V: R2-D2’s Arms and Tools

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This page is part of my highly detailed review of “Build your own R2-D2,” a “partworks” kit designed and sold by De Agostini/Modelspace. However, this research should be of interest to anyone making an R2-D2: full-sized or a model.

So the character of R2-D2 is equipped with a veritable Swiss army knife assortment of tools, manipulators, and accessories, neatly hidden behind various compartment doors. However, no effort was made in any of the films to map out what thing lives where, and what they do. Different tools emerge from various contradictory places in different films. Sometimes they emerge from places which make no physical sense, as two objects would have to occupy the same space! Still. Realism isn't the goal of the Star Wars films – it's about showing enough to convince the audience that something is going on.

Making things more difficult for the model maker, the interior of the various compartments is never clearly shown in the films. Finally, additional post-film marketing materials, such as the fantasy “blueprints” books, also invent their own ideas.

This all means there’s frankly no point in trying to make anything particularly screen-accurate in this regard. The best you can do is choose something you like, maybe from one specific scene from a film, and go with it. It's a fine opportunity for a little model-making improvisation, like a guitar solo or violin cadenza. Make shit up!

De Ago’s R2 arms

De Agostini has chosen to replicate a number of R2’s tools and accessories as part of their 1:2.3 R2 kit. Only the light sabre ejector and the front blue arms are motorized - the rest are simply pull-out props on hinges. These pull-out arms are vague approximations of certain original prop details.

The three De Ago arms are supposed to represent the ANH manipulator arm used in the Dejarik/holochess scene, the ANH computer interface arm, and the ESB welding/hyperdrive fixing manipulator arm. The ANH manipulator arm is okay, but deviates in the details. The ANH computer arm has totally the wrong dimensions. And the ESB arm is oversimplified and has the wrong proportions. The parts are mostly silver and gold-painted plastic, and have mould part lines running along them.

Basically the De Ago arms look okay so long as you don't compare them to photos of the actual props. With some weathering they can look presentable.

De Ago's R2 compartments

More cheap-looking are De Agostini’s compartment interiors. These have fake-looking details, are designed to be injection-moulded in one piece, and are spraypainted silver. They look like this. Really.

The detailing looks like it’s modelled after the purported compartment interiors which I believe were created for the “Star Wars Blueprints: Rebel Edition” book. This childrens' book consists of airbrushed (or at least Adobe Illustratored) drawings to serve as adjunct marketing materials, and was produced in 2010, many years after the original films. Fictitious blueprints for a fictitious robot! (this isn't a criticism of the book, by the way – just to recognize it is what it is, and it isn't primary source material)

They are not true production blueprints used to make the original props or anything like that. The actual drawings don’t show the compartment interiors, and look like this one, reproduced in Star Wars: the Blueprints:

Incidentally, a different Star Wars book (2006's Star Wars: The Complete Visual Dictionary, apparently) had a totally different and competing design for this compartment, which has come to be known by many in the full-size R2 builders community as the "data port." The interior looks like this, and many people have built their compartments to resemble it.

“Two men say they’re Jesus; one of them must be wrong.”

– Dire Straits, Industrial Disease

Anyway. Regardless of the design that they chose to implement, the De Ago parts are unconvincing and toylike, and not worthy of an expensive model engineering product. I think they would've looked better as empty black plastic boxes, to be honest. But some folks have done some great work improving them with additional detailing (eg: lights) and weathering paints. And I suppose they'll mostly be hidden away behind closed doors, so believability only matters to the completist.

This compartment, by R2-D2 builder Facebook member Iain Costall, is a vast improvement over the original plastic part. The K-shaped inner door details that he's added are similar to those seen on the Episode II R2-D2 prop.

Screen appearances

Here's a list of R2 arms and whatnot, for people looking for inspiration for improving the De Ago-supplied props.

Star Wars (1977)

Blue utility arms

The oddly-shaped blue zigzag features, often called utility arms, on the front of the body are seen in use early in the film. One of them flips out to press a button on the escape hatch door. The original ANH arm seen in the film is solid with ridges on the inside, unlike the hollow plastic De Ago arm. It's also blue on the interior. In fact, you can see drips of dried blue dye at the bottom of the arm edges!

Were all of the movie R2s equipped with arms that were blue on the inside? Who knows? This shot of the radio-controlled ANH R2 (ie: this isn't the one that Kenny Baker could fit inside) shows that this one had raw metal inner arms. It also seems to suggest that the ends of the arms could rotate, which is interesting. None of this was shown in the actual movie, however. Note also how the arm recesses appear to be bare metal in this shot, whereas they're usually white for other versions of R2.

Left manipulator arm

Seen briefly in a long shot during the Dejarik/holochess scene. This is a double arm with three straight pincers at the tip. Housed in the left-hand tall compartment. The De Agostini version is close, but with some differences. (eg: many parts coloured gold should be silver; the joining brackets are missing some bits) Notably the instruction manual tells you to install this arm upside-down. The shorter arm should be at the bottom, not the top.

