R2-D2, or Artoo-Detoo, is a fictional robot character in the Star Wars franchise created by George Lucas in the 70’s. A small astromech droid, R2-D2 is a major character and appears in nine out of the ten Star Wars films to date. Throughout the course of the films, R2 is a friend to Padmé Amidala, Anakin Skywalker, Leia Organa, Luke Skywalker, and Obi-Wan Kenobi in various points in the Star Wars saga.
George Lucas’s creation of R2-D2 was influenced by Akira Kurosawa’s 1958 feature film The Hidden Fortress (USA release 1962), particularly Tahei and Matashichi, the two comic relief characters that serve as sidekicks to General Makabe. Lucas and artist Ralph McQuarrie also drew inspiration from the robots Huey, Dewey, and Louie from Douglas Trumbull’s 1972 film Silent Running.
BB-8
BB-8 (or Beebee-Ate) is a droid character in the Star Wars franchise, appearing in both the 2015 Star Wars: The Force Awakens and 2017 Star Wars: The Last Jedi films. Spherical with a free-moving domed head, BB-8 is portrayed by both a rod puppet and a remote-controlled robotic unit. Scanlan told Entertainment Weekly in November 2015 that the robot’s design came from an original sketch by J.J Abrams, saying “It was a very simple sketch, beautiful in its simplicity of a ball with this little dome on top.” of BB-8’s design “with differently shaped panels on each side to help the viewer’s eye track movement”, Scanlan said “If you had parallel patterns that ran around the circumference, they would be less informative as to the direction BB-8 was traveling than a slightly more chaotic pattern.”
Abrams also named the robot, telling Entertainment Weekly in August 2015, “I named him BB-8 because it was almost onomatopoeia. It was sort of how he looked to me, with the 8, obviously, and then the two B’s.” The name was conceived early on in the film’s production and was one of the few to remain unchanged.
I am one of those guys lucky to have 3 brick and mortar hobby shops in the Twin Cities area. Other model builders don’t have that luck, unfortunately. As I have to religiously make a trip to Minneapolis every Thursday, it is a good time for me to stop by Hub Hobby in Richfield, MN to get supplies for the shop or simply to say hi and chit-chat with my friends there while watching what’s new on the shelves.
Customers spoke, and Hub Hobby listened. As Gundam is gaining traction on this side of the world, fans asked and HH delivered. The picture above was taken a few weeks ago. My amigos at Hub Hobby just changed the Gundam layout to another couple of shelves making more room for more Bandai kits, accessories and a nice assortment of Mr. Color finishing products.
There’s plenty of model kits at Hub Hobby. From the simple Airfix, Revell and Hobby Boss snap-fit kits, to the large 1/32 Trumpeters aircraft and everything in between.
Hub Hobby decided to add a shelf -which is growing- with Star Wars model kits from Bandai. So they did ask if I could build the R2-D2 and BB-8 1/12 kits for display. Being such a big fan of the saga and now these fabulously designed kits, I had to oblige. This double kit has many of the positive attributes from the rest of the Bandai Star Wars model kits. So there’s not much to write home about in that regard.
The instructions are very straightforward and as with their 1/48, 1/72, 1/144 kit offerings, this one also comes with your choice of stickers and waterslide decals. Both kits were painted with Mission Models US paints except for the special Vallejo mix for the orange on BB-8 and Model Master Acryl  4661 Ford Engine Blue for RD-D2‘s body and dome blue details. I believe I heard somewhere that this was the actual color used on the lifesize filming prop.  I did add weathering on BB-8 via Tamiya Weathering Sets (Set ‘B‘). Note for the record that being both white, the camera naturally tends to underexpose making BB-8 a little bit overly-weathered than it really is. For R2, I used the same weathering set from Tamiya plus an enamel pin-wash. When I say pin wash I really mean it. We all know by now (and if you didn’t, now you know) that the styrene used by Bandai’s injection process does not play along well with mineral spirits and other enamel based weathering products.
Both figures come with all the onscreen accessories except the bar serving attachment where R2 served Jabba and his posse some martinis and Pabst Blue Ribbon. I can’t recommend this set enough. If you’re an R2 mega fan, this figure put the Hasbro Black Series offering to shame in terms of detail and actual scale. Did I mention that both figures cost almost as much as 1 Black Series? You don’t need to be a master model builder to build this set. Anyone above 12 can do it.
