A light hearted tale from A Galaxy Far, Far, Away...

While technically genderless, astromech droids are programmed "masculine", but the little droid designated R2-F8 was "different" right off of the assemly line. Instead of the usual plucky personality, R2-F8 exhibited a fussy, rather effeminate personality much like those usually associated with C3-series protocol droids. This lead to problems throughout the little droid's early life as it passed from dissatisfied owner to dissatisfied owner, even having it's memory wiped repeatedly, only to have it's original personality return after each memory wipe. The little droid just did not want to do it's regular maintenance routines, instead spent all of it's time entertaining the ships' crews by beeping out renditions of popular show tunes.

It's last owner sold it to a cruise line where it's flamboyant behavior would fit in better than on his tramp freighter. The little droid excelled at serving drinks to and performing for the happy travellers but was, as usual, unhappy when it came time to do any regularly scheduled shipboard maintenance. On it's last voyage in service to the cruise line, the little droid befriended flamboyant (and frequently drunk) stage and holo actor Ripp Tay Lor, who promptly offered to buy the droid from the cruise line. The cruise line was only too happy to be rid of the rather useless droid and sold it to Tay Lor.

Tay Lor had R2-F8 refitted with an exterior casing in colors of the droid's own choosing and had all of the usual mechanical gizmos and tools removed to make room for several internal liquid tanks. These liquid tanks would be filled with liquers from across the galaxy. R2-F8's unneeded astrogation programming was removed and replaced with the "Complete Guide To Bartending And Mixlogy" and R2-F8 began his current career as bartender and companion to the travelling star.

R2-F8 has never been happier...


R2-F8 (w/o bar):




R2-F8 (w/bar):








Parts:
Body- POTF2 saber launching R2-D2 (modded)
Drink dispenser/bar- Saga Jaba's Sail Barge R2-D2



Ripp Tay Lor:








Friends across the galaxy:


Parts:
Head- McFarlane Monsters French guy from "The Phantom Of The Opera"
Body/collar- Saga Orn Free Taa (modded)
Hands- Chap Mei "Pirates Expeditions" Scorpio Morgan
Glass- Saga Ayy Vida


Notes:
This project had it's genesis when I could not see anyone else being represented by the McFarlane Monsters headsculpt except for '70's homosexual comic Rip Taylor. It all fell into place pretty quickly after that...

Painting all of those little boxes and lines on an Astromech cleanly and evenly is a HUGE pain in the backside!

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That's just freakin' awesome! Both look great. All you need now is Mill-ton Ber-El and a Cantina Band playing "Round and Round" to get the party started. Awesome job!

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....pun intended?

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Ummmm.....no....but now I REALLY wish I had worded that differently

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Where's his confetti bag? Or does F8 fire that like R2-D2 did Luke's saber in Jedi?

His confetti bag is on his belt, under his outer robe, but I really like the idea of R2-F8 firing it as well!

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That is awesome. Plus, Rip has an awesome mustache.

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This is frickin' awesome!


Nice paint apps and parts combo.

Can we expect a Chirlz N'l'sin Riliee custom to follow?

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A Rip Taylor custom. Well, that's it folks, Spectre wins. Everyone else can just quit now, there's no going up from here.

The only thing better would be for Ripp to sport some dayglo colors in his hair; I seem to recall bits of the Gong Show where Rip was wearing a flaming magenta hairdo.

Alternatively, AV might have to go on a hunt for that head if he plans to make an RJ Brande / Legion of SH set of customs.

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Now see, I missed Rip the first time around -- guess I was skimming the posts too fast.

Simply Awesome! Now I keep thinking about the "$1.98 Droid Beauty Contest".

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Love these. First I like the oriignal coloring and back story for the droid. Plus who have thought of seeing a Rip Taylor custom. The only thing I'd change is the gold bar tray. Teh gold fit in on Jabba's palace but I think silver or a blueish silver would fit better with the color scheme you have here. Also, this bugged me with the original, all those gold knobs are supposed to be different drinks. Why oh why Hasbro couldn't add a little splash of color for blue milk or Romulan ale is beyond me.

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Those bright colors may not be such a great idea. Take it from these two vipers

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