Colin Cantwell’s Sandcrawler looked very different from the final version
When we wrote about the 50th anniversary of the start of Star Wars‘ filming in the Sahara Desert in 1976, we talked about Colin Cantwell’s original iteration of the Jawas’ Sandcrawler. It offers a stark contrast to the version Ralph McQuarrie came up with and iterated on, but such is the nature of development when it comes to fantasy and science-fiction movies.
“Colin envisioned his Sandcrawler as a vehicle that would scoop up the droids in the desert, along with whatever other random items the Jawas might come across,” we wrote in that blog post. “He was said to have not been thrilled with his design.”
“Colin envisioned his Sandcrawler as a vehicle that would scoop up the droids in the desert.”
“McQuarrie revised Cantwell’s sandcrawler design and illustrated the escape of the robots from the vehicle as described in the second draft.”
The origins of Colin Cantwell’s Sandcrawler
According to JW Rinzler’s excellent book The Making of Star Wars, “circa April 5, 1976 [two days after Colin’s birthday — editor], McQuarrie revised Cantwell’s sandcrawler design and illustrated the escape of the robots from the vehicle as described in the second draft.”
Rinzler goes on to note: “The vehicle the Jawas use for storing their wares had originally been inspired by photographs of a NASA-designed rover built for exploring the terrain of alien planets (perhaps more like Cantwell’s model).”
Not many images of Colin Cantwell’s Sandcrawler remain
Our understanding is that Colin took many photos of his Star Wars ships and other vehicles in his backyard as he finished them. The ones that depict space scenes are presumably his models set against drawings he made. Other existing images are probably from the Lucasfilm archives.
As I work on the book about Colin’s life, I will try to unearth the facts behind as many of the existing photos as I can, so I can create an accurate timeline of his work on Star Wars. If you have any information to offer, please use the contact form on this site to get in touch and I will reply ASAP.
In the meantime, below is one more picture of Colin’s Sandcrawler on display (location unknown), courtesy of the Kitbashed blog, where Michael Heilemann has written extensively about the early days of Star Wars‘ designs and the contributions made by Colin Cantwell, Ralph McQuarrie, and others.
The sliver of a vehicle right next to the Sandcrawler is Colin’s original design for Luke Skywalker’s landspeeder. We’re not sure what the pointy models are behind it.
A signed version of another angle on Colin Cantwell’s Sandcrawler design, courtesy of the Hollywood Memorabilia site.
