20 Years Ago Today

On April 3, 2005, I went to Walmart in Anaheim, CA to purchase their Star Wars Episode 5 promotional product, a replica of the Kenner Early Bird set of action figures. I didn't know that some Star Wars characters were going to be there. And I certainly didn't know R2-D2 would be there, with his creator, Mike Senna.

Thanks to Mike, I was able to build two droids of my own, and become friends with many wonderful people in the droid building community. I've also had amazing opportunities I never would have dreamed of, most of which are documented in this blog (but not all of them, NDAs and such...). So thank you Mike, I'm eternally grateful for having met you that day.

WonderCon 2025 - Day 3

Today was the third and final day of WonderCon, in the Anaheim Convention Center.

Starting the day off right!



Stuff seen around the droid pavilion.



Former Senior Vice President of Creative Development at Walt Disney Imagineering Tony Baxter walked by, so a few of us jumped at the opportunity to get a picture with him.



I also took the opportunity to get a photo with Craig and Ashly Jo Dishmon and their droid, whose droid body was featured in Star Wars Skeleton Crew. I actually drove this droid on camera in Episode 5 (and Episode 6, but that shot didn't make it in).



We did one last droid parade around 1:50pm, and stopped in the middle of the route for our group photo at the backdrop area.



I branched off to visit DC artist and fellow R2 Builders Club member Norm Rapmund at his booth. On my way back, R2 was asked to stop for a photo with a young Jedi.



Show closing was at 5pm, and things started to wind down.



Another year is in the books. It's always great seeing everyone again, and I look forward to WonderCon 2026.

WonderCon 2025 - Day 2

Today was day #2 of WonderCon at the Anaheim Convention Center.



In the morning, Carly King hosted a Skeleton Crew Panel featuring Ravi Cabot-Conyers (Wim) and Robert Timothy Smith (Neel). It was very entertaining. The kids had a contest to see how well they knew each other, and also recreated their air-lightsaber fight from Episode 1.



They were presented their actual prop walkie-talkies they used on the show. They had fun testing them out on the stage. After the panel I asked Ravi if I could take a pic with him and the walkie-talkie.



On the way back to the booth, I tagged along as Amy took a picture of the annual meeting of the Mike Senna Fan Club.



As we were heading back to the booth, Rachel Stasiak mentioned that Emily Swallow (The Armorer from The Mandalorian) was having trouble getting her Point of Sale device to work, so Mike and I attempted to get it working. After several minutes, we weren't successful, but when I went back a little while later, Rachel let me know the device started working just after we left, so maybe all we had to do was leave.



Meanwhile, a cosplaying KB visited the shared booth with Ravi and Robert.



We finally made it back to the booth, where builders were entertaining the crowd.



Romano and Connie Bassi created this highly entertaining mouse droid, complete with two mice inside, and a pinup mouse-girl poster, cheese and a mug of coffee.



Lunchtime! Thanks to exhibitor badges, we can go to the food truck in the back parking lot. It costs way less than the $50 Paul Thompson once spent at the food trucks in the front for a slice of pizza.



More entertainment at the booth.



These folks weren't with our booth, but this droid was pretty neat.



Natalie, dressed as Bix, was delighted to meet Michael McMaster's B2-EMO.



Has anyone seen a dog roaming around?



Romano also built a trash crab, and he showed it to Ravi and Robert, who enjoyed seeing it in action.



Toward the end of the day, everyone started getting their droids in formation so we could close up the booth.



But some of us weren't done yet. Michael McMaster, William Miyamoto, Mike Senna and I had our "How to Build Your Own R2-D2" panel at 7:30pm on the third floor. (Chris Romines had something come up so he wasn't able to join us.) Given the late hour (the convention exhibition floor closed at 7pm and the room location, the panel was not well-attended. :/ Nevertheless, the panel did go very well.



Day #2 is in the books, one more day tomorrow.

WonderCon 2025 - Day 1

Today was day #1 at WonderCon in the Anaheim Convention Center, and a busy day it was. I arrived around 10am to unload for the 11am show start.



I was running a little behind schedule because I had the solemn duty of picking up donuts on the way in. By the time I arrived, our droid pavilion was pretty much ready to go.



Michael McMaster debuted his B2EMO as inspired from the show Andor. It was pretty amazing. It uses Mecanum wheels, so it can roll in any direction without having to rotate, and it can rotate as well. The body rises and lowers as seen in the show, the head pans and tilts and rotates 360º, and the tool trays between levels also rotate. It is one complicated droid.



Daren Moser added several upgrades to his K2-S0, included eye movement within the eye socket. It was quite impressive too.



The show was pretty busy, and the droid builders kept the crowd entertained.



Around 2:45pm we did our daily droid parade around the convention center.



We stopped off at a photo-op area for a droid group picture before continuing on.



I have not mentioned it yet on this blog, but I was the Droid Assistant and a droid Puppeteer on the Disney+ show Star Wars Skeleton Crew (Mike Senna was Key Droid Technician and Puppeteer). Ravi Cabot-Conyers and Robert Timothy Smith had a booth at WonderCon, so our droid parade stopped by their booth to say hi. Robert had just stepped out to lunch, but Ravi was there.



Ravi's mom Christina, who I knew from our time on the production, told me to jump in for a picture.



As we approached our booth, Leilani Shiu, who plays the Jawa Teeka on the Disney+ Star Wars shows, wrangled a few droids into the 501st booth for a photo.



Back at the booth, I checked out Chris Lee's BDX droid.



At 5pm we had our panel, "Working on the Set: Droids from Skeleton Crew and Kenobi." Panelists were Mike Senna, me, William Miyamoto, Rob Wight and Gordon Tarpley, with Amy Senna moderating. The panel was very well received and it was enjoyable.



Justine Senna kindly recorded the panel, and Rob Wight uploaded it to YouTube, in case you're interested.



Day 1 is in the books, we do it all again tomorrow.