UK R2D2 Builders Christmas Event December 2018 - Event Report

Last years Xmas 2018 event was again hosted by Sam,

making all the arrangements for the venue and

assisted by early birds helping set things up.

The event was live streamed for club members on FaceBook page.

Link to some of the photos taken on the day, viewable on the

club’s Facebook page:

Fellow Bristolian Paul, offered to drive us up in his Transporter. So once loaded up, we set off on up to London way.

Early arrivals had helped set up the test track (link to video posted up by Jedi News UK), that was seen at the 1st UK R2 Builders Weekend last year.

There were quite a few droids in attendance as well as two stall's selling Star Wars related items. One of these was Amanda, with her amazing art work! Awardart (click for link).

On with the photos.....

This is the time trial test track.

Purly for fun...although yes, it did get compettative lol

If you've not clicked on the video link above. There are two sections of the course to complete. Each section has pressure pads which light up Green for a successful centre pad press or red for a fail. You then had to negotiate the course, not hitting the wrong sensor arms. The course returns back to the middle, under the clock timer,

before carrying on to the second part of the course.

The clock stops when you hit the last sensor arm.

Oooooh what has Santa brought us lol. Well, on the far table was some of Michael Baddeley 3D printed work. He also did a presentation on the cad software he uses and demonstrated his work.
If your into 3D stuff then check out his work at this link Mr Baddeley @ patreon.com .

My table full of stuff, R0-D4 dome, R4-D4 dome, R5-D4 dome and body

Ian's droid

As part of the club's insurance, we carry out MOT inspections on the droids so that they are 'safe' for event's. This covers structual, sharp edges, electrical & transmitter fail safe operation. As part of the MOT crew, a few of these were carried out on the day, including WIP's & renewals. The benefits also extend to more 'interesting' oppertunities!

Alden Ehrenreich popped in to say 'Hi' as he's an old friend don't you know.... lol.

......no it's not a cardboard cutout....it's really him!!! :D

aaaaah forgot I'd posted this picture as well :D

Just like old times......

~~~~~

There was a special presentation of a charity cheque presented to fellow club member Mr Yates for the Menengitis Now.

And finally there was the usual group photo.

Half of the attending members were heading out for a booked meal afterwards, but myself & Paul had to head off. Another great day spent with a great bunch of people!

Looking forward to the next event. Details coming soon.......

MCM Birmingham Comic Con - Event Report 2018

Sunday March 18th 2018
Day 2 of event

Up 5am, out the door 6am. R5 was already loaded up Saturday night.

Now.....I don't have a problem with driving in snow.....

.....but cars on ungritted roads do lol

~~~

It was a longer than usual drive up from Bristol to Birmingham, due to the weather conditions on the roads. And after driving to three different car park points I eventually got my unloading pass and where I had to go to unload R5 lol.

Today's group of droids.

One R2 is missing.......Darren!?!?! lol

The R2 members were now on day 2 at the stand, which were were sharing with the Rebel Legion, 501st & Jedi News stand. Our corner wasn't very big, but this was due to the layout. We had one 'work in progress' R2 that belonged to Chris, who was on the 'Steampunk' stand with his R2 Steampunk droid.

The day was good, chatting to the public and catching up with friends who were attending either in or out of costumes. There was a large gathering of public and it actually seemed to get more busy as the day went on. Perhaps due to people braving the weather as the snow was abating perhaps.

Emma took these great pics of the stand area & I'll be able to post up more once George uploads his photos.

 Emma with her droids

 Our small display area, with R5's vintage controller,

trading cards and leaflets

Lee's R2 & Colin's work in progress droid

The afternoon came around quick, and it was time 2pm, for the parade, which is led by the 501st, joined by The Rebel Legion & a few other costume groups. So we headed from Hall 4 of the NEC, around and down the ramp to the Hall 1. Unfortunately Ian's droid was unable to attend, so it was just three of us.

There was a group photo, before they 501st and others, lined up in order for the parade.

We would be bringing up the rear.

Emma took this picture of us.

The parade went across into Hall 2, which had a camera exhibition going on, lol, so PLENTY of photo's were being taken on our tour lol. We drove the droids as seen in the above picture, at some points having to drive single file. Myself and Lee have had experience with driving our droids together and as it's part of the Clubs 'driving' process, we knew how and when to slow down etc without bumping into each other. Darren led the way.

A friend of Darren's was there and caught a nice picture of the three of us, looking serious lol, the concentration on our faces lol.

