Comicon 2017

This weekend R2 and I attended San Diego Comicon at the San Diego convention center, along with many of my R2 Builder and Mouse Droid Builder friends. I was scheduled to moderate two panels. The first was on Mouse Droid building, on Friday from 6:00pm-7:00pm. The second was on R2 building, on Sunday from 12:00pm-1:00pm.



I loaded up the car and headed out to meet up with Michael McMaster and Gordon Tarpley. Once we got to San Diego, we grabbed a quick lunch at In-n-Out, and did the requisite goofing around.





Upon our arrival at the convention center, we plunged into the sea of people.



We immediately took in the sights and displays.






At 6:00pm we gave our Mouse Droid Builders panel. Kevin Holme demonstrated his "Mousezilla" and it was well received.




Afterward the guys decided to do a demolition derby, but my mouse droid timidly sat out. (I preferred not to destroy him until after he's done being built.)



Saturday was a free day, so we roamed the convention some more, including things that were going on just outside the convention center. Adam Savage presided over the presentation of Justice League-themed wheelchairs to young children, so they could roam the convention in style.



The Hasbro booth had some neat Star Wars dioramas on display.



The Weta booth had a neat Gollum model on display.



Speaking of Gollum, Andy Serkis was signing nearby.



The Prop Store had amazing props on display, many of them selling for tens of thousands of dollars.




We wrapped up the day with Gordon dressing up as C-3PO, joining Thomas' R2-D2.



On Sunday, we met up early to load the droids into the U-Haul that Thomas arranged, in order to get them to the convention center loading dock.



Our first stop was the tribute to Carrie Fisher and Kenny Baker. Joe Font represented the R2 Builders on stage, and at the panel's conclusion we all gathered our droids to the front of the room for a photo op.




At noon, it was time for our R2 Builders panel! Mike and William started it off with an entertaining BB-8 competition that Mike's wife Amy captured.



The panel went great. There were lots of laughs and everyone had a good time.




And that's a wrap! We loaded the truck back up and returned out our rendezvous point to unload and head back home.



It was a great weekend, I always enjoy spending time with my building friends, and I hope we get to do it again.

The full photoset is here.