Thanks for the link to the papercraft R2. Cute!
I've never done the "first day of issue" stamp thing, but I definitely want to get at least one of those for the SW stamps. I know they mail you a special card that cancels the stamp from the official city of issue.
Have you seen the express mail boxes? There's three of them -- but of course you have to pre-pay the postage for the box. My husband's already fuming about that. Gotta have 'em, though.
I have a feeling Pensacola won't get one of the R2 mailboxes. If they did, someone would try to steal it or destroy it.
As for the cost of doing that -- the post office will easily make back that money by selling stamps and express mail boxes that will never be used.