TWO WEEKENDS, THREE EVENTS....

Wow - it has been a good long while since I have posted to the blog.  Here is quick recap of a couple of events that happened over the past two weekends.

First, was the Lexington Comic-Con in Lexington, Kentucky.  While attending the Mid-Ohio Con in Columbus in October, the owner of the Lexington Comic-Con invited me to his con.  All he had to say was "free passes", and I was there.  Actually, knowing that our speeder bike crew from Cincinnati was going was the main reason - they had me hooked up before the event staff hit me up.  Regardless, it is really cool getting invited to events - it gets R2 out of the house and lets him do his thing in public.

The con was a three day event, starting Friday night with a V.I.P. opening ceremony.  I got down to Lexington just in time for the start of the event and was welcomed by the members of the 501sts Mid-South Garrison.  I have to say, I have a great sense of pride in this group.  No matter where I go in the country, I know that there is a family of like-minded, caring, fun people who accept you with open arms.  Within minutes, I felt like I was at an Ohio Garrison event, chatting with a bunch of old friends.

Here are some photos of the event.


James Ficker from the Ohio Garrison rocking' a classic TK.

James Ficker and Eve Steiner (another O.G.er)

The Midsouth Garrison's life-size Dewback prop.

Shoo-A-Trooper events are becoming very popular.  Our boys in white line up to take shots from Nerf guns to raise money for charity.  Based on the number of darts on the floor, the Midsouth Garrison raised thousands of dollars this weekend.

Photo ops were everywhere, and the crowd was pretty consistent throughout the entire weekend.  

Here is a shot of Craig Provine from Michigan's Great Lakes Garrison.  I have probably been at at least 10 troops with Craig (aka Hyper).  The man is unstoppable and unstoppable with the number of events he does around the country.  We trooped the George Lucas / Jon Stewart "Main Event" together at Celebration V in Orlando a couple of years back.

Taking a break from droid driving to catch up with Lindsay and Fentrooper Julie - both taking a break from the Star Wars costuming.

I love the Clone Wars troopers, and here is an outstanding Commander Wolf.

Yeah, he gets two photos, because these kits are my favorite, and the paint job on this one was outta sight !

A simple display like this was a real crowd pleaser.  Hasbros black series action figures - life size !

Admittedly, I have not watched Dr. Who since I was about 10 - but I certainly remember what a Delak and a Tardis are.

Here R2 meets up with the most dangerous droid in the Who-iverse.  A video edited and posted by the maker - Dalek Gan.

I got a chance to pick up some new art from Jim Mafood.  I really like the street style - and of course, I am a  fan of Tank Girl.  (The Comics, not the movie)

What more can you ask for ?  Star Wars, Tron and Daft Punk.  Three things that have, and continue to inform me.

Bad guys look so very cool in red.

Deadpool continues to be a HUGE go-to for costumers lately.  This guy did not disappoint - apparently he did this build in 24 hours.  Regardless of the amount of time put in, he was the best at the show.

Meanwhile, inside a Adventure Time Jake / Deadpool enjoyed getting his boogie on with a couple of well known astromech droids.  His transition from The Bee Gees to The Cantina Song is rather impressive....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p62aJXaVCIE&index=2&list=LL9AxmpRRwef8h3dpvQawcDw

Lord knows - R2 likes the pretty ladies.  I am not sure what bet this trio lost.... but they were certainly getting their nerd on this weekend.

Here is the group shot of the Midsouth Garrison at the end of the weekend.

The Midsouth Garrison has a good number of retired and active duty military in their ranks.  There is also a special person in this photo....

Felis Silla, honorary member of the 501st.  Felix is probably best know for playing Twiki on the TV series Buck Rogers.  A really nice guy - he rapped on R2's dome and said "Hey Kenny !  You in there ??? Wake up !"   At the start of this weekend you told me I would be having dinner with Felix and the Honky Tonk Man from WWF fame, I would have asked you to kindly walk away....

Alex Brown, active duty combat medic doing the kilted trooper thing, an Asassin's Creed woman and R2.  Commence mash-up jokes.

Back to the Future DeLorean - we also saw the T.V. series Batmobile.

