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Our pal Bonnie Burton, from The Official Star Wars Blog, caught up with some of the members of Astromech, the R2-D2 builders club, at WonderCon, and asked them a few questions about the ins and outs of droid construction.
Can you describe what the R2-D2 Builders group is all about We're a loosely organized international group of fans who love to build droids and share them with the world. Founded in 1999, the club has continually striven to develop resources to allow others to accurately reproduce their own astromech droids. We know have almost 8,000 members, but I would say there's closer to 500 active builders at any one time. We make all sort of astromechs, not just R2-D2, but that's were our roots are. Some of you may have also seen R2-KT (R2KT.com); she was build by members of the club.
What tips did you give would-be builders at your WonderCon panel?
The four top tips are always -- planning, patients, do lots of research, and know your limitations. Without following these basic tips you can quickly make some expensive mistakes. Oh! And the fifth tip -- Don't try stuffing the electronics from a Hasbro Interactive Droid in a life-size Artoo. You don't want a 200 lb droid running you over.
WonderCon 2009: R2-D2 Builders
From the context and date of your interview, it looks like you meant to say you "caught up with some of the members of Astromech... at *WonderCon*," not Worldcon. Worldcon is the World Science Fiction Convention, held in different cities around the world each year. Last year's Worldcon was in Denver, Colorado. The 2009 Worldcon will be August 6-10 in Montreal, Quebec.
(See http://www.anticipationsf.ca/ for more details of this year's Worldcon, and http://www.worldcon.org/ for more information about past and future World Science Fiction Conventions.)
Kevin Standlee
Chairman
World Science Fiction Society
Mark Protection Committee
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Please correct the post title and body. WorldCon 2009 is this August in Montreal.
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Fixed. Sorry for the mix-up.
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YES! That's my R2-XS! Thanks for showing him off for me. Last year at Maker Faire he was just an aluminum frame bolted to the table for display.
- Steve
http://r2chronicles.blogspot.com/
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