Every year mad scientists, robot builders, power tool drag racers, craftsters, and other DIY guys and gals gather together at the San Mateo County Fairgrounds for one of the coolest events in the Bay Area — the Maker Faire!

This year there were plenty of fun things for Star Wars fans to see and do — including crafts, R2-D2 dancing, prop displays, the LEGO Jeep, Steampunk contraptions and more!

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Fan and custom figure creator Sillof has posted some outstanding Star Wars Steampunk figures that make us long for an official line of Victorian EU toys.

For those of you who need a primer on Steampunk the gist is that it’s a subgenre of science fiction and fantasy that mixes steam, gears, and clunky elements with Victorian design elements to make a uniquely cool world of old meets futuristic. Jules Vern meets Blade Runner.

Sillof explains his inspiration for each Star Wars Steampunk custom figure — whether it’s the steam-powered boiler-bot that is R2-D2 or the Prussian spiked helmet and gas-mask elements on Darth Vader.

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If you dig Steampunk and Star Wars, you might get a kick out of this Steampunk Darth Vader Mask we spotted on eBay this week. Pretty impressive, right down to the gear-saturated chest plate!

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Check out these uber-cool Steampunk Star Wars Sketch Cards
from one of our favorite artists — Cynthia Cummens.

The sketch cards were created for a special Sketch Card Gallery Exhibit on March 8, 2008, sponsored for Blue Line for the Comics2Games store in Florence, Kentucky. After the show, the cards will be auctioned on eBay with proceeds donated to the American Cancer Society. The show is open to all artists.

Artists interested in participating should email Jeremy Bell here for more info about the event.

Check out more of Cynthia’s amazing Star Wars art here on her official site.

Artist Eric Poulton continues his Steampunk Star Wars tribute with this rather endearing portrait of Admiral Ackbar as Captain Ackbar complete with a backstory:

A scientific genius with a troubled mind, Captain Ackbar spent much of his life roaming the stars in a ship of his own design. After witnessing his homeworld captured and his people enslaved by the Empire, he gathered a loyal crew and fled into deep space, planning to escape civilization entirely.

Check out more of Eric Poulton’s Steampunk Star Wars tributes here:

• Sir Obi Wan Kenobi
• Steampunk Star Wars Desktops

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Source: Club Jade

The coal fires driving the LEGO “Steam Wars” contest get stoked again with this fantastic new submission discovered via clubjade.net. The mammoth tusks and top-deck cannons were inspired additions to this entry. Check out the full Flickr gallery here.

Gizmodo.com continues their coverage of the LEGO steampunk Star Wars contest, recently updating with several new entries, including “Steam Speeder”, Pod Racer, “Imperial London Shuttle”, and TIE Fighter. Click on over to check them out!

If you frequent our blog, you’re probably aware that we’re big fans of steampunk, especially when it’s got a Star Wars twist. As reported here a couple weeks ago, there’s a LEGO Star Wars steampunk contest afoot, and boingboing.net just posted a heads-up on one of the cooler entries – the “Royal Naboo Airforce One”, or R.N.A.F.1, created by Mark Stafford. We think it’s rather, well, fetching, actually.

Check boingboing’s original post here, or follow this link to see more angles of this cool entry.

Star Wars steampunk aficionados, crack out those old LEGO sets with helicopter propellers, domed canopies, harpoons, gears and other Victorian accoutrements – the From Bricks to Bothans Forums has announced a “Steam-Wars Contest” and is giving away some great LEGO Star Wars sets for prizes.

To get an idea of what Star Wars steampunk might look like, check out some of the photos posted at the WIRED Blog Network.

Better hurry – contest ends January 31st!

Thanks to theforce.net for the heads up!

BoingBoing TV vlogger/journalist Xeni Jardin continues her lightsaber training while visiting LA Jedi Bootcamp, and droid maker I-Wei shows off his latest steampunk robots!

VIDEO: BBtv: Jedi Xeni/Steam-Powered Robots

And don’t miss our exclusive interview with I-Wei about his steam-powered R2-D2 here:
Creating R2-S2 (Steampunk R2-D2)