Events Desert Scum Events Desert Scum

STAR WARS CELEBRATION 2022 ANAHEIM, CA [T58]

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

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

Scum Muster:

  • R2-2D

  • RD-QD

  • MONSTER MSE & CREATURE CAGE

  • WILLROW HOOD

  • COMMANDER IDEN VERSIO

Read More
Events Desert Scum Events Desert Scum

R2LA 16

R2LA16

Annual Southern California Droid Party

Scums 3rd annual droid party. Biggest one yet this year with a great variety of droids! Mingled with some awesome people.

Feel free to share/download pictures.

Scum Muster:

Krank & Ardy

  • S1-10C- busted front foot on curb

  • Monster Inferno MSE “EL Raton” with battle protection- side panels warped in heat

  • Star Tours Speeder 3000 Beer Transport (debut)

  • Captain Rex RX-24 (debut)- just finished night before neck lift needs work

Read More
Events Desert Scum Events Desert Scum

San Diego Comic Con 2019 [T44]

San Diego Comic Con 2019

FREE EVENT! No Badge Required!

Meet the Star Wars Fan Groups

San Diego Comic Con Museum

#501stlegion #rebellegion #saberguild #mandalorianmercs #droidbuilders

Meet the Star Wars Fan Groups Program

FREE EVENT ! NO COMIC CON BADGE REQUIRED!

(seating subject to capacity)

Saturday July 20, 2019

12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m.

The Theater - San Diego Comic Con Museum

Balboa Park, San Diego

Meet the Star Wars Fan Groups

Meet the Star Wars Fan Groups

Program

An introduction to the International Star Wars Fan Groups: The 501st Legion, The Rebel Legion, Mandalorian Mercs, Saber Guild, and Droid Builders, with moderator Ramey Chanadet (executive officer of the 501st Southern California Garrison). Hear from the local and international leadership of each club on what the clubs are all about and how to join. Panelists include Todd Mullin (501st San Diego Garrison Commanding Officer), Blair Douglass (Rebel Legion Membership Officer), Victor Silva (Mandalorian San Diego Clan Commanding Officer), Kelley Moreno (Saber Guild Los Angeles Assistant Local Director), and Ashly Jo (Southern California Droid Builder).

Source: https://www.comic-con.org/cci/saturday

Scum Summary

Meet the Star Wars Fan Groups Program @ Comic Con Museum

FAN GROUPS - visit the BUILD IT page for links to the different group pages etc. and learn how to become a member ! THEY ARE ALL FREE TO JOIN!

Representatives from the Droid Builders, Mandalorian Mercs, 501st Legion, Saber Guild and Rebel Legion Fan Groups had the awesome experience of leading panel discussion at the pop-up museum event for Comic Con this year! The museum was an incredible place with a perk of being filled with an awesome Batman exhibit. Unfortunately we were in such a hurry to hit the panel and hitch a ride back to the convention center we couldn’t explore — did see an awesome bat signal that I really need in my life haha

The fan group panel was super awesome. Best panel I’ve seen (participated in). Love hanging out with all the different clubs and working together. It adds so much diversity to a program as a unified group of Star Wars fans. Actually learned about how the clubs are the same & different, which is super beneficial as we often discuss it when mingling with fans and encourage joining of any and all clubs.

Some highlights was the uniqueness of the Saber Guild and Mandalorian Mercs in regards to costume customization freedom compared to the screen accurate requirements of the Rebel or 501st Legion. It is so interesting and awesome to have so much variety. Also awesome to learn is how the Saber Guild has practice weekly for their performances (something we haven’t been lucky enough to catch to date). So many great groups and awesome costumes available for anyone to build. Ardy Jo was repping the Droid Builders and didn’t crash and burn … so that was good. The droids added a nice touch to the panel we thought. Hopefully everyone gets some new recruits ! Ardy Jo is still finishing up a Rebel Legion Jawa and 501st Legion Inferno Squad …

  • Clubs are free to join

  • Most/all have mentoring groups etc. to provide support in joining and builds

SDCC2019 Museum Details:

Pop-up museum occurring all days of comic con 2019- no badges required and free admission. The Museum is is being converted from a 1935 Federal Building.

