Star Wars Night at Angel Stadium - 2025

Tonight was opening night of Star Wars Weekend at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, and R2 and I joined members of the various costuming clubs, along with Walter Martinez and Sean Christophiades with their droids.



I arrived about a half hour before our call time of 4pm, and unloaded. That blue bed sheet will bewilder everyone as to what's underneath. Not.



The characters assembled in an area in the tunnels behind center field, and we went over the plan with the Angels staff, before heading out to our first station at 5pm.



We arrived in the (artificial turf) garden outside the stadium and stationed the characters under some easy-ups for fan photo-ops.



I was also reunited with JoJo, who hosts us for the Anaheim Ducks games. He was serving as tonight's DJ.



Around 6pm we made our way toward the left field foul pole, in preparation for our pre-game trip around the warning track. You may or may not recall that this is where my droid decided to have a power failure last year. I made good and sure that that wouldn't happen again this year.



We headed on out!

At one point a goofy situation came up, where the pregame show was being telecast live from the warning track, so we had to go around. I needed to take the transition from the warning track dirt to the grass backwards, and I figured it was such a short distance to get back onto the warning track, I'd just drive the whole thing backwards. So viewers at home may have seen R2 moonwalk in the background. (A few of the photos below are courtesy of Kit Sovine.)



We all made it, safe and sound. Yea.



We still had time before the game, so a few of us returned to the photo-op area for a little while.



In the second inning, some of the characters made our way to the seats behind home plate for the Dance/Cantina Band Cam



We also hung around for another couple of innings for the Force Cam.



After having driven around the entire stadium a couple of times, R2 was slowing down just a little. There was just one activation left, where the characters went to the warning track during the 7th inning stretch. I decided to have R2 sit that one out, but I came along to take pictures.



The Angels ended up beating the Giants 2-0, and after the game was a Star Wars-themed drone show, with 800 drones. A little bit low-res, but I imagine the drones have to keep a safe distance from each other.



R2's record with the Angles is now 3-6. I hope to be back next year to help improve on that.

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.