View All Images Matt McCormick labored on his R2-D2 for more than a year, building the full-size remote-control replica of the droid from the movie "Star Wars" for his own pleasure.
It wasn't until he arrived in a crowded room full of fans two years ago that the Cal State Sacramento philosophy professor realized he had created a celebrity. http://laguerradelasgalaxias-starwars.blogspot.com/
"I went to my first convention in Sacramento - just me and my R2-D2 - and we got mobbed. We couldn't move for 20 minutes," McCormick remembers. "It's like a happiness machine. Everywhere you take it, people are thrilled."
Actor Ryan Reynolds will be at WonderCon, the annual comic book and fantasy convention that begins this morning at Moscone Center in San Francisco and lasts through Sunday. Elvira: Mistress of the Dark and a couple of real actors who appeared in "Star Wars" will probably be there too.
But few of them will get a warmer reception than the handful of R2-D2s rolling around the convention floor. Members of the R2 Builders Club have simulated the robot so successfully that Lucasfilm sometimes calls on them for events. (Builders say that one of their fan-made R2 units briefly appeared in "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith.")
Making a full-scale R2-D2 might be the Mount Everest of remote-controlled hobbies. A fully functional droid can cost as much as a Toyota Corolla, and takes half a decade or more to complete. Builders say that many more "Star Wars" enthusiasts start a full-size R2 and quit than actually complete one. Technically, the fan-built droids do more than the ones made for the movies, which were often made to perform one or two physical functions.
"It's always breaking, it's high maintenance and you're adding things all the time," says Chris James of American Canyon, whose blog at www.artoo-detoo.net has become a resource for builders worldwide. "And when I add something, it's not just a matter of bolting it in. It's a matter of stripping it down and re-engineering everything to make it fit."
The club was founded in 1999 by R2 builder Dave Everett of Australia, and each droid is different. There are no kits, and, until relatively recently, no blueprints. R2 Builders Club droids might be made out of plastic, wood or aluminum. To construct the dome, builders have used everything from squirrel guards for bird feeders to Weber barbecues as a base. Looking at the innards reveals wheelchair motors, car batteries, a lazy Susan and all manner of recycled circuit boards.
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