VII.2: All About R5-D4

The red-striped robot known today as “R5-D4” has had a number of on-screen manifestations over its existence in the Star Wars fantasy universe. Here’s a visual extravaganza, dealing specifically with how it was physically portrayed in the shows.

The body

R5-D4 was always considered by the original 1976-77 production to be a mere background droid. It was a simple narrative instrument, used to ratchet up the audience’s fear that the lovable duo of C-3PO and R2-D2 were about to be split up again. So it wasn’t a major character worthy of a special prop, and didn’t even have a name, other than “Red”.

Owen is negotiating with the head Jawa.  Luke and the two robots start for the garage when a plate pops off the head of the red astro-droid, throwing parts all over the ground.  He adjusts the astro-droid's head plate and it sparks wildly.

                    LUKE
          Uncle Owen...

                    OWEN
          Yeah?

                    LUKE
          This R2 unit has a bad motivator.  Look!

R5 was therefore a regular R2 body, adorned with a new head and some red stripes. (two front compartment doors, three rear compartment doors and the front arms were the only parts made red – everything else was white, bare metal or blue, R2-D2 style)

In the end four different droid bodies were used to portray the ill-fated robot in the original film; three of which are seen on-screen.

The HEAD

The R5 heads were clearly intended to look quite different from R2-D2’s half-ovoid metal dome. They were cast from fibreglass at EMI Elstree’s production facilities, painted white and red, and lined with red pinstriping tape. Production dates are not known, but it would have been early 1976, since filming in Tunisia began in March. Probably two heads (often called “domes”, even though these particular ones aren’t dome shaped at all) were produced; exact numbers are not known.

The original production blueprint for the R5 dome, or “Robot Head to Fit R2 Body” still exists, and a copy is owned by R2-D2 aficionado and researcher Robert Jackson. This drawing means it’s possible to make quite accurate replicas of the original design. Of course, the blueprint has a few features never implemented in the final design – the neck recesses are labelled “lighted panels” in the drawings.

The neck has a series of rectangular recesses spaced around its circumference. Each recess contains what appears to be rainbow-type metallic stickers with circular prismatic patterns. These are sometimes called “holographic” stickers, though of course there’s nothing actually holographic about them at all.

It is possible that the recesses might have contained polished aluminium or steel plates with overlapping disc-like patterns known as engine turning; it’s not totally certain. Personally I think they were stickers, because many scenes show a really bright rainbow pattern to these recesses, and polished steel usually doesn’t have as strong a multicoloured look. But I don’t think there’s enough evidence in these images to be certain.

The Eyes

One of the more difficult aspects of the R5 design to nail down has been the three main camera eyes on the dome. The blueprints simply describe the eyes as “purchased lenses” and don’t depict the finished design. Until the last few years no high resolution pictures existed, and so fan replicas, based on VHS/DVD captures and low-resolution publicity shots, have been stepped parallel-sided cylinders. This seemed a reasonable design at the time.

But the 4K/UHD Blu-ray release of the Special Edition – the screenshots below were taken from that version – clearly shows that the R5 eyes were actually shallow, possibly finely knurled cylinders, on the front with tapered cones on the back.

It’s not known for certain if these were found objects, but they do look somewhat similar to the central spindle posts of Transcriptors/Michell turntables. (item 2 in the black and white photo above) I think Chris Trevas may have been the first person to identify this as a possible part, and Robert Jackson has done a lot of work in terms of modelling and replicating it.

However, known samples of these turntable spindles do not have large holes milled out on the underside, whereas the R5 eyes visible in the film clearly have deeply recessed holes containing lenses. The cylindrical part also seems lower in the film greeblies. It’s not known if the eyes were custom-milled for the film (C-3PO’s eyes, for example, were custom made components based on Michell turntable weights) or if other versions of the posts existed with holes suitable for fitting lenses. Or, indeed, if they were something else entirely!

