These are the droids you were looking for: Lee Thompson, a founding member of the Australian R2 Builders, has been building Star Wars droids since 2016.
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Lee Thompson has been building Star Wars droids since 2016.
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Mr Thompson has been a huge fan of Star Wars since he first saw Return of the Jedi, in 1983, when he was six years old.
The action-packed film series would later inspire him to build droids.
Mr Thompson has created R2-D2, BB-8, WAC-47 and a Wookie-style MSE droid.
“I was building a paper craft R2-D2 with my son and I just kept saying that it wasn’t big enough,” Mr Thompson said.
“My wife brought up all the incomplete projects that I had started in the shed over the years and she dared me to actually finish a project.
“That was when I completed my first R2-D2 build.
R2-D2: Lee Thompson hopes to enter one of his Star Wars droid builds into Oz Comic-Con this June.
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“The R2 Builders Club was created by Australian robot enthusiast, Dave Everett, back in 2004, when he created a set of flat pack files that people could use to make Star Wars droids out of plastic sheets, much like model aeroplanes, but bigger.”
“Since then, lots of new building methods have been created. People can now make droids out of wood, metal or can even get them 3D printed.”
Mr Thompson uses a composite mixture to build his droids.
All of his droids have been displayed at events across Victoria and NSW, but R2-D2 is always deemed the crowd favourite.
He is working on building a R4-G9 from episode three, Revenge of the Sith, which he hopes he will be able to enter into Oz Comic-Con in Melbourne on June 11 and 12.
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