Event Report - Techniquest in Cardiff - May 4th 2019

It was a clear, Sunny but cold wind morning as Paul helped load R5 into his transporter. Before heading off over the bridge to Cardiff. Only an hours drive and you get some scenic views along the journey.

On arrival by 9, to the rear of the building, which apparently used to be the front,we were greeted by our events organiser. We unloaded and had easy access, only having one small step to manouver over. Before we set up in the lower main area, by the glass fronted windows. The table and cover were provided by the organiser, nice. The floor was hard wearing low pile carpet, lol, these things are important to a droid operator 😆

At one point I thought, we’re going to be on TV for the day......lol

The doors opened at 10 and we where greeted by lots of visitors. The place is a lot like a similar place in Bristol. Lots of activities and experiments for kids. Plus there’s a planetarium & there were also videos sessions showing the science of Star Wars throughout the day.

They were also showing Star Wars 'A New Hope', but we weren't able to attend the viewing of this.

Paul with his R2, & R5

The Imperials & Rebels joined the floor and we're greated by loads of children, some of them in costumes. (No photos of the members with children).

I know 'Princess Leia' from previous events attended & was good to catchup with her and the other members from the UK Garrision & Rebel Legion.

I think Lord Vader is upset with R5 for some reason lol

Two local fellow club members popped down to the event to catch up which was good to see them.

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TV camera getting set up

A local TV camera turned up to interview the organiser about the May the 4th event. I was told later that we (All of us) were seen on the local news lol. Will have ot check you tube for that lol.

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The Princess had to upload the plans for the Death Star into R2

And we had a bit of fun with the droids too lol

R5 patiently waits his turn for the plans lol

The droids had loads of photo's taken and we got to chat with lots of interested kids & parents alike. A few people already knew about the club and one was actually in the process of building, tho had taken a break. Hopefully his visit will kick start it again for him.

We handed out lots of club trading cards plus my stickers of R5, to the kids.

Another fun event!
Good to me the people behind the armour and a good day all round.
Come the end of the day it was time to pack up.

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I got to try out my Dome Bag.
It worked great & as it did it's purpose of being easy enough for a non builder to be able to carry in & out of the event, without them having to worry about how to hold the dome!

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The Imperials & Rebels were local, some only a short journey home. For myself & Paul, it was just an hour or so drive back across the bridge back to Bristol.

Thanks for inviting us @Techniquest.

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.

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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.

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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 :)

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

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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.

** LEGO Land Star Wars weekend event **

Saturday 29th April to Monday 1st May

Lego lands annual Star Wars weekend.

Members of the UK R2 Builders joined 'Joker Squad', 'Sentinel Squad', 'UK Rebel Legion' & the 'Mandolorian Mercs uk' to celebrate May the 4th be with you.

Due to the early start on the mornings setting up, we were accommodated in one of the two conference rooms in the hotels. Due to the distance, myself & Emma, traveled up the night before. Emma had saved me a spot to set up my camp bed :).

Because of the nature of this event, there are no pictures of the droids
with children or adults!

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Saturday 29th
The Droids were split up into two groups, our group were at the far end by Heart Lake City. We drove around to a side gate entrance and unloaded. Our spotters, kept watch whilst we moved the cars back to a close by parking area.

Jason's R2D2 unloaded, set up & ready to go

Me installing R5's dome with Chris looking on.

The surface is very large cobble stones, it's also layed out to flow water into drains to stop areas flooding. This means that there wasn't anywhere to really drive the Droids around. So we found a spot to 'park' them and let the crowds come to them lol.

R5 with Sam's R2-Q5 & a guest BB8

This BB8 was a child who wanted to re-wear his costume (before it got to small). Last time was at Celebration Europe 2016 in London.

 R5 wasn't happy with all the Jawa attention!

................Brought back 'Bad Motivator' memories lol

Jason's R2 wanted to meet 'His maker' lol.

And attracted some unwanted Imperial attention!

The Rebels & Imperials received lots of attention from the visitors, lots of group photos which can be found on their respective websites/blogs/twitter etc.

The park wasn't to busy which I was surprised about, the possible reason for this was
that (here in the UK) Easter Bank Holiday weekend had only just happend the previous week or so, so kids etc would of been on half term. This was though a good thing, as it meant we got to have a breather between photo opportunities,
to give the static droids the once over,
and in Sam's case, to give his dome a quick polish lol

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At 12:30pm our group stored the droids in a side room for us to be able to head off and find lunch, which had been supplied by LegoLand.

Then at 1pm, it was back to load up the droids in Lee Towersey's awesome R2 Van, and head to our afternoon staging area, which would be at the top/entrance to the park.

Me & Paul

Three droids, and four 'adults' lol, loaded up into the back of the R2 van,
the faces tell you how much jokes we had :D

My R5, Sam's R2-Q5 & Jason's R2-D2

Whilst setting up the droids and giving them the once over before re-entering the park from a side gate. We bumped into Chewie, having a five minute breather.

R2-D2, Chewie & R5-X2

Nearing the end of the day the Sun made a guest appearance which meant we had to retreat into the shade for Chewie's sake lol

Droids lineup

This pic shows the ques for photographs with the visiting guest. We had got to do some limited driving around, but once we were parked up, that was it. Chewie's handler organised an orderly que so everyone was able to get their photo chance.

This pic you have have see on my Instagram profile.

Jason, Sam, myself & Oliver

We finished up about 6pm and loaded the droids back into Lee's van. He then dropped us off back at the car parks for us to unload and then load up our cars. Some tho were staying for the Sunday, and stored their droids in a secure location.

I headed back with Emma & Lee to have a sit down, rest, chat and eat some pizza.
Before I finished packing up and started on my journey home.

Another event under R5's belt and a sense of achievement in helping out with the other groups in raising £15K