After Action Report: ACME mini Star Wars Con 6-30-12

Things have been crazy busy around here and I havent had much time for blogging.  I'm going to try and catch everyone up on whats been happening soon.  Let me start with an after action report from the ACME comics Mini Star Wars Convention. Heres some photos with a quick synopsis of the event!  

 Shoot A Trooper was a huge success!

Kids enjoyed The Thermal Detonator Rancor Toss 

 Face Painting was very popular

 Star Wars Trivia tested the knowledge of all the guests

 Kids enjoyed Coloring and were able to get some temporary tatoo's

 We were doing everything for Make-A-Wish!  We raised a little over $360 in the day.  Not to bad considering tickets were 25 cents a piece! 

R2-D2 and R2-TD were on hand 

 Richard LeParmentier - Admiral Motti from the original Star Wars was on signing 

autographs through the day.

 The 501st, Rebel Legion and R2-Builders gave lots of demonstrations through the day. 

The group of volunteers who made the day a smashing success! 

Flashback Friday - ACME Comics Mini Star Wars Con 6-2010

Since we are 22 days away from ACME Comic and Collectibles Star Wars Mini Con where RICHARD LePARMENTIER will be on hand. I thought I'd flash back a few years to the last Star Wars Mini Con I attended also at ACME with DANIEL LOGAN.

TD Stands Guard waiting for the doors to open.

Meeting up With Daniel Logan - Young Boba Fett

Lord Vader was on hand

Kids got to get their face painted

Games, prizes and demonstration filled the parking lot all day.

He Moves!

R2-TD moves again! Last Saturday, the guys and gals at Midwest Robots spent much of the day going through Touchdowns wiring to find why literally everything quit working.  What we found was the main motor controller had 3 breaks in a wire and it caused the entire system to shut down.  All wires were pulled, inspected and than re-directed and organized to prevent any further problems.We also replaced the dome motor controller which had quit working months ago, added a spring to give the dome wheel more tension and made it so everything works on 1 battery instead of 2.  It literally was a complete over haul on the system.  At the end of the day, we made a new wiring diagram so we can make it easier to trouble shoot if anther problem does creep up.

The before photos








Here are the after photos

Update to the Convention Schedule

I've updated the convention schedule again adding the Free State Comicon in Lawrence Kansas.

For more convention listings in the US, Click the Central US Convention Tab at the top of the page. 

Flashback Friday - CATCH UP TIME from the last few events

Seems I have been a bit lazy with my blog posts lately. April 26th was the last one and that was when I reported on Huey Lewis and the News of the concert.... (See what I did there... LOL! I crack myself up). I also haven't done a Flashback Friday in forever. This is not as far back as I normally go but still fitting.

Its been a busy few weeks. So busy, I haven't blogged. Meant to a few times but just didnt happen. Lets see... we had Star Wars night with Omaha Royals err Storm Chasers, Free Comic Book Day, The Avengers, and a tiny little bit of R2 work.


May the 4th Be with You - Star Wars Day with the Omaha Storm Chasers. I brushed off the RFT costume and headed out to the Ball Park. After all, How often do you get to go on the field before a baseball game and help Darth Vader throw out the first pitch? I wasn't missing it this year. The troop was fun and relaxed. We got there, threw out the first pitch and than posed for pictures. Pretty relaxed night and always lots of fun. Unfortunately, R2-TD didnt make the trip. He's still down and out getting his system over haul, but more of that in a bit.

Most of the Group who made it out

The Force is strong with this one

Vader always draws the biggest crowd

Luke and Vader play a friendly game of Catch

Free Comic Book Day. I hit 2 of the shops in town and joined in the fun. First I swung by Legend Comics and Coffee to grab my free comic books, check out the sale and to see how the fund raiser for Make-A-Wish Nebraska is going. The store raffled off a issue of Amazing Fantasy 15 which was the very first issue to have Spider Man in it. They also had a dunk tank set up where the you could dunk one of the owners of the store as well as various other happens around the store.

The store was buzzing with excitement of the day

People loading up on the Free Comics

Looks like Dave is about to get wet!

The Lucky winner of the Grand prize for the Nebraska Make a Wish Raffle

I meet up with Beau and Hannah at Legends than we headed out for Lunch after we snagged our free comics.

Lunch with Beau and Hannah

After Lunch it was time to check out Krypton. Adam Baldwin came to town and it was my chance to meet him. I also hung around at the 501st / Rebel legion table for a bit. It was fun to hang out and chat with a few folks I hadn't seen in about a year.

By far the largest crowd I have seen come out to Free Comic Book Day.  The line on the Right is for Free Comics, The line of the left is to Meet Adam Baldwin.

Thumbs up from Adam Baldwin

Finally meeting another of my Big Damn Heroes!  

Local artist Christina Musgrave works on a sketch 

I got to sneak in THE AVENGERS movie. Without giving anything thing away, I'll say it was AWESOME! I've seen it 3 times in 2 weeks. I felt it had everythign a movie needed. It had the right amount of story to action with a bit of comedy to keep things fresh. Can't wait to see what more they do with the story.

Last little thing in there was a build day / armor party with the local 501st. I'm not currently working on any costumes so I worked a little bit on R2. First we trouble shot the Think Geek T-short sound system. Still working on getting that going again. Than I started making R2's feet.