What is better than one R2... two R2s !  Astromech.net member Nimster's great R2 here.  His weathering is incredible, and it was great meeting another member and talking shop.  Whenever both of the droids got together, the movement in the hall ground to a halt.

A father reassuring his little guy that R2, is in fact, a good guy.

The Lexington Comic and Toy Convention will be a "must attend" on my list from this point on.  It is a smaller con, but growing in popularity year after year.

Let's flash back a few weeks.  Prior to being invited to the Cavaliers game, we were invited to do a promotional video for the event.  I was out of town, so Dad and Uncle Bob Szeliga took over the duties to run R2 for the shoot.

Dad and Bob did a great job, and here is the video :

Because of that shoot, I was invited to another event.  Friday night was the FIRST ROBOTICS mixer at Windows on the River.  A Cavaliers marketing employee's mother ran the First Robotics regional competition here, and wondered if R2 would like to visit.

All told, there were 52 teams of high school robotics teams from this region of the country competing for a national title.

Here is a link to the website :

http://www.oai.org/firstbuckeye/index.html

What a really great group of kids.  R2 was a huge hit, and became even more popular when I took his dome off to show off all of the goodies inside.  I am extremely jealous and proud of these youngsters, as their world in robotics will only continue to grow in the coming years.  

I felt as though R2 may have needed a tie for this event...

 NASA Glenn's Deputy Director Gregory Robinson and his wife with a Mars mission candidate.

I was having way too much fun taking with all of the students, so the only photos I got from the First Robotics event were in the first 10 minutes.

On to Saturday night - the Cavs Game.  Big time events like professional sports gigs are alway a lot of fun for our groups.  

O.G.s Dan Peterson as Vader and his little friend.

Getting ready for the masses.  Alex Ford in C3P0 getting wheeled into position.  Walking half way around the concourse is not a reality in this outstanding costume.

Biker Scout Matt Molina (Nighthawk) ready to go.

A great photo with the Star Wars crew, Mom and nephew Brady.

Our outstanding handler kept things very organized and flowing with all of the photos that were taken that evening.

A typical scene before the game.  45 minutes of camera phones and children being prodded into position. 

these moments make the entire hobby worth-while.  Here we are queuing up for some court time.

Lumpy (as Chewie) - from the Great Lakes Base of the Rebel Legion was obviously excited about something....

Cav's mascot Moondog was really excited to see the Star Wars nerds.  He even rocked a Chewie style bandolier during the game.

Sharing grooming tips.  Walking carpet vs. basketball dunking carpet.... let the Wookie win.

Lord only knows what this conversation was about.

Cavaliers Marketing Manager, Matthew Papatheodorou.  The man who made this all possible.  What a great host for all of us all.  We truly appreciate the opportunity and are ready to serve for the next event !  Apparently Matt saw an appearance of R2 at the Lake Erie Captains game, got in tough with Lucasfilm to find out who owned that thing.  Lucasfilm pointed him towards the Ohio Garrison, and Lisa Ford got us all connected.  It is truly amazing the number of opportunities a single event can spawn.  As long as R2 is rolling - he stands ready to perform.

Lisa, Saxter and Nighthawk ready for Deal Or No Deal during the third quarter. 

More court time.  Unfortunately, R2's controller batteries were getting tired, so he couldn't show off all his moves on the court, but he did get to roll around for a while on the maple floor.  The event coordinators quizzed me on what R2's wheels were made of, making sure that he would not scuff the surface of the court.

After convincing them that the rubber wheels and casters were non-marring, Matt and I lugged him up the ramp and onto the floor.  Matt was REALLY excited to have R2 on the court - admittedly, I was too - but I wanted to play it cool.  

All in all, a great - albeit busy - couple of weekends for R2.  Looking forward to many other events !

WIZARD WORLD - MID-OHIO CON !!!!

I would type this blog in all caps if it weren't so annoying... but here are some photos from The recent Wizard World - Mid-Ohio Con.

The weekend started out like most weekends... I was sitting in an airport waiting for a plane and got a text message from my buddy Josh.  Something along the lines of "yo homie, you goin' to Mid-Ohio?"  Honestly, at the time I received the message, I did NOT have any plans on attending.

