Posts Tagged ‘Droids’



The Droids Re-Animated, Part 1

Some friendships are forged in a single moment, others from a lifetime of experiences shared. Poets have devoted countless pages to celebrating such friendships, but there is another about which far less has been written. That friendship is forged in chrome.

C-3PO, built by nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker from the scrapped remains of several Cybot Galactica protocol droids, had a marked tendency toward fretting and prissiness. The smaller R2-D2, an Industrial Automaton astromech with an amazing knack for thinking his way out of trouble, had little tolerance for such qualities. And yet, theirs is a friendship that has stood the test of time.

C-3PO and his counterpart, R2-D2

C-3PO and his counterpart, R2-D2

Introduced to each other just before the Battle of Naboo and reacquainted ten years later, R2-D2 and C-3PO went on to share many adventures together. The droids’ circuits recoiled as they watched the Republic transform into the Empire, Anakin Skywalker fall to the dark side, and Padmé Amidala die in child birth. But they also witnessed the birth of a new hope, the Skywalker twins Luke and Leia.

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Droids and Ewoks Return: Spain’s Lost Star Wars Comic Strips

Rich Handley | April 10, 2013

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The 1980s were a period of transformation for Star Wars. Following the release of Return of the Jedi and L. Neil Smith’s Lando Calrissian trilogy, there were few new tales being offered, aside from Jo Duffy’s Marvel Comics run and West End Games’ role-playing game books. Although it may be difficult for newer fans to fathom this, given the huge amount of Star Wars material being produced these days, the mid to late ’80s were lean years for the franchise.

It was during this period that Star Wars began focusing on stories for a younger audience. Jedi’s resident teddy bears branched off into two TV movies, Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor. Simultaneously, Lucasfilm developed two animated series, one featuring R2-D2 and C-3PO, the other Wicket and his Ewok playmates. Star Wars: Droids and Star Wars: Ewoks (later re-named The All-New Ewoks) aired in an hour-long block dubbed The Ewoks and Droids Adventure Hour, each spinning off a variety of children’s storybooks, as well as a corresponding comic book series from Marvel’s Star Comics imprint. In addition, a 48-minute special called The Great Heep aired in 1986, several months after Droids‘ cancellation, and Dark Horse rejuvenated the Droids concept with new stories eight years later.

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Droid Army Approaching…

StarWars.com Team | February 1, 2008

WIRED updated recently with a story on an advanced weapons development program of the U.S. military that is working on, yep, battle droids. Not the spindly, squawk-talking variety; these droids are more ED-209 than Baktoid B-1s:

The Navy’s MDARS-E is an armed robot that can track anything that moves. Told that I was the target, the unmanned vehicle trained its guns on me and ordered, “Stay where you are,” in an intimidating robot voice. And yes, it was frightening.

The talkback is remarkably critical, and while I won’t wade into their political or ideological waters, I will say I’m deeply disappointed that no one pointed out the obvious resemblance between the MDARS-E, seen below:

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…to the Fromm Tower Droids used by Tig and Sise Fromm in the old Droids television series:

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Come on, Internet! You’re supposed to know these things! (Thanks to Josh Ling for the WIRED link).

R2-D2 Kidnapped!

StarWars.com Team | December 20, 2007

A Swiss newpaper is reporting that “unidentified thieves have stolen a replica of the Star Wars robot R2-D2 from a film prop museum in Frauenfeld, canton Thurgau.”

The thieves broke into a basement storage room, making off with an exact copy of the famed robot character as well as other items. The 1.2-metre-high robot is worth thousands of Swiss francs according to its owner, Roman Güttinger.

Güttinger’s hoard of props from horror, adventure and science fiction films is considered the biggest private collection in Europe. He has gathered around 2,500 items, including rarities such as the monster from the Alien films and the Batmobile from Batman.

While no one as of yet has been apprehended, we suspect Jawas.

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SOURCE: Swissinfo.ch

Vader and R2-D2 on ZapRoot

StarWars.com Team | December 12, 2007

ZapRoot is a cool environmental vlog produced by independent filmmaker Sarah Szalavitz and Damien Somerset, and hosted by snarky host Jess to keep us all updated on the latest news in a zippy way. And wouldn’t you know it, both R2-D2 and Darth Vader make a cameo!

Watch the vlog here.

Artoo & Threepio Top EW’s ‘Hot ‘Bots’ List

StarWars.com Team | June 28, 2007

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Entertainment Weekly’s online site, ew.com, posts their top ten favorite robots of all time as the world braces for the release of Transformers on July 3. Threepio’s design inspiration, Metropolis’ Maria, counts in at #8.

Read the full story here (that’s a rare image of the droid duo from the set of The Making of Star Wars special in 1977).

Thanks to theforce.net for the link.