Joining me and R2-D2 were Gordon Tarpley as C-3PO, Matt Hobbs with his R5-D4, Ed Perello with Matt's pit droid on a remote controlled cart, Darren Moser with his BD-1 puppet, and Steven Dodds wrangling.
The parade didn't start until 6:00pm, but the streets are closed hours ahead of that, so I arrived around 12:45pm to ensure a spot in the nearby parking structure.
William Miyamoto arrived shortly afterward in his Bumblebee car that he drives in the parade, so Matt and I went over to visit with him and see some of the other cars that had already arrived.
And for some reason, an 18-wheeler with a mammoth facsimile potato.
After a late lunch, we headed back to the character changing area, where stormtroopers, rebels, Wookiees and droids started to materialize.
Around 5:45pm, we headed up from the changing area to the staging area at the start of the red carpet.
As we waited for the parade to start, folks near the starting line were excited to see the characters.
The parade got going, and it wasn't long before William drove by in his Bumblebee.
A few minutes later, the Star Wars clubs made it to the red carpet. We were to hop in right after them, so this is the last picture I got before we joined in the parade.
We marched/drove on Hollywood Boulevard from Orange to Highland, at which point we exited the parade route and headed back to the parking structure to wrap up. Given that the streets remained closed for a couple more hours, we mainly chatted for a good long time.
It was great getting back out there, but there are a lot more builders that want to do this parade now, so I may or may not be involved next year, we'll see. I remember the first year I did this parade, they couldn't get any droids, and they asked if I'd be willing to just drive R2-D2 for the red carpet portion of the parade, and obviously I said yes to that. I wouldn't feel comfortable attempting to drive the entire 3 mile parade route, given the condition of the roads, the somewhat slower pace of the droid, and the distance involved. But maybe sometime soon someone will.
The full photoset is here.
