March 21, 2018

MCM Birmingham Comic Con - Event Report 2018

Sunday March 18th 2018
Day 2 of event

Up 5am, out the door 6am. R5 was already loaded up Saturday night.

Now.....I don't have a problem with driving in snow.....
.....but cars on ungritted roads do lol
~~~

UK R2D2 Builders Club

It was a longer than usual drive up from Bristol to Birmingham, due to the weather conditions on the roads. And after driving to three different car park points I eventually got my unloading pass and where I had to go to unload R5 lol.

Today's group of droids.
UK R2D2 Builders Club
One R2 is missing.......Darren!?!?! lol

The R2 members were now on day 2 at the stand, which were were sharing with the Rebel Legion, 501st & Jedi News stand. Our corner wasn't very big, but this was due to the layout. We had one 'work in progress' R2 that belonged to Chris, who was on the 'Steampunk' stand with his R2 Steampunk droid.
UK R2D2 Builders Club

The day was good, chatting to the public and catching up with friends who were attending either in or out of costumes. There was a large gathering of public and it actually seemed to get more busy as the day went on. Perhaps due to people braving the weather as the snow was abating perhaps.

Emma took these great pics of the stand area & I'll be able to post up more once George uploads his photos.
UK R2D2 Builders Club
 Emma with her droids

UK R2D2 Builders Club

 Our small display area, with R5's vintage controller,
trading cards and leaflets

Lee's R2 & Colin's work in progress droid

The afternoon came around quick, and it was time 2pm, for the parade, which is led by the 501st, joined by The Rebel Legion & a few other costume groups. So we headed from Hall 4 of the NEC, around and down the ramp to the Hall 1. Unfortunately Ian's droid was unable to attend, so it was just three of us.
There was a group photo, before they 501st and others, lined up in order for the parade.

We would be bringing up the rear.
Emma took this picture of us.
UK R2D2 Builders Club, R5D4, R2D2, Lee Towersey, Darren Poulson

The parade went across into Hall 2, which had a camera exhibition going on, lol, so PLENTY of photo's were being taken on our tour lol. We drove the droids as seen in the above picture, at some points having to drive single file. Myself and Lee have had experience with driving our droids together and as it's part of the Clubs 'driving' process, we knew how and when to slow down etc without bumping into each other. Darren led the way.

A friend of Darren's was there and caught a nice picture of the three of us, looking serious lol, the concentration on our faces lol.
UK R2D2 Builders Club, R2D2, R5D4, Lee Towersey

There are a few pictures & videos on Instagram that's I found. More hopefully to come with some searching lol.

The parade winded it's way through Hall 2....eventually, leaving the crowds and camera flashes, and headed back up the ramp. Around the upper concourse, back to Hall 4. There were more people taking photos, and calling out R2's name as we finally made it back to Hall 4. Once back inside, we broke ranks and headed back to our stand, as the costumer's went for a rest and de-lid, break.

Whilst we were away, Ian was holding the stand and getting lots of photos taken with the public.
This is Ian's R2

The day ended at 5pm but before we started packing up the droids and display stands we had one last group photo.

I only have the picture of the droids....
UK R2D2 Builders Club
.................I'll post up photo with the droids and us when I get them.

Outside was starting to go cold again, but at least the roads were clear. After a pit-stop on the way home for food.....I'd forgotten to eat during the day lol, I was home & unloaded by 8pm.

Another great day entertaining the public and bringing a little bit of Star Wars to life.

Checkout
for how to join up
if your interested in building your own droid.

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