Proto One

"Me? I'm Proto One. One of a kind is how I like to put it."

- Proto One

Proto One was an old security droid who had been abandoned by his owners after a century of loyal service. Forced to maintain himself, Proto One was fitted with a variety of replacement parts taken from the scrap yard on Boonta, of which he was the proprietor, and had a rather unorthodox appearance as a result.

When Thall Joben and Jord Dusat, along with their droids R2-D2 and C-3PO, traveled to Boonta to participate in the Boonta Speeder Race they met Proto One in the scrap yard. Proto One offered his assistance in preparing their speeder, the White Witch, for the race but C-3PO took a disliking to Proto One and suggested instead the facilities offered by BL-17. Proto One later recognized BL-17 from an earlier encounter and exposed him as a saboteur working for Boba Fett. BL-17 turned on the droids but Proto One helped R2-D2 and C-3PO stop Fett's plan and destroy BL-17.

Biography
"I created me! They junked me after a century of loyal mechanical service. So I repaired myself."

- Proto One, in 15 BBY

The droid who in 15 BBY was known both as Proto One and Proto Number 1 was originally active before the year 115 BBY. Following a century of mechanical service to his organic masters, he was discarded in a scrapyard on the planet Boonta. The broken droid rebuilt himself with assorted replacement parts, and his makeshift nature earned him the classification of "Proto Droid," a type of junk droid. Proto One eventually became the proprietor of the scrapyard, and before 15 BBY, he met and took a disliking to the BL-series droid BL-17.

One day in 15 BBY, the starship Sand Sloth crash-landed in the scrapyard. Proto One approached two of its occupants&mdash;the protocol droid C-3PO and the astromech droid R2-D2&mdash;who had been ejected from their vehicle during the crash. He introduced himself and earned the affection of R2-D2, but C-3PO was reluctant to trust him, even after he directed the protocol droid's three Human masters to a nearby medical unit to tend to the injured arm of Jord Dusat, one of their own. As the five newcomers departed in their landspeeder, the White Witch, Proto One was recruited to fix the Sand Sloth by its owner, Kea Moll.

Proto One completed the repairs before the day's end, and he left the scrapyard during the evening to seek out Moll and the others. He found C-3PO and the White Witch at a processing plant with BL-17, who had deceptively befriended the protocol droid in an attempt to capture him and his friends on behalf of the bounty hunter Boba Fett. Proto One charged at his old enemy but was easily tossed aside. However, BL-17 was quickly defeated by C-3PO and the newly-arrived R2-D2, who pushed him under a rain of falling machinery. Moll and her friend Thall Joben then arrived, and a downed Proto One witnessed Tig Fromm and Vlix Oncard&mdash;the gangsters who had hired Fett and who sought to thwart Moll and her friends&mdash;plant a thermal detonator aboard the White Witch and reveal that it would activate after the speeder completed ten laps of the upcoming Boonta Speeder Race. By the time Proto One was able to get up and warn Moll and C-3PO, Joben had already boarded the speeder and fled from a pursuing Fett.

Although Joben entered the race before his friends could contact him, he won the event after Fett's own Silver Speeder shook the detonator loose and took the blunt of the ensuing explosion. Proto One made his way to the racetrack and saw Oncard, Tig Fromm, and Tig's father Sise Fromm confront Joben, Moll, Dusat, C-3PO, and R2-D2. The gangsters fled when Proto One fired a blaster at them, but a furious Fett captured them and decided to turn them into their rival crime lord Jabba the Hutt. Proto One then bid goodbye to his new friends, who returned to their ship and departed the planet.

Characteristics
"I may be old, but I could run circles around your circuits any day of the millennium!"

- Proto One, to C-3PO

After refitting himself with various diverse replacement parts, Proto One took on the appearance of a strange mixture of many different droid types. He was a masculine-programmed Proto Droid, although cobbled-together droids were more broadly known as junk droids. Proto One stood approximately 1.71 meters tall and was humanoid in shape. His head, torso, left hand, and right leg were olive-green in color, while his midsection, photoreceptors, right forearm and left leg were red. Assorted portions of his body were gray, including his right foot, which was also partly black. Proto One's body additionally sported several scattered red patches, and a red rectangular prism was fitted to his back.

The rickety droid walked on two legs with the use of a cane; his left foot was roughly the shape of a Human's, but his right foot was conical with three tripodal legs of its own. Proto One had three fingers and an opposable thumb on each hand. His face sported red piping above his photoreceptors that simulated eyebrows, and additional red piping around the back of his head gave him the look of a balding Human. The bottom of his face contained his vocabulator and was vertically elongated to resemble a chin and mouth.

Proto One was friendly and helpful to strangers who wandered into his scrapyard, but was quick to beligerently point out that he was his own Maker. Although R2-D2 took an instant shine to him, C-3PO was hesitant to trust the old droid until he discovered that BL-17 was his true enemy. A skilled mechanic, Proto One was confident in his abilities despite his advanced age, and he was happy to fix the Sand Sloth for Kea Moll and her friends. He spoke Basic and additionally understood Binary.

Behind the scenes
"I would love to have a White Witch racing speeder on my shelf, with my Thall Joben and C-3PO figures sitting in it. And next to it, Boba Fett's Silver Speeder with Boba and BL-17&mdash;but, I'd want it to be as detailed as the cartoon. I might have to make it myself. As to unproduced figures, I'd love to have Proto One, the droid who helps the kids against Boba Fett&mdash;or the droids from 'The Great Heap' episode."

- Jeffery Carlisle

Proto One first appeared in Star Wars canon in "A Race to the Finish," a 1985 episode of the Star Wars: Droids cartoon. The episode was written by Peter Sauder and Steven Wright, directed by Raymond Jafelice, and first broadcast on television on September 28, 1985. Proto One was voiced by Graeme Campbell. In 1987, the episode was adapted into a children's storybook, which first identified the character as both "Proto Number 1" and a "Proto Droid." The book does not include Proto One in its climax, instead depicting Boba Fett as seizing the Fromm Gang immediately after they confront the heroes in the wake of the Boonta race.

Although an action figure of Proto One was not included in the 1985 Droids toy line, Star Wars artist Jeffery Carlisle named the character in an interview on StarWars.com as a toy he wished had been produced.

Appearances

 * A Race to the Finish
 * A Race to the Finish