After thinking about it for three minutes, I decided... what the heck - I can go down to C-Bus for a few hours and be back Saturday night.  First, I had to get home and get R2 ready to go out for a spin.  Long story short, I made it home around midnight with R2 in the trunk.

I woke up on Saturday morning, had a nice leisurely drive down 71, until I hit traffic from the Buckeyes game.  No worries, as I did not want to be there right at opening - as it is always a zoo trying to get in with the rest of the crowd.

I parked my car - Lord knows where - and used a series of skywalks to get tot the convention center.  I had a few R2 related items but did not have the droid himself as I can't (or couldn't) get him into the car by myself.  Upon arrival at the Con, I hooked up with a few fellow Ohio Garrison, Rebel Legion and Mando Merc members.  Graciously, Mando Merc Dave accepted an "invitation" to help me go get R2 out of the trunk.   Another long story cut short.... about 50 minutes later, I actually FOUND my car.  Holy Smokes !!!!!  If you are ever in the arena district, pay VERY close attention to where you park, as  there is a maze of really similar looking buildings and catwalks peppered about the area.

Dave kept his cool, and we eventually got the droid to the con floor.  I cannot thank him enough for helping me out!

One of the reasons I ended up going was to see the full size speeder bike that number of my 501st O.G.ers built recently.  And yes, a true treat it was.

Here is the first shot I took (more to follow).

Another angle.

Here it is sowing the full bike.

I am totally in awe of the work these guys put into this build, as there are no blueprints available for the speeder bike.  They used reference photos from the movies and pictures of other fan-made speeder bikes.  Chuck (BlasterPro) offered the space and the tools to build this awesome replica.  He said that the build was difficult due to the fact that what was "right" or "wrong" was based on the number of source images.  I have no doubt that even if there are details they are not happy with - even the most staunch, movie-cannon snob would have a hard time denying the quality of this prop.

One word, Badass.  Truly one of my favorite characters from all of the movies.  This was the costume that brought me into this world - and I still LOVE the Biker Scout.  

The guys had a plaque in front of the display that sums up the crazy world of costumers and prop-builders.

Did I mention that I brought R2 along ?  What a day - after first powering him up at 11:00 - he ran without a hitch for 8 straight hours.  This was pretty much the scene wherever I took him...  I hooked up with Josh and spent the day moving 4 feet at a time from the Con floor to the concourse outside the convention center.  What would normally be a 2 minute trip took us about an hour, as R2 was stopped every few feet for another photo op.  

I thoroughly enjoyed playing with attendees, hiding the control behind my back and talking casually with Josh.  All the time driving R2 up to people to "pose" for a photo, then motoring on to the next photo op.  Many people looked around to see who was in charge of the mech, and a good number of people didn't even care - they were actually seeing a "real" R2 !!!!!

One of the Con volunteers came up to me on Sunday afternoon and said, " I FINALLY found you !  I looked to see who was controlling him for 5 hours yesterday."  At one point, I was talking with a fellow O.G. member and after about 15 minutes he said, " Alright, who's controlling him?"  I produced the best caca-eating grin that I could muster and held up the controller that I had behind my back the entire time.  "Oh ... what the falafel??!?!" were his words.  

I wish I took more photos of all the action going on around me, but I did manage to get a few shots with some costumers along the way.  One of my favorite comic book characters (that STILL deserves a GOOD movie) Frank Castle, AKA The Punisher with popular female costume Harley Quinn fro the Batman comic books.

Even backed in the corner so Josh and I could grab a cup of coffee... R2 was happy to have his photo taken.

I believe this was a first costuming outing for this young lady, as she had about 100 photos taken with her even before she fit the con floor, and wasn't quite sure how to handle all of the attention.  Her husband said, "Honey - you are a STAR !!!!"

With the recent release of the second Star Trek "reboot" - I have become a fan of the series.  Costumes like this don't hurt either.....

The interesting thing I have found is that R2 has an uncanny universal appeal.  Kids love him because kids love Star Wars.  Men love him because of the fact that they grew up with it, and they can appreciate the "build".  After all - it is a fully operational RC robot.  Women seem to have a particular admiration for him because he is "Soooooo CUTE".  R2 is like a roving kissing booth.

Fellow O.G member, Brad's son Reagan.  Gotta give mad props for his shirt.