Incidentally, the pincers are a found object. They're simple kitchen tools sold as ice cube/pickle grabber tools. And they're still sold today, if you want make your own full-sized R2-D2 Dejarik arm!

Computer interface arm

The aluminium rod that R2 uses to talk to computer terminals is shown in some detail in the film. It has recessed grooves at the movable end, with small details on the sides of the cone which are nothing more than ordinary wires and resistors. The main cylinder is also decorated with black, yellow, red, and white stripes, somewhat similar to the hyperspace control levers on the Falcon. These are probably thin vinyl pinstriping tape lines.

The rod swivels out to a horizontal position, and the tip emerges outwards on a steel rod. Note that it's fairly long. The original prop, when folded into the body, took up the entire length of the tall left-hand (or right-hand from R2’s point of view) compartment. (see the damaged R2 photo below) Sometimes this arm is referred to by fans as a “scomp” interface.

The Episode V arm looks similar, but is missing most of the pinstriping tape details. Note that the original trilogy arm tip is physically different from the Episode II arm tip. There are closeup views of the two arms in question on Astromech.net.

Manipulator arm

A very slender manipulator arm, somewhat wobbly, emerges from R2’s head during the Death Star battle.

Fire extinguisher

A gout of fire-extinguishing spray is seen coming from R2’s head. A brass nozzle appears to be screwed into one of the small blue panels on the dome below his eye, but this mystery nozzle is never seen in any other shot.

Artoo valiantly extinguishing a fire aboard the Falcon, though apparently without the benefit of proper fire training since he isn't aiming the chemicals at the base of the fire. Note also a fun thing over to the left. You can see there's a big hole in the battery box attached to his left ankle. This is probably because the Kenny Baker two-legged R2 was used, and the hole is where Baker's foot would go when he was inside the prop.

Computer download interface

R2 is seen connected to a computer by a technician so the Death Star plans can be downloaded. Oddly, the interface cable is shown being attached to his right shoulder, or somewhere. Maybe the right door? It’s like they didn’t quite think this brief scene, which was shot in California towards the end of production and not on the English sound stages, entirely through...

Compartments

The interiors of R2’s compartments are almost, but not quite, visible in the scene when he is removed from Luke’s X-wing following the Death Star battle. Various bits of wire and scrap, along with black paint and other damage effects, were applied to the prop for the sequence. Here’s one of the behind the scenes photos which tantalizingly suggests what the prop makers did to decorate the interiors, but it’s not really clear enough to make out details. It does seem that they put 1970s style printed circuit boards with IC chips on the two compartments to the right of this photo, along with coiled bits of wire.

Door interiors

Only the outer tall doors’ interiors are visible in the film, and they're simple flat bare metal with a couple of rivets. (see the computer interface arm photo above, and also the damaged R2 below)

The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Life form scanner

A curved metal antenna grid appears from R2’s head on Hoth. Like many R2 accessories, it has an improbably lengthy support rod for something that supposedly fits inside his dome.

There are high-rez photos of a lifeform scanner on Astromech.net, but they look quite different from the one in Empire shown above. Perhaps it was made for some other purpose, or was used in Episode II? I have no idea.

Periscope

An entire wedge of R2’s dome pops out and serves as a periscope after R2 falls into the Dagobah swamp.

Astromech members can access this terrific photo library of shots of this prop. I only wish the images were bigger!

http://astromech.net/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=49308

Grabbing arm

A small slender arm with two curved pincers emerges to try and retrieve Luke’s light from Yoda’s clutches. Published blueprints show that it had a telescoping inner tube attached to an internal pivot to allow the pincers to move.

You don't get a very good look at it in the movie, so here's a shot from Star Wars: the Complete Visual Dictionary. It seems to show the same grabbing arm, along with some conjectured descriptions of the prop's components. The lower arm is the zapper from ROTJ.

This arm appears to have migrated to another compartment in this video, incidentally. Still, R2 is skulking behind the bike racks, so who knows what trouble he's been up to? Here's a closeup view on Astromech.net, and here's another.

Charging port

Luke is seen plugging a spiral cord into R2 to charge him up. The socket is inside a small compartment on the front. A lot of people refer to this small compartment as the "charging port" for that reason. A series of red and green blinking LEDs can be seen inside the compartment as well.

Computer interface arm

The same basic arm as in Star Wars emerges from the same compartment, but it seems to be missing a bunch of the painted/pinstriped stripes. It also seems to emerge from the bottom of the compartment rather than the top.

Manipulator/hyperdrive arm

An arm with three angled pincers, and four small lights, is shown plugging into a power terminal by mistake on Bespin. The same arm is used to hold the welding torch that R2 uses to repair C-3PO, and also to engage the hyperdrive on the Millennium Falcon. (ie: the welding torch isn't part of a separate arm but simply this arm holding a miniature torch) The washer-like rings are quite misaligned, which is an interesting detail.

