A tribute to R2-D2 in 6 acts

[DanSto]

Overview

The aim of this layout is to relate, into 6 acts, the initiatic journey of R2-D2 which, simple astromech at begining of episode I, will become a key character of the whole story and acquire its own personnality into the 6 movies of the saga. It is this personnality integrating human character (including some obstinacy) which explains its popularity and make it the most celeb droid in a movie.

I will present you 6 scenes (one per movie, from act IV to VI and from I to III like the movie into 6 posts ending with the whole layout) relating this journey : one as mosaic, one as a large sculpture and 4 smaller scene at minfig scale forming a large layout as a tribute to the little droid.s been

This layout has been made for the last SeTechnic Star Wars Contest annouced here in french.

Act IV : Leia's messenger

One of my prefered and emblematic Star Wars scene is the one where Leia records her help call to Obiwan into the Blockade Runner before it is catched.

This makes R2-D2 particularly essential for the rebels because it has also the plan of the Death Star into its memory.

The central part will be used to build a large mosaic which will becom the background of the layout :

it consists of 4 panels having 32x70 studs and a tiled white border surrounding the whole mosaic.

By using hinges to assemble the panels, the mosaic is curved and self-standing.

It looks nicer when reduced in size :

This mosaic has already been presented into this topic and I have taken new pictures for this new presentation.

Next, act V "Misadventure on Dagobah" ...

Edited November 22, 2012 by DanSto

[DanSto]

Act V : Misadventure on Dagobah

R2-D2 is also Luke's copilot on the X-wing starfighter and goes with him on Dagobah. However, Dagobah is not a friendly planet for droids which needs flat surfaces in order to move easily. The scenarist of the saga made some fun with this when R2-D2 falls into water from the X-wing and is spit like a vulgar can by a marin beast.

I wanted to show the trouble for R2-D2 to move on such a planet by a scene where it is trapped by the swamp up to its shoulder.

Indeed, after a few boring days onto Dagobah, the Jedi formation of Luke taking a lot of time, R2-D2 finds a large rocky place without vegetation allowing to run.

Unfortunately, after having aquiring some speed, it does not notice tha the rocky place ends abruptly with a swamp into which it falls (don't care, it will come out).

This funny scene consists into a layout (136 studs wide and 104 studs deep) and a large bust of R2-D2 at the 2/3 scale.

Building the bust (using modelization).

The starting point of the building was the cylinder made of vertical panels (and not bricks as one can see too often) because it looks more realistic and it is more eaiser to modify each panel alone.

The torso of the droid will consequently be made with sixteen 8 studs large panels fixed on a light structure based on circles built with hinges making a 22.5 degrees angle .

The light structure :

The 16 panels where the opening panels are explicitely shown using half a stud shifts :

The cylindric torso (very light) showing the front slot

and a video (it is sometimes slow but one can see the essential part)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Njz97LSOh94

Sixteen panels being 8 studs wide give a perimeter of 128 studs corresponding to a diameter of 41 studs for the head.

The head consists in a half Lowell sphere built with 5 decorated parts, each entirely made with hundred of plates.

Each part took me two evening to build it after having realized its complete modelization : the modelization is based on 1x1 plate but the real building uses every kind of plates (mainly 1xn)

The head modelization :

Front view :

Back view :

Left view :

Right view :

Top view :

And the whole head in video where one can notice that it is empty (the LDView video is a little bit slow at the beginning)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1nhfe7KZ8I

With its 2 shoulders

the bust is complete and R2-D2 can check that its head can rotate over 360 degrees

Into the swamp

In order to not just have a stand alone bust, it has been integrated into a layout displaying the swamp (the green surface of the swamp is cracked by R2-D2 fall) and the end of the rocky part where you can see the marks made by the wheels of R2-D2. This rock acts as a suporting stand for the background mosaic of act IV.

Close view of the bust into the swamp :

Back view with the rock :

Some other pictures :

Next, act VI "Back on Tatooine" ...

Edited December 15, 2012 by Brickdoctor

[Brickadeer]

Wow, it seems like you took a lot of effort

To me, the small scene in the lower right corner is pure genius. The sky, the shadows, and the small (distant) palace are awesome.

