I know how you feel, Leon.
In 1999 Dallas radio station KDGE announced in the morning on April 1st that they were going to have a screening somewhere off some early scenes from The Phantom Menace (this was before it came out, of course.) One had to tune in at 3:00 p.m. to find out where and when. Strange things happened that day at the studio. One guy showed up with an R2-D2 display that had most of Star Wars' cast signatures on it. Another showed up in a Chewbacca costume. When the time came, they announced it was an April fool's joke. The 200 or so rabid Star Wars fans outside the studio started to riot. They were only calmed when the station manager said he would get them free passes to the opening.
We don't have any of the R2-D2 mailboxes around here, of course.
Well, as a counter to this, I offer the Build your own Tom Servo site. Servo is easier to build and the parts are cheaper.