There are a few pictures & videos on Instagram that's I found. More hopefully to come with some searching lol.

The parade winded it's way through Hall 2....eventually, leaving the crowds and camera flashes, and headed back up the ramp. Around the upper concourse, back to Hall 4. There were more people taking photos, and calling out R2's name as we finally made it back to Hall 4. Once back inside, we broke ranks and headed back to our stand, as the costumer's went for a rest and de-lid, break.

Whilst we were away, Ian was holding the stand and getting lots of photos taken with the public.

This is Ian's R2

The day ended at 5pm but before we started packing up the droids and display stands we had one last group photo.

I only have the picture of the droids....

.................I'll post up photo with the droids and us when I get them.

Outside was starting to go cold again, but at least the roads were clear. After a pit-stop on the way home for food.....I'd forgotten to eat during the day lol, I was home & unloaded by 8pm.

Another great day entertaining the public and bringing a little bit of Star Wars to life.

Checkout

www.astromech.info

for how to join up

if your interested in building your own droid.

Force Friday 2 - Evening Event......September 1st 2017

So last night was the midnight opening of stores all over the UK showcasing the new toys etc for the new Star Wars film to be released 'The Last Jedi'.

The UK R2D2 Builders Club had been invited by John Lewis/Disney to attend the opening of their store in London's Oxford Street.

I eventually arrived at the store around 10:30pm, after being stuck in traffic due to an earlier accident that blocked the M4 for almost an hour!

Lee helped my unload R5 and we headed up to the fifth floor to set up with the others.

The other guys were already having photo opps with press etc which gave me time to set up R5 lol.

Sam, with his R2-Q5, had attended an earlier event of Po-Zu shoes new release (click for their Twitter news feed link). He had then joined us at the John Lewis store. Bumped in my friend Matt, from Jedi News UK, (click for their Twitter news feed link) who where reporting on this and the earlier Po-Zu event. The guys were then heading over to the Disney Store for MORE Star Wars toy releases.

The lovely Samantha Alleyne was also there

and it was time for a 'best selfie' pose pic 😉 lol

~~~~~

There was a live band playing Star Wars songs, of course, along with a cantina Bar,

and not forgetting 'Joker Squad' in both Imperial, rebel & patrons of Star Wars.

There's some video's appearing online. These two so far I've found. Check-em out.

And this one from BT's Entertainment news online channel.

There were a lot of people already milling about, staff mostly but a few 'non' staff. The doors opened at midnight to the Star Wars theme tune being played loudly for the entering guests, who then made their way up the escalators to the top floor.

To be greeted by our droids and the band.

There was plenty to look at and the new R2 & BB unit Sphero toys got a lot of attention.

Along with the drone flying, Darth Vaders TIE fighter & the X-Wing.

There was plenty of Lego toys to get excited about too.

I looked at these two as well as the Walker, Star Destroyer & Slave 1.

As well as the Xmas advent calendar and other smaller sets.

These build a droid sets were rolling around the floor, lol,

had to be careful not to run them over!

There was also Star Wars themed TV sets on display.....

R5 got sucked into watching lol

The evening started to quieten down around 1am,

where people were apparently going over

to the Disney store to see what new stuff it had.

~~~~~

Here's some group shots of the Droids

We finished up at 2am, and had our customary group photo.

This one is just of the Droids together.

Was a good night and as always great company with the builders catching up.

Then is was loading up and heading home.

I was home, unloaded and in bed by 5am lol

Throw back Thursday - 1

Just posted this up on Instagram, so thought I'd share.

Throw back to my first event attended with R5's.

He was still a work in progress and didn't even have a dome lol.

Dome was brought along and borrowed for R5 by my new fried Ian,

with his R4-1J droid.

The end R6 droid was Mark's from PodPadStudios.

Above grab from 'james_r5d4' account

Shout out to Jedi News!

** Celebration Europe 2016 - Jedi News**

Jedi News tweeted an announcement about

the R2 Builders Club attending Celebration Europe. Read the full post here.

Star Wars Shoes - the return

My friend who was helping out at last Saturdays event,

wore her new Star Wars covered shoes (her wedge ones).

She also took her other pair, but decided best not to wear them, whilst in 'help mode'.

They were spotted and commented on by several people. And a few pictures were taken.

These were then Tweeted on Jedi News!

Who then later posted up on their web site, check out the website

(click image below)