[Mr Man]

Damn ! There is some serious effort and bricks gone into making this . I'm looking forward to the next bits.

[DanSto]

Act VI : Back on Tatooine.

At the opening of episode 6, R2-D2 brings a message from Luke to Jabba et goes to Jabba's Palace with C-3PO

This very simple scene displays the huge palace into the background in the middle of nowhere at the end of this crude road used by the two droids to go there.

The two droids have an infiltration mission but only R2-D2 knows all its aspects (hopefully because C-3PO speaks too much sometimes) : when C-3PO thinks that they have only a message to deliver, R2-D2 knows the whole message and knows also that he two droids will be given to Jabba in order to play a Troia Horse like role.

Indeed, R2 units are customisable (not like C-3PO) in order to increase their functions : the head of R2-D2 catches the laser saber of Luke which can be ejected at the right moment to reach Luke.

But R2-D2 has to be at the right moment at the right place (on the barge near the Saarlak mouth) explaining why the droids were gifts to serving Jabba.

This is an exemple illustratring the major difference between both droids : R2-D2 will carry out its task without discussing contrary to C-3PO who discusses everything all the time and does often not do the right thing. Of course, this difference comes from its initial programmation but it has been accentuated during the journey : contrary to R2-D2, C-3PO has been periodically reprogrammed and its memory has been erased.

Consequently, the preservation of R2-D2's memory during the whole story (its experience) explains the particular personnality of the little droid. At the end of episode 6, it is the only "living" character knowing the whole story of Anakin and of his descendants (it will show later the fatal encounter between Anakin and Amidala to Luke and Leia).

I really like this picture (it was my second choice for the mosaic) and it is represented on a single 32x32 baseplate.

The perpective is given by the small palace back focusing the attention onto the duo of droids in front.

The scene of act VI can be integrated into the main layout as a substitution of one of the two front green corners.

Next, act I "The astromech serving the sovereign of Naboo" ...

[Wedge09]

Fantastic work, you use an enormeous quantity of pieces :thumbup:

[Artifex]

Wow! Amazing!

[Marc2501]

very nice :)

[DanSto]

Act I : The astromech serving the sovereign of Naboo

R2 units are made in large quantities into Industrial Automaton (IA) factories to serv in various domains. When such units are required for the Naboo's palace or for maintaining the N1 Naboo's starfighter, tens of R2 droids are made into IA local factories and delivered to the client.

At the beginning, R2-D2 was a droid like others having the maintenance in charge and acting as copilot of N1 starfighters.

Later, it was affected to the Royal Starship. So when queen Amidala tried to escape from the blockade of the Naboo's planet by the trade federation and had the shield of the starship was damaged, all astromechs aboard tried to fix the shield generator from outside.

I have choosen to build the room of the starship where the astromechs are parked ready to fix every problem :

This is the moment were R2-D2 becomes to be more than an usual droid when it was the last one fixing the shield generator allowing the royal starship to escape safely.

Because this is an inside scene, I decide to build it in such a way that it can be inserted inside the torso of the bust as it can be seen on these two videos :

Extraction :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GO5H6ptleJI

Insertion :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2STaQzTzIg

The following videos and pictures give more details about the built scene which can be view from all sides (contrary to the scene of acts IV to VI) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wX6elD9QZs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZwWE7Ugqcg

Outside the bust and into the layout :

R2-D2 becomes then the personnal droid of queen Amidala and followed her on Tatooine where it meats C-3PO.

Next, act II "Into Petranaki's arena" ...

Edited November 22, 2012 by DanSto

[Ceroknight]

This is absolutely brilliant! Can't wait for the rest!

[theDeanoRama]

Ingenious and it has the appearance of itty bitty R2 units running R2D2 himself

[Vindicare]

This is an amazing build. The scenes are expertly done, that Tatoonie one is just brilliant. Perfect depth and texture there. Dagobah Artoo looks like it took some effort, wow.

[Artizan]

the r2-d2 head is the most sophisticated lego dome I have ever seen!

[Purpearljellyblob]

Impressive built!!! You've got talent. Can't wait to see the rest .