Preparations are underway to activate all three floors of the 68,000 square foot building with exciting exhibits, programs, and experiences. Specific features and attractions of the pop-up Museum will include:

Daily panels in the Museum theater, organized by Comic-Con.  Four panels per day will give the broader community a taste of the great variety and depth of Comic-Con programming. Full details will be announced as we reveal the complete Comic-Con programming schedule.

Mondo Gallery: 80 Years of Batman, the first ever traveling exhibit from the Mondo Gallery in Austin, Texas, celebrating the history of Batman through 19 iconic and fan-favorite comic-book covers, reproduced as screen-printed posters.

The Con

After the program the droids made it back to the convention center, which was awesome that the center provided handicap transportation for us and the droid!!!!! Per usual we wander around aimlessly … we did actually make it to the Brian Rood Art booth to hang out with our droid builder buddy and mooch some power for the MSE. Check out Brian Rood Art —- great star wars art! Ate some ok convention pizza and nachos and that was about it!

Scum Muster

  • RD-2D & Krank

    • All day without charge & no incidents!

  • Monster Inferno MSE & Ardy Jo

    • Recharged once and battery low by end of day - no trip ups or incidents !

Read More
Events, Fundraising Desert Scum Events, Fundraising Desert Scum

27th Seal Day [T43]

Free event includes seal viewing, food trucks, live music, arts, plus a Halloween in June twist with Trunk-or-Treating and costume contests! 

27th Seal Day

Marine Mammal Care Center

Public Event

June 22, 2019

10 AM -4 PM

Marine Mammal Care Center
3601 S. Gaffey #8
San Pedro, CA 90731
https://marinemammalcarecenterlosangeles.com/annual-seal-day/

SHARE THE EVENT ON FACEBOOK!

Free event includes seal viewing, food trucks, live music, arts, plus a Halloween in June twist with Trunk-or-Treating and costume contests! 

If you haven’t been to Los Angeles County’s year-round sea lion hospital, Seal Day is the day that you will want to visit! Seal Day festivities will feature outdoor animal viewing, live music, food trucks, games for kids and dozens of booths from a wide range of community organizations. This year’s theme is Halloween in June, complete with professional costumed visitors, a Trunk-or-Treat experience with world famous Star Cars– vehicles from stage and screen, and a costume contest for those who come dressed for fun!

Seal Day is happening at Marine Mammal Care Center Los Angeles from 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM on Saturday, June 22nd. 

Bring your appetite too! Some of the region’s most popular food truck eateries will be attending! Popular exhibitor booths will include Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, El Dorado Nature Center, plus many local environmental groups that will be giving lectures and demonstrations throughout the day.

Everyone is encouraged to come in costume and join in the fun! Live music performances will be happening all day (sponsored by the Parrot Head Club) plus special appearances by singer/pianist Flaviyake. Seal Day 2019 will also have hand-painted sea lion sculptures up for auction along with a chance to meet and greet with the local artists that created them for the event! 

MANY WAYS TO DONATE HERE


Event Summary

Scums 2nd year for this lovely event supporting the MMCC ! It was a lovely day sharing how to build droids with visitors, encouraging donation to the MMCC and sharing candy ! We had an awesome droidbuilder back drop provided by Gears McTinkersome at http://twinlitworlds.com and Road Squadron. Gears also had his super car firghter Red 2 ! Aarre brought her in-progress R2 which really gives guests an awesome look at the building process. Jrbell from the Bakersfield Droid Builders brought his amazing aluminum R2. Had lots of interested guests, hopefully we recruited some builders :) Also out in force was the Saber Guild Jedi, 501st Legion and Rebel Legion !The Kyle Smith band provided some fun cover songs in the background for most the day. Please consider donating to the center. The center operation on donations by organizations and individuals like you! The center treats and releases injured marine mammals through their rehabilitation center.

checkout the built it page for the different groups!

Scum Muster

  • RD-2D & Krank

  • Monster Inferno MSE & Ardy Jo

VIDEO COMING SOON….

Read More
Desert Scum Desert Scum

Spark of Love Toy Drive [T33]

Spark of Fun Toy Drive

Spark of Fun Toy Drive

Super Wal Mart Hesperia

San Bernardino County Fire Department &

501st Legion Southern California Garrison with Droid Builders

https://www.calfund.org/abc7-firefighters-spark-love-toy-drive-fund/

ABC7 and Southern California Firefighters are celebrating their 25th Anniversary of the Spark of Love Toy Drive. Over the past twenty five years, the Spark of Love Toy Drive has successfully collected more than ten million toys for underserved children and teens.

