Learn How To Build Your Own R2-D2

[Guest echtrae]

Dozens of droids will roll into the Los Angeles Convention Center this week for Star Wars Celebration IV, a convention saluting the 30th anniversary of the Star Wars saga. These robots won't be official Lucasfilm property, though. They're homemade droids built by fans with a little technical know-how and a lot of love for the movies. And these fans are going to share their expertise during the event, teaching others how to build their own R2-D2.

Yes, I know I'm showing my geekness, but I don't care. The convention is this weekend.

Learn How To Build Your Own R2-D2

[Guest Madapple]

Speaking of R2-D2. . . has anyone else seen the R2 mailboxes the post office has dotted the country with?

They are so damn cute!

[Guest Yhitzak]

My first thought upon reading the title of this thread was "Better Off Dead," in which the little brother creates a working spaceship out of household appliances. God, I love geeks! Nothing quite like fanboy-ness to breed a whole new generation of electronic engineers. Personally, I'm waiting for my light-sabre.

Heh. Those mailboxes are pretty darn cool. I hope they put one in, in my town. It'll *really* start to feel like an alien planet, then! (Small towns really are planets unto themselves.)

[Guest Big Samurai]

Speaking of R2-D2. . . has anyone else seen the R2 mailboxes the post office has dotted the country with?

They are so damn cute!

The post office is cool like that. I ought to see if my branch'll install one around here.

[Guest echtrae]

I hadn't heard anything about any R2 mailboxes, so I had to go and look for them.

Here is an article on them for anyone else who hadn't heard about them.

Then I found that the USPS even has a web site dedicated to the thing.

[Guest Madapple]

My understanding is that the USPS only had 500 of the mailboxes made. Cheyenne got the only one in Wyoming, and it sits on the curb ouside the bookstore I work at part-time.

It's funny to watch people drive by that thing. I've seen a lot of people having their pictures taken with it, but no one actually putting any mail in.

[Leonhart29]

I know that here in San Angelo we don't have one of the new mail boxes, and something tells me that's a good thing. We have a lot of Star Wars nuts here (and I'm one of them), but not all of them are upstanding citizens. It would make the front page the day it was installed and then the next day make it again because some idiot went in at 2 am and stole it to sell on Ebay or something.

[quamp]

I know that here in San Angelo we don't have one of the new mail boxes, and something tells me that's a good thing. We have a lot of Star Wars nuts here (and I'm one of them), but not all of them are upstanding citizens. It would make the front page the day it was installed and then the next day make it again because some idiot went in at 2 am and stole it to sell on Ebay or something.

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.