R2LA X

Today was the grandaddy of them all, R2LA X! With 90 people in attendance, 21 droids (plus several in-progress), food and fun, this was the place to be.



Wow, ten years of these. I've only been a club member since R2LA III, but R2LA X certainly felt like a big milestone, and a good point to consider all the fun and friendships the club has brought.

Today's activities started with setup at Mike's house at 10:00am, in preparation for the 11:00am event.

Time to clear furniture and other miscellaneous equipment out of the house and make room for a hoard of droids and their builders.



Anyone who was passing through the neighborhood stopped and asked what in the world was going on, as droid after droid made its way to Mike's house.




Within the first 10 minutes we had over 10 droids setting up shop, including my droid #2 as R5-D4.



Marc demonstrated his Marcduino system, with music playing and panels-a-poppin'.



Ed Perello's decked-out droid showed off its wares, with not one, not two, but three CPU arms among the appendages.



Kevin Holme demonstrated his cool deployable and articulated booster covers.



Nikki's sparkly Million Dollar R2 dome looked like a million bucks. It must be seen in video form.





Last year at Comikaze, Chris Romines' droid bumped into little Kayla Miyamoto and knocked her down. No tears, no foul, but we can't let Chris live that down, so Nikki and William had a couple of t-shirts made. Kayla's shirt: "I got run over by Chris Romines's R2, and all I got was this stupid T-shirt." Chris' shirt: "I ran over a baby with my R2, and all I got was this stupid T-shirt."



Original Disney Imagineer Bob Gurr joined us for a while, and the visit was a nice treat for both him and us.



Around mid-day, William Miyamoto and Michael McMaster gave a surprise presentation that we had been planning with Damien Metz. Damien made a very nice commemorative plaque in honor of R2LA X, and it was presented to Mike and Amy, along with a $100 gift certificate to a nice restaurant.




Time for the group picture of the droids, along with their sith lord. My droids are somewhere way in the back, which is what happens when you arrive on the early side.



Lots o' droids.



And time for a group shot of the humans.



Trey Stokes, Director of the Pink 5 films, filmed a scene or two for the next movie in the saga (a prequel). We also got to preview the conclusion of the original series, and it was great!



Evening arrived, and slowly but surely folks had to start heading home, especially those with a long drive ahead of them. Many of us were able to stay, although the goofiness factor started to go up exponentially with the hour.




Webcam Dog.



I can't even begin to describe the phone call Michael McMaster had Mike Granek make to McMaster's wife, but it had us in stitches. (Her, not so much.)



No evil here!



So it's been a great 10 years (8 for me since I wasn't around for the first two) of friends sharing in a wonderful hobby, and it's amazing that Mike has brought so many of us together for so many years. Here's hoping for many more years and many more good times.

The full photoset is here.