Although I took an early interest in the ESB chestbox and had noticed that the main bulk of it was a re-tooled ANH box it wasn’t until I came into possession of a related piece a couple of years back when I truly noticed what went on and after a while when I was able to compare notes with my good friend Pete (Darth Karo) about what they did and we had some great conversations about the piece for many hours. It went to show just how slack those guys were in finishing off the products in a hasty and some what visually unpleasant way. The 6ft rule was definitely implemented as far as movie Props were concerned.
In this guide I will cover the basic breakdown of the transition of the Prop which is no doubt more complicated than most other hard parts, apart from the reveal Prop in ROTJ etc. Chestbox wise it was a significant step up from the basic ANH version.
BaseThe ESB chestbox uses the box base of the ANH casting. Although the base sides were in fact made to be thicker and blended better to have distinctive differences mainly to cover up some of the wonk Inness of the original this by in large is an ANH casting that was modified and the inner surface of the box as well as the incomplete errors and sloppy lines have been retained. The top of the box was given a subtle border to eliminate just how much the box dipped in areas.
Base Box surface
The Surface of the ESB box is littered with modules, blobs and dents which came about mainly from the painting process and an inability to properly sand down the preparation after the casting process. Reference shows us just how ugly the box can appear in high res compared to what we think it looks like on screen.
Coin Slots
The coin slots for ESB are really just like ANH they show the same position and flaws for the most part, there was filling done to these to cover some chips and imperfections and some very slight modifications but for the most part these are just painted and cut out to accommodate the lenses. Some maintain these are separate parts and they just used the existing base to position or that they were Aluminium which is something I disagree with.
Lights
The lights had some alteration from ANH. They just altered the lights ever so slightly from the cast in ANH template. The lights do not light up, it is a combination in some scenes or the paint reflecting off light to give that illusion.
Rods
These differ somewhat to the ANH version. The placement and wonky nature of the rods still have many believe they are just cast ANH rods but the exact alignment and variance in style are significant enough to equate to new Aluminium rods that were used and placed in a very similar but not exact position. These are not left in ANH rods painted in aluminium. The rods to border ratio is almost exact to ANH. The left Rod shows a greater distance to the border of the box as it rightfully should.
Rockers
The Rockers are left over from the ANH template. They have been slightly filled in various places and the 4 rockers became one to give the illusion that they are 4 separate switches once they were painted. Some think the ESB rocker switches are actually transfers but they were masked and painted that way to create depth and they were also hand painted on occasion to cover up chips/marks during filming.
Greebly’s/Greeblies
The correct term in which the community doesn’t take on is Greebly based on the UK term the prop makers defined for a part meaning for something unexplainable in Star Wars. Like the UK word helmet and not faceplate and dome so in turn despite many books supporting the terms Greebly with different authors Greeblie is something we have become accustomed to.
These small parts were placed above and below each set of Rockers, in between the lights and in between the Rockers. In total there are 9 Greeblies for the ESB box.
Angles are not apples to apples but it's just a rough guide.
One of the lines on the bottom diagram is slighly out as I drew it from the top of the coin edge and not the top of the coin. It is on the 2nd coin slot on the ANH version.