Star Wars Celebration Anaheim 2022 - Day 1

Today was opening day for Star Wars Celebration 2022 in Anaheim CA. After a two year wait, fans were finally able to visit.

I took a quick tour of the droid room. I heard that we had 168 droids of all kinds in the room. My droid was stationed toward the end of the room maze, the first R2-D2 on the left below. It was joined by Naila Browne's BB-8, Michael Steckel's R2-Y4, and William Miyamoto's Chopper and R2-D2.



Here are some of the other droids that lined up to greet visitors.



At 11am we had our panel on how to build a Star Wars droid. We were going up against the Lucasfilm Studio Showcase, so I wasn't expecting a big crowd, but we didn't do too badly. I moderated, with panelists Michael McMaster, Mike Senna, Cary Christie, and Kris Sanders.



After that, I mainly wandered the show floor with various buddies. One of the coolest things I came across was an original X-Wing prop that will be auctioned by The Prop Store. It's believed to be the only fully intact X-Wing from the original movie.



I'd been eyeing the Dewback refrigerator magnet (shown toward the upper left) by Regal Robot. Should I get it??



I guess I should.



Day 1 is in the books. I'd better rest up, day 2 promises to be even busier.

Star Wars Celebration Anaheim 2022 - Day 0 - Setup

Today was setup day for Star Wars Celebration Anaheim 2022.



I arrived around 1:30pm, and William Miyamoto arrived a few minutes later. We both unloaded our droids and headed to the droid staging area on the main show floor to drop them off.



Our droids had plenty of company, including Michael McMaster's truly remarkable probe droid.



A little while later I went upstairs to see where our panel would be tomorrow. We're first on the runway. The room seats about 150 people. We are going up against the Lucasfilm Studio Showcase, but hopefully we'll still manage to get a decent turnout. We'll see.



After, we gave a self-guided tour of the showroom floor.



Finally, around 8pm we had a droid builders meeting in the droid room on the second floor, where we went over logistics and such. After that, we went downstairs and retrieved our droids and positioned them at their stations. Station #79 in my case.



Tomorrow the show starts at 10am, so we'd best get our rest and be ready to go!

PSI Work on Droid 1

Lately I've notice that droid #1's PSIs have looked dingy. Sure enough, I removed the lens covers, and they are very discolored.



While it looks kind of like a burn, I think this is more likely a reaction either from sunlight or the wavelengths being emitted by the LEDs, and not actual scorches from heat. I purchased a new sheet of the same plastic. It may get discolored again, but I'll worry about that in the year 2037.



I cut two layers to size for both the front and rear PSIs, and taped them down.



I still wasn't completely happy with the the appearance of the PSIs, I decided to temporarily transplant droid #2's PSIs into droid #1, in preparation for Star Wars Celebration Anaheim 2022, which starts Thursday (with load-in tomorrow).



Ok, this is satisfactory for now. I may duplicate the work I did for droid #2 so that both droids will have the same PSI work in them.

CHOC Visit - Spring 2022

Today R2 and I returned to Childrens Hospital Orange County to visit with the young patients and help brighten their day.



I often bring action figures or stickers or some goodie for the staff to hand out on behalf of R2. On today's visit, my next door neighbor generously purchased a bunch of R2 tamagotchies, so we handed those out.



As usual, I don't have pictures with the patients. Actually, there was one patient whose parent did sign a photo waiver with CHOC, but I'll still refrain from posting. Suffice it to say, we asked about getting a picture because of the sheer delight on his face when he met R2 and got the tamagotchi. His eyes opened huge and I don't think he blinked for a full minute.

I do have a few of pictures of R2 roaming the corridors. It wasn't as empty as it looks.



We visited every patient floor, and wrapped up with a photo of Rebekah and Amber, who helped escort R2 around.

As always, I look forward to returning again.

Star Wars Night at Dodger Stadium - 2022

Tonight R2 joined several members of the 501st Legion, Rebel Legion and Mandalorian Mercs for Star Wars Night at Dodger Stadium, for their May 4th event.



I headed out from Irvine around 2:30pm, and I arrived a little after 4pm and unloaded.



While the characters were changing into costume, I took a few minutes to watch batting practice (which I love to watch), and have R2 take pictures with early-arriving employees and fans.



Around 5:00pm we started making our way to the center field plaza for photos with the fans.



Once we arrived, the staff formed a line for the fans to get pictures with the characters. It didn't take long for the line to grow to well over 100 people, and wrap around the corner and down the aisle behind the right field pavilion.



Occasionally, the pre-game crew would come by to get some live shots of the characters during the broadcast.



The original plan was to just do this one photo op area, but around 6:30pm, there was a change in plans and some of the characters were invited to be part of the "It's time for Dodgers baseball" announcement right before the game starts (at 7:05 pm).

R2 and some of other characters were escorted onto the warning track in dead-center field, and we made our way around to the home plate area. (Note the tracks R2 is leaving behind. Would they still be there at game-time?)



Long time official Dodgers photographer Jon Soohoo called out to me as I passed the dugout. I'm a big fan of his work, and always enjoy catching up with him.



At this point, something kind of funny happened. As we were waiting for the characters to join some fans for the "It's time for Dodgers baseball" announcement, I figured I'd get a quick picture with the characters, which I did.



What I didn't count on was appearing on the scoreboard. As the picture was being taken, one of the camera operators for the scoreboard came over to get a shot that lasted on the board for a good 13 seconds. The scoreboards look high-res and beautiful in person, but the refresh rate of the scoreboard and the capture rate of the phone are out of sync, so they tend to look messed up when photographed.



Next, the characters lined up for the national anthem.



A few minutes later, I was asked to stage R2 first, at the top of the "A" in the LA logo, as the lineup cards were exchanged behind him.



Moments later, the other characters and fans joined R2 and did their thing.



After that, R2 and I high-tailed it off the field and toward the concourse elevators behind home plate. While waiting, I took my traditional photos of the awards on display, along with the Gold Glove of my all-time favorite player, Davey Lopes.



As I got ready to stow R2 back into the Droidmobile, I took a quick picture of the Dodgers crew that helped us with photos and escorting us around.



All the characters were given tickets to watch the game. I decided to make my way down the right field line to see if R2's tracks were still visible on the warning track. Yup! Just to the right of the foul line, haha.



The Dodgers spanked the Giants, 9-1. That improves R2's record to 10-3. I really think they need to invite him during the post-season.

This event combines two of my greatest fandoms (Star Wars and the Dodgers), and I always look forward to it. I hope to be back next year.

The full-sized photoset is here.