A couple of weeks ago Matt Mccormick and I headed up to The California Museum in Sacramento to check out a Lucasfilm R2-D2 on display.
At first we thought that it was part of the “Out of this World” / Paul Allen touring collection, but it turned out that it’s part of a separate exhibit to commemorating George Lucas’ entry into The California Hall of Fame at the end of last year.
Until Matt brought it to my attention I had no clue that there was currently an Artoo on display so close to home, so a trip was definitely on the cards. At first, while discussing it with Matt we had thought it maybe a replica because some had reported that it had some strange “features” and was part of the Paul Allen collection, but a quick search of some pictures on the RPF showed that it was almost certainly from the Lucasfilm archive and had some LFL lineage to it.
Matt and I were all over the droid taking as many photos as we could – alas no flashes were allowed making the job hard, and the glass didn’t help 🙁
After seeing it in person, I can confirm that it’s the same Artoo from the Magic of Myth (MoM) exhibit which was first shown in San Francisco back in the 90’s, and before that at the Lucasfilm/ILM Model Shop Exhibits at the Marin County Fair which started back in 1988. After seeing some photos of the same droid in the Madrid SW Exhibit last summer, I’d confirmed with Don Bies that this droid has an original aluminum Kenny Baker body with a fiberglass dome, and was assembled originally for the Marin County Fair Exhibit and has been on tour ever since.
In addition to the Artoo, there’s a 3PO on display as well as some Indiana Jones props, original Lucas scripts and some token Clone Wars concept art.
I must have looked at the photos from the MoM a thousand times but never noticed some of it’s oddities until I saw it in person.
He’s shorter in stature than normal due to shortened legs that have been pushed into the ankles.
Because of the shortened legs, the body is sitting on the battery boxes (which helps with stability on display.)
Dome appears to be aluminum, but is painted fiberglass.
Paint is very good, especially the white, so parts were probably repainted at some point.
Leg to body hubs thinner than normal, which pulls the legs tight to the body.
Shoulder Horseshoes seem a bit too thin as well.
Shoulder Buttons stick out a lot more than I remember, but this maybe due to the thin horseshoes.
Round inside edge of the horseshoes have no detail/ridges.
There’s a silver plate on top of the lower half circle where the hoses enter the battery boxes.
Dome doesn’t look like it will rotate as it’s flat on the body.
Utility Arms are thin sheet metal.
Here’s samples of my photos, the rest can be found in the gallery here, and Matt’s write up can be found here and his photos are here.
I also shot some video and will try and post it in the next couple of days.
Here’s some photos from this years Halloween. We didn’t go far, and just step up on the drive way with Artoo, with his very own candy holder and Vader standing guard in the backfround.
We quickly went thru our candy stash, but the kids didn’t seem to mind that we had run out.
We got our far share of vaders, clones and jedi
and even the odd robot (or 3PO wanna be)
The town is pretty small, maybe 2,000 people, but we were totally swamped with people most of the evening. My wife took this shot looking town on the drive way from the house.
One of my favorite costumes was this guy who came as the elderly gentleman from the movie “UP!”, house and balloons and all in tow.
and this was probably the cutest trick-or-treater of the evening
The fourth annual Maker Faire is just around the corner (May 30th), it will showcase individual creativity and grassroots innovation in the largest festival devoted to DIY culture and technology in the country. We’re hoping to be there again with our droids, if you’re interested in joinng us drop me an email.
It’s kind of hard to describe the event, but PC Magazine put it pretty well “Maker Faire is an improbable mixture of spectacle and practicality–a combination of engineering, crafts, science, and art that seemed to sufficiently blur the lines between all four.”
Here’s another video from the international press event I did for the Clone Wars back in October last year at the ranch.
This spot was for Network Ten down in Australia. It was shot at the end of a very long day and I’m slightly embarrassed how it came out, I think Artoo was too animated and they were supposed to replace some of the sounds/music in post-production.
Original can be found here with a lots of other cool video from that day, but I think it’s only accessible to folks in Australia – unless you mask your location by going thru a proxy.
I finally uploaded the photos from the last MakeSF Meetup I attended with Artoo. It was held at the Instructables.com HQ in San Francisco, and we had a pretty good turn out for a cold December evening.
MakeSF, is loosely associate with the Make Magazine / Maker Faire folks, and attended by a wide range of geeks, artists and engineer types from all over the Bay Area, who share projects they’re working on, skills and local resources. The events are always fun and you never know who’s going to be there or presenting.
I really enjoy taking Artoo apart and showing how he works
Typically at these events people stay in their seats, but It’s not only kids that can’t help swarming Artoo – We’re in there somewhere 🙂
Big thanks to fellow Makers for allowing me to share their photos.
