IV: the Actual R2-D2 Movie Props
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This is a highly detailed review of “Build your own R2-D2,” a “partworks” kit designed and sold by De Agostini/Modelspace. But next, some information on the actual R2-D2 movie props built for the first three Star Wars films (the Original Trilogy).
Will the real R2-D2 please stand up?
Although narratively there was obviously only one R2-D2 astromech droid in the Star Wars movies, in reality many different props were built for filming purposes. Rather than create a single robot that could do everything, the filmmakers built several separate props which could perform individual functions, to create the illusion of a complex and talented multifunction droid. The movie R2-D2s used in the Original Trilogy (Star Wars/Empire/Jedi) mostly fell into two basic configurations and two eras.
The two physical configurations were the two-legged droids operated by actor Kenny Baker, and the three-legged motorized remote-control droids for the rolling-around scenes. This early scene from Star Wars shows both modes. Two separate props were used – they just cut between the scenes and swapped the robots out.
Automation in the 1970s wasn't very advanced, so the movie relied a lot on Baker's non-verbal acting. The two-leg droids were used for scenes where R2 needed to show emotion or perform a walking-like motion. The "Kenny" droids notably have grey ribbed hoses like the hot air ducts on clothes dryers, or sometimes leather sleeves, joining the feet and skirt - to hide protruding ankles and legs!
R2 performer Kenny Baker waits while a pair of technicians ready the prop for the next take of the droid auction scene. Note how the leg-concealing hoses are quite visible once you notice them.
In terms of eras there were the original units built for Star Wars (1977), and the ones built for The Empire Strikes Back (ESB, 1980) and reused in Return of the Jedi (ROTJ, 1983). Generally hobbyists refer to the two eras of droids as the ANH robots (from the retroactive title for Star Wars: a New Hope) and the ESB robots.
The droids built for the prequels were mostly patterned after the Empire versions, but with varying differences. The prequels also employed a lot of entirely CGI droids, especially for the third film.
Visual effects supervisor Brian Johnson (centre) and his crew work on the many R2 units constructed for Empire. Note the dome on the far left, which has a bunch of small rectangles in it. Those were tiny pictures of pinup girls, added for the benefit of R2 performer Kenny Baker.
In short, the Star Wars (1977) robots were famously inconsistent in details, reflecting the limited budgets and time available for their construction. The ones built for Empire were more consistent among themselves, but introduced other minor variations. And so there are obvious continuity errors in the movies; often within the same scene. Which droid is “correct” is really up to you!
Real life R2 variants.
Now I’m no R2 expert, but here are a few observations as to what the different R2 props looked like, with some historical context.
Star Wars
The original Star Wars props were constructed from aluminium by small UK engineering firm Peteric Engineering, based on designs by Ralph McQuarrie, Grant McCune, Norman Reynolds, Les Dilley, John Barry, John Stears, and others. Of all these people, it seems former James Bond effects man John Stears deserves the most credit for turning McQuarrie's conceptual sketches and paintings into actual physical props. Almost all the droid parts were designed and custom-built, with the hologram projectors one of the few "found" parts (adjustable reading lamps from a Vickers Viscount airplane; parts of these lights also show up on the Millennium Falcon dashboard).
The original droids under construction.
The white parts of the body were simply painted aluminium. But the blue panels, also made of metal, were treated using an interesting technique. It appears that they were dyed using Dykem-brand blue "layout fluid," which is a temporary dye used by metalworkers to mark surfaces in preparation for cutting, etc. The transparent blue gave a real depth to the panels, which can also look a bit purplish or nearly black, depending on the angle of the light. The dye would discolour rapidly, however, and had to be touched up continuously during the shoot.
Our first view of the droid, aboard Princess Leia’s Blockade Runner, is that of a three-legged motorized version. This one had tons of visible rivet marks on the cylindrical part of its body. It had serious dents to the dome and panels, and its front holo projector nozzle had a black-painted tip and a black base ring or cowling. Its motorized red and blue dome light (later commonly referred to as a “processor status indicator (PSI)”) was recessed, didn’t move very reliably, and looked stuck halfway in the red position most of the time.
A three-legged ANH radio-control prop. Note the visible rivets or partly-filled screw holes on the body, the black ring around the holoprojector, and the scratch patterns on the blue panels.
The same scene on the Blockade Runner also cut occasionally to the two-legged Kenny Baker droid. This had a differently dented dome, and its front holo projector was black-tipped with a blue ring around its base.
The two-legged "Kenny Baker" R2. Note the different dents, scratches, and holoprojector ring colours.
