We’ve all seen the detention center monitors in Star Wars A New Hope that Han, Luke and Chewie shoot when breaking Leia out. I’ve always thought that was a really interesting prop that is easily recognizable. Being recognizable is important to me for my personal collection because while there are many cool props, not all are recognizable (Like the Hoth Binoculars). Having people over and having to explain what something is, is not as fun as then seeing them know exactly what it is and geek out.

Overall this is not a complicated prop, it consists of 6 Paterson Trident Slide viewers, 4 dome lights in a couple different colors, a backing plate to hold it all together, and a few custom items being metal rods of various sizes. Now where it gets complicated is that getting any, let alone 6 Paterson Tridents that are a single color and not two toned is very difficult. I didn’t bother myself. Some people paint theirs but I didn’t feel like it was worth the hassle. Another difficulty is real dome lights are nearly impossible to find. And then there is the metal parts, the back plate and the rods. The back plate seems easy enough to make but the rods would take owning a metal lathe or having access to one, so we rely on a kit.

I did have 3 issues with the kit.

1. Spacers not tall enough
2. The holes in the drill/marking template are too big
3. One of the large metal cylinders was too large in diameter

You can watch my progress of this build in the videos. The 1st and 2nd issues are address in the second video, and the third issue is address in the third video.

One thing I didn’t know when I ordered the Detention Center Monitor kit was there are two dome lights on the bottom. I hadn’t noticed it until I was looking at a 4k screen grab of that scene.

• Real Parts X-Wing Helmet
• Detention Center Monitor
• Staff of Ra Headpiece
• Hoth Electro-Binoculars
• Yoda Lamp Kit

Detention Center Monitor Replica Prop