The R2 Builders Club was founded in April 1999 by Dave Everett of Sydney, Australia. The club began with only a few enthusiasts pooling their resources and sharing ideas to create plans for building their own life-sized R2-D2 droids. It has grown considerably since then, and now has members all over the world. When I first started, there was me and my friend Gerard in the Bay Area who were into this. Now, there’s close to a dozen builders in the Bay Area, including Don Bies, former ILM model maker and Episode II & III Droid Wrangler. While we do meet throughout the year in person, a lot of the help and support happens online. The pictured robot is the creation of local robot builder, Chris James.