Both versions had fairly slow-moving and dim fibre optic “logic” lights on the dome. Sometimes these blue and white lights weren’t even on. The red and blue front PSI lights changed colour by means of a physical mechanism - a filter that slid horizontally back and forth under motor control. This feature often seemed to fail or not get moved, resulting in a light stuck on one colour partway.
Interestingly enough, in the fun trivia department, the shoulder's round upper buttons were all deliberately installed at a slight angle - they weren't parallel to the ground like the lower buttons were. This wasn't a mistake - the button angle difference is in the original blueprints.
Unfortunately the three legged version had shoulder hinge problems in 1976, resulting in the two rear legs spreading wider as the droid rolled along. This meant that poor R2 tended to veer and crash into things. You can see this in the scene after Leia has hidden herself, when the robot lowers its third leg and heads towards the camera. It starts to careen towards a floor obstruction but the scene cuts just before it crashes.
To solve this embarrassing issue the crew desperately installed angle brackets, joining the skirt to the front edges of the battery packs, just to get certain shots. These fixed brackets obviously couldn't be used for the 2 to 3 leg transition shots, when the middle leg extended down, which explains the steering problems in those scenes.
This Death Star sequence shows the problematic legs. First, we have the droid in two-leg mode, though note how the bottom of the third foot is just visible. Second, the middle foot has now extended down, but the back feet aren't quite flat. Next, the droid starts to move, but the outer legs start to splay badly, especially on the right. Finally we cut to a different R2, rolling confidently but with angle brackets to keep the legs and body together.
Help me, ugly angle bracket. You're my only hope! A closeup view of one of the original R2 units.
Making things worse for the filmmakers, the 1977 robots apparently couldn’t rotate their heads and steer simultaneously. In fact they could barely turn at all, and were often just pulled around on wires! Some scenes, such as walking down the street towards Docking Bay 94, feature two R2-D2s - one rolling towards the camera and out of frame, then a second one rolling into frame and away from the camera. Just because the poor droid couldn't change direction so sharply. In fact, the original film's droids were fairly notorious for being generally uncooperative.
This behind-the-scenes shot shows one of the prop technicians, on his knees and disguised unconvincingly in a Jawa's robes, desperately trying to get the three-legged R2 unit to tilt back, lock its arms, and extend its third foot. He eventually gets it to work by shoving it. In the finished film you can actually see the technician shuffling sheepishly away on his knees, behind the multi-armed Treadwell robot, at the end of the droid auction scene. Perhaps this is the reason why Phil Brown, playing Uncle Owen, appears to be smirking in that shot.
The Empire Strikes Back
The 1976-77 droids were solid, but also heavy and not mechanically reliable, to the frustration of the filmmakers. When Brian Johnson was brought in to do special mechanical effects for ESB, he decided to recreate the robots from scratch rather than reuse the ANH droids. The new ones had lightweight fibreglass composite domes and body cylinders, and had improved motors and radio remote systems. 7 or 8 droids were built for different purposes, as well. The ejection from the Dagobah swamp also required some light hollow shells for the effects sequence.
A UK builder called the Rocking Horse Toy Company was commissioned to build these replicas. Late company founder Tony Dyson was often described in the media as the “creator” of R2, which is obviously incorrect since despite the importance of his contributions he neither designed nor built the originals!
In terms of visual appearance, the ESB fibreglass bodies have no visible rivets on the body shell, unlike their predecessors. They were painted to simulate the appearance of the ANH droids, but the blue areas look subtly different since the paint doesn't look exactly like metal panels with transparent dye.
The ESB droids had all-silver (or metallic grey) holo projectors. Compared to ANH, the fibre optic "logic" lights on the front dome were brighter and flash more rapidly and consistently. They seem to glow pale blue, with random flashes of white.
The revised red and blue dome PSI lights (as well as the rear green and yellow lights) changed colour electrically (they simply switched colours and usually had no motion to them) and weren’t mechanical. There are subtle differences in the positioning and sizes of some of the front body panels, especially the front octagon port.
Which movie is the De Agostini kit from?
De Agostini doesn’t explicitly say, but their kit has a combination of features from the Original Trilogy - Star Wars, the Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. For example, the holo projector is black tipped with a black ring, and the white lower body panels follow the ANH design. But the octagon ports are closer to the ESB ones. The sabre ejector was only seen in ROTJ.
This is all fair enough I suppose, since there is no one true R2-D2. So all in all, the kit is mostly in keeping with the general design of the Original Trilogy R2, with a number of discrepancies or errors here and there.
I – About De Agostini’s R2-D2 (Kit Review)
II – Problems and Fixes: the De Ago R2
III – About Partworks Kits
VI – Conclusion and Useful Links
VII – Part List and Downloadable Instructions
This review is © 2018-19 Millennium Falcon Notes.