Galactic Style Guide – Comlinks

Welcome back to another installment of the Galactic Style Guide, where we break down the ‘Star Wars aesthetic’ in order to help you create a more authentic ‘outer persona’! This month, we’re taking a break from ‘soft kit’ to look at a piece of ‘hard kit’ that we would expect to see in the pocket, or on the wrist or belt of most galactic citizens in some form or another: we’re talking COMLINKS!
While comlinks are—like cellular phones—used to send and receive audio signals at long distances, unlike their Earth analogues, comlinks show a remarkable variety in their designs. Ignoring backpack-based comlinks, we’ll break our sample down into handheld and wrist-mounted comlinks.

The first comlink seen onscreen is the C1 model, made by SoroSuub and carried by Imperial stormtroopers (potentially this might also be what Leia uses at the bunker on Endor). If you’re portraying a character in a position to scavenge some Imperial gear, the C1 might be for you! For extra functionality, you can buy a C1-styled Bluetooth-enabled handset at the Galaxy’s Edge park ($60).

As we’ll see next, the propmakers of Episode I made a wide array of prototypes for the Jedi to carry before settling on kitbashing a womens’ razor for the Hush-98 (also made by SoroSuub):

Per this art from FFG’s Age of Rebellion game, the Hush-98 could apparently also be found in later eras, used here by the Alliance

Speaking of Episode I, how about the simplistic Secure-A3 comlink, carried by Naboo’s Royal Security Forces?:

Rebel-adjacent personas might consider the less elegant 2-MAL or 3-MAL personal comlinks below, made by Crozo Industrial Products:

This pairing really makes me ‘feel my age’ when I notice the different aesthetics between (out-of-universe) eras of Star Wars. The 2D, black-and-white 3-MAL is clearly a product of the ’90s West End Games era, while the 3D 2-MAL—despite ostensibly being its predecessor—bears little of its DNA, design-wise. Instead, it feels firmly rooted in the modern 20teens ‘Rouge One’ era, which, while more realistically expressed as a 3D prop, still feels a little ‘generic’…the 2-MAL could well be a droid caller or lightsaber hilt component instead of a comlink.

One particular model of handheld comlink with a conical metal end seems to pop up in several settings. A member of the SWLH facebook community pointed out that it is used in both the post-Disney ‘Rebels‘ and ‘Resistance‘ series, but it seems very similar to that used by Kyle Katarn in 12 ABY (Jedi Outcast). We don’t have a designation for this model, but the simplistic design would make machining a prop version fairly straightforward…or you can assemble your own 3D-printed kit!

And those few seem to be our main visual examples of handheld comlinks. I find it somewhat surprising, considering the size of the galaxy and the presumable variety that we would expect to exist. Next, we’ll move onto wrist-mounted commlinks, which, although we rarely see them used, feel like they still show up a little more frequently.

The Rebel commandos—and Leia too, apparently (though hers looks to be upside down)—wear this style of wrist device (presumably a communicator) during the Endor mission:

Alliance personnel at Echo Base wore a variety of wrist devices on their gauntlets, as we see here. The style worn by the troops is pretty busy (design wise) for a comlink; Leia’s prop was made from a tape measure, a Unimax switch, two peephole lenses.

Considering it’s supposed to be standard Alliance-issued hardware, it’s unfortunate that the costume department mounted Cassian Andor’s wristcomm sideways – clearly someone didn’t check the orientation in reference materials and inadvertently created a reenactorism.

Our look into communication devices continues next month, but that’s all for this installment. Are there any examples or models I’ve missed? Please let me know in the comments and I’ll see you then!

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