Background On Why I Decided To Build Him

I've been attending conventions for some years now, and seeing people walking around with astromechs has always been something that I found intriguing. In 2011 my wife and I were at SDCC, her first convention.(Side note: We actually got engaged at this con =D) The first panel we went to was the kinect Star Wars game panel. They announced the new R2-D2 Xbox 360 at this panel, and to make the announcement even larger they brought out an RC controlled R2-D2 as well. I saw them opening the door and nudged my wife to show her. At this point she squealed rather loudly at the site of R2 and once people found what she was looking at more gasps followed. This was her first experience with a life size R2, and she kind of flipped out about it.

If this is your droid, let me know!

We saw a few more, who am I kidding, a ton more astromechs at SDCC, and we were both prett giddy about them. I'd been to SDCC once before, so I'd seen my share, but they always catch my eye.

Here's another one we saw. Rocking a sweet drink tray =D Again, if this is your droid, let me know!

At this point I had already become a member of astromech.net. I've been going to Planet Comic-Con in Kansas City for the past 5ish years and after the PCC in 2011 I joined the Mercs site and started work on a helmet. (Sadly, it's still not complete. I moved and it got left in a box for over a year. Working on it again now) I believe I caught a link from there site to astromech and started reading and getting lost in the info way back then. I wrote it off as something out of my range of abilities and budget at the time. 

Fast forward to this years PCC and they had a droid builders panel. My wife and I sat through this one listening to all the great advice and that really got things started for me. I spent the next week or two reading up on as much as I could on the forums, and printed and read through the styrene plan instructions. About two weeks after the con I had ordered my first part. My styrene dome should be on the way next week! I've grabbed a few other things for the project since then, but I'll get to that in other posts. 

Excited to be started on my droid!