Isn't 4 digits a little short for a unique identifying code for a droid (R2-D2, R2-A9, etc.)? Especially when two of those numbers are the model number? Or have I missed something? Inb4 "Do R2 units contradict the EU?"
You're doing it wrong. It's more like "R2 units do they contradict the EU" Note the lack of punctuation at the end, not to mention the awkward placement of the subject.
Why would most units not get different names from their owners? Also Naboo alone could own 234 R2 units and a different planet another 234 and so on
It's understood that "R2-D2" isn't the entire model number, any more than "C-3PO" is. At the same time, given that there's likely millions upon millions of each of them, they may have more than one identifying designation beyond whatever their "name" code happens to be.
There are as many R2 units in the galaxy as can be fit into the volume of the first Death Star! No wonder they were so rare with rebels having to steal some of the Empire.. the Empire used them for DS1 spacefiller!
If I remember correctly, the names we here tend to be the first four digits, but the actual number is gigantic. Just that people don't like to say a number that long.
"The scale on the models ranged from 1:8 on the life pod and Lifepod Bay to 1:16 for most of the space vehicles to an incredible 1:180,000 for the Death Star (making the full size Death Star 102+ miles in diameter)"- Grant McCune, Chief Model Maker for"A New Hope" in 1979. I wonder, where the later RPGs got the idea of 120 km from.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/A_Guide_to_the_Star_Wars_Universe_(First_Edition) 102 miles btw doesn't work out to 160 kilometers either
if they measure the diameter from emperors towers top that may add a few meters same death star, different diameters... it all can work together
I believe every R2 unit has a clone. I know R2-DD2 is wandering the stars somewhere looking for Luuke...
But if the Old Republic/Galactic Empire/New Republic were to buy 520 astromech clones, it would result in the bankruptcy of those entities unless they could get a high interest loan from Banking Clan!
After the line running from R2-A0 to R2-Z9, I suspect they would simply need to add a digit, making the next in line R2-A10.
Possibly they knew about the model being 120 cm in diameter, hadn't read that article by the Chief Model Maker- and concluded that a plausible scale was 1:100,000. The earliest Star Wars Encyclopaedia, before the RPGs, used 120km, and that was probably how the RPGs got it. It's worth noting that at least one person did detailed scaling from movie shots, and got 120 km as its diameter (pole to pole). http://www.st-v-sw.net/STSWdeathstarsizes.html Though their estimate tends to be dismissed. Maybe because they got into arguments with stardestroyer.net and acquired a reputation as a crank.