R5D4 gets some screen time.....

 .......on 'Sky's Star Wars Greatest moments'

I was away at the time, but my friend Karen, recorded the program for me. She had already watched and posted up on FB about seeing R5 on the program lol.

I mentioned in my post 'Celebration Europe 3 2016 event-report PT3' about the mini film crew & Alex Zane and was a little thrown when he was stood next to R5. I did get a very quick picture and video. Mark Cox took this great pic of the filming.

Filming for Star Wars Greatest Moments 2016

Also in the shot is R2 & Mike's yellow R2

Here are my screen grabs, lol...

This takes me back, I was just rolling R5 around and these guys asked if they could have R5 in their pictures. Then R4 & BB8 roll past and join the now growing photo opportunity for the first wave of attending visitors as the doors opened in the morning.

If you watched the programe, you'll also see R2-M80 (Matey, yellow) roll in front of us.

** Celebration Europe 3 - 2016 - The Event Report PT3 **

End of our first day, Thursday for us. The droids that where there ready for Friday morning, were all set up and ready. Food was ordered and we all made our way outside to await its delivery. Pizza all round lol.

Group pizza

After dropping off our droids, we had to park up. This was something that was an extra cost i didn't need :(. £15 for 24hrs was ok, but I didn't need this as would be staying at a hotel which had parking. One of our members, also concerned about cost savings, found a website called Justpark. This is an online website where parking spaces are advertised, fantastic! Me and Andre T, used the same church car park for the few hours needed, total cost was £3.10. (available from 8am - 9pm) Bargin!
(Recent large financial outgoings meant that I was/am on even more of a tight budget unfortunately).

Once pizzas were done, others were heading for drinks. But i had to find my hotel, check in etc, as wanted to be fresh for the day ahead. So i said my goodbyes and headed the 5 min walk back to my car. I also needed to check my route to Barking train station from the hotel, which was about 10-15 mins walk.

I arrived at my hotel without to much traffic hassle......i joke. But the Ibis hotel was a great relief. I unpacked and got what i needed for the day ahead, ready.

Friday 15th July 2016:
I woke up at seven and after breakfast, made the walk to the station. Its been a few years since i last travelled on the London transport system & first time using contactless travel. It was so simple tho and after my three short train journeys, i arrived, along with a few others at The Excel centre.

My R5-D4 trading cards I picked up Thursday

Mine & JJ's passes

As I walked in, I thought, oh....not such a big que forming in the main hall way. Then I remembered the actual que hall, lol. As an exhibitor, tho because I had bought passes, I wasn't technically issued with one of these, you were allowed through the bag check point via a separate que line.I had to then wait for Oliver to pop down to 'clear me' through into the North side of the Centre, where our stand was in section N9.

I/we all were checking over our droids, batteries charged etc and generally all hyped/nerves for the opening day ahead. Because it was a Friday, the initial crowds were slightly less than expected, but that was probably a good thing lol.

I was asked if I could move R5 to be infront of our iconic Sandcrawler display, made by Paul Wiz, to be next to Giles' R2 & the Jawa's. Around 10am as I walked back round I saw a mini film crew, not an unusual sight, but his time I recognised the presenter lol. I was more surprised that he moved into position right behind my R5!!

Sandcrawler scene

Alex Zane & crew

Short filming complete

So keep your eyes out for something Star Wars related on the TV featuring this man lol

More builders arrived during the morning and the crowds started to gather around the builders stand. So long in fact that it went almost all the way around it!! And stayed this long for most of the day!

Friday's R2 Builders Club stand - ques

Lots of questions were asked about how to build a droid, how much it costs, materials used etc. And lots of happy faces, both old and young :)

More to come of the day in Part 4.......

Corsham Sci-Fi 2016.....????

One event, local to me, that I look forward to attending, is Corsham's Sci-Fi day in April.
This event & the group, raise lots of money for local charities.

