Interview with Carl Merriam, designer of Star Wars Droid Commander
Posted by Huw,
When we were in Billund for the Rebuild The World event recently we had the opportunity to interview a number of designers, including Carl Merriam, who has been working on Boost products for the last few years
The latest set to feature the Boost platform is 75253 Droid Commander, which is likely to be high on many kids wish-lists this Christmas, so we took the opportunity to find out how the three droids were chosen, why one of them is teal, how the promotional polybag 75522 Mini Boost Droid Commander came about and much more...
Brickset: How long have you been working on the set?
Carl: I have been working the physical aspects of 75253 Droid Commander for a year and a half or so, so it’s quite a long process. Any of the robotic kits are typically much longer because there’s a lot of different testing they have to go through.
You worked on the original Boost as well, right?
Yes, there’s a team of three of us who have been working on the Boost products, so we have plenty of LEGO designing experience for between us.
Tell us a bit about the set
Back in 2017 when we designed the original Boost set we did a lot of testing with kids to find out what they liked and didn't like about it. What we found was that they really liked the characters, Vernie the robot and Frankie the cat. But what they didn't like was that they became attached to them and didn't want to take them apart to build another one
What we set out to do with this set, then, was to make it so the models didn't need to be taken apart, they can all remain built and only the Boost components need to be removed from one to put in another.
So, in this set you get R2-D2, Gonk Droid and Mouse Droid which are basically 'shell models' that you have space for the Boost hardware to be fitted. There's also a bag of around 100 elements with which you can make props for missions and so on.
As far as new parts go, we have a new quarter dome piece (Brick, Round Corner 4 x 4 x 2 2/3 Dome Top), which is a new size and a new spherical wheel which fits in the plate height system. That makes it possible to fold and unfold R2-D2 to balance on wheels so he can actually fold back up.
R2 was an obvious choice to include in a Star Wars droid set, but perhaps the other two aren’t. How did you choose the droids?
R2-D2 had been on the table for the whole time: we actually had a model of him before we started. Everyone love's him, he's an obvious choice. But he's only one robot and we needed three.
We did explore all kinds of different other robots and really the limiting factor is this beautiful brick [holds up the Boost hub]. When you need to build that into a model, that sort of shapes what the model will be.
We looked at a lot of different droids. We looked at the treadmill droid with all the weird arms that stick out the top, and we looked at the (can’t remember the name) the R2-like unit with two long legs and a flat weird head, and plenty of others.
Of course we worked closely with Disney when deciding and it was actually them who suggested the Gonk Droid: they really liked the goofiness of the Gonk Droid, they’re such a goofy Star Wars thing! We wanted to make something that was a bit like a remote control car, so that’s how we chose the Mouse Droid. They are all very boxy so there's plenty of empty space, the right shape and size for the Boost hub.
As far as the colour choices goes, the Mouse Droid needed to be black, but the Gonk Droid, because they’ve appeared in so many different colours in the films, we could pretty much chose what we wanted. At the time, we were given reference for the fighting droid in the Han Solo movie, it’s only in the movie for a few seconds actually, so you can’t really tell what colour it is, but the reference material they gave us suggested a bright green, so we went with teal for this model.
The clear colour differentiation also prevents confusion. Say if this guy was grey [holds up the Gonk] then maybe you’d think ‘do I have to take R2 apart to build this?’ but it’s very much obvious that each one of the droids is its own thing, and you can have them all built at the same time.
Once we'd chosen teal we thought it would be fun to add a little nod to the Rock Raiders 20th anniversary so that’s why you can see the brown. On the front of the box you can see this little drill arm and then if you look inside there’s also some orange and other colours referencing the Rock Raiders' colours.
You mentioned there the size of the Boost Hub and the challenge of building it into models. Do you wish they had split it in half -- the batteries in one part and the motors in another?
We did a lot of different testing to figure out what would be ideal for the Boost hardware and I think the foundation of it is to make a robotic kit that’s easy for kids to build program.
When we were working on this set it didn’t necessarily have to have Boost hardware, it could’ve been any of our powered up hardware, but we came back to the Boost hardware because it is unique in that the motor is built in which simplifies things considerably.
If you use another hub that you plug the main motors into, you have to make sure you plug them into the right ports. Whereas with the Boost hub, once you've built it, and them program it to move, it does exactly the same thing every time. I think that’s what makes the form factor work so well for robotics for younger kids.
As far as splitting it into different parts and having them plug in to each other, I think that opens up a whole other problem because after how big the brick is, the second most difficult thing about building with it is the wires and trying to figure out where to put the wires. Sometimes it works out pretty well but sometimes its quite difficult to get them out of the way.
In any case, I’ve been working with it for so many years I’m used to it now!
How does working on something that you combine with software and motors differ from building or designing a normal set?
The main difference is getting the functionality to work correctly. We do a lot more testing where we take things and put them in long term test.
For example, if you look at to Vernie in the Boost toolbox, he has an assembly at the back that holds him up. We must have tried, what 20, 30, 40 iterations of it, just to reduce the amount of drag is has on a carpet, because just having a little bit of an edge which would cause drag would reduce battery life by some significant percentage.
Also, every time you build anything with a gear train in it, I learnt that it reduces the power efficiency by a certain amount because of friction and how it's working. That’s why most of our Boost models are direct drive. The exception is the Gonk Droid because he has a walking mechanism, but that seems to work OK!
There’s internal gearing in the hub anyway I imagine, and you can control the speed through the app if you need to...
Yes exactly, precisely. And we do a lot of battery testing and function testing to see how it’ll run.
Also, sometimes there’s a limitation on what the hardware can actually do, so for the Droid Commander we released a new update to the firmware on the Boost hub in order to let us do some of the functionality on the hub side. There’s now a few things that are built into the firmware so we don’t have to loop back and forth from the phone to the hub, which allows it to do things a bit faster.
This was important for the Gonk Droid where its calibration is to see which foot it’s standing on so it can take a whole step every time instead of just randomly stepping.
What can you tell me about 75522 Mini Boost Droid Commander polybag that was a gift with purchase with the set?
That was actually a last minute thing. We have those characters built in the app and we thought that would be a really fun thing to do, so you see these guys [points at the app], they’re almost the same build as the ones in the polybag.
We learned that we were going to be able to do it as the gift with purchase, so we were really happy!
Thanks, Carl!
No thank you again for Brickset, I love it!
You can view the sets Carl has worked on in this BrickList.
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11 comments on this article
^ Seconding that; the Rock Raiders reference makes me really happy :D
I mean, this is all really interesting information, too! But as a long-time fan of that theme, that was easily the standout fact for me!
Can anyone help name the “R2-like unit with two long legs and a flat weird head” mentioned in the article?
I’m a massive fan of droids and this set but drawing a blank on what droid that could be referencing!
Yes, I think you're right: https://images.app.goo.gl/QBP97w1zT3YcV9Lr6
The Gonk Droid is a giant Rock Raiders reference? I knew I'd seen those colors before somewhere!
Funny enough, I completed my build of this set last night :-)
It's nice as far as LEGO builds go, with the limitations in mind. But the app on the phone is just annoying, baffling and down right difficult to use.
^ You're obviously too old for it :)
I like the reference to Rock Raiders!
Great interview but I can’t stop thinking about that classic Technic stress T-shirt! Very keen to have something similar!
Everything this guys does is a real spurse! He is one of my favorite designers!
Is that a Lego version of robot wars behind him?
Yes, in the LEGO House, Billund.