Page 77 - Star Wars Insider #177

WORLDWIDE

WALKER ON PARADE been building innovative kinetic
machines since 2009, when
they first entered the derby

An Imperial walker took to the streets of
with a miniature version of their
Philadelphia earlier this year Kenzinger beer delivery truck.
With the help of his colleague

he “Imperial March” blaring The float was built by Tyson Billy Westervelt, the pair spent
in the streets of Philadelphia Tarbell, 40, and his crew for the about 50 hours converting a truck
T heralded the appearance of Kensington Kinetic Sculpture into a pedal-powered parade

an Imperial walker. But instead of Derby & Arts Festival, an annual float, using an original chassis
a hulking four-legged machine that design competition and parade of from a 2004 Chevrolet S-10. But
could only be thwarted by a circling quirky, handmade human-powered each year they add new art to the
snowspeeder and a length of cable, vehicles. Tarbell, in charge of exterior, and each year, the designs
this beast was only operational maintenance and fabrication for get a little more out of this world.
with the help of a crew of cadets Philadelphia Brewing Company “In 2011, the year they were
pedaling to keep it on the move. by day, says the company has retiring the space shuttles, we paid
homage with the Fermenterprise,”
Tarbell says. He’s also built a viking
war ship and a Doof Wagon from
Mad Max: Fury Road. But the AT-
AT has been on his wish list for a
long time. In 2017, he fi nally felt
like he was up for the challenge.
The dimensional restrictions
of the cart base and the tall and
lean proportions of the armored

vehicle made it difficult to marry
the two, Tarbell says. His wife,
Cameron, a graphic designer for
the brewery, helped him to get a
handle on the scaling.

R2 BUILDERS UNITE IN STOCKHOLM

Lars-Åke Siggelin tells us of a gathering of R2 builders in Stockholm

or the second year of Comic for their contribution to the It was followed by a
Con Stockholm (Sept 15—17), Star Wars saga. That ceremony dinner with the troopers in the
F R2 Builders Sweden invited was conducted by Alexander evening. During the Con the
staff from The Creature Shop of Arvidsson, the C.O. of the Nordic 501st/RL collected a little more
Star Wars to join us for a couple of Garrison, at the end of their droid than 22,000 SEK for the Swedish
days of fun. panel on Saturday September 16. Children’s Cancer Fund.
Lee Towersey is one of the two
U.K. R2 Builder fans that got hired
to make and operate R2-D2 on
The Force Awakens. Matt Denton,
engineer of BB-8, participated at
last year’s Comic Con and was
happy to return again, this time
expanding his BB-8 talks to include
a panel about animatronics and his
experience in visual effects.
Both Lee and Matt were
also inducted as honorary
members of the 501st Legion

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