Applause!
I genuinely wish that I had known of the existence of the R2-D2 Builders Club before now. This sort of thing should be encouraged at every opportunity.
Star Wars exec: These ARE THE DROIDS I was LOOKING FOR
The next Star Wars movie will see the return of droid favourite R2-D2, who will be built for the film by two Brit fans who are in a Star Wars robot-building club. JJ Abrams, Lee Towersey, Oliver Steeples, Kathleen Kennedy and R2-D2 JJ Abrams, Lee Towersey, Oliver Steeples, Kathleen Kennedy and R2-D2 behind the scenes at …
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Thursday 21st November 2013 21:56 GMT Peter2
Re: Applause!
Really? That's nothing. Real men build usable combat lightsabers. ;)
Google "the custom saber shop" if your handy with a soldering iron or "Ultrasabers" if your a helpless user type who can't deal with making the sort of electronic circuits that you were taught at primary school.
Making Lightsabers is great fun, using them more so. Suffice to say that Martial Arts groups aren't as good as you might think. They have really serious trouble dealing with people who don't fight using the same martial art they were trained in so even if you don't have some martial arts training you have a sporting chance as long as what you do is a lot different from Kendo etc. Saber play is also surprisingly popular with non-geeks and a great way to convert such heathens. ;)
Or you could get into the choreography scene, stick lightsaber choreography competition into youtube for a fun selection of vids.
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Friday 22nd November 2013 09:49 GMT Pascal Monett
Re: Martial Arts groups aren't as good as you might think
You obviously haven't met the good ones ;) That said, generally I can agree with you, but I think I know why.
Karate is not what you see on TV. One of my best friends is a karateka. He told me that getting a recruit to continue training after the third year is a problem, because the first two years are devoted to basics, and the third year you actually carry out the attacks.
That means you get pummeled, and that means you get hurt. People don't like getting hurt, so they abandon. Some clubs don't like losing people, so they avoid forcing them to get hurt. But if they do that, the students don't learn to avoid attacks properly, and don't carry them out properly.
I train in Aikido, a martial art devoted to defense only. We have trouble getting people to attack properly (yes, even if you train defensively, you still have to defend against an attack) because students are generally afraid of hurting their partners. That is normal human behavior. It takes some time (you can count that in years) for a normal person to understand that by holding back their attack, they are putting you in danger and risking more hurt than if they would actually attack properly.
I think that most people don't like hurting others, so they do not attack well, so the partner cannot properly learn to defend/block.
That is most likely why most Martial Arts students are not all that impressive.
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Sunday 24th November 2013 20:59 GMT Peter2
Re: Martial Arts groups aren't as good as you might think
Oh, I have a chap who teaches sword seminars running a club locally. That sort of fight tends to be over very, very quickly. Sword fights last less time the better the people involved are, and against true experts a battle tends to be over with a single stroke one side or the other, depending on who moves fastest and does something the other isn't expecting.
There is certainly a point with that, a the hardwood training swords most places use could inflict real injury if used with full strength against somebody not wearing protection. A saber however is a tube of polycarbonate, weighing virtually nothing making it a lot harder to inflict injury as long as your wearing something with padding. I don't hesitate to go as hard and fast as I can, because I know from experience I can't hurt somebody beyond a bruise even if they aren't wearing protection, where as a lump of lumber probably could stove somebodies ribs in with the same moves.
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Thursday 21st November 2013 16:19 GMT Dave 126
Re: Smart PR move
I hope it's good, because of the cast - Gary Oldman, Michael K Williams, Samuel L Jackson - but it probably won't be. On the bright side, the bad press surrounding this (and the remake of Total Recall) appears to have killed the mooted remake of Starship Troopers, another Paul Verhoeven classic.
Oh, if you like the satire, and don't mind a limited effects budget, Starship Troopers 3 has the tongue in cheek attitude (and Johnny Rico) of the first film.
I would say I'd like to see another satirical sci-fi Verhoeven film, but then recent efforts by fellow 1980 sci-fi directors J. Cameron and R. Scott have been disappointing / infuriating.
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Thursday 21st November 2013 18:55 GMT JLV
> I'd like to see another satirical sci-fi Verhoeven film
If you don't mind an older (1985), medieval, Verhoeven film, I nominate Flesh & Blood. I don't know if satyrical is exactly the term, but it's subversive enough ;-)
Basic Instinct aside, Verhoeven, like Besson, didn't work at his full potential in Hollywood. Based on Black Book, I'd say he's back in form in Holland.
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Thursday 21st November 2013 13:34 GMT Dave 126
Excellent!
I've never heard of the R2D2 Makers Club either, though I did stumble on a YouTube video the other day of a man making his own Iron Man outfit. (I was making something completely different, but thought his technique of preparing polysterene with three coats of PVA before applying car body filler - otherwise it melts - might be useful)
The video links to his website http://xrobots.co.uk/ and it would seem there are worse places to go to if you want to build an R2-D2 - he shares his tips on techniques and materials, using foams, plastics, 3D printing, electronics etc. He is also a Raspberry Pi user, though it seems he hasn't had much of chance to play with yet.
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Thursday 21st November 2013 17:12 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Ghost in the movie ?
Be mindful of your training, assumptions lead to mistakes, which lead to anger which... you get the picture.
You only see him lose an arm then fly out the window in a ball of electricity. Since Anakin managed to grab onto a ship mid fall, and Luke survived The Emperor's lightning, there's every possibility he did survive.
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