My favorite robot, R2-AL

This week's League of Extraordinary Bloggers topic is simply: Robots!




This is probably one of the easiest topics for me to talk about.     I originally was going to create a top 10 list of favorite robots.  Among those, Transformers, Wall-E, and Marvin from "Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy". 

 But, there is one little robot that I have loved forever and that is R2-D2.   I wrote a post about my R2 collection, so I am going to recycle some of it for this post.  I never realized how much R2 was beginning to take over my collection until my husband pointed it out.

This picture is just a fraction of my R2s.  Old or new, it doesn't matter to me.  I am bad about rescuing R2s.   My collection ranges in size from 1/2 inch tall to life size and fully remote controlled.  It is the life size R2 unit that I would like to share today.

Our R2-AL building project was started when our oldest daughter was just a baby, so it has been a 5 year labor of love.   It really should not have taken that long to complete, but life has a funny way of getting in the way sometimes.  I would like to myth bust a few things about building R2s.   It really is not as hard as I originally thought it would be to build.   It also, surprisingly, isn't as expensive as I once originally thought it would be.   Now granted, there are some who take R2 building to another extreme spending tens of thousands of dollars.   But you can build a remote control droid on a budget.


The Astromech Builders group is a valuable source for blueprints and other resources needed in R2 building, so that is where we started.   The building project began humbly.  You see the body is made from a sonotube,  much like the ones pictured here.  This was probably the most inexpensive part of the whole build.  It was free, and well, you can never beat free.    After a little work, the body was cut to the appropriate height for an R2 unit.   Using the  outer skin as a template, we cut holes for vents and other parts that make up the body.

This is the part of the story where our waiting game begins because it was a game of order parts, wait for parts, make this or that part while we wait for more parts, parts arrive, paint parts, install parts, and repeat.    Of course, everything is more fun when you have friends to doing the same things.  Two of our close friends decided that they wanted to get in on the fun ( blood, sweat, and tears) , so over the years we have hosted a lot droid building parties.  It really does help the process if you have someone to bounce ideas off of.

Finally, after lots of parts and paint the lowly cardboard tubes begin to look like something close to an R2 unit.  The blue and purple "bullet" is our R2-AL.

We originally were going to do the traditional R2 colors, but we had second thoughts.  It has been done, and well lets face it, there is only one R2-D2.  We felt that a custom color scheme suited us better.  So, we let our son select the paint colors.   The blue is actually an automotive "glitter" paint and the purple is an automotive color changing finish.  So depending on the lighting, you will see shifts in color.  We also decided that we wanted a "dirty" droid, so I do still have a little weathering to do to the paint job.



Once the bullet form was complete, we moved on to the legs.  Which until getting involved with this project, who knew R2 had 15 different parts on his legs alone.  So we went through a second round of making parts, ordering parts, painting parts, you get the idea.  Over the course of leg building, AL went from no legs to peg legs to completed legs.   I am trying not to bore you with every aspect of the build.

We had another child and just didn't have the time or energy to get it finished.  But our youngest is now one, so it is a little easier. The last step for us was to add the electronics and do some test drives.   R2-AL is powered  by a marine battery and driven with 2 razor scooter motors inside the feet.  The dome is driven by a power window motor.  In the dome, there is 200 LED lights and sound board and speaker to supply all of the R2 sounds.  

After years of being living room art, we were excited to finally get out and test drive it last weekend. So, I am excited to share some of our test drives with the rest of the League.  



  Please check out one of our youtube clips.   

 Now. lets take a look around the League and see what others thought about robots:

Fortune and Glory Days- gives us a top 10 list.

GoodwillHunting4Geeks- Loves robots!

Geek Show Ink talks about the Tomy Walking Rascal

Whatever I Think Of is talking about Hymie

Branded in The 80's talks about the love child of C-3PO and Maria

Cavalcade of Awesome talks about the Robonic Stooges

AEIOU talks about his favorites

PopPop It's Trash Culture talks about  Super Robot Red Baron.

Random Nerdness gives us his top 5 favorites

G.I Jigsaw talks about female robots

Miss M talks about her fear of robots

The 30ish year old talks about Star Wars robots

Erik talks about some of his favorites

Cave of Cool talks about damn robots

Pop Rewind talks about Small Wonders and Bill and Ted bots

Achievement in Gaming talks about robots in games

Collection Picture Post- R2-D2 rules the world!

