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Most of the equipment, and half the actors, came from Britain. For Artoo Detoo, the squat little hero robot. Production Designer John Barry found "the smallest man in England," 3-ft. 8-in.
Kenny Baker. A machine that looks like a tank-type vacuum was built around him, with lights that he could switch on and off and legs into which he could fit his own. Other Artoo models were built —some scenes have three or four moving all at once—for radio control.
Artoo Detoo's faithful robot friend, Threepio, is supposed to look vaguely human, somewhat like the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz. A plaster cast was made of British Actor Anthony Daniels, who was to be the man inside. From that cast Barry constructed a golden figure of plastic, rubber, fiber glass, steel and aluminum. Threepio fairly glistened and shone when he was unveiled on the Tunisian set—but that was part of the trouble. It was so hot inside the robot body that Daniels nearly expired, and the machine's plastic and rubber joints were in danger of melting.
The first day of shooting, all the robots performed perfectly. It never happened again. Strange radio signals seemed to emanate from the Tunisian sand, and the remote-controlled Artoos ran wild, as if their oil had come from Vat 69. Says Barry: "I was incredibly grateful each time an Artoo actually worked right." Even Artoo Detoo, with Baker inside, seemed out of control. Baker could scarcely see where he was going through Artoo's headlights, and he bumped into the unwieldy Threepio, sending him tumbling. Daniels could not see much better through Threepio's eyes, covered with real gold to prevent corrosion, but thereafter he kept a wide distance between himself and the Artoos—whatever was inside them.
Despite their problems, the two manned robots give standout performances as the Laurel and Hardy of the cybernetic world. With his English accent and his fussy manner, Threepio, the straight man of the pair, is a perfect picture of a butler who would never make it upstairs or downstairs. "We're doomed! We're doomed!" he bleats in typical panic. "This time we'll be melted down for sure!"
Artoo Detoo, on the other hand, is a manly little machine. He responds to Threepio's complaints with a variety of impatient beeps and whistles and when busy, chirps and burbles like a mobile Mr. Coffee machine. When he gets zapped by Darth Vader, it is almost as traumatic for kids as that awful moment in Bambi when the little fawn's mother is slain by hunters. Fortunately for Artoo Detoo, however, not to mention the youngsters, there are replacement parts back in the shop.
Along with his robots, Lucas has assembled a menagerie of monsters and grotesques usually seen only in the DTs. For one scene, set in a brawling spaceport bar, the casting director went to a London firm called Uglies, Ltd. There he found actors to portray thugs assembled from all parts of the galaxy. Then Makeup Man Stuart Freeborn went to work, making the uglies uglier or turning them into nightmares of genetic engineering who resemble giant flies, cobras or things that have floated up from 20,000 leagues under the sea.
Not all the aliens are bad, however.