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Date: January 20, 2009
Here we go again.
Today is the official FIRST day of R2 Mark II.
Last week I travelled to Columbus, Ohio, where I spent some time with a fellow prop enthusiast named Gino. We got to talking about my R2, and all the fun I had making it. At the same time, I got to sort through some of my thoughts on things I did with my first R2 that I was not happy with, and decisions I made that I ultimately grew to regret.
Long story short, the all metal, SUPER clean R2 I built turned out SO nice, that I'm terrified to take it out. I'm afraid of what would happen to it. I spent so much time getting it to be just perfect that I just don't have the stomach to see little kids pounding the heck out of it. So he has sat in my living room for a long time now. Which is totally cool, by the way. The tragedy is that my original goal was to have a walking R2 that I could take out and about. Obviously, I never go there.
The R2 I built is also too heavy. He weighs about 250 pounds. That's too much for me alone to lift into my car, or just move around. This means I have to disassemble him whenever I want to take him anywhere. This is not only a pain in the butt, but it also tends to ding up the 'lil guy.
So the goal of my second R2 is the same as my first. To have a walking R2 that I can take out and about. The difference will be how I go about it. This time, my focus will be on making him light weight and inexpensive. this means a wood frame, and lots of resin parts instead of metal. I may also end up pulling some of the electronics out of my current R2 for the Mark II. And yes, he will be an R2-D2. Not one of the many variants.
Before I officially began, I needed to make sure of a couple of things. I wanted an R&J dome, a Hendricks body kit, and as much resin as I could muster. I made a few emails and phone calls, and it turns out that all of those are available.
Which means this project is officially a go. My goal is to have him finished by the end of this year, if not a lot sooner.
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