristol Comic Con & Gaming Festival - March 30th 2019

First event of the year!
Myself with R5-D4, Paul with R2-D2 & Mike with R2-XL
will be attending

.

*********************

It's another Bristol (local) first for us attending this event.

For more details, here's the link for March 30th.

www.mooseeventsuk.com

have a number of events on this year in the South West area.

Looking forward to hopefully attending a few of these.

LegoLand Windsor - Event Report 2018

Well, what a weekend!!! 😃.

It was hot, Sunday's temperature topping out at around 28 degrees C., two long days, up around 7 till finishing up around 5-6pm. But bringing Star Wars to life, to see people enjoying themselves is a great feeling.

Paul was going to follow me up to Windsor in his van with R2. After some last minute repairs to one of his holo projectors, we left about 7 and arrived just after 9:30pm. We were escorted onto the park to of load the droids, along with Ian's R2, at the Imagination Centre, which would be our base camp lol.

Early Saturday morning.

Jamie (spotter), Oliver (chatting), Ian (R2)

&

George (our resident photographer).

Once the droids were ready, it was out into the morning sunshine.

Ian, myself & Oliver's droids

The Imagination Centre is just down inside the park, so people pass to head towards the miniature Lego villages. There is also a ride with ques, so we drove the droids up to this more flatter, smoother area to entertain the crowds lol.

This was where we ran into some Rebel Pilots, tho nobody wanted R5 as there X-wing Astromech??? :D

Rebel Pilots

The morning weather was warming up fast and I was glad I'd worn my shorts & remembered sun cream! With lots of photo's being taken and the ques being entertained, we decided that we needed to break for lunch. So we stored the droids and joined the other costume group members for a chat, food & a cool down.

After lunch, we all drove the droids up to the main entrance for the afternoon. The costume groups, Joker Squad, Sentinel Squad, The Rogue Ones, Rebel Legion & Mandolorian Mercs, also attended, for mass group photos for the visitors.

Then the Droids headed out to the front of the park for some group photos. These are just some of the ones I took, George, will be sending in his better composed versions to the group soon.

Saturdays droids lineup

 Saturdays droids lineup

There are droids and then there are R5's lol

After these photos, we drove the droids back inside and they had their pics taken a few more times....

 Ian's R2D2 with Leia, Luke & Han

before we headed back to our respective base camps to store them for the night.

Once safely stored it was time for us to get back, changed and head out for a gathering of builders. Lee did a live video draw for the UK R2 Builders Club competition. This can be seen on the FaceBook page (members). But here's the picture of us all.

Ian was the lucky winner.

~~

Sunday was another hot day...hotter than Saturday!

R5 was in his same spot, joined by Darren & again by Mark. Ian transferred to the lower section of the park to join the others as some droids had to go home.

The morning was a repeat of Saturday, re entertaining the crowds and que's. Kids & adults had photos and selfies with the droids lol.

Then after lunch we headed back up to the main entrance area to link up with the costume groups for even more photos with people.

These are the Sunday images, off my Instagram account.

R5 & co finished up about 5pm'ish, the crowds of visitors, still flowing out of the park! Once back to base camp, we packed up and made our way back to our respective homes.

