‘Star Wars’ Gives Us the Galaxy’s Silliest Props
Some of the galaxy’s props are beautifully handcrafted and one-of-a-kind. Others are obviously things they found at home and painted.
Recently upcoming streaming show Andor has fallen under some scrutiny by eagle-eyed trailer watchers. If you’ve somehow managed to stay blissfully unaware of this latest controversy, a man in the trailer looks to be holding an AK-47. You know, the real-world gun that we see fairly often in movies and TV shows set in on our planet Earth. Only it’s being used far far away and long long ago. Should they have Star Wars‘d it up? Maybe. But let’s be honest, this is far from the silliest use of an item for a prop in Star Wars history.
Ice Cream Maker
Ahh yes, the infamous Ice Cream maker of Bespin. For years we wondered why Hillrow Hood was so invested in saving his ice cream maker. Were sweet treats just that important to him? Did he grab the first thing he saw before he bolted for the escape vessels? As a fandom, we became so invested in this mystery that it’s not uncommon to see at least a few people in orange jumpsuits with ice cream makers at Star Wars Celebration. Cosplay is supposed to be fun, y’know?
Turns out, The Mandalorian was there to solve this mystery for us. It’s called a camtono and it’s sort of like a small safe for storing a ton of cash or beskar (or ice cream) if you need to pay a bounty hunter for delivering a weird green kid to you. Or, if you’re on the Disney Wish it’s how they’ll serve you a $5,000 drink. And no, you don’t get to keep the camtono for that price. I know!
White Jeans
The pants I wore in the 1st film were just Levi bluejeans- bleached-out, with the back pockets removed. George called #StarWars “The most expensive low-budget movie ever made” & every penny spent had to show up on the screen. I think they started with my costume… #TrueStory https://t.co/cqxaOtIIkn
— Mark Hamill (@MarkHamill) November 25, 2019
Considering how angry the fandom is today that we’re not getting bespoke space weapons, it’s especially funny that it started with bleached Levi blue jeans. It’s hard to think of Star Wars as a film on a budget, but once upon a time, it was. There’s a lesson here about working smarter, not harder.
Women’s Razor
On the right is Qui-Gonn Jinn’s comlink from The Phantom Menace. On the left is a Gillette brand women’s razor. The comlink has been zhuzhed up with a paint job, and a few embellishments. But now that you see it, you can’t unsee it. Imagine if you will Qui-Gonn being followed by an insufferable and endlessly yammering Jar Jar Binks while he speaks directly into the handle of a Gillette razor.
Vintage Camera Flash Handle
Does the flash handle of this vintage camera look familiar? Well, it should. That’s Luke Skywalker‘s lightsaber. Another once-you-see-it-you-can’t-unsee-it prop, there it looks like there was very little that had to be done to this camera part to make it screen ready… Aside from removing the camera. But Star Wars actually made a lot of props out of a lot of different camera parts. Luke’s Macrobinoculars were made of various bits of five different cameras, and Poe Dameron’s Binoculars are a Speedster 8mm Movie Camera with a few minor alterations. Of all of the props, this may be the least silly in my book. It’s just plain old ingenuity and I’m not sure how so few of us noticed when so little happened to make these props look any different at all.
What is your favorite Star Wars prop? Does it have a silly history? Did you notice any of these in the movies? Let us know in the comments!
May The Force Be With You, Adventurers!
