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“2T2 was a Science Fair industrial arts project at McClatchy High School's metal shop, recalls Gary Tomsic, a long time Channel 3 cameraman. “It was a class project, and was in progress when I took metal shop.” A few years after graduating, Tomsic went back to McClatchy to visit his old shop teacher. “I was dismayed to realize they were tearing the robot up for the various mechanical parts.” Gary was able to trade a 16mm movie camera for the still unfinished mechanical man.
He took the robot to friend’s house in Land Park to work on it. “We completed the robot into the form it pretty much is: plexiglass panels, the head and, at one point, radio controlled,” said Tomsic. Tomsic recalled the first night he tried out the remote control in public. "The first attempt to use it, we took it out to a house near City College in Sacramento to impress some girls that lived there, by the school. And we put it out on their driveway. With the radio control we made it walk up to their house, but we didn't realize we made it walk through their treasured rose bed, and he destroyed the rosebed!" Needless to say, they didn't impress the girls. Soonafter, Gary Tomsic, a budding filmmaker and cameraman, was hired by KCRA, channel 3, with some help from Bob Wilkins. Tomsic remembers, "I told Bob, "I keep turning in applications, and I think they keep throwing them away!" and Bob took a puff off his cigar and told me "They won't any more". " Years later, when Bob needed a side-kick for Captain Cosmic, he contacted Gary about using his robot. Bob came up with the name, 2T2 (obviously a take-off on R2D2), and after a trip to a auto painting shop for a makeover, a legendary Bay Area TV “personality” was born. Today, after being stored in a barn for five years, in Cameron Park , 2T2 has found a new home at Atlantis Fantasy World in Santa Cruz. |
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