I never realized how many R2-D2s I had until my husband (well, boyfriend at the time) pointed the fact out.   Back then, if you had asked me about my Star Wars collection, I would have talked about how Princess Leia was my favorite character.   I would have been happy to show my vintage carded Leia figures.    But, quietly a little droid began to dominate my collection.

Since we had the flood, we have spent a lot of time unpacking everything.  My R2s are finally back to normal for the most part. This is shelf #1.  This shelf has most of my vintage R2 items, along with items from the mid 90s to present.   2 of my most beloved R2s are on this shelf.

One of my oldest R2 is my original vintage figure that was mine when I was a kid.   As you can see, he has some authentic battle damage.   I used to carry him and my Princess Leia around everywhere. Leia fared better then R2 did.   

The other beloved R2 is my vintage bank (peeking out from behind the Jawa beanie).  I don't exactly remember the whole story on how  I got it.  I vaguely remember my aunt opening a checking, savings, or maybe a Christmas Club account at one of the local banks.   I think that if you did that or deposited so much into the account, you had your choice of  coin banks.   It was the late 70's so I around 3 or 4  years old.   I can vaguely remember being in the bank  and I kind of remember a sign advertising the giveaway.  Sadly my aunt passed away several years ago, but I know she would remember the whole story behind it.

Another notable item on is the plastic cup (the one with a Jawa sitting on it).   That was my cup as kid.   I also at one time had a matching cereal bowl.   I have had to rescue that cup from my donation happy mother several times.    The first time was back in the 80s, it somehow got damaged in the dish washer, which of course meant that it needed to be donated.  (rescue #1)  sadly, somehow the bowl got away.    Years later, the cup got stuck at the back of a cabinet, forgotten.   We were moving and my mother insisted that she needed to get some new plates and  glasses, all the others would be donated (rescue #2)    Finally,  I just got smart and tucked the cup away in my dresser drawer and thankfully I have had it ever since.




I have a wide range of sizes present in my R2 collection.  The smallest coming from the Star Wars Micro Machine sets.  At only about 1/2 inch tall he is hard to see in the crowd.  

Shelf  #2 isn't completely full of R2s yet.   They share some space with C-3PO, but that will soon be changing.  I am not the biggest fan of 3PO and he is taking up some valuable real estate.  My husband always asks me, " how are you going to fit anymore on those shelves?"    The answer is very simple.   A.) There is always room for 1 more. and B.) when I run out of room, we will put up another shelf.  He just doesn't realize that I have given each placement careful thought and consideration.

As a Mother's Day gift, my husband and son got me this MOC R2.  It is pretty special for multiple reasons.   I keep it under lock and key so nothing can happen to it.   Thankfully, my kiddos are good about understanding what MOC means (I guess we have taught them well)   It is other people's kids I am worried about.   

Some of my favorites in the mid size range are the R2 aquarium, trash can (both still packed away) and vintage toy box.  The toy box I actually gave to my daughter, who is named after a certain Star Wars princess.   I felt that every princess needed her own special R2.

My largest R2s are the Pepsi cooler R2 and our lifesize R2 unit.  

The R2 cooler was an anniversary gift from my husband.  I am easy to shop for.   We both had been wanting to get one and he luckily found a great deal on one.   It seems like we have had it forever!  It gets used any time we have a cook out, birthday party, holiday.   I always love the surprised look of people who have never been to our home and see the giant R2 in the corner of the kitchen.

Our life sized R2 unit has really been a labor of love.   When we were planning our wedding, I had suggested that we have a flower girl and a flower droid.  (yeah, I am nerdy.  that's how I roll)   I wanted an R2 to roll down the isle and shoot out flower petals.  We looked into the plans of

building one but it was scrapped because we wouldn't be able to finish it in time for the wedding and it wouldn't be able to shoot petals.












So a few years later, my husband decided to revisit the idea of building a R2.   It has taken 4 years of on and off building.  But, our R2 unit is now only in need of electronics to make him remote controlled.   Our goal is to get him completed this year.   Still for me, even if we don't get the electronics in him, I love him greeting everyone who walks in our house.

I guess this is the condensed version of my R2 collection.  I still have few packed away and a lot that I didn't even mention.   I still have a few items on my short list that I am still looking for, one of which is the 1980s Wilton cake pan.   I know I can find it easily on Ebay, but damn I just hate those prices.  Eventually, I am just going to have to quit being cheap or either give it up and just be happy with my cookie cutters.