You’ve probably seen features on the site of things like Victorian Star Wars art and which are really just what Star Wars would have been if it were set in the past on earth. Designs like these are often tried and true ways for artists to be creative and re-invent the image of Star Wars. Even more broadly, artists generally turn to the antique or Steampunk look, and use that to inspire a lot of their works. The motif behind the design is often just to create something which looks really cool, and it’s certainly been a successful technique for a lot of artists. The same goes for this piece, which is an antiquated model of R2D2, by Amoebabloke.
This Steampunk model of R2D2 is made mostly of brass and wood, and looks like someone just attached a bunch of brass to one of those wooden barrels. It does look really cool though, as it really resembles R2D2, and the changes in designs only make the aging look authentic. It has the standard details for the dome, which basically works really well with any kind of metallic material, and the main chassis shares a lot of common features with the original. The two noticeable differences are the legs and the gauges, which basically make the design look older than it actually would be, along with the wood.
Overall, I think that this is something that a fan of Star Wars art would truly appreciate, and what makes it so neat is that it’s something that an artist put a lot of time and resources into making. The artist has said that they might be trying to give it away in a kind of raffle format over at b3ta.com, hoping to raise enough to cover the cost of this project, and give them a start on their next. Either way, it looks really cool, and I find that whoever ends up with it will definitely be very fortunate indeed.