Im trying something different here. Normally a lot of the guys use styrene but it seems to break easy since thats a high impact area when you run into something. Keeping that in mind, I looked for something a little cheaper and less damaging. I decided to give foam board a try. This was a first attempt, Now I know I can get it fairly close to looking the way it should, I can start with a more accurate and detailed foot. More to come on that as I get it done.

Super excited to see a hero of mine....

One would think with a title like 'Super excited to see a hero of mine....', I would be stoked for Free Comic Book Day. It is in just 9 days and I'll get to meet Adam Baldwin who is in 2 of my all time favorite (so far) TV shows. But thats not the reason for my excitement. Every year, for the last 20+ years, Bank of the West (formally Commercial Federal Bank) has hosted a free concert in Memorial Park. Yesterday, they had a press conference announcing this years band, Huey Lewis and the News! Needless to say, I am super excited.

Back in 1984, I was 10 years old. I was just starting to get into music on my own and break away for the country music my parents listened too. The first band I remember really liking was Huey Lewis and the News. When the song 'Heart of Rock and Roll' came out, I was hooked. The sound of the heart beat intro, the saxophone, harmonica, the horns, all this talk of rock and roll..... It was so different. I was hooked. I begged my Mom to get me 'Sports'. I didnt care if it was the record or cassette; It ended up being the later. I wore that tape out. I eventually had to buy a new one as I listened to it all the time, over and over.

In 1985, 'Back to the Future', came out in theaters. I didn't get to see the movie until well after it was out of the theater but that didn't stop me from getting the sound track. Why? Great sci-fi movie with an awesome cast? Nope.... Huey Lewis was on it. 'Power of Love' charted at #1 and was a huge hit of the time. 'Back in Time' was also on the album giving me 2 reasons to pick up the sound track. I knew beats and sound of the soundtrack to the movie before I had even seen the movie.

It was around 1985/86 when I started to style my own hair. Who's hair style would I wear.... Yep, you guessed it. Huey Lewis.

In 1986, the 'Fore' album came out. It was either right as the album came out or shortly after, I remember like yesterday, going to Kmart with my Dad to pick the single of 'Stuck with You' on Vinyl and picking up the cassette of 'Fore' at the same time. 'Hip to be Square', 'Stuck with You', 'Jacob's Ladder', 'Doin' it for my Baby' all went high on the charts and got tons of air time. 'I know what I like' even made the charts but didnt have the success in the top 10 like the other 4 songs did.

In the late 80's and early 90's, I was introduced to Metallica, Guns and Roses and much heavier, faster 'rock' music. My love for Huey Lewis faded but never went away. I found my best friend from my college years who was also into metal music, liked Huey Lewis just as much as I did. We recently talked about Huey just the other day. He got to go see him twice in 2011 and told me his vocals are just as strong today as before and much of the original band still plays with after all these years. Needless to say I was jealous he got to see him not once, but twice.

The "Gigography" at www.hln.org only lists Huey coming to the Nebraska 3 times, 8-1984 to Lincoln, 8-1987 at the Civic and 10-2011 at the Orpheum in Omaha but I remember another time when he also played Rosenblatt Stadium. I dont remember the year and he does not have it listed on his web site. I can only find mention on the web of it being peoples first concert, no other info. Regardless, of the few times he has come to the area, this will be the first time I get to see him. Even better, I get to see him for Free. Thanks Bank of the West!

Huey Lewis and the News with Mockingbird Sun 6-29-2012 6 pm, fireworks at 10 pm after the show Memorial Park, Omaha NE, Free Admission

Heard back from my good friend from college. (Thanks OZ!) Here is what he had to say: They played Rosenblatt in 1992, in May I think. They were touring on the album 'Hard at Play', with the single 'Couple Days Off'. I was at that show at the Civic, too, was the first big show I'd seen. Remember being awed by Bill Gibson's drum solo. When I worked for Hollywood Video years ago, they flew some of us to Vegas for a company convention, and they were our private concert one night. That show had a killer a capella segment that I can still hear in my mind. Love that band.

Did you hear that.... nope!

Im Frustrated beyond belief today. R2's sound quit working sometime ago. I've done the last few events without sound as I havent had the time or the money to fix it. I did start to trouble shoot why it wouldn't work. Talon came to one of the last build days so I took my Think Geek T-shirt box out to see if that was the problem. He had an extra that worked so we switched my box into his working system. Everything worked. So, we figured it had to be the 12 chaneel board that was bad. Not a far stretch since my battery had fallen on it recently. Luckly, Clay had an extra of those. So last night, I took mine out and went over to rewire the one Clay had. Once we finished wiring it, we tested it on Clays R2. It worked. Excited, I came home to put it into R2. Everything together, it should work since they all did seperate... but... nothing... Wont click and no sound. No idea where the problem is. Im about to completely re-wire everything and start from scratch.

Flash Back Friday: August 26th 2009: Day 16 of building R2-TD

Day 16 of building R2 brought work on the center leg. Brad, Moose, Steve and I worked on tracing the pattern on the wood so we could start cutting. We got a few pieces cut when the saw broke. It took a while to get it going again and by the time we had it fixed it was time to quit.

While we were working on cutting the center leg pieces, Syrena and Jen worked on cutting the leg hub holes in the legs. Than glued the next piece for strong leg support.

Steve also stated gluing his legs and has both of them drying now.