Nearly ever droid builder I know lugs around a large cart just in case their droid fails. This is especially needed for those of us with drive systems that lock when no powered is applied to the motors. Knock on wood, I’ve never needed to use my cart and it’s always stayed in the van.
Well, at WonderCon last week Gerard showed us his latest find – mini 6″ tri-wheel dollies that’s can easily be place under each drive wheel. They’re small and light enough to throw in your backpack or toolbox.
Only downside is the wheels are pretty small so wouldn’t go over any major bumps or door jams easily, and I wouldn’t recommend using them to totally replace your cart, especially if you use it all the time. Never the less, I went straight out and bought a set to have in case of an emergency.
Here’s Gerard in action pushing his droid around on two of these
WonderCon starts this Friday in San Francisco – Gerard, Steve, Tiny and I will be there with our droids and we’ll be hosting another builders panel.
It was a year ago that I first met Steve at WonderCon and got him hooked on droid building – he’ll be debuting R2-XS.
StarWars.com has also posted a run down on all things SW that will be happening that weekend, and it looks to be a busy one, with Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Daniel Logan, Ray Park and Matthew Wood will be there signing autographs.
Our panel is on Saturday at 12:30pm in room 236/238. If you’re planning on attending, please let me know or stop on by and say hi.
R2-D2 Droid Building Basics— Chris James, Ryan Goff, and Steve Simmons share their experiences and demonstrate working droids. Topics range from materials, tools needed, basic electronics, and radio control information to make your own R2 come to life! Special guest Don Bies, former ILM modelmaker and Star Wars Episodes 2 and 3 droid wrangler.
I can’t believe January is already over – it’s been a busy couple months, but nothing major to report and no modifications/additions to the droid. We’ve been at a few events along the way and I’ve been tardy in posting photos and updates – sorry On top of that I’ve been slowly building up to maybe working on a second droid. I’m really tempted to try my hand at putting together a light weight Styrene droid based on Dave Everett’s new plans.
Con season is also just around the corner, so that means working on schedules and fixing a few things, I’ve also been helping Steve with R2-XS to get it ready for WonderCon, which start on February 27th. It was a year ago that he met Gerard and I there.
WonderCon has grown considerably since Comic-Con took over, and last year they had close to 30,000 people in attendance, so no small con by any means. We’ll be hosting another Droid Building Panel, and the good news is Don Bies has kindly agreed to be our special guest, so if you’re in town you’ll have to stop by and say hi.
And today, I finally got my new license plates I ordered last August on the van.
