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DIY Star Wars: A New Hope? |
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Dr. Samuel Says -
Arts & Science
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Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
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Wednesday, 05 December 2007 |
I like to keep a few Internet bookmarks handy for when I get depressed about the state of the world and concerned for the future. (If you're curious, under current global conditions, it’s every 53.4 minutes exactly -- I've been clocking myself.) One of them is the WikiQuote page for The Daily Show. This may be, pixel-for-pixel, the funniest single page on the Internet.
 Another favorite is the How2.0 section of Popular Science magazine's
excellent website. This is the area that tracks the DIY efforts of
amateur engineers and restless hackers the world over. Among the
recently featured items -- how to brew your own ethanol fuel, make an
LED Menorah, and light steel on fire with a common household match.
(Double Secret Bonus Hint: You can combine all three for a holiday
pyrotechnics extravaganza.) Such mischievous endeavor restores my faith
in humanity.
The latest How2.0 feature, however, goes even
further to restore my faith in several other races, including Bothans,
Wookiees and Ewoks. The picture gallery and video presented here detail
the efforts of Star Wars geeks who have gone to amazing lengths to
build detailed replicas of various robots, spaceships and, yes,
lightsabers. Check out the all-metal astromech droid (R2-D9 -- red
instead of Artoo's signature blue), built to scale, with R/C control
and built in sound card and smoke machine (to approximate smoky
breakdowns.) Or the 13-foot-long Y-Wing fighter meticulously built to
spec with plywood and fiberglass. Most impressive is the functional,
full-size X-Wing Fighter rocket, designed via CAD from a circa-1980 toy
model.
Video footage documents the X-Wing's maiden launch. It
meets approximately the same fate as Lieutenant "Red Six" Porkins from
the original trilogy. Serious fans know what I'm talking about. There
is something very hopeful about the concept of several working
professionals dedicating years to assemble a detailed X-Wing, then
gleefully demolishing it in a DIY rocket launch in the desert. These
are my kind of people.
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