Crowd-pleasing home-built R2D2 droid coming to Aurora Mini-Con
Coloradan Eric Olsen spent years built his own R2D2 from scratch and loves showing it off at events like this weekend's Aurora Mini-Con.
Jaw-dropping awe is the face that greets R2D2 everywhere he goes.
"This is amazing," said 14-year-old Bethany.
Star Wars fans like Bethany and even non-fans are blown away by the interactive droid. Whether it's a message directly from Princess Leia, herself, or a shot from a fire extinguisher, R2D2 is full of surprises.
"The cool factor is that it responds to you and your movements and that's really cool," Bethany added.
It does seem like R2D2 is responding to to commands, but Eric Olsen is the man behind the curtain.
"I like puppeteering. It's fun to interact, and I like to not be the center of the show, and this allows me to have R2 be the center of the show," Olsen explained.
He carries two small controllers in his pockets that allow R2D2 to put on a show. Olsen built the droid from scratch with the help of an online community called astromech.net.
"On the electrical side, I have a 24-volt system that steps down to 12, 7, 6, 5, 3.3 volts. I have flyback diods. I have relays," Olsen said.
As he runs through the machine specs, he might as well be speaking droid. That's the electrical side, Olsen also had to learn computer coding. It might be surprising to know that Olsen does not have a background in robotics.
"The fact that I was able to build a droid is a testimony to the community because you can ask any question. You can go to the community and they will answer your questions," he said.
The community works off a set of drafting plans and people all over the world can create their own version of the droid.
"My build took 2-years and four months that was just to get him beeping, booping, moving, and able to look aesthetically on the outside like R2," he said.
Olsen is continually upgrading R2 including 28 operable panels, light and music sequences including a sequence that looks like a mechanical failure.
"I can also shoot a lightsaber out of his head, and it goes probably about 20-feet in the air," Olsen added.
Olsen takes R2D2 out to promote STEM education for children. He also does visits to the veterans hospital and appearances at a wide variety of nonprofit events.
"It's a great way of giving back to the community as well as having some fun as well," he said.
The fun is seeing the surprise on faces of fans of every age.
LINK: Aurora Mini-Con
Aurora Mini-Con is Saturday, September 27, 2025, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Aurora Municipal Campus.
