Pretty off topic but I came across another design inspiration from ANH, apparently one of the droid designs is lifted straight from the cover of a science fiction book as a homage to the illustrator, who worked the concept art for Jodorowsky’s Dune adaptation among other things. To quote the art director from ANH;
“In Star Wars, there’s a robot in the line-up with the sandcrawler when they’re buying R2-D2 and C-3PO… I did do a homage, because I felt I should, to Chris Foss, because he did some very early designs for that and he was always a favorite of mine. So I made one and designed it up out of scrap as if it might have been in a Chris Foss painting, and that was my homage to him, because I always thought he was a genius as an artist.”
Very cool! I’ve always called that thing “the Star Wars droid,” because the yellow lines on it remind me of the Star Wars logo