If anything good came out of the Star Wars prequels (and we're not entirely convinced anything did), it's that R2-D2 was at last able to expand his repertoire beyond shocking Jawas, extinguishing fires and delivering sass in beeps and whirls. This little astromech droid could finally fly. Unfortunately (ahem), though, we never saw him transform into the bipedal, Stormtrooper-smashing droid of vengeance that you know, deep down, he yearns to be.

But Italian modeler Lemcat has given us just that with "Hi2-D2: Enhanced astromech droid," which began life as a Gundam model kit. Now, however, it's the bane of the Empire, equipped with a buzz saw that looked kind of cute on a little R2 unit. On this roided-out droid, though? Kind of menacing.

Plus, there's that enormous rifle ...



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(via Kotaku)