Fun and chilly night with the troops!

Scum Muster

  • RD-2D & Krank

  • Monster Inferno MSE & Ardy Jo

Read More
Build Desert Scum Build Desert Scum

Wampa Monster MSE Complete

Ardy Jo was able to complete the 1st version of the Wampa Monster MSE the night before LBCC2018!

She is really happy how it turned out. Rasberry Pi is something shes been wanting to play with for a while and is beyond relieved that she got it working at all! Some additions to the costume in future may include a working mouth and upgrading the sound system

wampa lbcc.png
Read More
Events Desert Scum Events Desert Scum

SDCC 2018- Saturday [T22]

 SDCC 2018 SATURDAY ONLY

We were lucky enough to be able to get & afford tickets for SDCC 2018 Saturday and took RD-2D with us. 

Were able to get Valet parking at the Hilton Gaslamp across the street from the convention center. Yes it was overpriced, but a great way to drop off a droid as close as we could. We even had the option to access the vehicle if we need during the day, but didn't. In hind sight, Ardy Jo would have stored the Monster MSE there and brought it out in the afternoon or something. 

Got to the convention center around 8:45 a.m. We thought were were in the everything else line to enter at Hall G but everyone just started bunching up where we were in the line in from of a Entrance door at Hall D, which was allowing volunteer entry only. Eventually we just mushed up with everyone else at that door waiting for 9:30 entry. Around like 9:40 they finally opened the doors and we squeezed through with the droid. 

First stop on the exhibit floor was the Hasbro Toy Shop to try and snag a Black Series Exogorth Escape set. Initially there was lottery tickets online to be able to purchase exclusives at the toy shop. Apparently Saturday/Sunday no tickets were required. The line was tricky. They wouldn't let you get it in if it was too long and you had to circle around after a few minutes and jump in it if they let you. Ardy Jo finally got to jump in and it only took 20ish minutes to get to the checkout where they scan your badge and let you get your stuff. Yay! scored 1st SDCC Exclusive! It wasn't the most exotic exclusive, seeing that they will release the same Solo at a later date minus the mynoch., but o well! Sadly the NECA TMNT 1990 7 inch figures were completely sold out....

SDCC was so massive... we had to charge the droid 3 times during the day from 9:45 am-7:30 p.m. when we left. Luckily we could mooch in on the Hall D charging stations for about an hour for charging.

Only other droids out that we saw was B1 at the Mandalorian Booth on the Mezzanine with the other fan groups. He is so cool. We also caught the Extreme Droid Builders panel at the Marriott. Really awesome droids and upgrades. Also got to see the actual Lawgiver statue from the Planet of the Apes and RD-2D got a pic with it. 

We also got some GTP Toys Spacewall Corners from mcwheeler ! Thanks again! and a free Glass poster from the upcoming movie. 

Didn't eat much in the craiziness! Snagged a mini pizza and some free beer across the street at the Dell Experience. 

Super fun crazy day!!!!!!!!!! Doing more than 1 day would be insane. RD-2D did a heck of a job. 

Resource

How to Attend San Diego Comic Con for Cheap - some helpful tips for attending SDCC

Read More
Fundraising Desert Scum Fundraising Desert Scum

Star Wars Weekend: Jethawks vs Storm [T21]

Star Wars Weekend: Lancaster Jethawks vs Lake Elsinore Storm

June 14, 2018

Donations from the 501st Legion & Rebel Legion booth to www.milossanctuary.org

 

Photo ops. with characters throughout the park. Ardy Jo & Monster Inferno MSE participated in the opening ceremony and got to escort 1st pitch to the mound! RD-2D got to hide behind the ropes at the booth throughout the night but ventured out into the kiddie play area later on and got swarmed! They have a super yummy beer mustard brat at The Hangar Stadium! Hot day and fun event! 

Scum Muster

  • RD-2D & Krank

  • Monster Inferno MSE & Ardy Jo

Scum footage from Star Wars Night: Lancaster Jethawks VS Lake Elsinore Storm! Lancaster, CA July 14, 2018.

Read More