The “Identities” R5

Our first view of the robot is in the bowels of the Sandcrawler. R2-D2 wakes up to find himself trapped in a droid prison, surrounded by other stolen or abandoned robots, including our friend R5-D4.

INT. SANDCRAWLER

Threepio and Artoo noisily bounce along inside the cramped prison chamber.
Artoo appears to be shut off.

                    THREEPIO

          Wake up!  Wake up!

This scene wasn’t the first to be filmed chronologically – it was actually shot at EMI Elstree studios in England, after the Tunisian sequences were complete. The hybrid fibreglass/aluminium R2 body commonly referred to as the “Identities” droid was used, which is why it has the characteristic framed-out charge/zapper panel door. This feature is often associated with R5, though of course since the Identities droid was also used to portray R2-D2, it forms a minor continuity error in droid appearances in this film.

R5 turns its head listlessly in the scene, but we know that the “Identities” droid couldn’t accommodate Kenny Baker, and wasn’t motorized. Therefore it seems likely that the head movement was accomplished simply by having somebody crouch down behind the robot, turning the head by hand. This high-tech technique was known to have been used at other points in the film to animate R2-D2’s dome.

The Sandcrawler interior sequence offers the highest resolution image we have of R5 in the original film. In fact, the 4K scan of the film reveals a lot of new details about the dome. In particular, many of the various metal greeblies are clearly visible, including the eye shape.

The Kenny R5

The scene then cuts back and forth between the two-legged Kenny R5 and the three-legged “Frankendroid” R5 described in a moment. In fact there are some continuity errors in the scene when R5 suddenly jumps from being two-legged to three and back unexpectedly.

Filming the droid “auction” was famously difficult, owing to the robots malfunctioning and other challenges. A lot of desperate measures were taken to get the footage in the can, and some of these problems were concealed through ingenious editing, but the result is the occasional continuity problem with R5 for the sharp-eyed!

In addition to the aforementioned leg/position switch, the R5 droid is briefly visible in the background of an R2 head-turning reaction shot when it should have already rolled away out of frame. (presumably Lucas and the editors decided that having R2 turn and look towards the camera was a valuable emotional moment, and moved some earlier footage to this point, despite the continuity error that resulted) The Kenny droid also lacks the framing around the zapper/charge bay door, and doesn't have blue painted around the front exhaust vents.

Finally, it’s not known how the red colouring was applied to the Kenny R2. Were the arms and panels painted red? Or were strips of adhesive vinyl applied to the droid? The latter makes a lot of sense — they could be quickly applied without drying time, and the stripes could instantly be peeled off to revert R2 to his normal blue and white state. But Rinzler quotes Gary Kurtz as saying “we repainted (the “backup” robot) to match the red one.” But does he mean they painted blue to the blue areas? Because the fibreglass robot – the Frankendroid to be discussed shortly – didn’t have any coloration at all when it arrived in Tunisia.

There isn’t enough information to verify either theory, though compartment doors with bare and unweathered middle sections does bolster the red vinyl stickers idea.

The RC R2

Only one R2 droid in 1976 was actually motorized, and the original plan was to use it as R5 in this scene. This robot could stand in two-leg mode and, at the flick of a switch, could extend its middle leg and swing into three-leg mode. At least in theory. In reality, the middle leg’s catch mechanism did not work reliably, resulting in some humiliating and droid-damaging faceplants.

In fact, this fall is probably the reason why the RC R2’s large data slot is so badly bent throughout much of the film. It looks totally fine in the prep shot earlier on this page – before filming had begun. But by the time the Jawa attack sequence was filmed a couple days later the RC R2’s slot is definitely damaged – and pushed inwards, in keeping with the idea of a fall.

There are photos and 16mm documentary footage of the RC R2, dressed up in R5 dome and red stripes, failing to leg-drop properly in Tunisia. There are also photos of the crew, such as this one, desperately trying to get it to work.

