McQuarrie and Johnston Probe Droid
This is a 1/6th interpretation of the Concept Probe Droid, as mostly featured in the classic Ralph McQuarrie painting. I also pulled elements from Joe Johnston drawings, and decided that the copper color treatment would capture the warm tones in the painting. It also further differentiates this from the Probe Droid ILM built, which is a hard model to try to “top”. I like the insect-like elements of the smaller eye clusters (Johnston) as well as the eye stalk (McQuarrie) that seems to have inspired the droid in Jabba’s Palace’s main gate. I decided this is 1/6th scale which makes this version of a Probe Droid appreciably larger than the final model, and by having one of the arms holding a pair of Macrobinoculars, the larger sense of scale is conveyed.
This model is packed to the gills with electronics expertly programmed by Josh Maruska, my very talented friend. The main head rotation servo was swapped and upgraded for a metal geared model at the mast minute before everything was entombed… and seems to have a bum capacitor? The result is a random and funny jiggle back and forth in the head rotation, which I left in place because it captures the spirit of the original trilogy droids and their incredible quirks. This model droid is spirited with it’s own personality… perhaps a bad motivator? All arms are friction fit articulated and fully poseable, the sound can be silenced with a switch on the side of the main body, and the top antenna also rotates at random intervals.
