Finally back from Tunisia…

Well, in the past I’ve seen some historic places and places that left me in awe. Tunisia was something above it all. The Sahara desert, waterfalls in the middle of nothingness, the world’s largest dried lake bed that stretches for hundreds of miles in all directions  and most importantly the places where they filmed, Star Wars, Gladiator and Indiana Jones. The Muslims have their Mecca but we Star Wars Fans have Tunisia!!! Every die hard SW fan has to at least once in their lifetime visit the place where it all began for us. I’ll try and keep my boasting down to a minimal and let you just enjoy the pictures. I will say this much. I plan to visit again within the next year and it will be a SW only excursion. Who knows, I may even find a way to bring my real artoo along

a slight detour before I begin building…

Normally I don’t write anything on my artoo blog not robot/build related. This is my only exception yet slightly off-track its still VERY Star Wars related. I’ll be making a spontaneously arrange vacation/trip to a place I guess you could call the Mecca of Star Wars and Sci-fi. No it’s not Lucas’s Skywalker ranch, that’s a dream not many of us can reach, lol. In just about a week from now I’ll have these toes walking in history. Yepp, I’m heading off to Tunisian and provided I get a great GPS, guide or both I’ll be wandering around Luke’s home and the surrounding desert of Tatooine!!! It’s a shame I can’t bring artoo along but I got to bring something to take pictures with. I have a few ideas. Not trying to boast but it’s going to be so cool. Talk about inspirational

tatooine

My artoo is completed but…

I guess one should see the completion of one project and on to the next. As you have noticed my blog  has been pretty quiet after my trip to Finland. Well, I very been doing some looking around the internet for a robot project that could test me even further. And I found a bunch of possible projects to work on. So I decided to work on 2 projects at the same time, again. I know I was going to start on my second artoo after the first one but I want to try some other ideas before I work on the “umber artoo”. That’s why I changed the name of my blog slightly to include all kinds of Hollywood robots. My first choice is going to be Wall-e. I choose him because he’s popular with today’s kids and adults and movement will differ from my artoo. It in many ways should be easier than building an artoo (so I’ve been told) but that all depends on my ambition level. None the less it will be an exact 1:1 scale copy. My other robot project, that will take much longer because of obvious reasons will be the SW Droidekas. I know I know its CGI in the movie but I have had a few words and discussions with a few robot knowledgeable people and it’s doable. What I will have to do is make a smaller prototype first to make sure my design is workable before I try the 1:1 scale version. Because it walks on only 3 legs it’s a pretty big challenge and in the worse case scenario I’ll make a 4 legged version., which is still a challenge.

Anyway, that what’s in the works and my finished artoo is still doing a bunch of events and benefits. So more pictures will be post about those as well

Its official my artoo is now international…

This past weekend my artoo and I were invited to attend Finlands Hobby Expo 2009. To put it short, it was the one of best events I have ever attended with artoo. First our hosts in Finland (Tape, Emma, Jenna and Jaakko), they were and are the nicest people I have ever met. Their hospitality was beyond the kindest and nicest of words. Then my little support team from the 501st Nordic Garrison (Jimmy, Louise and David), what can I say. There are friends and there are good friends. These are much more than that. Anyway, enough sentimentality, lol.

The actual Expo was a blast and so much more. We helped raise a lot of funds for UNISEF and made a lot of kids both young and old very happy. According to the Finns this was the first time artoo of any kind has visited Finland so it was kind of like a Rockstar coming to town, lol. The pictures below speak for themselves. I even took a little break at the Expo, popped an Xbox 360 microphone in hand and together with Louise sung (Xbox singing game “Lips”) to become Lips Singing Champions. Yeah, like I said it was a fun weekend in many ways. Thanks Jimmy for letting me borrow your fiancé Louise for the duet

Anyway here are all the pictures from all the highlights, enjoy: