Desert Scum 10/20/18 Desert Scum 10/20/18

Pinball Madness [T30]

http://pinballmadness.com

VIDEOS COMING SOON!

Join us for Pinball Madness at the Museum of Pinball (700 S. Hathaway, Banning, CA) on October 19-21, 2018. Over 1,100 pinball machines and arcade games (both vintage and modern) will be on freeplay with no quarters needed. Costume contests, entertainment, food, and more!

Okay so this event was super dooper awesome cool ! We scum balls have a deep love for video games. The only pinball machine I can remember in town was at Straw Hat Pizza and it was the Adams family. If you switched it off and on again you get a free play, but it made a loud noise so we’d run away and then come back. Hey many, a quarter was big bucks when your 8 in the 90s.

The ticket price is $60 for all day free play. I’ve seen complaints about the price, but man when you see how many machines you can play for FREE in 14 hours, it is soooooo worth it. If you don’t think so, then you have no business being there.

We were able to squeeze in with the “Johnny 5 guy!” , Rob, and J5! The droids hung out in the bar area for photo opportunities throughout the day and occasionally mobbed around the Pinball & Arcade rooms distracting players :) The Pinball Museum is AMAZING! our favorite event yet… I mean come on Arcade/Pinball with your droid buddy next to you .. YAY!

Find HEY JOHNNY ON FACEBOOK!

It is so awesome being able to hang out with J5 and his master. J5 remains Ardy Jo’s most loved robot. Watching his refurbishment progress at each event is a real treat and we are so grateful for the opportunity.

The Pinball Madness event was 11 AM - 1 AM in Banning, CA. The facilities was nice and clean and the cheeseburgers and fancy sodas were a highlight. They also had some pretty tasty blue margaritas! Food was slightly on the pricey side, but worth it. There was a hefty amount of people on Saturday. Apparently there are even more people at the Arcade Expo they host in the Spring. We heard some staff say how surprised they were how busy the Pinball room was compared to the Arcade area this time. Way cool and heartwarming how they have Technician volunteers during the event going around making sure machines are working.

It is mindblowing to see so many DIFFERENT pinball machines, ranging from the new Deadpool pinball all the way to 1930s style machines. The machines are fascinating how crazy they look on the outside but when you look at the board they look actually fairly simple. Yea right, not simple enough for me to build one! oh many I wish. I was telling Krank they are all like their own little worlds, different bumpers different goals and effects, bumpers etc! Just really cool. I love how they incorporate elements of the movie into the film machines. Like there was a auto racing one, and it rumbled and made engine rev. noises, the batman one had a joker magnetizing your ball with a crane.. just really cool stuff! I would love to have a machine to practice on at home.

There was a separate tournament area in the back, I think they had arcade games there as well. Actually, Armando Gonzalez was there attempting to break the Galaga high score world record, which I believe is already held by him. Later in the day they announced he broke it, so that was awesome to be in the same building as!

Krank and Ardy Jo beat House of the Dead 2 in 30 minutes or so and attempted Blood Brothers but wussed out after Stage 5. The arcade machines either automatically start up with the Start button or some of the older ones had a little button hanging out of the coin slots.

Blood Brothers 1990 TAD Corporation Japan & Europe & Fabtek US- sequel to Cabal and bootlegged as West Story!

Funhouse Maze- VIDEO COMING SOON!

www.funhousemaze.com

Another bonus to this event was the Funhouse Maze ! This maze was really cool. Best maze I have been too, not that I have been to a heck of a lot. Loved all the black lights, they gave 3d glasses. Loved the monster actors. The spinning haunted carnival rides was wayyyyy cool!

Desert Scum 10/6/18 Desert Scum 10/6/18

Rowdy Con 2018 [T29]

http://campusgamers.wixsite.com/rowdycon

RowdyCon includes a vendor expo with video game stations plus board, card and tabletop games. There's an artist alley, game tournaments, prizes, outdoor activities like NERF Wars and bounce houses, a cosplay contest, a maid cafe, and a movie in the park after it gets dark.

Desert Scum joined our super awesome Bakersfield Builders Club buddies for some fun!

Great campus and we had a nice large section for the droids along side the 501st/Rebel Legion & Ghostbusters! Had some really enthusiastic youths asking questions about the droids etc. Always fun hanging with our fellow builders !