The arm appears to emerge from the middle of the right-hand door during the the Bespin scenes, but definitely protrudes from the middle of the left-hand door during the Falcon repair scenes.

Note one interesting and obscure detail – the rod to which the pincers is attached isn't a standard circular cross-section rod. It's actually an X shape in cross-section. I wonder where they found this, as I haven't been able to find commercially available X cross-section rods like this anywhere.

Fire extinguisher

R2 produces a blanket of fog to obscure our heroes’ escape from Bespin. We aren’t shown where the fog comes from, but it’s somewhere on his head or his upper body.

Blue arms

The blue arms have the same ridges on the inner end that the ANH arms have. The interiors of the arm slots appear to be white in this shot.

Compartments

The compartments are never shown in detail, but we can see flashing LEDs during the charging scene.

Door interiors

We are never really shown the door interiors in this film.

Return of the Jedi (1983)

Light sabre ejector

A panel retracts in a strange way (it doesn’t flip back) from the top of R2’s dome, so a powerful ejection mechanism can hurl Luke’s light sabre into his hands. Note also a strange continuity error in this scene - the sabre's business end is both chipped and missing any sort of hole from which the laser energy is supposed to emerge!

The De Ago model has a sabre mechanism, but it merely sticks the sabre handle up a short distance and kind of slowly. No flinging here! The pie door also flips open rather than retracts.

Drinks dispenser

An external drinks dispenser mechanism is seen protruding from his dome. It looks like it’s supposedly an add-on and compatible bit of machinery, however, not something normally built into him. The top disc on the dome is shown flipped out to accommodate the dispenser.

Zapper

A small arm pops out of the charging port area to slice through Leia’s chains and to zap the pesky Salacious Crum with some rotoscoped lightning. R2 later reuses it to zap an annoying Ewok. Oddly this arm emerges from the area where Luke plugged the power cord in Empire.

There's a closeup view of a zapper on Astromech.net, but it looks different from the one above. It's similar in key areas, however, so perhaps it was permanently altered for Episode II or something like that.

Interestingly, there's a red sticker on the interior of this door, seemingly covered with white Aurebesh (the fantasy typeface used in Star Wars since 1983, or 1993, depending on your point of view) writing.

Periscope

The Empire periscope returns, but poking up from behind a dune in a particularly phony-looking moment. We therefore can’t see if it’s coming out of the same pie wedge or not, but model makers get a good look at the design.

Welding torch

An arm and welding torch is shown briefly on Dagobah as R2 works on Luke's X-wing. It's pretty dark, and it's not easy to tell from the angle where it's supposed to be coming from, but it seems it's meant to be on the left side of R2's body. I've brightened the images below, but they're still rather murky. Still, it appears that this may have been a whole new tool rather than a grasping arm holding a torch, as in ESB.

Adding evidence to this theory is this image below, from Star Wars: the Complete Visual Dictionary. The author has theorized that the prop is a "lubricant applicator arm," but it's quite clearly the welding torch seen above. The captions are thus extra bogus in this case. There's also a great high-rez photo on Astromech.net

Circular saw

A small circular saw emerges from one of the central panels during the Ewok trap scene. The compartment is in shadow.

There's a closeup view of what purports to be this saw on Astromech.net.

Computer interface arm

Our old buddy, the computer arm, makes a final appearance in the trilogy in Jedi. With even fewer pinstripes than in Empire. Those stripes just keep on falling off! Two ordinary Earthian resistors are even more apparent in this view.

Compartments and door interiors

A cheesy comedy moment occurs when R2 plugs into a power terminal during the bunker assault sequence. He’s shown spinning around wildly, all hatches open, with various accessories protruding.

The Special Edition makes this scene even sillier by digitally adding various new tools, and having smoke or steam emerge from improbable locations like the holoprojectors. There are lenses in those projectors! How is smoke supposed to come out of them? Note also the famous R2 Magic Panel, which is glowing red in this shot despite being a metal door in other moments of the film.

The Prequels

I don’t document the prequel R2s here. Many of the droids were partially or entirely CGI in nature, and there are a lot of unlikely antics that don’t even seem to be physically possible. And since I'm interested in building an OT R2, I'll leave documenting this stuff as an exercise for someone else.

Of course, these films do continue the tradition of not much continuity. For example, the computer interface arm is shown again in Attack of the Clones, but it pops out of a left-hand compartment and not the long right-hand one.

One other useful thing of note, though. This back door interior design was used in Episode II, when R2 fires a magnet-tipped cable to collect C-3PO's head. So it's not in keeping with the Original Trilogy, but the pattern is more interesting than the blank metal used in the OT.

I – About De Agostini’s R2-D2 (Kit Review)

II – Problems and Fixes: the De Ago R2

III – About Partworks Kits

IV – The Actual R2-D2 Movie Props

VI – Conclusion and Useful Links

VII – Part List and Downloadable Instructions