The team even dressed a full-sized adult technician in Jawa robes, had him kneel down behind R2-D2, and gave him a sharp shove to engage the leg mechanism. This kind of worked, and amazingly you can see said technician awkwardly shuffling away on his knees in the final footage used in the film, though they cut into that sequence after the leg drop had occurred.

Owing to these technical problems, no leg-drop sequence was ever successfully filmed on location. R2-D2’s roll-off starts after the leg drop, and the RC R2 is never shown on-screen at all as R5-D4 in the finished film.

The Frankendroid

Things were not looking good on Day 1 of the shoot. In addition to the leg-drop failures, the effects team realized rather too late that the special exploding R5 head wouldn’t fit atop the RC R2 as planned. This is because the stunt head contained both a “bad motivator” mechanism and a pyrotechnic charge, whereas the RC R2 had a platform for the electronics that protruded into the dome.

Disaster! The RC R2 was the sole droid with three legs and motors on site. The whole “R5 rolls away and explodes” scene was in jeopardy.

The very first day we had that sequence where Uncle Owen picks the red robot and Luke walks away and says, “Come on, Red, Red!” — and the red one is supposed to roll out there and its head is supposed to blow up. Well, the radio-controlled robot had all the controls in the head, so we couldn’t put the exploding head on it.
So we all stood around for a few minutes looking at each other and saying, ‘Wait a second. The script says the robot is rolling along and the head blows off. Now, you guys are supposed to know better than this. You’re the ones that designed this stuff.’
We ended up taking the fibreglass backup robot, putting it on a piano wire, and putting the exploding head on that.”

- Gary Kurtz, quoted in JW Rinzler.

Fortunately production designer John Barry had been skeptical about special effects supervisor John Stears’ robot plans, and had instructed the art department to produce a lightweight fibreglass droid as a backup. This unfinished droid was thus hastily unpacked to Kurtz’s instructions, painted up, equipped with a rudimentary third leg, and pulled along on either monofilament fishing line (according to set decorator Roger Christian) or piano wire (according to Kurtz). The day was saved.

Another detail is that a second R5 dome appears to have been used for the explosion scene. So there was one head for the non-explody footage, and a second one with the pop-out red wedge panel, the spring-up mechanism, and the pyro.

If you look closely at the positioning of the red tape above the right-hand recess on the dome side you’ll notice a subtle difference in height; evidence that two domes were used.

Incidentally, I do wonder if the production dodged a proverbial bullet by putting the pyro head on a disposable fibreglass body for the shot, rather than atop a mechanized droid filled with delicate servos and electronics.

The pyro charge they packed in was pretty violent as you can see in the second photo above, and ended up blowing out around the neck and open skirt (not seen here) of the droid when it fired, not just out the top. The light was so bright you can see it glowing through the thin fibreglass of the rear dome recess. That would have been pretty grim if they had destroyed the RC R2’s capability to drive on day one of shooting!

Finally the cobbled-together Frankendroid, as I like to call it, was then used for a photo shoot at the end of the day. The R5 dome and the red stripes were removed, an R2 dome installed, and Anthony Daniels in full C-3PO regalia was brought over. The result was a now famous and widely used publicity photo of the two droids on the Tunisian desert plain.

And a whole generation of nerdy kids wondered why R2-D2’s manipulator arms weren’t blue, why one of the front exhaust vents was shoved back and falling in, why the middle foot and ankle looked so assymetrical and weird, and why the robot generally looked so terrible!

R5 Variants

The droid components were reused, redressed, and repainted for various background droids in the film, such as those in the streets of Mos Eisley. (filmed in Ajim, Tunisia) At one point a white Kenny R2, with an R5 dome, can be seen off in the distance. Another one has a dark-painted R5 head and is in three-leg mode.

THAT R5 NAME

Okay – so we’re kind of going into the weeds here, but people sometimes point out that Luke, in Star Wars, refers to R5-D4 as an “R2 unit”. This isn’t a continuity error, or a goof on our humble farmboy’s part, for the simple reason that the idea of naming the red-striped droid “R5-D4” came along after the film was released!

