May 26

May 26 STAR WARS CELEBRATION 2022 ANAHEIM, CA [T58]

Desert Scum

Events

Star Wars Celebration Anaheim 2022

Anaheim Convention Center

Anaheim, CA

May 26-29, 2022

https://www.starwarscelebration.com

From the Host: Since its inception in 1999, Star Wars Celebration has focused on bringing fans together to celebrate our shared love of all things Star Wars.

7 YEAR HYPE

7 years ago a girl and a boy wandered into the Anaheim Convention Center for Star Wars Celebration Anaheim 2015. They only attended 1 day, and it was their very first convention of any kind to date. They didn’t even know what the heck was going on. Lines everywhere. Lines going into secret doors containing who knows what. All they went home with was a Darth Vader toaster, a Lego Snowspeeder and inspiration to build a custom astromech droid ! Little did they know that day would change just about everything for the next 7 years. Looking back 2020s further postponement gave us a chance to do further droid. prep and ended up getting a better hotel.

All in all we did what we set out to do ! We are ecstatic to have been able to be part of the Droid Builders at SWCA22. We got to volunteer, have a slot in the famous droid rooms, and met cyber friends that came from afar. I never had 4 days go by so fast! Celebration is like no other con. Star Wars all day and all night. Great people sharing their love and passion for the Wars.

THURSDAY MAY 26

R3-XI was posted in his lil spot in the droid builders room in the morning.

R2-2D and RD-QD were on fan relations/puppeteering duty AM in the AM.

QD was put up to charge and swapped out for Monster MSE and the creature cage in the afternoon. We romped around the main level booths and bumped into Mr. Baddeley and his wife and our buddy Wall-E.

We swapped R3-XI for the MSE and took him out for a spin until closing. R3-XI puppeteered, by Krank, was a huge hit with the crowds. His humor and interactions with guests was so on-point. It is really amazing and fun to interact with Star Wars fans.

The Droid Builder dinner was held at Buca de Beppo… we are still full from that one!

FRIDAY MAY 27

KRANKS B-Day ! Droid Races ! Star Tours 35th Anniversary Panel !

Ardyjo was fortunate to get to the Ink Fusion booths early and artist (Cale Turpen) was so kind to agree to give Krank a birthday tattoo of R2-2D !

Krank was on puppeteering duty with 2D while Ardy Jo participated in her first Running of the Hoods in late morning. The run was intense up and down the escalator throughout the main level and onto the stage. The hoods even ran into a familiar astromech on a short break :)

QD went on duty in the afternoon and we happen to wander over to the Galma Regional Circuit in the main exhibit hall where the droid races had been happening. After analyzing the raceway… QD and Ardy Jo decided to enter and give a whril. The track was setup obstacle coarse style with 2 droids competing for the best time on the 2 separate tracks. Which is nice, because if you crashed its your own fault and not another droids. QD had a slow start on race 1 , having issue with the stupid little Porg in a basket task. Somehow, she made it to semi finals and faced off with the speed demon Chopper and her good buddy from Bakersfield Brian. Chopper was so fast he did a flip back on the start and bumped his head on the ground. .. ardyjo was too busy laughing to take advantage of the head start but still somehow was able to sqeak a win heading to the finals against another Bakersfield builder and buddy Will! It was a close race but QD ended up getting the 1st Place trophy ! lol a really, really fun experience !

Scumballs ended up back in the builders rooms and brought R3-XI out to meet his new little brother Gil ! Jointly made by the Pilot RX-24 Builders Group guru Patrick Gray with support from Chris, Tevor, Tim, Seth, Hammer and Matt. Incredible build. Something we love about the building community is being able to share ideas, and get inspiration from each other. As Kranks incredible work getting R3-XI to roll and talk may have inspired parts of Gil, he in turn has inspired us to upgrade R3-XI or even make him a little sister :)

While R3-XI was playing around with Gil we bumped into Chris Runco and Sonny Nguyen. Chris was a concept designer and Walt Disney Imagineer and designed our beloved Captain Rex ! Sonny is also a imagineer and designed DJ R3X ! Chris was so kind and signed R3-XIs head. Turns out there was a 35th Anniversary Star Tours panel kicking off down the hall, so R3-XI rolled down there to see what was going on. He actually ended up on stage back next to Mr. Runco, also with Dennis Muren (Senior VFX Supervisor and creative director at Industrial Light & Magic) and Tony Baxter! (former Senior VP of Creative Development Walt Disney Imagineering), and … Ashley Eckstein !

It was amazing birthday at celebration. Thank you to everyone involved in making it what it was :) <3

35th Anniversary Star Tours Panel Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebbZS8Likqw&t
- special guest appearances around 20 minutes in :)
Here is a great link to an overview of the 35th Anniversary Panel https://dapsmagic.com/2022/06/35-years-of-star-tours-adventures-with-d23-at-star-wars-celebration/

SATURDAY May 28

So being mostly on volunteer duty, we aren’t so savvy on what is going on everywhere. We saw the Mandalorian Experience pop up on our buddy Dans feed and we were like where is that !!!?

First thing Saturday morning we droided over to check it out. It was an incredible display of props from the show. The droids fit right in :) After that Ardy Jo had to head off for the 501st Legion and Jolly Roger Squadron group photos up on level 2. Photo shoots always take forever. Jolly Roger squadron then took a fly by thru the exibit hall for a group photo at the awesome Tie Fighter ! After that she bumped into a familiar astromech to harass :)

After that we headed to the droid races and krank took a try with 2D. Races were close but due to some technicalities with the Episode I Pod Racing countdown (false starting) :P After that we had a break , got to control Gil and check out his awesome operation before gathering for the Droid photo shoot. It was always Kranks goal to have his droid stand out in the sea of droids ! The swag trading party was saturday night, so ardy jo was able to unload her patches for some awesome ones from around the world! fun time! 2D even traded some :)

SUNDAY

Sunday came and went so fast its crazy. 2D and QD romped around all day before we loaded them up and went back for R3-XI and the Monster MSEy. R3-XI went out with a bang again and we made it home.

Droid Builder Room Walkthrough Video https://youtu.be/48gb9trWUcI