R5-D4 is the red-and-white astromech that Owen Lars selects from the Jawa sandcrawler in A New Hope (1977), moments before its motivator fails and Luke is sold R2-D2 instead.
It is the most consequential piece of equipment failure in the saga, and it has attracted a startling amount of subsequent storytelling — the question of whether the motivator blew or was made to blow has been answered more than once, in more than one continuity, and the site takes no position on which answer is current. What is verifiable is the shot: fifteen seconds of screen time in 1977, and a permanent place in the reference books.
Catalogue entry. This figure has a verified record here rather than a full write-up — the encyclopedia labels its own depth instead of padding it.
