DBUK 2026 – A review

DBUK returned to Harper Adams University from July 31st-Aug 2nd and followed the normal format of Friday being a setup day and Sat/Sun being the main days. It was a great event and whilst we didn’t have the same numbers as previous DBUKs; visitors came from Belgium, Germany, Canada and the US. Was good to catch up with all the builders, some of which I hadn’t seen since Celebration Japan or the previous DBUK.

For me there were several stand out events and talks over the weekend (apart form catching up), these were the Duckling talk with Adam, Justin and Matt and the Dave Ferreira. The duckling talk covered both the mini ducks which are surprisingly affordable https://github.com/apirrone/Open_Duck_Mini as well as the full size one, however this is more expensive.

The Dave Ferreira talk went over various projects he could talk about, from BB-8 to Wall-E and building Gil/Chef droid for the Star Wars Celebration stage. Is always good to see how builds differ from droids that you take to events to ones going on stage.

Other activities included droid racing around the track and the established quiz and auction, the latter of which raised £3500 for Alzheimer’s Society https://droidbuilders.uk/droidbuilders-charity-infomation/

There were a variety of droids at DBUK, and not all were Star Wars. We had two Johnny 5’s from Short Circuit, a T-Bob from M.A.S.K. a ride on Mouse Droid, 3 Wall-E droids and EVE. Is always good to see what people are working on and droids outside the Star Wars universe. Also gives me an excuse to think about other builds.

As with every DBUK we took a picture both days, here is one of them which shows a selection of droids and attendees.

Looking forward to 2027 now, this celebrates 50 years of Star Wars so hopefully we can do something special, watch this space…..