Pocket-sized Pip
For
The Acolyte’s most prominent droid character,
Pip, Scanlan and his team were inspired by retro gaming consoles, the Sony Walkman®, and the pencil cases of their youth in their design of
Osha’s pocket-sized sidekick.
“I am rather pleased with Pip as a design because it's the first handheld pocket droid that we've been involved with,” Scanlan says of the droid, performed on-screen by puppeteer Jack Parker. “We tried to choose a kind of late ‘70s to mid ‘80s design ethos. We also looked at things like Tamagotchis and those sorts of toys that people loved. You gotta keep Pip alive, you know! He's not just this thing.”
Four worn stickers can be seen on Pip’s body, homages to Loth-cats from
Star Wars Rebels and other elements of
Star Wars history. For his insides, animatronic designers had to work hard to strip down any excess parts and keep Pip’s mechanical motors and circuit boards to a minimum. But it was important to ensure the little droid could still communicate and emote effectively. “You want to connect to him. You want to be able to see some emotion, you know, human emotion. His little aerial antenna can retract and go backwards or forwards depending on if he was sad or excited.He actually ended up with as much electronics in him as any other droid we've ever made. He's compatible on a technological level,” Scanlan says. “You had to be able to take his head off and use his head as an independent tool. And you could have many bodies. You could have the drill and the Swiss Army knife version. You could have the version that did your hair for you in the morning. You had the welding version. “Probably even more than BB-8, I think that designing Pip with Leslye [Headland] was the most thorough investigation into a droid that we've ever done.”
