In-Story reasons for prop changes between films

[SethS]

Anyone else ever tell themselves stories to explain differences between props that are technically the same thing through a franchise, but change between films?

After TFA, my son has been rewatching the OT, which has been a lot of fun. While watching ROTJ he noted that "Han Solo's DL-44 is different."

Aside from being super proud that he'd notice such detail, I was also impressed when he said that Han obviously had to get a new one since Vader took his last one in ESB.
MAKES SENSE.

I've done this in my head to explain lightsaber changes...

Obi-Wan, for example, clearly had to replace the activation matrix cause of all that sand on Tattooine jamming up the works.

The Skywalker saber-- between ROTS and ANH Obi-Wan decided to do some upkeep, and made the same change to the activation box-- since they both use calc bubbles. Changes between ANH and ESB are obvious enough-- Luke is a tinkerer and the saber was his only physical link to his father so of course he took it apart to know it intimately... and decided to upgrade that pesky activation box cause it must be the part that gets worn out most often. Maybe that extra knob helps keep that energy moving better? The changes from ESB to TFA-- well obviously it was damaged in the fall. Whatever Ugnaut that found the thing had to make repairs based on speculation as to how it should work, before he sold it to a collector. And the return to the glass eye-- well that inner knob got lost during the duel. (You know, to explain the hole in the stunt saber )

As for Vader-- I'm guessing that fighting Obi-Wan was the first time he'd fired up that saber in some time. Maybe the power flow was a bit rougher after all those years being dormant? So the wire work and changes to the clamp box were basically a result of him rewiring it between movies. As for his ROTJ saber--

I like to think that this is actually a new saber altogether-- built after seeing his old saber on Cloud City he decided he was feeling nostalgic. So he built one based on his old model, but with some of the new improvements he'd come up with in later years.

Though if more pics show up that show maybe the stunt saber truly was just a stunt saber-- then I'd need a new theory.

If you start talking about differences between scenes instead of movies... well-- this all goes out the window.

 

[Broilermaker]

i think the prop people were just in a hurry and oh it's a mauser cool, ok film it, is probably what happened, lol, i have tried to think along your lines but for me the prequels really messed up the star wars universe for me

 

[Scott D]

While reading your post, I had a non-prop related thought.

Wouldn't it have been cool if Vader had force-snatched Luke's saber out of the air after he did the hand-chopping?

It would have been a redundant move after seeing him do the same thing to Han's blaster, but it would make sense for the good side of Vader to want his old saber back.

Getting back to the props, I try not to think too hard about the minor differences from movie to movie. I sure didn't back in the 70's and 80's when I was a kid. I was too busy enjoying the saga.

 

[MClass]

I think the second red button on the ESB saber was simply a mistake by the prop department. Nice to see they corrected it in TFA.

 

[SethS]

Well yeah-- the truth is, no one back then ever expected people the have the ability to get HD freeze frames at home so "close enough" was good enough. When ANH and ESB were being made the concept of people being able to see the movies on their own outside of a theater wasn't even a thing.

 

[Inquisitor Peregrinus]

Because they used a different helmet and armor for Boba in ROTJ than ESB (not just the gauntlets and rocketpack), but the different helmet with different weathering and different "killstripes" had the same dent, so it was obviously supposed to be the same helmet. And then when they did a sloppy rebuild of that suit for the Special Editions -- not just ROTJ, but ANH, too, wirh the ESB suit being the oddball between them...

Well, after some years percolating in the back of my brain, what came out was: That wasn't Boba that went into the sarlacc. We saw the real Boba in ESB. Offscreen, he delivered the Hansicle, collected his pay, and left. The guy we see hanging around Jabba in the ROTJ/SE suit is an imposter Jabba keeps on his payroll to make himself seem that much more badass for having someone as notorious as that working for him.

Similarly, i maintain the ROTJ Stormtrooper armor is an uprated design that that "legion of [Palpatine's] best troops" was equipped with before it had trickled down through repple-depple to everyone else. I call it Phase 3.0c, in a nice complicated breakdown of armor types and variants.

--Jonah

 

[SethS]

I like that cause it means Boba's still out there. Can we pretend the one with Kiwi accent went in, and the one with Jeremy Bulloch's voice is still out there being cool?

 

[Inquisitor Peregrinus]

I like that cause it means Boba's still out there. Can we pretend the one with Kiwi accent went in, and the one with Jeremy Bulloch's voice is still out there being cool?

Jason Wingreen's voice, but yeah. I don't mind the whole clone thing, but accents aren't genetic. I like the notion that he had cosmetic surgery at some point, so he wouldn't look like all those other clones, and he now looks like Jeremy Bulloch (I so want him back in these new films... and he even has his own dead-accurate ESB Boba costume).

--Jonah

 

[SethS]

I'M SOLD

 

[Darth Lars]

I'd say that Han Solo had at least three DL-44's in his life.
1) Bull-barrel (real world: real Mauser C96). Seen in ANH and ROTJ
2) Thin barrel (real world: MGC). Seen in ESB.
3) TFA Bull-barrel (real world: Marushin/HFC). Seen in TFA.
Then he used several different scopes, scope mounts and other add-on parts.

I think the second red button on the ESB saber was simply a mistake by the prop department. Nice to see they corrected it in TFA.

In several shots, the lightsaber has only the button in the glass eye's socket and a gaping hole on the other side ... This could be the "Ranch saber" prop, which in visits to the Ranch had this configuration. The button was in the button-socket when it has been shown at exhibitions.
A stunt saber (which I think it resin) has a glass eye detail.

 

[WhillB]

Ya know what? I never thought about that part where Vader force pulls Hans blaster!!!

 

[cboath]

Ya know what? I never thought about that part where Vader force pulls Hans blaster!!!

I think a lot of people never thought about that...he HAD to get a new one for ROTJ. And even if Vader hadn't taken it - it wasn't frozen with him and None of luke, leia, or lando had access to it either - so he'd wake up on tat, and not get a new one until he pulled one from storage on the falcon, got one from the pub fleet, or bought a new one.