But it looks like this year the event will be taking a break.

~~~

I first attended the event back in 2010 with my family and it was a big hit with them all!
Plenty to see and do, even the non-sci-fi wife was 'happy' lol.

2013 was R5's first time at the event, headless and motionless lol.
Tho Ian, brought and lent me his R3 clear dome.

2014 was R5's second year attending and this year he was fully assembled.
Another great event.

2015 was R5's third time an this time he was fully operational!

I look forward to the event returning soon.

Chippenham Sci-Fi Convention 2015

Am planning on taking R5 again this year.

This was us last year....

My R5-D4 makes the grade!!

When I started building R5-D4, it was for the 'challenge' of attempting to build him.

When he was standing, head-less, at his first event, it was a very 'nervous' moment. As he was next to some quality, working, droids!

R5 with a borrowed R3 clear dome, thanks to Ian [pic]

Then when it was his first moving event, I was stupid 'excited' [note the grin on face in pic below] about him participating with Giles & Ian!

R5's not fully complete yet.....bout 99.5% lol, but representing the R2 Builders club at events, is something I take great pride in. He's still waiting on his sound link up for his bad motivator, but rolling around at events is a really good feeling,

bringing kids big & small the world of Star Wars to life :).

Yesterday, I received my club membership badge in the post.

This means a lot as a builder :).

Nice art work Colin! lol

2015 - R5-D4 & The UK R2-D2 Builders Club

So 2015 is here and the countdown to episode VII is literally less than a year away! I know my kids are looking forward to it along with friends, some who have surprised me with their almost hidden enthusiasm for Star Wars lol.

Im especially looking forward to getting R5's dome motorised and under remote control! With lots of events on and of course the film release, Star Wars groups will be more popular and be in demand than ever, so I've already 'booked' time off to be able to attend these and others with R5 and other members of the UK R2 Builders club, Ian, Giles, Stuart, James, Phil to name a few as well as costume groups like The Southern Troopers, Joker Squad, Milton Keynes Garrison at events like Corsham Sci-Fi family Fun Day (TBC), MCM events, Cardiff Comic Con (TBC). There will be more events to be confirmed as the year goes along. So check out these groups, all have FaceBook pages as well as Twitter accounts too, like and follow them for events they'll be at near you! Of course theres R5's own Facebook page and Twitter account, still getting used to using Twitter lol, so look up R5 under James R5-D4.

Not been well these last two weeks so not been able to work on R5, and its back to work next week......maybe........if antibiotics do their thing!

Next on R5's list for this year is to get his motivator working, smoke and sound effects too. All with what available spare cash I can find. As much as I want R5 to be fully operational, family life has to come first. Tho thankfully my kids are understanding (& proud) that R5 is going to be out and about

UK R2 Builders & Chippenham Sci-Fi Day 2014 - My Event Report

Had a great time on Saturday with Ian (R4), Giles (R2) & Mark with his Steampunk Droid Issa. Having R5 moving and joining in was soooo much fun, I had a stupid kid grin on my face all day! Hahaha.

Arrived just in time for the event opening and set-up R5. Turned the power on and........nothing! WHAT??? My heart sank! Had the radio transmitter and receiver lost their connection?? Then, R5 lurched forward! Connection worked!?! Perhaps it was because it was in close proximity to the other guys systems?? It did it again later on when I turned off and on the transmitter .

Then R5-D4 was rolling :) joining in with the others &having his picture taken. We joined in with photo opps with the Southern Troopers and their Tantive IV backdrop, as well as roaming round to the Milton Keynes Garrison & their backdrop.

There was plenty to see for visitors with stalls and displays as well as Special Guests!
The Charity Sci-Fi group were also in attencance with Darlek's and other costume characters from Dr Who, Judge Dredd, Ghostbusters to name a few.

With all the roaming around before I knew it, three hours had passed! It was suggested that we take the droids outside as access was good and flat. The route had carpet and a slight incline, R5 coped OK with this, 24v power and him being a heavy build pay's off, phew. Then outside we joined up with ST & MK members to entertain the crowds, some not realiseing that the event was even going on.