Will have to ride the mousezilla next time!

Desert Scum 9/22/18 Desert Scum 9/22/18

R2LA 15 [T27]

Droid Builder Party

PIX AT BOTTOM OF THE BLOG ENTRY

Hosted by Mr. Senna each year, R2LA is a gathering of droid builders in the Southern California area (mostly) although we have build visitors from out of state as well.

Super fun event collaborating with builders who we haven’t met in person and are basically celebrities in our opinion!

Ardy Jo’s Monster Wampa MSE rolled in with the recently finished Echo Base Beer Transport! Wampa MSE was surprisingly capable of toting a 6 pack ! Krankmeister brought his awesome BB-8E & MSE. He powered on the SNES Classic when it started getting a little dark out and played some Mario World, Donkey Kong and Super Star Wars right off BB-8E.

Great to see a couple choppers and so many MSEs this year! We were especially privileged to have Johnny 5, L3-37, K2-SO, C3-PO and Boba Fett ! They made for some great pix!

As usual, we had some MSE fun out in the street. Couple of race offs and the Mousezillas had a race with dudes riding on top of them! Racing quickly turns into crashes (some intentional !). Monster Inferno MSE had some battle damage. Ardy Jo had the bright idea of initiating a Diddy Kong Racing/Mario Kart balloon pop challenge. She secured a balloon to the back of Inferno MSE and zoomed around. The MSE sharks quickly caught on and attempted to pop the balloon. Only last about 30 seconds haha 2nd balloon popped off and bounced around unwilling to pop.

Fun time with crafty smart peeps!

Scum Muster

BB-8E & Krank
Monster Inferno MSE, Wampa MSE & Troop Transport & Ardy Jo

Desert Scum 9/8/18 Desert Scum 9/8/18

Long Beach Comic Con 2018 [T24 & T25]

Scum report from LBCC2018 with the Space Expo

Long Beach Comic Con

September 8 & 9 2018

Droid Builders booth & panel as part of the Columbia Memorial Space Center's Space Expo

Pictures below the summary!

Scum Muster

RD-2D, BB-8E & Krank
Monster Inferno MSE, Wampa MSE & Ardy Jo

Tags:

Hey Johnny , perello23, http://www.astromech.twinlitworlds.com/ , Jackie, Tina, ther2joe , aclane56, miyamotoextreme , Keith & Diana,

Summary

Really look forward to the Long Beach Con & Expos! Get to volunteer as part of the Space Expo with the droid builders group. We get a nice lil group of droids and parts to display at the booth and panel on Sunday. Scum did Sat & Sun this year. Really awesome to spend the night in Long Beach and not have to drive in the morning. The Long Beach Con/Expo is a nice medium size con and not too overwhelming for any new goers but full of lots of stuff. Loved meeting new builders and seeing those we have made builder homies with! Didn't get any MSE Vision videos (forgot the camera mount at home) and didn't get as many photos (especially on Saturday) as we should have.

Kranks favorite cosplay of the weekend was Joe Dirt and Ardy Jo's was Cinderella !

It was BB-8E and Wampa MSEs 1st con and they did great! everyone loved with BB-8E started wiggling and moving. He was rocking out to Johnny 5s jams. Wampa MSE creeped everyone out with his eyeballs and jumping out from around corners haha He also went for a beer break.

Saturday

Arrived with RD-2D, MSE-6, BB-8E, Monster Inferno MSE & Monster Wampa MSE & 2 slicer droids. The plan was to have Krank's MSE-6 tug the BB-8E. Unfortunately, it blew a connector and started smoking after we turned it on ! haha had toss em back in the truck for the weekend. Unfortunately Krank could have fixed it in a couple minutes it turned out. Resorted to tugging BB-8E behind RD-2D or by hand.

Droid booth had a nice corner spot with space to display the droids and move around. We were lucky to have Johnny 5 hang out with us on Saturday! Ardy Jo was able to get her "Hold the Door" doorstop signed by Hodor (Game of Thrones) Kristian Nairn in the morning. Saturday flew by! Did a droid parade at some point in the day, which is really fun to mow through everyone. Monster MSE loves cardboard trashcans. Some kind soul turned in Ardy Jos phone that got left in the pooper.