In the original movie, all barrel-bodied tin-can robots were “R2 units”. This term is basically synonymous with “astro-droid”, referring to spaceship mechanics. The term “astromech,” beloved of fans, is not used in the original films, and seems to originate in Alan Dean Foster’s tie-in novelization. And, speaking of the novel, it refers to R5 simply as an “agricultural droid.”

Indeed, Star Wars’ production team created barrel-type robots with five basic dome designs, but none were differentiated or named at the time. They were:

• The ovoid R2-D2 domes, which were made from turned aluminium.

• Cast fibreglass ovoid R2 domes – these were painted all kinds of different colours.

• The tapered-side or lampshade design; now called R5.

• The tall stretched design that goes to a hexagon; now called R4.

• Finally, a transparent dome briefly seen on a background droid that seems to have been a hemisphere, not an ovoid.

• The Empire Strikes Back added the transparent ovoid dome; later called “R3”.

So where does “R5-D4” actually come from? Well, there was a Kenner robot named that, copyrighted 1977 and released in 1978, and it seems likely that the handle originates with this toy. This was not uncommon – Kenner often invented new names for random background characters that they wanted to sell as toy figures, in order to have a convenient marketing name for the product.

20th Century Fox later filed for a trademark for a “mini action figure” named “Arfive Defour” in September 1978. This was sometimes written “Arfive-Defore” on packaging. Yep – an attempt was made to phoneticize the robot’s name, much like Artoo-Detoo and See-Threepio. Red’s moniker never really caught on, though. Maybe because Arfive-Defour sounds like a French military commander from WWII or something.

At some later point someone decided that the R appelation refers to the shape or style of the robot’s head. Pablo Hidalgo wrote some material in the mid 90s for West End Games nailing down shapes and names, but I don’t know if he originated the idea or if he collated existing marketing material. Then came the prequels — and various new and random dome names came about. Finally animation, sequels and streaming introduced new droid body types and names.

So in short... there has never really been a consistent scheme or system for Star Wars droid names – it’s mostly a matter of people coming up with names that they liked.

After Star Wars

The R5 domes were reused in a few places after the original film.

In the Empire Strikes Back, an R5 was painted black and grey and given a couple of lights inside one eye and the lower “door peephole viewer” thing.

In Return of the Jedi, a pair of sinister black-painted R5 type droids appear on the new Death Star. These have cutouts on the domes with droopy “binocular” eyes installed. It’s not certain if these were reused Star Wars domes, or if they were made new. However, various props were reused in the production so it seems likely they were original parts.

Following the conclusion of the original trilogy (OT), Disney constructed an elaborate Star Wars themed amusement park ride, Star Tours. Various actual production-made droids from the OT were used in Star Tours as background props. A couple of R5-domed droids can be seen in photos of the attraction. These appear to be the ROTJ binocular droids, repainted.

While records were kept concerning what was shipped when, these are not publicly available. However it does seem that these domes have a lineage extending back to the original Star Wars film. According to former Lucasfilm archivist Don Bies, the LFL Archives do not contain any Original Trilogy R5 domes.

Because the original R5 heads were too busy welcoming guests at Disney World, a new dome was built by the Leavesden production team for Episode I: the Phantom Menace, when an R5-type droid is seen aboard the Queen’s ship. It looks like it might have a slightly pointier conical top than the originals, and it has a ring of what appear to be raised bumps around the neck, rather than metallic rainbow stickers. The dome was then repainted for use on Jabba the Hutt’s pod race balcony; a shot that was assembled digitally at ILM.

For Episode II: Attack of the Clones, this R5 dome was repainted again, this time for an R5-D4 cameo on the streets of Mos Espa. Don Bies says that actor Ahmed Best (Jar Jar Binks) drove the droid for the scene.

The MandalOrian

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