Disney and DroidCon

        Disney World this year was a great trip as it usually is for us.  You might be wondering how this fits in my Droid construction blog.  Two things make this section viable, first that the trip took time away from construction and second because of Star Wars Weekends at Hollywood Studios.
        Star Wars Weekends was awesome this year.  For the first time, Mark Hamill was going to be in the parade and have a talk (which I did not get tickets to :(   We did not line up in time to get on the regular parade route that day, which would have been cool because the Florida garrison of the 501st was marching in the parade and we could have seen all of the stars that were riding in cars along the route.  The stars that were present for that day were Mark Hamill, Billy Dee Williams, Ray Park, James Arnold Taylor, and Ashley Eckstein.
         Well, like I said, we didn't get to the parade route early enough to actually see the parade itself but as we made our way around we found a spot where a few hardcore looking fans (a guy dressed in Luke fatigues from Dagobah, and a girl dress as Leia from ANH) behind the stage area.  We listened to their discussions about this large roped off area and it turned out that this was the area that the cars came by to turn around so the stars could then be taken back down the parade route and out of the park.
         As the parade came our way the cars stopped at the side of the stage and let the stars out to climb the stage.  But when the show was over, the stars came down to our area to walk back to their cars which were right in front of us.  Mark Hamill's handler wouldn't let him walk over toward the fans (his car was parked in the second row away from the fans) but he was very excited to wave and point to people including Stephanie, my wife who yelled for his attention.  Ray Park's car was right in front of us and he was super excited to shake hands, take pictures, and sign anything that people put in front of him.  Benny, my son, got to shake his hand.  Pretty neat experience for me and the family.

That's benny's orange Magic Band and the R2 hat with Ray Park.

Mark Hamill pointing straight at Stephanie, but what is he wearing :)

         The next big event was DroidCon.  In all of the US and even the world there are droid builders.  JAG (a guy that fabricates a lot fo the aluminum and steel parts for the club) was in charge of setting up the annual droid event.  He chose Indianapolis :)  DroidCon is a chance for builders to meet each other, talk about problems and work on their droids together, and just to hang out and show off.  They had workshops during the convention and I was able to look around at the 50 or so droids that showed up.  I have made some friends in the Midwest builders club already and most of those guys were there since it was so close.  But I also got to meet some of the great guys that I have purchased parts from and that have helped me online.  It was a really cool experience to be able to meet these guys and, more importantly, pick their brains about certain troubles that I see myself getting into.  

          It was also a chance to network a bit.  I met two guys that are fairly local to Fishers.  One guy that is building an R6 (the red lampshade droid with the bad motivator in A New Hope) lives in Noblesville right next door.  Crazy!  I met and exchange info with another guy that lives in Zionsville and is at roughly the same stage in the game as me.  We have already communicated a few times about parts we both bought at DroidCon.  He came over the other day to hand off a cord I needed and check out the progress.  I think we will definitely be helping each other with issues and ideas as we finish up the droids in the next year.  

Group photo at DroidCon 2014