Sunday

Had to tug the droids around the block from the hotel unfortunately since they moved the LBCC entrance due to the stamp convention. Sunday seemed busier for some reason. We had Godzilla hang out at our booth on Sunday. Super awesome costume by one of our builders Amy! We snuck to the back of the hall to do some astromech racing. Jackie's Bakersfield R2-D2 won over all even though the Monster Wampa MSE spanked them all haha Also did another droid parade around the hall. The panel was at the end of the day and Scum left right after. Panel was represented with a nice variety of builders and went really well even though the room was tiny.

Desert Scum 7/21/18 Desert Scum 7/21/18

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

Desert Scum 3/24/18 Desert Scum 3/24/18

WonderCon 2018 [T13]

WonderCon 2018

Desert Scum 2/22/18 Desert Scum 2/22/18

BUSD STEAM Fair 2018 [T12]

Scum Muster

RD-2D & Krank
Monster Inferno MSE & Ardy Jo

Desert Scum 2/20/18 Desert Scum 2/20/18

Long Beach Comic Expo [T11]

We were at the LBCE 2018 on Saturday Feb. 17 with the Columbia Space Memorial Space Expo Exhibit.

Ardy Jo was able to finish her Monster Mouse in time but, forgot the controller! So it just sat and looked pretty all day. Krank finished his MSE side boards and was able to bring it along. His battery unfortunately died before he was able to drive it as well. Sad day for mousers!

Krank brought along hiss BB-8E head with working lights to display on the table.

Columbia had a lot of great activities for visitors to participate in at their booths.

The R2 Builders, BB8 Builders and Mouse Droid Builder clubs were represented using 3 tables to display parts, droids and handouts. We had several astromechs throughout the day including a R2-D2 and a Boba-fett style R2.

Johnny 5

The droid builder clubs were fortunate to enough to have Johnny 5 stop by ! We invite you to follow his page over on Facebook Hey Johnny for updates on his progress towards full restoration and operation of this awesome piece of machinery!

BB-8

We also had an awesome rolling BB-8! Check out and follow Aaron Lane on Youtube!

At the end of the day we had a informational panel and explained the different clubs/droids and builds.

Super great time despite our set-backs. Always learning new stuff and meeting great people!

Scum Muster

RD-2D & Krank
Monster Inferno MSE (1st Troop - no controller) Ardy Jo

Desert Scum 12/29/17 Desert Scum 12/29/17

Star Wars Night: Reign VS Heat [T8]

Star Wars Night

Ontario Reign VS Stockton Heat

Citizens Bank Arena, Ontario, CA

Scum tagged along with the 501st Legion, Rebel Legion and Mercs for Star Wars night at our local AHL Professional Hockey team. This was Ardy Jo’s first hockey game! It is really cold in the arena!

RD-2D had a blast roaming around the lobby area greeting guests and taking pictures.

Scum Muster

RD-2D & Krank
Ardy Jo (Wrangler)

Desert Scum 12/14/17 Desert Scum 12/14/17

RD-2D Last Jedi Premiere [T7]

RD-2D attended his first movie Premiere in Edwards Metro Pointe Stadium 12, Costa Mesa, California as part of the DELL/EMC vmware event.

He was even allowed into the theatre to watch the movie. Big thank you to the staff, people at Dell and Droidbuilders.net for letting him come out.

Scum Muster

RD-2D & Krank
Ardy Jo (Wrangler)

Desert Scum 11/25/17 Desert Scum 11/25/17

Los Con 44 [T5]

Los Con 44

Droid Builders got to have an area in the Maker room of the event. Really interesting hotel. The event was in the basement and had a really nostalgic smell to it. Smells like the old mall in our hometown, like old books or something. Nice laid back event.

This year was Star Wars themed and Ardy Jo was lucky enough to attend the star wars panel that was

Scum Muster

RD-2D & Krank
Ardyjo (Wrangler)

Desert Scum 11/11/17 Desert Scum 11/11/17

Designer Con 2018 [T4]

Designer Con 2018

Designer Con was a amazing place! So wish we could have a booth with something to sell. The big hit this year appeared to be the lil trees from the Lorax. RD-2D even got his own badge to get in for free :) The line to get in was a nightmare for a droid since we had to go all the way around the block and back to where we are since there was steps in the way. Fun event. Best booths were the Tested guys.