Help Bring C-3PO to Life at the Museum

Hey Star Wars fans! My name is Kevin Christley and I'm the fan restoration lead for the Star Wars Celebration One X-Wing Fighter , leased from Lucasfilm/Disney and housed at The Wings over the Rockies Air and Space Museum in Denver, Colorado since 1999. The X-Wing was discovered in a storage hangar in severe disrepair and a very talented group of fans banded together to restore it to it's former glory. It's now one of the most popular displays at the museum.

The X-Wing in New York Times Square

While the X-Wing has a working R2-D2 behind the cockpit in the Astromech slot, we've always known he misses his good friend C-3PO.

As it turns out, a very talented costumer and creator, Stephen Mathis, spent literally years perfecting his 1:1 scale wearable C-3PO suit. It's been spray chromed, features electronic LED eyes, and real machined brass parts. It looks like it just walked off the set and is fit to be permanently displayed in a museum for everyone to enjoy.

Stephen is building a new suit based upon updated sculpts, so he's been trying in vain to sell his costume to fund his new build. And unfortunately, the amount of money he's already invested in this one makes it a hard sell for his fellow C-3PO costumers.

That's where we come in. He's willing to sell it to us, the X-Wing Maintenance Crew for use at the X-Wing display at the museum. Our idea is to have C-3PO interact with the museum patrons and his buddy R2-D2.

Our team is willing to fund the conversion process, electronics, coding, blood, sweat and tears and procure a mannequin to display the suit on. But there's no way we as a small group can scrape together the $6000 quickly that Stephen wants for the suit.

That's where you come in. Stephen has permitted us to open a crowdfunding campaign for a month to see if we can collect enough to buy the suit from him. In order for this to happen and C-3PO to become a permanent thing at the museum, we'll need your help.

One dollar from 6,000 fans, ten dollars from 600 fans, $20 from 300 fans, $100 from 60 fans gets us to this seemingly easy goal. Stephen gets paid fairly what he put into the suit and the museum gets a very cool, interactive display to go along with the X-Wing fighter!

*Photo is NOT the suit we're trying to get

I realize this is a big request in these tight times. All money raised will go directly and ONLY to Stephen to purchase his movie accurate C-3PO suit if we can hit the $6000 fundraising goal in 30 days.

If we don't hit the goal, no harm/no foul. You get your donation back in full. But as you can see above, when I ran the numbers, this goal, while lofty, is very doable if a few Star Wars fans can find it in their heart (and pocketbook) to spare a few dollars to contribute towards a museum-worthy C-3PO suit.

Thank you for your time and help to make this unique crowdfunding effort successful. Even if you can't help financially, please spread the word about this crowdfunding effort far and wide as much as you can on your social media accounts.

And ALWAYS feel free to drop on by The Wings over the Rockies Air and Space Museum at 7711 E. Academy Blvd, Denver, Colorado to see the fan-restored X-Wing (signed on the left side by Star Wars celebrities) & Anakin's Podracer in person!

Me with the X-Wing