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Episode III Night at Tinseltown Movie Theaters (May 18, 2005)

What a Blast! R2 made it into the movie theater prior to the first Episode III showing. It was a lot of work and not even complete. But the FORCE was with me that night! Murphy’s law had plagued the project during the last preparation hours. Blown drivers, falling doors and many ornaments missing, I decided to simply put the droid in my friend’s car and take it down to the theater, convinced it would not walk for too long...

We got to the theater at around 8:25 PM, when real SW fans got excited and welcomed R2D2 into their show. In this picture I am powering the unit. It is not clear that I am praying to the lord of transistors so that my power drivers don’t burn on me. And perhaps you are saying :What a dufus! He designs his own drivers and then do not trust that they will work?”

You got it! Three hours before going into the theater, one of the drivers burnt and the other three were miss responding to the remote control. At this point I was happy with simply taking pictures and having every body else take pictures of him. I was happy with it being a big ball of shaped and painted fiberglass.

But as I said, the FORCE was with me. I really think it was my Mom’s spirit by my side, or something like that. I am telling you, everything was going wrong until I got to the theater!

R2D2 moved for about an hour and a half until its batteries drained. I was extremely pleased!

The wookie was one of the most impressive costumes. But it was not the only one. The troopers and JEDI’s showed extreme care and lots of work hours into their craftsmanship. It was a blast meeting these fans and taking pictures with them. For a brief second it felt like being on Disney Land. Well, Star Wars Land, that is...

Then something really interesting happened! R2D2 ran into his old College Buddy, PEP-C-D2. Apparently they had not met since the last pajama party on their dorm, when Advisor to the Republic Mon Vicerati called them up for a mission. PEP-C-D2 was destroyed in the battle, but was later reconstructed as a cooler. R2D2 was so happy to see his old buddy that he begged for a picture. Too bad it was rather dark and the holographic projector on R2D2 was missing...

I have to say that the R2D2 project would not have been completed in time if not by adding the effort and help from my friends Hiram (left) and Jeronimo (right). Add to that the countless hours my wife spent with me. She is taking the picture, but she is the lovely lady posing with me and the wookie in the previous picture.

Previously: Star Wars Episode II Opening Night (May 16, 2002)

Before I leave this thread, I want to tell a tale about the night we saw Episode II. R2D2 was not ready, so I decided to strap the head to the car. It really looked cool, like a star fighter being co-piloted by the droid.

We went by a few theaters and people screamed in excitement as they saw the M-wing flying by (M-wing, from Montero Wing, got it?). One theater, however, struck me shockingly. A guy screamed with all of his lungs: “LOOOOOSERS!!!!!”

I don’t know if it was envy, jealousy or what, but why consider being a fan, a looserism? The guy was in line waiting for the 12:01 AM showing, so he must have been a real fan as well.

At this point in time you must be asking: “Where is this guy going?” And so the moral of the story is: it takes a few seconds and minimal air pressure to scream looser, but it takes great deals of effort and man hours to build a movie costume or replica.

Wield it proudly! We are fans, and nobody will take that from us. And remember. If someone wants to scream looser, it must be because inside, the person is actually thinking “Why didn’t I think of that!!!”

So... who’s the looser?