Thursday August 12th: Day One

The first official day of Celebration V was Thursday, August 12th, 2010. Thursday, I needed to be in a group Leia photo, then the Rebel Legion Galactic Senate (Padme, Leia, Senators, etc) photo, and later I needed to be in my snow speeder pilot gear for snow speeder guard duty, so I had two costume changes for Thursday.

The first day was pretty slow, but that is expected.

CV: Set-up

Star Wars: Celebration V was in Orlando, Florida from August 12th-15th, 2010. This time, I actually had a completed (well, I plan to make improvements, but he's "done" for now...) R2-D2 to show off in the R2-D2 Builders' Club room. This was the 4th year for the R2-D2 Builders' Club having a room at the Celebration event and I did not want to miss it! Set-up for the R2 room was on Wednesday August 11th, 2010. We were scheduled to set up from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm though we ended up staying past 5:00 pm.

Here are the set-up pictures I took:

Whitecaps

I realized as I was going to post about CV, that I never posted about The West Michigan Whitecaps Star Wars night on July 24th, 2010. The theme this year was Boba Fett in honor of the 30th anniversary of "The Empire Strikes Back" (ESB). Next year, Brent (the man who usually coordinates this event for the 501st and Rebel Legions) promised me that we will have a R2-D2 them!! :)

Here are the pictures I got:



Group picture (borrowed from Zod) :

Jason & I with R2-D2 at our "duty station", the Rancor/Han in Carbonite photo booth (picture also borrowed from Zod) :


My R2-D2 stationed in the Rancor/Han in Carbonite photo booth:

The Whitecaps concessions are always "changed" to Star Wars characters to fit the theme for the night. The Dippin Dots were changed to R2-D2 Dots:


Lou (from the 501st) using artists pastels to create the night's logo on the sidewalk at the main entrance. Lou did a great job, and he wasn't deterred by the threat of rain (which thankfully held off!) :


The Rancor/Han in Carbonite photo booth:



Lou's art, in progress:


My "brother" Luke (aka Chris Blackstock) posing with the Rancor (this time Luke has his saber!) :

Star Wars In Concert

It's been too long since I posted a Mission Brief...

Wednesday, July 14th 2010 I was able to participate with the Rebel Legion and 501st for the Star Wars In Concert event when they came to Grand Rapids, Michigan. As a R2-D2 Builders' Club member/R2-D2 builder, I was also able to bring along my newly RC-ed R2-D2.

It was a blast! I've never seen a crowd of young fans that were as into the original trilogy as these kids and their parents seemed to be. Typically, the parents like the original trilogy but the kids know all there is to know about the Clone Wars. I saw mostly little Leias and several Jedi Lukes. It was awesome! They all adored R2-D2 and the majority of them were actually quite gentle. I only had to shoo away two kids (one for trying to force the dome to turn, and one for pulling on a utility arm).

We stayed until just before the concert was going to start so that everyone who wanted a picture with R2 could have one. Then, I let him roll down the hallway toward the elevator. It was slow going at first because people who hadn't seen us before kept stopping us so they could have pictures with R2. Eventually though, the famous "20th Century Fox" fanfare started and the crowd was thin enough I was able to get R2 down the hall. In fact, I had a hard time keeping up with him! I'm very pleased with his new batteries. :)

I didn't have an opportunity to take any pictures, but here are some "borrowed" pictures:

Bringing R2 in (pushing him on the dolly to save the batteries for "show time")

Our "station" in one of the halls at the VanAndel Arena. We eventually had to move further down the hall to avoid the blockage that was starting because of R2's photo line! This picture was taken before the doors opened. After the doors opened, there was a MOB around us the entire time.

Testing out R2's controls before the doors opened:






My husband (Rebel Pilot) & I (Leia) with R2-D2 and our new friend Maggie (Jason, our kids, & I were Star Wars "decorations" at Maggie's wedding July 3rd).
Picture Credits:
First 5 Pictures by Zod
Last Picture by Josh Headd