Brad joins the photo sporting our new O.G. shirt.

A really impressive Darth Maul and Padme Amidala.

I "met" this group with R2 was strolling around the concourse.  They were having a rest, presumably updating their facebook status, and I rolled R2 over to them and casually Beep-Boop-Beeped at them.  They went bonkers.... they took photos, put a hat on him and really had NO care about who was controlling him.  Many attendees talked directly to the droid, asking him to "turn around" or "come over here".  I wanted to get my own shot of this crew, so I pulled them over to the Wizard World banner and got a nice photo.  I think R2 looks rather dapper in his chapeau.

Rebecca rocking the Slave Leia costume.

See....

O.G. (via Atlanta) member John in an outstanding Judge Dredd costume.  

What a great family.  The little girl had such a perfect attitude, and the pose... priceless !!!

Han and Chewie.  Certainly not cannon, but I really love when people "do their own thing" with costumes.

This superhero collection from the DC universe was a particular standout.  (Notice I did not mention the Marvel character that poisoned the photo)....

I said. "do something superhero-y", and this is what I got.  Perfect.  I even give Iron Man props for throwing out the repulsor, even though they apparently sold out of them at Wal-Mart.  Pardon my sidewards step into costume snobbery, but I would rather see a poorly built original costume than an off the shelf get-up any day.   My favorite is Batman's pose - like - "'Sup, I'm Batman"

As I had no plans on staying Saturday night, I was happy to have an extra shirt in my car.... don't we all ?  I got my opportunity to ride the Speeder Bike.  Yeah, it made me all giddy inside.

This is the appropriate face to make while firing a laser pistol while traveling 200 mph.

Here is a photo that confirms why I don't wear my hat backwards while wearing sunglasses.....

Capitalizing on Google+ Auto Awesome photo .gif creator.  If you upload a sequence of photos (at least 4) that are closely related into the blog, Google+ makes the sequence into an animated .gif.  Smart people make me happy.

Matt, Chuck (BlasterPro) and Striker - the brains and brawn behind the speeder bike crew.

The attention to detail is insane....

... even down to the rivets on the underside of the bike.  Something that would rarely be seen, but there because they wanted to make it REAL.

I thought this Joker costume was extremely well done, and he enjoyed hamming it up with R2.

Lindsay rocking Leia with R2.

No idea who she was, but..... thank you.

UTINNI !!!!  R2 with what one would not call a "friend".

Getting ready for our group photo.

Ray Park (Darth Maul, Toad in X-Men and Snake Eyes in G.I.Joe) joins us for our photo.

Ray is a truly kind person, and I give him a lot of credit for coming over to support our group.  These celebs are extremely busy during the con, and in actuality, when they take time away from signing autographs, they take money out of their own pocket.

If I ever say Ray directing this pose at me, I could not be in the next county soon enough.

"Buckets off" photo, by OG and Rebel Legion brothers and sisters invited me into the photo.

One of the best gangs to be associated with.

Me, apparently trying to do that Ray Park pose... with zero effect.

OG Vader, Marcus getting ready to show his mug.

Not sure is Marcus was going for a "force choke" or extending his hand for a handshake.....

I would like to think that Ray was chasing me down to ask for a photo with R2.  Alas, he was graciously accepting my invite.

Yeah - I like this photo.  I played "Duel of The Fates" when he was around, and Ray said "Very nice choice".

If this dude says "thumbs up", you must abide.

Another shot of the GLB and OG crew.

... not sure what this is.... but, thank you, as well.

Han Solo and a KILLER Boushh made by fellow OGer - Jennifer.

I believe this is blasterPro... and somebody.  Once these guys are suited up, it is difficult to tell who is who.

Vader force-choking a female version of Deadpool (also known as fempools).  Bad Vader.

Steffanie is not sure that she is happy with whatever R2 did....

Four letters.  ICON.

All in all, a great weekend !  These events come around every year, and I can see why everyone gets all jazzed up about attending.  R2 performed like a champ and even appeared on the Columbus evening news on Saturday.


NEWS 10 STORY



Finally, I copped this photo off of Facebook.  It pretty much sums up the weekend.  Great friends, great times.  I will NOT miss another Mid-Ohio Con.  P.S. - you should go too !