Another great event to help raise funds for the
Alexander Devine Children's Hospice service.

~~~

Lee (club) had also sorted out a commemorative event patch for those attending.

This will at some point be stitched onto my fleece.

We also received a commemorative Lego brick, engraved with 'Star Wars' & '2018'

This I cna add to last years red one.

~~

BIG thanks to all those people behind the scenes who helped put this event together. So often they get over looked...!
Also to our spotters, these guys help keep an eye on the droids when we try to stay not so obvious, more for not spoiling things for the younger fans.
Thanks guys :)

Feel The Force Day 5 - Peterborough 2017 **Event Report - Part 1**

Another fun packed day for all who attended.

I had loaded R5 up the night before as I wanted to be away early Saturday morning.

Quietly, up at 6am, out the door my 6:30am and on the long journey up to Peterborough.

Arrived around 10am and met up with Glynn & R2-PHT, Adam & his wife arrived not long after with his R2-D2 & Wall-e droid.

We were over in the 'Star Wars' corner along with Joker Squad.

There were crowds of people outside being entertained by costumed attendees & also the array of cars from films. American style police cars, classic & new, 'Bumblebee',

lowrider pickup truck as well as Mark's Podpad studio 95 Spider Batman inspired vehicle.

The doors opened at 11am, and the main area soon filled up.

....been a busy week plus weekend gone I had a special event to attend.

Feel The Force Day 5 - Peterborough 2017
Event Report - Part 2.......coming soon.

Star Wars Lego Land Weekend - April 2017

The UK R2 Builders Club will be attending

Star Wars Weekend at LegoLand Windsor.

We'll be joining forces with:

Joker Squad, Sentinel Squad,

Mandalorian Mercs, Rebel legion UK.

Myself & R5 are only able to attend on the Saturday, due to family commitments,
but am still really looking forward to this!

The weekend will be full of all your favorite characters!

Hope to see you all then.

UK R2D2 Builders Christmas Event 2016

29.Dec.2016
I hadn't been able to attend this Christmas Event in previous years, but this year would be the first of many to come! Lol, two things more important than Christmas, were Rogue One & this builders day :D

My two youngest came along and enjoyed the day, and like myself, meeting new fellow builders & the 'Usual Suspects' builders too lol. We arrived about 2PM, driving up with fellow Bristol builder, Paul Felski, who followed.

The event also doubles as an inspection of the droids, for safety at events. Control and stability of these is very important!

There was food layed on and a Death Star, two flavoured cake, thanks Emma!

The last time there were this many astromech's in one place, I'd say, would of been Celebration.

My daughter, was NOT operating R2's dome lol, but a toy BB-8

  

Just some of the droids.

Then we had the group photo....

Another great day, that flew by. Looking forward to attending events in 2017

2015 R5-D4's year round up

Another event filled year draws to an end. R5 attended events local to us, Corsham & Chippenham (see post Blog posts for details and pics) & traveled far too, to Milton Keynes & then Birmingham's Comic con at the NEC. R5 really has been transported to places far far away lol, meeting up with costume groups up and down the country!

Being a member of the UK R2 Builders group is a great feeling! Talking to like minded people whos aim is to build, replicate and encourage each other and new members with new ideas on building an Astromech Droid.

Getting to share our builds with the public has to be the highlight for me! Kids big (adults) and small, love to see the droids and for them it makes the film characters 'real'. We get asked lots of questions about the droids from all ages and understandings, some even get to see inside to get a better understanding of how to build one. For me as an engineer, this is a great way to encourage mechanical & electrical enthusiasm in youngsters who may feel a project of this size is beyond them. True, cost of materials, tools etc maybe out of their reach, but the seed of simple circuits, programing etc and even simple wood & metalworking I hope, would of been planted & nurtured in them to give it a go.

The UK Builders range of droids is varied! From the very hi-tech, 3-2-3 versions, stealth controller versions, to include, all the available build material combinations possible! All take pride in reproducing their chosen build design.

The Force Awakens has awoken the Star Wars journey again and with it new films, builders and events. 2016 will also see Star Wars Celebration Europe in London (don't miss out on tickets!) there will be a very large UK & Europen R2 Builders Club presents, so come say hi. Then at the end of the year, the next Star Wars film 'Rogue One' will be released. Plus all the usual events throughout the year.

So from myself & R5-D4, we would like to wish all our followers a very Happy New Year!

MCM Comic Con - Birmingham Nov 2015 - [PART 2]

......The Builders club has a great bunch of guys [girls inc] and is great to actually meet up again to chat, joke and enjoy the day!

Personally I get a real buzz out of giving something to the public by sharing R5. I built him for me as a build challenge, for my kids too, but when you go to event's with him & join the others it really brings Star Wars off the cinema or TV screen, and brings it to life, not just for the grown up kids but for the little kids too.

Ian's R2D2 had his first event out with his full 'weathered' paints on, WOW!!!

He [R2 not Ian] looked fantastic!!!
......not that there's anything wrong looking with Ian mind..... lol

I didn't get much chance to take many pics of the UK Garrison, but managed to grab this one whilst I was manning our table, well it be rude not too!