crab droid

• Appeared in:
  
  I
  II
  III
  IV
  V
  VI
  CW

• Size:
  1.49 meters tall

• Vehicle:
  twin blasters, water/mud jet sprayer, bubble wort projector (variant models)

• Affiliation:
  Confederacy of Independent Systems; Techno Union

• Type:
  battle droid

• 

From the Movies

The continuing spread of the Clone Wars brought the conflict to new worlds of varied topography and climates. The Confederacy of Independent Systems responded by churning out new, more versatile droid designs that could combat the environment as well as the clone trooper forces of the Republic.

The crab droid's scrabbling legs offer it speed, agility, and the ability to climb over uneven terrain and even up craggy surfaces. Powerful servomotors drive its legs, overcoming the weight of its heavy armor plating. On Utapau, the crab droids served as a deadly threat against the clone troopers of General Obi-Wan Kenobi's attack battalions, though brave soldiers able to outrun its targeting sensors found weak spots behind the forward armor that could be exploited.

From the Expanded Universe

Unlike most of the other droid military units found in the Confederacy, the LM-432 crab droids do not predate the Clone Wars. They were wholly developed in a time of galactic conflict from the pooled resources of all the Confederacy members. As such, the design cannot trace its origin to any one signatory, though the Techno Union deserves special mention since their forges produced the units in huge numbers.

The scalable manufacturing techniques of the Techno Union allowed the LM-432 to be built in varying sizes. Tiny models could be used as spies while gargantuan versions served as mobile armor. The ones most commonly encountered in the war were mid-sized heavy infantry units.

Also known as Muckracker droids, the LM-432 units were first introduced to the battlefield in marshy environments. These units were equipped with a vacuum pump system built into their forward pincers that could slurp up restrictive lakebed mud and then spit it out in an effort to clear the terrain and obscure the visual sensors of its targets.

All Muckrackers come with armorplast shielding that can deflect glancing blaster strikes. The largest of its legs come tipped with heavy duranium stabilizers that can axe into bedrock to secure stable purchase. Some rare models have variant Gungan bubble wort projectors that could trap their targets in temporary force shields.

Behind the Scenes

The crab droid design stemmed from a number of transformed tank droids explored by Concept Design Co-Supervisor Ryan Church in the summer of 2002. The finished shape was mostly there in a sketch of "droid soldiers."