Surely one of the unsung heroes of the Star Wars franchise is the poor old power droid. You will have definitely seen them. They are basically a walking box that gets plugged into something to power it up. That is pretty much their role apart from saying “gonk” repeatedly, which they also referred to at times. It seems that all you have to do is say “Where can I rent a generator? And one duly appears ready to give some much needed umph to a Tie fighter or an X-wing depending on your affiliation.
The basic design of the PowerDroid/Gonk is almost like any Generator Rental that you come across. It’s a slow moving box and it was pretty clear that when it was designed George Lucas and the Industrial light and magic team were starting to get a bit low on the budget.
The costume design seems to be, “Right, this power droid, how can we make it as cheap as possible?” Just put a small person or get someone to stoop over and then stick a grey cardboard box on top of them with some Christmas tree lights and some piping for legs. Job done.
