Jay Kushwara / Digital Renaissance

Clone Wars Aqua Droid

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Yet another obscure Star Wars droid from the Hasbro Build a Droid series.

This figure has just started hitting the shelves as a Target Exclusive. One of the classic and more obscure droids in the original Star Wars films. Gonk has double ball jointed legs and a removeable upper shell that reveals the internal mechanical parts.

Gonk

First glimpsed in the original Genndy Tartakonsky Clone Wars series on Cartoon Network the Tri Droid was later seen in Revenge of the Sith. This extremely pose able figure quickly turned into a collector favorite with it’s 25 separate points of articulation.

Tri Droid

 Here is an exploded view showing the fully engineered digital pattern’s 35 separate pieces.

 In 2008 I had the chance to create the Surgical Droid version of 21B. First seen as a medical droid attending Luke in The Empire Strikes Back, 21B made a second appearance as a surgical droid with a nasty spin in the Revenge of the Sith.

Surgical Droid 2-1B

Here are photos of the final production piece, used with the kind permission of Jayson Krebsbach and featured on the Yakface website. Note that the tubing was added to the physical tooling pattern and was not part of the original digital model.

This is the Assassin droid figure from the Anakin Skywalker / Assassin Droid Comic Pack released in 2007.

Assassin Droid

Here are photos of the final production piece, used with the kind permission of Jayson Krebsbach and featured on the Yakface website. Note there were some slight changes made to the face after the digital model was completed.

Here is the Spider Assassin Droid from the Clone Wars line created in 2010. With 8 legs, 16 points of articulation, and a removable head “lid” that housed 3 baby spider droids this figure was quite the challenge. It was well worth it in the end, the final piece remains one of my favorites for overall coolness. It was also rewarding when I finally saw the Clone Wars episode it was featured in – one of the best episodes in the entire Clone Wars series so far.

Clone Wars Spider Assassin Droid

Here are photos of the final production piece, used with kind permission of Paul Harrison and Chuck Paskovics from the Jedi Temple Archives website.

This is my favorite Build a Droid figure to date, based on a character seen briefly in the original 2D animated Clone Wars miniseries created by Genndy Tartakovsky. Having been an admirer of Genndy’s previous shows Dexter’s Laboratory and Samurai Jack, it was a pleasure to interpret the clean, elegant, almost retro style of L8-L9 in 3D.

L8-L9

In 2009 I was given the single most complex 4 inch figure project I had ever had – the Vintage Collection C-3PO. With 14 points of articulation, 4 separate removable plates and 29 separate parts 3PO required more engineering than any other figure I’d done at that scale. The amount of detail required on his inner structure was extreme, with all the intertwining wiring and tubing carefully researched and modeled.

C-3PO

 Here’s an exploded view showing how the digital model was engineered with all the articulation, seperate parts and assembly taken into account.

I had the opportunity to model Hasbro’s latest Battle Droid figure for the 4″ scale Vintage collection series. Having been a big fan of Doug Chang’s beautiful design it was a pleasure to create the most faithful representation of the droid for Hasbro’s 4″ figure series to date.

Vintage Battle Droid

Here are photos of the final production piece, used with kind permission of Paul Harrison and Chuck Paskovics from the Jedi Temple Archives website.

In 2006 I got the chance to do my first figure in the 4″ Star Wars line – R2 from the Ralph McQuarrie signature series exclusive 2 pack. Based on one of the early concept sketches Ralph did for R2 D2, I loved the more industrial style of this version.

Ralph McQuarrie Signature Series R2-D2

Here are photos of the final production piece, used with kind permission of Paul Harrison and Chuck Paskovics from the Jedi Temple Archives website.

In 2009 I created the digital pattern/action figure for one of the most popular characters from the first Force Unleashed video game. Proxy was a sidekick training droid for Darth Vader’s secret apprentice Galen Marek.

These renders are of the final fully engineered digital pattern – the exact same model files used for the final physical RP output and the master tooling patterns. He stands at 4” tall, has 20 points of articulation and has 23 separate parts.

Proxy

Here are photos of the final production piece, used with kind permission of Paul Harrison and Chuck Paskovics from the Jedi Temple Archives website.