Just when you thought there couldn’t be any more Star Wars merchandise, geeks may rejoice yet again as another piece of Lucas’ imagination takes form in their household. This time, it is a more than just a toy, but a home theater system.

At CES 2008, Nikko America, who is most famous for their fancy remote control cars, finally unveiled working models of the R2-D2 Digital Audio and Video Projector. I say finally because the R2-D2 Digital Audio and Video Projector has been in and out of gadget blog news for about a year now, but it should be available for purchase soon.

This is an R2 unit that is almost as big as the character made famous by the Lucasfilm double-trilogy, and can do almost anything R2-D2 did in those films. It may not be able to project a 3D image of Princess Leia pleading “Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope”, but it can project a 2D image using DLP by Texas Instruments.

In fact, it can do a contrast ratio of 1800:1, 2000 lumens, and a resolution of 1024 x 768. I am told the maximum screen projection is 260 inches, which is large enough for any wall or ceiling. Now that is a home theater, and the sound is also good with a 20 watt speaker system.

A user can stick a CD or DVD in the spot where Princess Leia stuck the plans for the Death Star in the first film, then sit back and enjoy video and music. Unfortunately, there is no HD DVD or Blu-ray models available. However, there is this cool feature that allows a user to plug in their iPod for MP3 and MP4 capability. The user can also plug in a memory card, and there are USB slots for even greater capacity.

Of course, the piece de résistance is the remote control that is shaped like Millennium Falcon starship. The controls slide out at the push of a button, and they even put in some of Han Solo’s dialogue there, somehow. Speaking of dialogue, R2-D2’s beeping dialogue also shows up during operations. But if you really want to complete your Star Wars illusion, use the remote controls of forward, reverse, and turn. Believe it or not, this R2 unit can even recline, something it never did in any of the six Star Wars films.

As I said before, I believe that this R2-D2 Digital Audio and Video Projector is available soon. It is at a high price for $2,000 at least.