[DanSto]

Act II : Into Petranaki's arena

C-3PO, met on Tatooine, is now R2-D2's best adventure companion and both are serving Padmé who is now Naboo's representative at the Senate.

When the battle between the jedis and the separatist droids begins into the Petranaki arena, after the failed execution of Padmé, Anakin and Obiwan, R2-D2 rescued first C-3PO

who's head has being wrongly assembled with a droid body and reciprocally.

Without taking care of the raging battle around it (maybe did it think that the battle was not its problem), R2-D2 takes C-3PO's head away from the fallen battle droid body in order to repair the protocole droid by fixing back the head to the right body.

The built scene displays a small part of the huge arena, in order to focuss attention on R2-D2 who is the main character, at the crucial moment when the super battle droids take part to the fight.

During the saga, R2-D2 will reassemble its companion a few times but here, it is once where it did it from its own initiative.

The scene can be added to the other corner of the layout and recalls the one of act VI focussed on the same duo of droids.

Next, act III (the last one) "Aboard Invisible Hand" ...

Edited November 22, 2012 by DanSto

[DanSto]

Act III : Aboard Invisible Hand

Accompanying Anakin and Obiwan in their rescue of chancelor Palpatine, R2-D2 encountered 2 super battle droids on the boarding desk of the Invisible Hand.

The two strong droids did not realized that our little astromech has more than one trick in its bag : R2-D2 burned the 2 stupid droids using its lateral propulsion boosters after having ejected some oil over them.

The scene is built by a small part of the Invisible Hand landing deck including a part of the wall and of the roof which can be entirely included into the head of the bust.

Extraction and unfolding of the wall/roof in video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl5HHaNAsrs

Another video focussing on act III

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AVoXdgqyN4

A few pictures of the scene :

So, when needed, R2-D2 can craftily be more than a defensive droid even if it has no weapons.

Well, this is the end of the show ... not really.

Complete layout

To be completely honnest, this picture has been modified to show the closed bust and the scene inside it as exhibited by the red outlines.

A video, showing the installation of the small scenes onto the layout

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP_3GQZ2lHc

This tribute is mainly focussed on the personnality of the droid rather than on its mechanics, on its evolution rather than on its conception, on the acquired experience rather than on its initial programmation, it illustrates also its loyalty (up to its sacrifice) to its owner and its adventure companions and, finally, on its craftiness when required.

Without this, it would only be an usual R2 astromech and not R2-D2.

Well, this is really the end of the show ; I hope you enjoyed it like I enjoyed to displayed it.

Edited November 22, 2012 by DanSto

[Wedge09]

Absolutely impressive work :thumbup: , I love it

[Empire911]

Best tribute for the best droid in the galaxy, very impressive and a very good job!

[Commander Laquiet]

This is amazing! Awesome builds, thanks for showing us them in such detail - particularly the bust of R2 in the swamp. The astromech hangar is awesome too - actually, I really like them all! Great techniques and ideas, and it's cool how they all integrate. Well done!

[Marin Stipković]

Simply beautiful!

[LukeClarenceVan]

Wow, incredible work! Thanks for sharing the steps you went through, and the finished creation is inspiring. A brilliantly done tribute.

[North Lego Star]

Simply WOW!!!! Great Job DanSto, This is the perfect tribute to the Famous R2 unit that captures every last detail and shows just how creative lego building can get. Well Done, I hope to see a tribute of C-3P0 similar to yours in the near future.

[Purpearljellyblob]

Awesome work there Impressed . Thanks for sharing.

[Only Sinner]

Here we can clearly see how passionate SW fans are for the characters. This multi-episode tribute really shows the humor and ingenuity displayed by our favorite astromech. He really does express a lot of personality for someone who dosn't even have a face. Oh, Artoo your'e the best! Beep, Beep, Bop, Wooowww!

[DanSto]

Simply WOW!!!! Great Job DanSto, This is the perfect tribute to the Famous R2 unit that captures every last detail and shows just how creative lego building can get. Well Done, I hope to see a tribute of C-3P0 similar to yours in the near future.

Thanks (to you and to all others), I am pleased to see that you enjoy this tribute. Concerning C-3PO, I find more difficult to do such a layout but why not (it would need a lot of gold parts ).