Building Droids and Meeting Craig Miller: Day Two at WonderCon

by James Herrera

If day one of WonderCon set the bar high, day two blew it away. Walking back through those doors, I was greeted almost immediately by the kind of creative cosplay energy that makes this convention so special. The mix-and-match spirit was in full effect — the standout early sighting was a Joker-themed Mandalorian, a Stormtrooper reimagined through a full DC villain lens, cape and all. It sounds like it shouldn't work, and yet somehow it absolutely did. Wicked was also well represented throughout the day, with multiple Elphabas and Glindas weaving through the crowd. At a convention with no single theme, that range is exactly the point — everyone belongs here, whatever your fandom.

​Before the panels even started, the day gave me an unexpected highlight. I got to meet Craig Miller — Director of Fan Relations for A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back — and walk away with a signed book. If you don't know who Craig Miller is, he's the man who brought Star Wars to Comic-Con in 1977, before the film had even been released. He also came up with the names for the Star Wars toys. I didn't fully appreciate just how much history I was shaking hands with until I sat in his panel later in the day. More on that shortly.

​The first panel of the day was Droid Building 101: Making Friends with the Friends You Make, featuring five builders — Cory Hall, Gordon Tarpley, Doug Dixon, Cary Christie, and Nicholas Christie. They kicked things off with a sizzle reel of droids across the Star Wars universe, which got the room fired up immediately. What followed was one of the most genuinely fun and accessible panels I've attended. These aren't Hollywood professionals with massive budgets — they're fans who love Star Wars so much that they built the droids themselves, and the passion in that room was infectious.
Each builder brought something different to the table. Cory Hall built an astromech with a functional drink tray — his version of cosplay, as he put it, since he loves the culture but doesn't dress up himself. His attitude summed it up perfectly: "Who wouldn't want one?" Doug Dixon leaned on his background with radio-controlled cars, pointing out that at its core, his R2-D2 is essentially an RC car — one of the simplest ways to build a droid that actually moves. He also made everyone laugh noting that when you're operating a droid in public, nobody is paying attention to the person holding the giant controller. The droid is the star. Gordon Tarpley built a C-3PO because he loved the costume as a kid and always wanted to make his own — and as it turns out, his builds have actually appeared on screen. His RX droid showed up in Skeleton Crew and The Book of Boba Fett, and he performed AD-3d in Jedi Temple Challenge. A hobbyist who crossed into the professional Star Wars universe — that's a remarkable thing.
The Christie family brought one of the best stories of the panel. Cary Christie builds a BB-8 style droid — except it's not BB-8 at all. His original creation, called Zero, shares the dome head design but has a circular body instead of a sphere. Cary was drawn to the engineering challenge of making something that rolls without the head flying off. His son Nicholas got into droid building because of his dad, got hooked the first time he was asked to puppeteer a droid, and now builds Lego droids of his own. What he said about why he loves it stuck with me — he just enjoys making people's day when they see a droid moving. 
The panel also touched on the practical side of the hobby. Good news for anyone thinking about trying it: you don't need a workshop full of specialized equipment. Basic screwdrivers, wire strippers, everyday tools — that's enough to get started. All five panelists do own a 3D printer, which they agreed is a genuine game changer. They also talked about the importance of community — being able to reach out to other builders when you're stuck is essential, which is exactly what the panel's title was getting at. The droids make friends, and so do the people who build them. One of the best insights of the afternoon was about the Star Wars aesthetic itself — because it's a "lived-in world," builders can weather and dirty up their droids intentionally. And if something goes wrong during the build? That scratch, that dent — it just makes it look more Star Wars. Mistakes become authenticity. Cory also made a sharp observation about the difference between fan builders and Hollywood productions: a movie might build five separate droids, each designed to do one specific thing. These builders make one droid that does all five. 
The panel ended with a story that brought everything together. When the Force Awakens teaser dropped, everyone assumed BB-8 rolling across the screen was visual effects. Then came Star Wars Celebration 2015, and BB-8 rolled out onto the stage in real life. The reaction in that room — and in this one, retelling it — was the same: how do you build that? That moment of disbelief turning into a challenge is exactly how this whole world works. You see something that moves you, and you figure out how to make it real.

If Droid Building 101 was the heart of the day, the Craig Miller panel — Star Wars Early Memories, SDCC and Fandom — was the soul of it. Craig was there at the very beginning, and the stories he carries are the kind you can't find in any documentary. He set the scene immediately: in the 1970s, science fiction was at the bottom of every genre list. No adult would admit to liking it. Star Wars had no major stars to send on a publicity tour, so the film had to find another way to build its audience. What Craig and the team did — taking the film directly to fan conventions before it even opened — was genuinely unprecedented.
The details he shared were remarkable. San Diego Comic-Con was actually the second convention Star Wars attended, not the first. The 12 parsecs line from A New Hope — long mocked as a scientific error — was deliberate, George Lucas explained to Craig: Han Solo is lying. He's a hustler, and Obi-Wan's expression in that scene, once you know what to look for, says everything. I've seen that scene more times than I can count, and I will never watch it the same way again. Craig also shared how The Empire Strikes Back got its name — producer Gary Kurtz was being hounded by the press in Japan, everyone desperate to know the sequel's title. Annoyed and exhausted, he threw out "The Empire Strikes Back" just to make them stop. It was never meant to be the real title. They printed it, and it stuck. One of the most iconic film titles in history came from a moment of frustration.
There were quieter moments too. Leigh Brackett, who wrote an early draft of Empire Strikes Back, passed away after turning in a draft of the script. Her friend Ray Bradbury — yes, that Ray Bradbury — offered to do any rewrites needed on the script for free, just so her name would stay on it. That kind of loyalty between legends of science fiction is something worth remembering. Craig also told the story of having to quietly retrieve a miniature Yoda from a minature Dagobah set at a convention — he wasn't supposed to be on display yet, and Craig had to sneak it away without anyone noticing. Just a regular day at a convention when you're Director of Fan Relations for the biggest film franchise on earth.
When Craig's time ran out, the audience groaned. Audibly. He could have kept going for three more hours and nobody would have left their seat. That reaction said everything. This is a man who was there when Star Wars fandom was invented, who helped shape what it means to be a fan of something, and who still has stories that can make a room full of people lean forward in their chairs.
Day two of WonderCon delivered in every way. A Batman in full costume sitting in on a droid engineering panel. A room of fans hearing stories from the man who was there at the very beginning. Overall it was a great day of panels and fandom!