2018 Bay Area Maker Faire

After a grueling couple of weeks trying to finish more projects than any sane person should ever try to fit into that time, everything was loaded into trucks and trailers and we left Petaluma, southbound for San Mateo and the 2018 Bay Area Maker Faire.

We arrived fairly late on setup day and immediately set about building the display booth:


As that was coming together, we were also installing ED-209 in his parking space for the weekend:


Even after four years or so, he's still looking pretty good:



Freddy busied himself with building a frame to hang the Grey Knight Terminator costume on:


While I climbed aloft to add a few more things to the top of the booth:


Before too long, the display racks were filled with all of the weapon props we brought:




The rusty steel T-60 was set up as a bust display:


So was my blue HALO Spartan armor from way back:


And "Big Sexy," my Dark Angels Space Marine Sergeant costume:


Right in the middle of the display was a stack of my books available for sale:

You can get a copy here (LINK) if you haven't got it already.

With that, the whole display was together and ready to go:


First visitors, the San Mateo Police Department:




About that time, the whole crew was lined up and ready to go:


The floodgates opened, attendees poured in, and for the rest of the weekend, my view looked about like so:


Folks stopped by to get signed copies of my book, other makers came to ask how to make the things we make, and countless small children and adults alike queued up to try on helmets and pose for pictures.  It was an all-around success.  Mostly it looked like this:


At some point we got a couple of my Warhammer costumes dressed and walking around:


We also got Freddy into his T-60 Power Armor:


It came out pretty good:


The Grey Knight, sadly, spent the weekend in statue mode:


But he still looked pretty good:


The same goes for my rusty, bare steel T-60:




But while I was stationed in the booth and my crew answered questions, a few of my costumes managed to get out and about.  First was Thor, the Goddess of Thunder, worn by the lovely Lady Shawnon:












Then one of my First Order TIE Fighter Pilots did the rounds worn by my cousin Drake.  Here he is driving a giant cupcake:


And holding his own in a dance-off:


Before shooting down some very threatening bubbles:


He made it a point to drive everything he could get his hands on:










And met a few fans along the way:




He looked like he was having a good time, but somehow he still failed to trigger the Smile Detector:


Finally, we got Madison, one of my newer crewmembers, into the Lady Shawnon's Bo Katan costume so she could get out and see the Faire in character. First she found some other Star Wars nerds:




Then she found all kinds of other interesting things out and about:






Somewhere along the way, the Freddy donned his T-60 and Rachel put on her vault suit so they could wander a bit:






So taken for all in all, this year's Maker Faire was a success and we can look forward to doing it all again next year.


Stay tuned...