iFixit

Waging War for Repair, Rebels Are

May the Fourth be with you, Rebels.

Here at iFixit, we’re just a ragtag crew of Repair Rebels (and dogs), fighting against the evil Empire as it tightens its grip on the galaxy of repair.

iFixit employees as Star Wars characters
Admiral Holdo: Sam (Lead Teardown Engineer), DJ: Andrew (Tool Designer), Rose Tico: Kay-Kay (Director of Things)

We’re also HUGE  Star Wars nerds. See that photo? That’s me and my best mates cosplaying our favorite Last Jedi characters at the Emerald City Comic Con a few months back. I live for fandoms—and there’s no story more timeless (or easy to obsess over) than the Star Wars saga.

With their starship repair stations and maintenance droids, we’re pretty certain that the Rebel Alliance knew how to fix. So in celebration of May the Fourth, we’re exploring our favorite gadgets from a galaxy far, far away.

Look inside Luke’s landspeeder

The X-34 landspeeder was a civilian model available during the Galactic Civil War. Luke kept his landspeeder in good working order with some tinkering and careful maintenance. Kelsea and I thought it would be fun to take it apart to see what old Luke was up against. And then we got too excited and put on some costumes and somehow convinced our team to make this epic video.

Obi Wan’s lightsaber

The lightsaber is the tool of a true Jedi. Historians have long debated which was the most effective saber design—so Obi-Wan lent his to us to tear down and find out. Seeing as this is his third lightsaber, we suspect Master Kenobi had long-term repairability in mind during its construction. It was easy peasy to access the crystal chamber with its single Adegan crystal. Now view the teardown, you must.

The bits of BB-8

Don’t worry, we’d never dismember the most audacious android in the Resistance. These young Padawans are learning the ways of the fixer-Force by taking apart a BB-8 lamp.

Hey Poe Dameron, we’ve got your Droid!

We might not have torn down BB-8, but he did stop by to say hello. Take a look at this video of BB-8 exploring iFixit headquarters.