Upcoming: CZ-3 Life-Sized Bust from Regal Robot

Tom over at Regal Robot recently told me about their latest project: a life-sized bust of CZ-3, a droid that was briefly seen in both A New Hope and (in a way) in Return of the Jedi. The bust is being made from a scan of the original prop and is being manufactured by Regal Robot in the US.

You may recall that we saw CZ-3 in the scene in A New Hope where Luke is selling his speeder.

But the first glimpse we had of this style of droid was actually in the jawas’ sandcrawler earlier in the film. You could barely see him in the shadows, apparently this droid is known as CZ-1.

And the same exact droid costume (I believe!) was used as a “dead” droid in the torture chamber of Jabba’s Palace, but that one is known as CZ-4.

In any case, as far as I’m concerned this bust has ties to Jabba’s Palace. There are going to be two versions available: a Numbered Edition that’s limited to 50 pieces for $1499, and a Signature Edition that’s limited to just 15 pieces for $1799. (That one comes with an additional oil stain and heavier weathering, as well as Mr. Muir’s signature.) If you’re interested, they will be going on sale on July 13th at noon EST.

At first blush these prices seem high to someone like me who bought life-size busts from Sideshow 10+ years ago. But not only has the economy changed since then, these are being made in very small quantities, and in the US as well. I won’t be buying one of these myself, partially because of the price, but also because I just don’t have the room for any more life-sized busts. I’ve sold most of the ones I did buy back in the day. But if I was collecting them, I would think long and hard about picking one up. It’s this kind of weird background character that I love about Star Wars, and it looks like they’re really going to do him justice.