Galactic Style Guide – Comm badges

Welcome back to the Galactic Style Guide, the monthly series where we take a close look at the elements that make up the ‘Star Wars aesthetic’ to help you build a more accurate ‘outer persona’!
In this installment, we’re focusing on the little doodads that everyone seems to have on their vests and jackets nowadays. Official sources can’t agree on what they are—the Complete Visual Dictionary refers to them as a ‘rank plaque’, ‘rank insignia’, ‘communications badge’, or ‘command insignia’, while I believe the RougeOne reference guide calls them ‘personal transponders’, so who knows? Despite not appearing in the original Star Wars ’77, these devices have gained in popularity (especially among the ‘Batuu-bounding’ crowd) after frequent inclusion in many post-Disney materials. Since 9 times out of 10 they’re worn by Rebel Alliance characters, we didn’t see Any in the Prequel era (I could be wrong, though; leave a comment below if you know otherwise!)

Only two styles of badge are seen in Episode V. These use easily-castable or vacuformable shapes and components with brightly colored buttons. The first (we’ll call it Hoth #1) is worn by our three lead characters and the hangar technicians, suggesting they are transponders and not related to rank.

The second style (Hoth #2) is worn only by the rebel snow troops (I would LOVE a better/straight-on picture if anyone out there has one!).

We can be fairly confident that Hoth #1 (at least) is not a communicator, as we see Luke (and presumably Han) using his gauntlet wrist-comm at the start of the film, which is identical to those worn by the technicians. Meanwhile, the troops and Leia both have different (much bulkier) devices on their gloves.

Meanwhile, the rebels’ greeble badges seen in Episode VI appear purely kitbashed using small, intricate model or electronics components, with little of the smooth details or brightly-colored buttons seen earlier. The first (Endor #1) is a rounded rectangle worn on the upper chest by Leia and General Calrissian, and occasionally by Endor commandos on the shoulder.

The second (Endor #2) is a square design, worn on the upper chest of the Endor commandos, commando gunners on the Falcon, and Admiral Ackbar (who wears his upside down and pairs it with a rectangular bar underneath).

Some post-Disney examples:

 

Now for a few examples contributed by members of the Star Wars Living History facebook group!

RougeOne troopers (Melshi, R)

While I don’t have access to a ton of print EU materials, neither the most-recent edition of the Alien Species and Characters Essential Guide included many examples of these items. I have noted that Jan Ors appears to have one or two jacket greeblies of some sort, but because of the charming, low-fi nature of 1990s LucasArts materials it’s hard to get many more details.

Well, there we go, that should be plenty of inspiration for those of you wishing to create your own. Are there any characters I missed? Come add examples to the album at the Star Wars Living History facebook group! What should I collect for next month’s installment in this series? Let me know your ideas in the comments below!

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