"In 2010, Chinese farmer Yu Zhilin and his son Yu Lingyun opened up their own metalworking shop in the country's Hunan Province. Inspired by the futuristic robots from the movie “Transformers,” the pair began fashioning original statues from scrap metal. Their first design took about a month and a half to build, but they’ve since created an impressive array of statues, giving new life to discarded car parts along the way. It’s not just the success of their new business that makes this father-son duo happy; the craft itself has brought them closer together."
"As the girl turns away, a slow tear trickled down the water heaters face. For no one had ever told the water heater they loved him before."
Inspired by the Droid Mechanics Lee Towersey and Oliver Steeples, we wanted to build our own astromech and learn about it in the process. Only that we come from the software side of things.
Director J.J. Abrams went old school during production of The Force Awakens. The original trilogy, which mainly used real sets and props, had a special vibe that was missing in the prequel trilogy. Abrams wanted Episode VII to feel organic and tactile, closer in spirit to the original movies. To achieve that, they used as many practical effects as possible, and BB-8 was no exception.
The first known sketch of BB-8 was revealed during Star Wars Celebration 2015…
"Dont forget where you started! I’ve hidden R2-D2 and C3P0 in the stars, just to remind little BB-8 that he isnt alone."