At which point they then followed us all back inside when we did, result.

Then it was back inside for more roaming and photo :)

Lots of people asked questions about plans, costs and abilities needed to build an Astromech. I hope the people I spoke to were encouraged to not to daunted with what can seem a big build challenge.

Crowds started to quieten down by about 3pm, tho there were still people coming in who had seen what was going on outside. This gave the droids a bit of space to 'play' lol. Kids were still having pictures taken and interacting with them, which is always great to see.

Have to give respect to one Mum who corrected her child that said 'look theres R2!', to which she replied, 'no thats not R2, thats R5!' Most impressed!

Then it was time to pack up, just after 4pm. Another great event attended with my fellow builder friends. Always good to see them and learn and swap ideas and roll around with the Droids! And a great day for Chippenham Sci-Fi as their first event was a great success!

Chippenham Sci-Fi Day Facebook page

Southern Troopers Facebook page

MK Garrison Facebook page

R5-D4's first motorised event......preview report

Was a great day and enjoyed roaming around an event for the first time with fellow R2 Builders club members Giles R2 & Ian A4 as well as Mark with this Steampunk Astromech.

Photos, videos and event day write up to follow tomorrow, once I have these sorted.

*** Chippenham Sci-Fi 2014 - TODAY ***

....First Transport, is away!

Well.......almost lol. Loaded R5 into transport (car's boot) last night along with everything I hopefully need!
Setting off with my Son, and picking up a friend who is helping out at the event today, on the way.

More details about the event later.

Checkout my facebook page: James' R5-D4 for updates and photos, please like my page & tag R5-D4 and yourselfs in pictures :) thanks.

Follow R5-D4 on Twitter @jamesR5D4

***** Chippenhan Sci-Fi Day 2014, UPDATE *****

** GUEST UPDATE **

Sarah Louise Madison (Dr Who - Weeping Angle) won't now be attending

due to work commitments.

R5-D4 and other members of the UK R2D2 Builders Club will be in attendance.

I've set up my own...OK....R5's own Event page over on FaceBook, just for fun.

***** Chippenhan Sci-Fi Day, October 25th 2014 *****

R5-D4 will be attending a local event in a few months time.

A fellow R2 Builders Club member and friend Ian, will also be attending with his

R4 'Arther' Astromech Unit.

Event's facebook page:

Chippenham Sci-Fi Charity Family Fun Day

The Corsham Sci-fi family fun day 2013

Last month I mentioned that R5 would be making his first debut lol, even though he's not 100% complete. Well, a request for droids was made on the UK R2D2 Builders, Facebook page and so I offered R5's services, in his unfinished state.  :D

So we (and later on, the family) attended
The Corsham Sci-fi family fun day, Saturday  27th April.

With having to be in Corsham for 7:45am, I pre-loaded R5 into the boot the night before and strapped him in good. I then fussed over last minute things I was happy about on him :D lol. So didn't get to bed till midnight.......again.

This was obviously taken the morning before departing :)

The next morning, I was obviously excited, as was awake at 6:15am even before my alarm was due to go off hahaha. After getting ready and putting on my Official R2 Builders Club shirt [chuffed ;)] I set off.

Ian helped wheel R5 in and showed me my new temporary dome, a clear R3 type.

R5 sporting an R3 type dome, just to confuse everyone :)

I fitted the last remaining pieces to R5 before wheeling him into position along side three other quality build Astromechs Arther Astromech Emy & Zoe Astromech. Also a hybrid Dalek Caan & T3:E1,

After the offical opening ceremony, performed by Anthony Stewart Head, R5 was moved onto the platform next to K9.

A fitting tribute was paid to the Charity Sci-Fi's group president, Richard LeParmentier, a force choke by Darth Vader on all the guests, in honour of him. This little piece had become the norm for him at many events and also copied by fans around the world.

Vader uses the Force at the opening of the event :)

K9 looking puzzeled at R5 :D

Whilst Arther, Emy, Zoe, T3 & Caan, got to roll around the floor and interect with the guests :)

Zoe Astromech

Arther Astromech [R4]

The day finished for the guest around 4pm. Time fly's when your having fun.

Total raised was over £6,800.

This was devided between thress charities & the Actors Benevolent Fund.

For more pictures, please see my Facebook page: James R5-D4

Thanks for reading