Star Wars: R2-D2’s Droid Workshop by Katrina Pallant and Szokolai Dergely (book review).
On New Year’s Eve, prior to a glass of champagne, I sat down with my nephew, Freddie, and attempted Egmont’s fun ‘Star Wars R2D2’s Droid Workshop – Build Your Own R2D2’. This is a neat Star Wars activity book with plenty to entertain any young fan of the Force.
My nephew is seen and so he enlisted my help to build R2. Now a word to the wise, the instructions for building R2 were located in the middle of the other activities in the book. I didn’t find these to start with and consequently improvised a bit when it came to building the droid.
The pieces that make up R2 are made from strong, thick, shiny cardboard. This is exactly the sort of robust material needed for a sturdy model like R2 and withstand the forcefulness of enthusiastic young hands. They are scored well, making folds easy to identify and manage.
Each part is numbered and clearly indicates where parts should slot into other parts. Even if you don’t find the instructions, both kids and adults should be able to make a start on putting R2 together.
Overall, it probably took my nephew and me around forty-five minutes to piece the droid together. Some of the folding needs holding in place so I would recommend a temporary paper clip to help the pieces fit.
The rest of the activity book features games, mazes and quizzes which my nephew enjoyed looking at while I worked on the droid’s trickier parts. The results though, I think, speak for themselves.
I would recommend the ‘Build Your Own R2D2’ as a great activity to be shared between adults and kids or should keep older kids amused by themselves on a wintry afternoon indoors. I guess we wait and see if Egmont will be releasing a BB8 version this December…
John Rivers
January 2015
(pub: Egmont. 38 page large hardback. Price: £14.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-4052-7579-8)
check out website: www.egmont.co.uk