2017 Bay Area Maker Faire

It's been a few days since the curtains fell on the 2017 Bay Area Maker Faire and I'm just about fully recovered.  After missing last year, I had an absolute blast going back and showing off a small selection of my prop and costume replicas for faire goers.  I'm still sifting through the hundreds of photos I snapped and looking forward to getting quite a few more from the folks I had on hand to help with the display, but I figured it was worth sharing some of what I've got.

For starters, you couldn't have asked for nicer weather over the weekend.  I was running on little or no sleep for the days leading up to the event.  But even my thoroughly sleep deprived eyes couldn't help but appreciate the scene as I emerged from the Robin Williams Tunnel on the way to the Golden Gate Bridge:

My friend Matt had arrived just a little earlier than me and set up ED-209, so once my truckload was on site it was pretty quick work to set up the display booth:


After hanging up a few prop weapons and rigging up a set of Space Marine armor for display, our work was done:


Friday afternoon the Faire opened up for school groups and special invitations.  I had a few characters in costume.  Always a hit with the kids:


Meanwhile, my friend Freddy fielded prop and costume making questions from the crowd:


It was a pretty quick introductory day and I'm happy to say that my girlfriend Shawnon actually managed to make it up from Southern California for her first visit to the Maker Faire.  That's her in the sexy TIE Pilot costume:


And here she is in normal people clothes on our way out to dinner that evening:


Saturday started off nice and easy.  The booth was swamped with excited people as usual, but at noon I had to gather up a handful of characters and make my way to the Show and Tell stage to talk about my book, Make: Props and Costume Armor.  The seats were jam packed and folks were gathered all around to hear my quick little talk.  Still, a friend managed to snap this pic:


Afterward, we made our way back to the madness:


At various points throughout both days, I managed to dust off many of my favorite costumes from the past few years worth of building things in the shop.  While I am proud of all of my work, for some reason it's my Ironman suit that usually seems to get all the love:


As usual, I didn't get much chance to see what else was going on at the Faire.  On the very rare few occasions when I wasn't in my booth, I made it a point to snap pics.  I wish I had more time though.  For example, I have no idea what the story is with this thing:


I saw this mechanical ant parked inside the main entrance on Sunday morning:


I would've loved to chat with her creator, but at least I got a close look at some of the details:


While I was gawking at the ant, there was a cardboard dinosaur harassing the crowd at the fence:


Not far from there was this other thing:

I guess it was pooping.

Then there was this little robot designed to jump on your trampolines for you:


In the dark room there were these glowy inflatable creations:


But back at my booth there was no shortage of photo opportunities.  Here's just a few of my favorites...

Ladies love a man in uniform:


Here's someone trying on my Ironman Space Armor helmet:


And a new recruit for the UNSC:


Ironman getting more attention:


Shae Vizla out for a stroll:


Here's a TIE fighter pilot:


But he's not piloting a TIE fighter:


These are just my favorites that I snapped myself.  I actually had a real-life photographer on hand for most of the event as well.  Stay tuned for more professional images once he's done processing his images.  You can look forward to a whole series of pics of a TIE fighter pilot piloting things that aren't TIE fighters.