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- "I volunteered for all the modifications and reprogramming I could, but eventually I simply couldn't compete with the newer, more capable droids."
- ―A philosophical Bollux, reflecting on his operating history.
BLX-5, called "Bollux" by his masters and sometimes known by the alias "Zollux", was a BLX labor droid once produced by Serv-O-Droid, Inc. He held many jobs over the decades, serving many masters, but is best known for his association with Han Solo and Chewbacca during their time in the Corporate Sector and Tion Hegemony.
Biography
Bollux.
Bollux started out as BLX-5, a simple labor droid in the Fondor Shipyards, with only the limited personality and intellect needed for his duties. Like other labor droids, he had heavy servomotors and a high-gravity suspension system to haul cargo and perform other strenuous tasks. One day, he was ordered to check a fuel module for mynocks. However, the orders did not specify a return time, so the BLX stayed to observe the mynocks until he judged that he had sufficient information. In the intervening three weeks, the droid supervisors assumed that he had fallen prey to the mynocks, and assigned his work designation to a new labor droid. Due to the size of the facilities at Fondor, it was nearly a year before anyone noticed that two labor droids had been given the same designation. Since Bollux had gone without a memory wipe in all that time, he had developed a personality. The staff took a liking to the droid, promoting him to shift overseer and providing him with structural modifications and other upgrades. Despite his popularity, he was eventually replaced with a newer and cheaper droid, and sold as surplus.[2]
He traveled the galaxy, working at a variety of jobs. He built survival domes and camps for a planetary survey Alpha-Team, worked on a construction gang for weather-control systems, and became a roustabout for Gan Jan Rue's Traveling Menagerie.[1] He even joined a unit of the Galactic Republic's military to construct fortifications, followed by a stint as a technical overseer for a Trigdale Foundries mining colony. At every job, he continually sought to improve himself by volunteering for new modifications. Every job ended the same way, however, as he was replaced by a newer model and sold off.[2] At some point during this nomadic existence, he used the alias Zollux for unexplained reasons.[4]
Bollux eventually fell in with a group of smugglers, who won him in a dice game. These smugglers traded him to the outlaw tech Klaus "Doc" Vandangante for an enhanced hyperdrive motivator. Doc and his daughter Jessa treated Bollux as part of the family. Jessa used Bollux as a test subject for her droid engineering skills, giving him access to more and more upgrades. The droid had internal components moved to create a chest cavity for holding the slicer droid, Blue Max. The two droids became good friends, with Bollux developing almost paternal feelings for the computer probe.[2]
Travels with Solo
Bollux
For a mission to free Doc and other prisoners from the Corporate Sector Authority, Jessa loaned Bollux and Blue Max to Han Solo. Bollux smuggled Blue Max into Orron III with Solo and his allies to find the location of the prisoners. Bollux helped in their escape from Orron III and later managed to defeat CSA Viceprex Mirkovig Hirken's Mark X Executioner gladiator droid at Stars' End by diving underneath the Mark X's treads and ripping out wires. As Solo and the others attempted to escape the Hirken's hired bodyguard, Uul-Rha-Shan fired a shot at Solo who was attempting to save Bollux, Bollux threw himself onto Solo to protect him. Bollux however was pierced through his head and was only saved by Blue Max storing Bollux's personality in his memory. After freeing the prisoners and escaping Stars' End, Bollux was given a new, upgraded body by the outlaw techs. Both Bollux and Blue Max were given their freedom by Doc's techs.[1]
They chose to stay with Han Solo and Chewbacca on the Millennium Falcon for a time to see the galaxy, exchanging labor for fare. They helped the two smugglers on several adventures, including breaking up a gang of slavers in the Corporate Sector,[5] and the hunt for the lost treasure of Xim the Despot in the Tion Hegemony, by causing Xim's war robots to destroy themselves by ordering all of them onto an old bridge all at once, causing the bridge to break. After that quest wrapped up on Dellalt, Bollux and Blue Max left Han Solo. The historian Skynx recruited Bollux and Blue Max to stay on Dellalt to help catalog Xim's treasure (mostly the artwork) to further Skynx's research of Xim's conquests and adventures.[6]
Bollux and Blue Max with Han Solo and Chewbacca.
Their activities afterwards are not recorded, though they sent holocards to Han Solo for a few years afterwards.[2]
Behind the scenes
In the original UK release of The Han Solo Adventures, Bollux was renamed Zollux, as the original term is homophonous with a colloquial term for the word "testicles" in British English, despite having an alternate spelling. In The New Essential Guide to Droids, Zollux was established to be an alias Bollux sometimes used in his travels.
Appearances
- Han Solo at Stars' End (First appearance)
- Han Solo at Stars' End comic
- Han Solo's Revenge
- Han Solo and the Lost Legacy
- Rebel Dawn (Mentioned only)
- The New Jedi Order: Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse (Mentioned only)
Sources
- A Guide to the Star Wars Universe (Bollux)
- Han Solo and the Corporate Sector Sourcebook
- Heroes & Rogues
- The Essential Guide to Characters
- The Essential Guide to Weapons and Technology
- The Essential Guide to Droids
"ComicScan: Coming Full Circle" — Star Wars Galaxy Collector 3- The Essential Chronology
- The Official Star Wars Fact File 24 (ESP3-4, Espionage Droids)
- The New Essential Guide to Droids
- The New Essential Chronology
- "Han Solo: The Early Years" — Star Wars Insider 106
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
- Bollux in the Databank (content now obsolete; backup link)
- The Essential Reader's Companion
- "Guide to the Galaxy!" — Star Wars Insider 137
- "Uncivilized: Great Gunslingers in Star Wars, Part 1 {{{3}}}" — {{{4}}} — [[{{{5}}}|{{{5}}}'s]] StarWars.com Blog (Uncivilized: Great Gunslingers in Star Wars, Part 1 backup link (2013/09/19/so-uncivilized-great-gunslingers-in-star-wars-part-1//So Uncivilized: Great Gunslingers in Star Wars, Part 1) not verified!)
