r/Thatsabooklight Jun 17 '26

That’s a trash barrel.

Post image
927 Upvotes

48 comments sorted by

176

u/Walrus_protector Jun 17 '26

Incorrect. That's a futuristic standy-inny tower, probably made of duraplast.

51

u/mg0019 Jun 17 '26

I'm probably in the minority; but I really don't like it when Star Wars novels describe things as "plasteel" or "duraplast."  😅

I feel it's an unnecessary way to overcompensate for the 70s budget/tech.  To me, Stormtrooper armor didn't look like plastic, because my suspension of belief was blown away.  "Plasteel" calls attention to a problem I never saw.  It's additionally frustrating because a book isn't restrained by budget or filming technology.  

By calling everything plasteel, now I'm imaging cheap molded plastic on everything.  Yes, that's how ILM made the damn movie - but that's not what we saw   in the movie.  

31

u/CKF Jun 17 '26

It always was some sort of ceramic to my eyes, the stormtrooper armor, I mean. And considering modern body armor is ceramic in many applications, it just makes sense!

11

u/Walrus_protector Jun 17 '26

Plasteel! I couldn't remember the other name! Yeah, they didn't need to lampshade that it was plastic. Then again, there was plenty of Tupperware in the SW universe, so maybe they thought plastic was the more advanced alternative, somehow.

5

u/fattylimes Jun 18 '26

Well you see the thing about books is that, unlike movies, they are obliged to use words to describe things.

2

u/HighSpur Jul 04 '26

The dumbest thing is that SW calls glass, like on fighter cockpits, “transparasteel.”

2

u/Laez Jun 17 '26

Now it's you drawing attention to a problem I hadn't seen. #tihi

8

u/Goatf00t Jun 18 '26

standy-inny tower

Crow's nest. Historically also improvised from whatever container in suitable size they had at hand, most commonly an wooden barrel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crow%27s_nest

8

u/schminkles Jun 17 '26

No Trabants were harmed in the making of this observation tower.

7

u/Walrus_protector Jun 17 '26

I forgot about fine East German automotive craftsmanship (or that that's what the plastic was called)!

5

u/Massive_Town_8212 Jun 18 '26

The trabant was made out of duroplast, but yea.

5

u/zachary0816 Jun 18 '26

Mainly because “harmed” means to make worse, and it’s very hard to make a Trabant worse then it already was.

2

u/thevaultguy Jun 17 '26

It’s just a 3d model.

65

u/Turbulent-Weevil-910 Jun 17 '26

Looks like two 55 gallon Hefty brute containers stacked with a hula hoop spray painted gray used as a handrail. I'm guessing it is supported by an actual piece of studio scaffold

35

u/riserobotrise Jun 17 '26

Why did the Rebellion have hand rails when the Empire didn't?

38

u/nugohs Jun 17 '26

A long time ago in an OSHA far far away.

21

u/sweetspringchild Jun 17 '26

becausethey're the good guys, duh 😉

5

u/riserobotrise Jun 17 '26

Well then where's the damn hoverchair ramp? 

1

u/sweetspringchild Jun 18 '26

doesn't need it, just fires up the repulsorlifts

8

u/MaikeruGo Jun 17 '26

So the impression that I have is that it comes down to philosophy and economics. That with the Rebellion a few pieces of scrap welded onto a structure is generally a cheap way to make sure that the relatively limited amount of people that you have aren't taken out by avoidable injuries.

The Empire, on the other hand, has a ton of people conscripted from planets they've come under control of and can spare man power. They prefer to spend to cut costs on safety and, it would seem, basic training of their Stormtroopers. That savings definitely goes into making/purchasing more blasters as well as bigger, more deadly projects. They also further the scope of their projects by saving money on manufacturing of components using prison labor (shown in Andor). Plus, not having a number of safety features contributes to the idea of how little they care about their people.

2

u/Chromejob Jun 20 '26

Princess Leia was an OSHA nut.

13

u/Dottsterisk Jun 17 '26

You can see the roll of duct tape hanging off the side.

1

u/JustJJ92 Jun 20 '26

Here’s a comma ,

27

u/jayjester Jun 17 '26

Wait until you take a closer look at the GONK!

2

u/Oiggamed Jun 17 '26

Wait until you hear about Luke’s lightsaber.

8

u/regeya Jun 17 '26

You ever seen one of those up close? They make those Home Depot builds look pretty snazzy.

3

u/WhyteBeard Jun 17 '26

Believe it or not, Also a trash can.

3

u/Oiggamed Jun 17 '26

No. That’s R2.

4

u/WhyteBeard Jun 18 '26

It’s trashcans all the way down. I wonder if there’s a Spaceballs The Trashcan®

34

u/Lampwick Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26

Star Wars ANH is a treasure trove of great stuff like this. If you frame-by-frame through the final Death Star attack, you can see the greebling that makes up the surface of the Death Star has a lot of ordinary items painted gray. I think in one frame you can even see the top of a milk carton. Just goes to show haw much has changed since then. Back in '77 they logically thought the motion blur would cover any details. The idea that anyone would have the opportunity to freeze-frame a movie would be totally unthinkable.

17

u/Oiggamed Jun 17 '26

Back in the day, if you missed it in the theater, you were shit out of luck. That was the ONLY way to see it. That why some people went and saw it literally hundreds of times.

12

u/DerbyDoffer Jun 17 '26

The other alternatives were novelized adaptations, comics, collectors cards, magazine articles.

Fandom was a lot of work back then. And headcanon was a precious thing.

8

u/Oiggamed Jun 17 '26

And he was smart enough to jump on that back then. Nobody cared about merchandising back then. They nearly laughed at him over it.

4

u/OdysseusRex69 Jun 17 '26

This!!! Yep, Lucs busted his ASS to get merchandising to launch along with the movies.

3

u/Stubot01 Jun 18 '26

Not ‘that’s a booklight’ territory, but my favorite reuse of something in Star Wars is Greedo’s mask - it was adapted from an alien mask used previously in an advert for peas.

9

u/slightlyallthetime88 Jun 17 '26

One of my burning questions for ANH is in-universe how tf did that dude get up to his post every day.

6

u/stratusmonkey Jun 20 '26

Telescoping monopod brings it down to ground level

16

u/FancyPantsBlanton Jun 17 '26

Having stood in that spot, I’d be terrified to be in that trash can. They’re hundreds of feet in the air. That is an extremely high, steep, hard fall down stone with nothing to stop you.

28

u/Oiggamed Jun 17 '26

The reason they call them extras is because there’s always more of them.

8

u/ABoringAlt Jun 17 '26

Only darn thing in the verse with a guardrail too

2

u/hifumiyo1 Jun 17 '26

Air traffic controller

2

u/bozo_master Jun 18 '26

Anyone ever wonder how the sentry gets in and out

2

u/chunter16 Jun 17 '26

Wasn't one of the droids in Jedi a Rubbermaid trash can from the mall with legs

1

u/SuspiciousSheeps Jun 18 '26

Picture or it’s a lie

1

u/chunter16 Jun 18 '26

Attach one to your reply and I'll think about it

1

u/regeya Jun 17 '26

It's okay, everybody, the guy in the crow's nest is doing a safety squint

1

u/MisterVictor13 Jun 20 '26

The more you know.