U.S. #5580
2021 55¢ Star Wars Droids – GONK
Issue Date: May 4, 2021
First Day City: Nicasio, CA
Type of Stamp: Commemorative
Printed by: Banknote Corporation of America
Printing Method: Offset, Flexographic
Format: Pane of 20
Self-Adhesive
Quantity Printed: 60,000,000
Droids come in many shapes and sizes. Some, like R2-D2 and C-3PO, are flashy and take center stage. Others provide support in the background. One such droid is the GNK power droid, also known as a gonk.
GNK power droids are power generators with simple programming. They have legs to move around and are tasked with providing power to underdeveloped planets or communities without established power supplies. They are also used by mobile military posts. However, in one instance, an enemy of the Jedi modified an army of GNK droids with rapid-repeating blasters. While they were able to put up a good fight for a while, in the end, GNK droids were not designed for battle. They were quickly defeated by Jedi Master Mace Windu, who sliced the blasters from their arms with his trademark purple lightsaber.
Funnily enough, the function GNK droids serve is one piece of Star Wars technology we already have a version of in real life – generators. They did the job of GNK droids for many decades before Star Wars' creator George Lucas was born. And modern generators have advanced even more since – though they can't walk around on their own like GNK droids. Perhaps Star Wars even inspired some of our modern power generation techniques!