POLK COUNTY, Fla.-- A Polk County Schools employee is touring the district and showing off a R2-D2 replica that he built with his own hands.
- Polk County Schools employee builds R2-D2 replica
- Took over a year to make and cost $2,200
- Rany Nothdorf is touring it around the district
Randy Nothdorf, a technology integration specialist, said it only took him a year and four months to build it. Nothdorf said he spent around $2,200.
“Some people have spent as much as a car building theirs. I did not,” Nothdorf told students at Dixieland Elementary School on Friday, while showing off the robot for Star Wars Day.
The R2-D2 replica is made of plastic and wood. Nothdorf said the hardest part was creating the feet.
The lifelong “Star Wars” fan said the project has introduced him to a lot of great people.
“Just a way to connect with other people with skills, building stuff, coding stuff," he said.
Using a controller, Nothdorf makes it move, spin its head, make sounds and play music such as the “Star Wars” theme song.
"It's like you're watching TV, but you're not,” Mindy Morenzy said. "It's just like he's in real life and not in the movie."
Morenzy was one of the many students at Dixieland Elementary School that got to see the robot in action.
Nothdorf said he’s taken the robot to bookstores, Legoland Florida and many other places.
He’ll soon head to Los Angeles to showcase it, along with a C-3PO suit he designed for his wife.