Tatooine Astromechs - Mos Eisley & Jabba's Palace! UPDATE: R5-A2! R2-A5! 1/23/16
Tatooine Astromechs - Mos Espa & Podrace!!!
Hoth Astromechs !!! UPDATED - 2/26/17! Orange R3s!
Jedi, Republic and Naboo Astromechs!
Coruscant Astromechs - UPDATED 1/23/16! Dex's Droids!
Rebel Droids! - UPDATED 1/28/16 - Wedge Antilles! Dorovia Bold!
Imperial Astromechs!!
CLONE WARS - First Season !!!
CLONE WARS - Second Season !!!
CLONE WARS - Seasons 3, 4, & 5
Rebels - Coming Soon.
The Force Unleashed! - Coming Soon.
This is the only place where you can find images of every astromech droid in the Star Wars movies and Clone Wars TV show. Many of these you will only find here, as they have never been pictured or discussed on other web pages! I'm a collector of Hasbro's line of Star Wars astromech droid action figures, and a fan of droids generally. If you are aware of any I've missed, or have better quality scans or screen caps of those I have listed please contact me at my email below!
UPDATE - Star Wars Episode VII is out! I really enjoyed the movie, though it was lacking in droids in all but the X-Wing scenes! Some strange stuff there as well: New dome types, but old droid paint jobs. I have also not updated the site with any of the Rebels TV show droids, either. I will try to go through the back files and get more updates done. While you wait,
Stay up to date on all astromech droid news at:
The Astromech Collection on Facebook!
Let's talk droids at:
The Astromech Droid collector's thread at Rebelscum.com!
Read about astrodroids at:
DESIGN YOUR OWN DROID!!!
Check out the R2 Style Builder! You can color your own R2 unit and print out the results: Design A Droid!
THE CLONE WARS
If you like Star Wars and droids (and why else would you be here?) Make sure you check out Cartoon Network series The Clone Wars. Overseen by George Lucas, it featured many great new astrodroids. One of the best is seen in this great teaser for the series featuring R2-D2 and an all-new R5 unit: Skate Park! Check out my Clone Wars pages for all the details on this great addition to the Star Wars saga, or the official Star Wars website for more info.
A fun fact about astrodroids as seen in both the Star Wars movies and the Clone Wars TV series is that every droid has its own voice! No two astromechs make the same tone of beeps - check it out next time you tune in!
WHY IS THIS SITE SO OLD AND SUCKY LOOKING?
Well, I'm kinda old and sucky looking myself, and I started this a long time ago - back in the 1990s before Episode 1 came out. Finding free picture hosting online was hard back then, so I started this mostly as a place to post droid pictures for when I got into internet arguments over astrodroid colors, and also needed to post pictures of the actual droids I wanted Hasbro to make!
WHAT'S UP WITH THE R2-R3-R4 NAMES?
They were never actually called "astromech droids" in any of the movies! The only direct references to them are as "astrodroids." Luke refers to R2-D2 and R5-D4 collectively as "astrodroids" when he is purchasing them from the Jawas. Later, after R2 runs away from the farm, C-3PO states that "These astrodroids are getting quite out of hand." The same language was used in Revenge of the Sith, when the two Super Battle Droids find R2-D2 in the hangar. They call him a "stupid little astrodroid."
The entire "R2" "R3" etc. naming convention we're familiar with was created by Lucasfilm to assist the marketing departments of licensees, but was never really accepted by George Lucas, who intended a less stringent application of droid names. In A New Hope, Luke calls R5-D4 an "R2 unit": "Uncle Owen, this R2 unit has a bad motivator." Also, during the making of Attack of the Clones, George Lucas told the droid techie, Don Bies, that Obi-Wan's astromech droid had the same dome as R2-D2, but is called "R4." Don then asked George if he was aware that a whole naming convention had sprung up, and that R4 units had the "lampshade" dome. George basically said that he was aware of it, but that it wasnt correct. (See this interview here.) This goes a long way towards explaining why in the prequels "R2" units suddenly were always referred to as "R4," or why in the new Clone Wars television show "R2" units are being referred to as "R3," "R6," and even "R7" and "R8." (Practically speaking, you can't have every character calling his astromech "R2", can you? Everyone knows there's only one R2!) So even though we have been led to believe that the shape of the dome reflects differences in a droid's capabilities or programming or "type", the reality is that all astromechs are essentially same, with the dome style being only a difference of aesthetics or manufacturer.
The fact is that the Clone Wars series was under the complete control and daily supervision of George Lucas and is canon, and must be treated the same way as the other movies: What we see in the series is fact. You can read a great interview with the main writer and director of the CW series here that covers the factualness of the series in great detail, and how George Lucas created most of the stories and even told the production team to "ignore the EU stuff" when writing the episodes. Regardless, we should continue to refer to them by their traditional dome type for ease of discussion.
A NOTE ABOUT IMAGES
I've tried to find pictures that show all the best detail and angles of the droids listed herein. Most of these came from screenshots I made. Some are from pictures I've picked up on the net over the last 18 years or so I've been collecting astromech droid shots, or scanned from books or captured from videos. Many have been sent in to me by kind & enthusiastic astrodroid fans like you. Please note that sometimes I receive copies of the same image from many different people before I have been able to research and post it. Please forgive me if I didn't credit you, or you didn't hear back from me right away.
Where the image isn't clear, I try and give some notes on what I can make out in regards to color. I make my best guess, but even I have rethought some of my notes as I've upgraded my computers over the years. One last thing, and this is important. If you really want to make sure about the colors of these droids, please make an effort to view these pages on more than one computer. Different computer monitors can produce remarkably different colors of the same image.
Got any fresh pics or info? email me here: greenalfonzo@yahoo.com
