Transcript Episode 5: Comikaze 2014 — Interview with Russell and R2 Builders Club
Intro music.
Angie: Welcome to Geek Out with Angie Fiedler Sutton, an ongoing discussion on geeky topics.
In this episode, we continue the coverage of Stan Lee’s Comikaze, 2014 Edition. The R2 Builders Club has been dedicated to reproducing the droid from the Star Wars movies from 1999. They are so well-known that two members were contracted to provide the model for “Episode VII — The Force Awakens.” There was a contingent out of Comikaze, and I got a chance to talk with Russell about the droids we’re all looking for.
Russell: Hey, I’m Russell and I’m with the R2 Builders Club.
Angie: If someone wanted to get started into doing something like this, what would your main piece of advice be?
Russell: Research, research, research. I would say at least three months on the Astromech.net forum, asking questions, reading, looking at blueprints, seeing what other people do, maybe attend a gathering in your local area first. See how they’re put together, and there’s lots of resources within the club. And don’t and get started right away— give yourself, I would say, a good three months to figure out how you want to do it.
Angie: How long did it take you to build that?
Russell: Well, I built him over a period of four years. Other people do it in about a year, year and a half. Some people spend 10 years.
Angie: And how much approximately would you say you spent building this?
Russell: Under $2000.
Angie: What would you say was the hardest part of building something like that?
Russell: (Sighs) In my case, the most difficult part was the dome ‘cause each of the blue panels on his dome I had to hand cut out of the aluminum, so I crafted my own custom little X-ACTO saw and spent a summer sitting there, cutting one panel out each time.
Angie: What specifically draws you to building something like this as opposed to many of the other fan endeavors that are out there?
Russell: I think it was just the challenge of trying to build an R2-D2. It’s a very complicated character to make. It involved radio control and robots and things like that. And it’s Star Wars, so it’s fun. That’s why.
Angie: Hi, R2!
R2-D2: (Response).
Angie: You enjoying the con?
R2-D2: (Response).
Angie: Really? What’s your favorite part?
Outro music.
And that’s Geek Out’s latest take on Stan Lee’s Comikaze, 2014 Edition. Next round is a series of interviews from some of the people involved with “Nobility,” a new comedy science fiction series on the horizon. Stay tuned to Sci-Fi for Me for more coverage of the 2014 Comikaze Expo.
Thanks for listening to Geek Out with Angie Fiedler Sutton. The theme song is “Schoolyard Haze” by Jari Pitkanen, available via the Free Music Archive. The podcast is recorded in partnership with Sci-Fi For Me Radio and released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license. Links for more information on all this are available on angiefsutton.com.