





It seems like only yesterday that we were at Celebration Europe in Essen, Germany: the largest gathering of fan-made astromechs in Europe ever, with over 60 droids present. Since then we have had Star Wars Rebels, Celebration Anaheim, and The Force Awakens. It is a very good time to be a Star Wars fan, and also part of the whole fan community.

Star Wars Celebration London is now only five months away and members of the R2 Builders Club are getting their droids ready. We will be bringing together astromechs (and possibly a few BB-8s…) from all over Europe, with builders coming from the UK, Germany, France, Sweden, and Norway. It is always good to meet other members and this will be an opportunity to create the largest gathering of droids since Essen and show the public what the group is about.

Since the R2 Builders Club was founded in 1999, it has continually grown — especially in the last year, thanks to The Force Awakens — and now has over 20,000 members worldwide. (Although keeping track of completed droids has thus far eluded the Imperial Census. A rough estimate is around 2,000 finished droids, which is amazing considering the time and effort required to build one.)

Visitors to our stand will be able to see both finished and work-in-progress droids, along with the various materials they’re made from, including aluminium, wood, and styrene. During our Droid Building talks, we’ll go into detail on how to build an astromech droid — essential info for any aspiring builder.

There will also be several photo opportunities at our stand, so stop by and take a picture with Artoo and other overweight globs of grease. See you there!

Oliver Steeples is a veteran of the R2 Builders Club, and was chosen by Kathleen Kennedy to work in the Star Wars: The Force Awakens creature shop.