Speechless. Amoebabloke over on deviantART has constructed an antiqued, steampunk-looking R2D2. (If you need me to explain what R2D2 is or why that's freaking awesome, this list is not for you.) This is the stuff of which L. Frank Baum's nightmares were made. Didn't you know he was obsessed by robots? I'm not kidding on that one. He was.

And here I just blew a fortune on Hasbro's life-size talky-talky, beepy-beepy plastic version of R2 for my husband's birthday. Believe me, that droid has got a serious attitude problem. They programmed him that way. He only listens to you half the time. The rest of the time he just gives you lip and keeps trying to run away.

I can tell that this beer-barrel-bodied fellow would be much more of a gentleman. Amazing.

I skipped the via link because the entire known blogosphere was linking to this project. Gizmodo, boing boing, geekologie, neatorama ... seriously, everyone. So make your usual rounds.