The Doof Star was the scale model of a device invented by the Imperial scientist Heinz Darthenshmirtz by 0 BBY. Darthenshmirtz originally conceived his creation to work as a nutcracker, using it to shoot a laser beam on any nuts to break them as he showed to his 3PO-series protocol droid Norm-3PO. Unfortunately for Darthenshmirtz, Darth Vader stole his design and scaled it up significantly until turning what started like a harmless appliance into the Imperial superweapon known as the Death Star. The Empire did go to hire Darthenshmirtz, but never gave him credit for the idea.