Well WonderCon is done for another year. Lots of fun, good company, tons of photos taken and a full builders panel again.

I think this was the largest builders turn-out we’ve ever had at WonderCon, by my count there were at least 6 droids and 10 builders in attendance.

No major problems to report, nobody lost any parts, screws or having a droid die half way around the show floor. Although Max’s drive system was making some funny noises by late Sunday, and I did manage to break a door panel off but was quickly fixed in time for the panel.

Here’s some highlights, starting off with the obligatory cute kids. The Jawa is the son of fellow builder Ryan Goff, and he did a great job hamming it up for the crowds.

Gerard did what we be believe was his first interview, the guy was from SiriusXM and was more of a geek than us and asked all the right questions. From the look of it the Geeman enjoyed it!

Looks like Matt also enjoyed showing off his droid


And bumped into a few strange characters along the way

Johnathan played the perfect droid security guard, sporting his new shirt. Can’t wait for the run of these!

But was pretty surprised at the price of pizza the convention center.

Here’s some of my fav costumes/characters

As usual more photos in the gallery.

As a lead into WonderCon that starts today, the SF Chronicle wrote a great article on us local R2 Builders.  Read it online or on the front page of the Datebook section.

We’ll be at WonderCon Saturday and Sunday, and hosting another builders panel on Sunday at 12:30, room 220.

Bonnie Burton over at the Official SW Blog did a real nice write up of our attendance at WonderCon this year, including some great photos and videos – check it out.

Here’s some photos and video from our WonderCon on Sunday, including our R2 Builders Panel.

Sundays builders in attendance: Me, Steve, Matt, Grant and Gerard.

This is the first year where we’ve done two days of WonderCon with our droids, but we were locked into Sunday because our panel was that day. With it being Easter Sunday we were a little concerned that attendance would be low. We were also going to be one of the last panels of the day, and on top of that they put is in a much bigger room this year. But about 10 minutes before the start people began to line up outside and we just about filled the room. We were told it was probably the fullest panel on the Mezz level all weekend.

Link to YouTube video.

We bumped into Bonnie Burton from SW.com early on Sunday morning.

I just had to get a photo with Wolverine Solo

I lost count how many hugs Artoo got thru the day

We also did a couple of interviews, or at least Artoo did

Lots of children in attendance this year, and I don’t think Artoo made any cry

Artoo got to meet a couple of celebrities again, incl. Peter Mayhew and Lou Ferrigno

Before the panel started I got to speak with some future builders who had questions about the controller

Matt did an awesome job of leading the panel 🙂

To mix things up I drove Artoo into the audience thru the presentation, sometimes responding to Matt’s point in the presentation to point out or demo something on the droid or even to heck or beep at back at him. The crowd love it

The room was just about full and we got some great questions and feedback from the attendees

After the panel was done we hung out side to try and answer more questions – And wanting to share I sometime entrust my Artoo for others to try out, this was Barry driving him. He’s one of the official WonderCon photographers who’s shared some great photos with us over the years.

We were done by 4pm and I was feeling good that the weekend went well. As I went to pick up the van, my wife took this photo of Artoo carrying his new backpack ready to drive out. It thought it look like he was at an airport ready to go on holiday after a busy few days of work 🙂

I owe a big thanks to Matt for organizing our attendance this year, and also to Gerard for coming back in on Sunday to help as our backup handler. I can’t stress enough how important it is to have an extra set of hands. As far as I’m concerned it’s almost impossible to have a stress free day if you try and attend an event like this on your own.

As usual many more photos can be found in the gallery.

Related:

• WonderCon 2010 – Saturday
• WonderCon 2009
• Loaded and Ready for WonderCon
• More WonderCon 2008 Videos
• WonderCon 2008 Photo
• R2 Meets The Doctor
• Meet R2 Builders at WonderCon

Bonnie Burton shot this video of my Artoo at WonderCon this morning. Enjoy.

Link to the original youtube video.

Here’s some photos and video from our first real day at WonderCon.

More photos here.

Related:

• WonderCon 2009
• Loaded and Ready for WonderCon
• More WonderCon 2008 Videos
• WonderCon 2008 Photo
• R2 Meets The Doctor
• Meet R2 Builders at WonderCon

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

[Direct link to Youtube video]

Manufacturer: Sheperd Hardware
Mode Number: 9299
Approx Price: $9

Available at Home Depot, Ace Hardware, etc. Cheapest online location: Ace Hardware Outlet ($5 ea.)

We had a real good showing at WonderCon this year, with at least 6 builders in attendance, and 4 droids.

Here’s some of us after the Builders panel: Steve, Me, Don B, Tiny and Gerard

The panel was a huge success, with standing room only – I think it helped that we had Don Bies on the panel this year 🙂

We also got to meet Mike from TotallyWired, and saw some of the new parts he’s been developing.

Here’s some of my favorite shots from the day

R2 even did a couple of interviews thru the day

As always additional photos in the gallery.

Big thanks to the 501st and my fellow builders for helping throughout the day, and to Don Bies for joining us on the panel.

Additional Pictures, Video and Articles:

• Steve’s Flickr Photos
• Star Wars Blog – Flickr Photos
• Star Wars Blog: WonderCon R2 Builders Interview
• 1UP
• Random MySpace Video of the droids

Related:

• Loaded and Ready for WonderCon
• WonderCon Starts This Friday!
• More WonderCon Videos (2008)
  
• WonderCon Photo (2008)
  
• R2 Meets The Doctor
• Meet R2 Builders at WonderCon (2008)