- I had never seen a built R2 before,
and it was working and had lights,
and I was so excited about it.
And I said, I'm building one.
And that was it.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
- Everyone has a "Star Wars" story.
I'm Jordan Hembrough, and I've turned my passion
for "Star Wars" into a career.
Today, I'm in Beaverton, Oregon to chat with Christina Cato,
a fan so inspired by "Star Wars,"
she taught herself the art and science of droid building.
Hey, Christina. - Hey.
- How are you? - Good.
- Good.
Lead the way, buddy.
This is Cristina's "Star Wars" story.
- I love Star--
I've loved it all my life.
My friends, everybody, we all loved "Star Wars."
So yeah, when we would go out on the playgrounds and stuff,
we would play act our favorite scenes.
- Who were you? - I was Luke.
- You were Luke?
- I loved Luke.
Yes, yes.
When I was a kid, one of the things
that I loved about "Star Wars" was
that I could put myself there.
I saw myself in the universe.
It's a world for everyone.
It's a universe that was created for everyone.
- Talk to me about your very first "Star Wars" project
that you worked on. - Sure.
So my first project was the first costume that I created
in wanting to join the 501st.
And so my first project was an officer uniform.
But I didn't want to just buy an officer's uniform,
so I actually drafted and made my own officer uniform.
- Really? - Yes.
- Any others?
- Yes, I have three other approved costumes
with the 501st.
I am a stormtrooper, an imperial combat
driver, and the imperial transport troop driver.
- So you always loved "Star Wars,"
but your passion came when you were at a convention, right?
- That's correct.
I met my first droid builder three years ago,
four years ago. - OK.
- So it wasn't that long ago.
I had never seen a built R2 before.
And it was working and had lights,
and I was so excited about it. And I said, did you build this?
And he said, yes.
And I said, so you're like an engineer?
And he said, no, I learned as I built.
It was like, I'm building one.
And that was it.
To have someone just say, you can do this,
you can build this, it was such an empowering
experience for me.
- Where do you even go to learn something like this?
- There's clubs.
And the droid builder I met was part
of the droid builder's club, and he introduced me
to the local builders.
And so I got a chance to meet them in person.
It's definitely interesting to be a woman in this club.
Yeah.
There's two of us here in the Pacific Northwest.
- Who are building droids right now in the club?
- That have finished droids. - That have finished droids?
- Yeah. - Walk me through.
How does even one go about building their own droid?
Like, how does it start?
How do I do it?
- It's a process. Yeah.
And it always has to start with the research.
I actually read and researched for six months
before I made any decisions on what I was going to do.
When they started doing the promotional materials
for "Rogue One" and we saw C2-B5, I fell in love.
I knew I wanted an imperial droid, and I loved C2.
He's a beautiful droid.
I just knew.
I was like, well, that's my droid.
- How long did it take you?
- Well, the first droid I finished was the mouse droid.
- Oh, you did another one?
- Yeah.
Like I say, I'm obsessed.
The mouse droid took me four months.
C2-B5 took me a year.
- A year?
- Yes.
- For C2-B5?
- Yes.
It's all I did.
I would come home from work, I would work on it.
Vacation time, I would work on it.
I bought a lot of saws and drills,
and all that kind of thing.
The electronics I put together myself.
The lights I actually soldered, every single light
that's in that droid.
I decided not to buy a kit.
I wanted to do it myself and learn from that experience.
So I did it twice, because I had to learn from that experience.
C2-B5 took a lot of paint, a lot of paint.
There was a lot of phone calls.
There was a lot of Skyping.
There was a lot of crying over the internet
to get some of the questions answered
and figure out when I would hit a rough spot.
- So then, you start talking about yet another droid.
- BB-8, yes.
- OK.
And did you finish BB-8 yet?
- No.
I'm so close.
So, so close.
- I think he's awesome. I love him.
- Thank you.
He's my little boy.
- So what is the appeal of droids that
makes us love them so much, as much as we
love the human characters?
- The special thing about "Star Wars"
is "Star Wars" gave them a life.
- I'm so glad we took this job.
- You don't ever think about the droids as robots.
You know, they were something you cared about and cried about
and could fall in love with.
- Are you talking about me?
- So you were excited when you started.
- Yeah.
- How did you feel when you finally finished?
- I'm not going to lie, I cried.
I-- yeah.
It was-- there was a lot of crying.
- OK.
- Yeah.
It was-- and it continues to be--
just an amazingly powerful experience to not only build
the droid, but now to see how it affects other people
that I built a droid.
I want to share that.
I want other people to have that feeling,
to have that experience.
It's been amazing.
When people ask, you know, who's driving it,
I tell them it's me, so that they ask questions.
I really like when people ask questions.
I especially love when women ask me questions,
which I get a lot of.
Women will bring their little girls over to me
and say, she built this, she built this.
And they get really excited about it, and I love that.
I love the joy that I see in other women seeing that a woman
built it, specifically.
- That's important to you?
- Yes, yes, extremely.
- Your antenna's bent.
- Talk to me about the Stardust Builders Initiative.
You co-founded that. - Yes.
The Stardust Builders Initiative is
a Facebook group that me and several other builders
put together.
The idea is just that it's a nice place
for women to come and support each other in droid building.
There's some very shy women out there, who want to build,
but maybe they're just a little intimidated.
And so we just wanted to give them
a place where they could also come and start to blossom
and feel excited about it.
- So you're actually talking to women around the world,
in different countries, who all want to build droids,
and who are just looking for support?
- Yes.
We can do it, as long as you have hands and a brain.
- Do you look at yourself as a role model for young women?
- Yes.
I would like to be.
I wasn't a follow your dreams kind of person
before I started building.
But now, I'm all for it.
I'm all for learn something and use it.
I am definitely a different person
now than I was when I started building, in both confidence
level, in skill level.
So many avenues have opened up, it's been just astounding.
And I would never have thought to explore any of these things
if it hadn't been for this hobby.
- So what's next?
- It doesn't end.
It never ends.
I have more projects lined up.
I'll just keep building them until I run out
of room, or until someone sends me to droid builders
anonymous, or something.
- Yeah.
I want to become a droid builder now.
- Yes, you should. - Will you help me?
- Of course.