May the fourth be with you: R2-D2 served up 24 different ways
Geek alert: today's May 4. You know what that means. It's the unofficial Star Wars holiday where fans pop out the lightsabers and celebrate all things Jedi and Sith. While fathers and mothers across the planet baptize their younglings into Padawans, what about some love for all the new robots coming off the line?
To celebrate the holiday and honor the most adorable droid in the entire galaxy, here's 24 incarnations of R2-D2 that prove why it's the real star of Star Wars. Future astromechs in-training, here's your role model!
Got an iteration of R2-D2 you love? Let us know in the comments below, and may the fourth be with you!
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1. Xbox 360 Mod Until Mark Bongo's R2-D2 mod came along, we had no idea the little robot was capable of playing Xbox 360 games. We always suspected the droid was hiding something. It turns out R2-D2 likes using his projector to display video games as 50-inch projections. [Source]
2. Short Shorts Hey, girls are geeky too. Areyna Schmidt aka "Productiveslacker" says she couldn't find any R2-D2 shorts, so she went and painted her own. If R2-D2 could see this, his circuits would short out. [Source]
4. 6,000-brick Lego Droid Who's 23.6-inches tall, 15.7-inches wide and lights up when company is around? That handsome droid is this 6,000 piece R2-D2 replica by Peter "Ickelpete" Salter. Go ahead and ask this blockhead out, he won't refuse ya. [Source]
5. Mailbox Screw email, this is how mail in the U.S. is delivered. As part of the celebrations for the 30th anniversary of Star Wars, the United States Postal Service rolled these R2-D2 mailboxes out. [Source]
8. Solar-powered R/C Robot Listen, R2-D2 is a veteran pilot assistant. Where do you think it gets recharged? The outlet? Get out of here. To prep itself for long rides in X-wings and Naboo Starfighters, R2-D2 goes green and recharges with solar panels. [Source]
9. Swimsuit If those short shorts didn't burn out Artoo's wiring, this swimsuit surely will. Be careful ladies, if you hit the pool or beach in one of these swimsuits, it's going to bring all the boys to the yard, uhh, water. [Source]
10. Boombox Artist Bill McMullen doesn't just understand R2-D2's inability to say anything other than a few deep doot doot deets, he really feels for it. That's why he immortalized the galaxy's most beloved astromech in ghetto blaster form. Now it can be as loud as it wants. Shout your doots from the stars little guy! [Source]
12. Beanie Carissa Knits created this awesome R2-D2 beanie for her nephew. She received so many custom orders requesting one that she had to literally tell people she didn't want to knit the same thing over and over for the rest of her life. Want one for yourself? Carissa has precise instructions on how to knit your known on her website. If you've got a geeky lover you want to make a gift for, it doesn't get better than this. [Source]
13. Motorola Droid 2 Yeah, we know that the Motorola Droid 4 is out and much newer, but the Droid 2 still has one of the best keyboards for a smartphone, ever. It also comes in an official R2-D2 paint job. iPhone who? [Source]
14. Steampunk If R2-D2 had ancestors, they'd all look like this steampunk droid. It's woody and brassy enough to have really come from a galaxy far, far way, from a long, long time ago. [Source]
15. Eight-Consoles-In-One Just look at all of those controllers attached to R2-D2. They look like piglets drinking milk from the mommy pig. The Xbox 360 R2-D2 mod was impressive, but this 'bot — it's got an NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis, Dreamcast, PS1, PS2 and Xbox jammed inside of it. [Source]
16. Headphones Don't be a sucker and join everybody with their celebrity-endorsed headphones. Ditch the pack and slap these R2-D2 headphones over your ears. We're not responsible if all you hear are R2-D2 sounds, though. [Source]
17. Robotic Chinese Food Waiters While Artoo was busy helping save the galaxy, his cousins Tanbo R-1 and Tanbo R-2 were busy serving Chinese food at the Two Panda Deli in Pasadena, California. The worst part was that these robot waiters were terrible at their job. They were known for spilling drinks and dropping food all the time. Totally not worth the 20k each one commanded. [Source]
22. Projection Clock Checking the time on a wall clock is so last eon ago. All the cool kids have R2-D2 droids that project the time for them. Don't have one? Maybe Santa doesn't love you as much as you thought he did. [Source]
23. Official Lego Set We can't all have the chops to build our own R2-D2 out of Lego. For us brick-challenged folk, Lego has this official R2-D2 set. We hope you have patience, because you'll need it to put this 2,100 piece set together. [Source]
24. Media Player Only the biggest Star Wars fans would ever buy this over an iPod. With a whopping 2GB of storage and the ability to play music, videos and photos, and some freaky earbuds in the shape of C-3PO's head, everyone will be jealous of your sweet MP4 player. Or not. [Source]
21. R2-D2 Observatory And the best Halloween costume goes to? A building? Absolutely. The kids at Minnesota's Carleton College dressed their campus observatory up as a gigantic R2-D2. Who's just a bucket of bolts now, eh? [Source]
6. Trash Can PC In an alternate universe, R2-D2 is not a game console or a astromech. It's actually a PC disguised as a trash can. No, actually, it's a PC made from a trash can. Just drag all of your unwanted files into its hard drive and it'll beam them across the galaxy. [Source]
3. Turntable DJ, spin that dome! More like spin that LP. This R2-D2 turntable lights up with a few LEDs and is sure to get the party started in any club. No drinks required. [Source]
7. Bike Helmet The ladies can't get enough of R2-D2. 25-year-old Jenn Hall makes bike riding sexy chic with this custom helmet. You have no one to blame but yourself if you fall off you bike while ogling her distinct dome riding down Philadelphia's streets. [Source]
11. Plush Backpack Where do we even begin with this one? As DVICE alum Adam Frucci put it: "No matter how much you or your kid loves Star Wars, there is just no way this won't get your kid beat up." Yep, what he said. [Source]
19. Planetarium Projector Who says robots don't get home sick? R2-D2 does come from outer space. Good thing it keeps 10,000 star projections handy. But why can it also project the Death Star? This 'bot really is a mystery. [Source]
18. Official Xbox 360 Not good with your hands to build that modded R2-D2 Xbox 360? That's cool, because this official R2-D2 Xbox 360 fits better in most entertainment centers and you can actually buy one. It doesn't have a projector, but it comes with a matching white Kinect, gold C-3PO controller and even makes little deep dweep dooop sounds. [Source] (Photo Credit: Raymond Wong/DVICE)
20. Joystick-controlled Robot Kenny Baker might be known as the man who made R2-D2 wobble on the set of the movies, but this joystick-controlled robot actually fits people taller than 3'8" (Baker's height). Best of all, it was made for a kid with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. You can't see it in this pic, but its legs have hotrod flames on them! [Source]