Blue Max

The MerenData B2-X Computer Interface Unit, which would later be known as "Blue Max", was originally part of a small production run of positronic processors manufactured by MerenData. This was for a top-secret Imperial Intelligence project during the Galactic Civil War. These units possessed immense memory and processing capabilities. However, they began exhibiting behavioral issues, becoming bored with assigned tasks and resisting instructions. Eventually, Imperial authorities, frustrated by the constant need to correct these problems by their technicians, quietly terminated the project. Like many similar processors, this unit ended up in the criminal underworld after being stolen by a bounty hunter during a job.

The new owner, unaware of the unit's true potential, quickly sold it to Klaus Vandangante, a well-known outlaw tech. Vandangante sought such a device to enhance his data manipulation abilities. He discovered that his purchase was an experimental model with extensive memory and valuable skills. After significant reprogramming, he put the newly named "Blue Max"—named for its blue exterior—to work. Now equipped with a cheerful and energetic masculine persona, Blue Max became integral to Vandangante's operations. To further assist Blue Max's work, the clever outlaw tech modified a labor droid called Bollux to carry the unit within its chest. The two droids then formed an inseparable bond. In the following months, Bollux took it upon himself to teach Blue Max about interacting with organics, including the game of dejarik.

Blue Max and Bollux served Vandangante until 2 BBY, when the outlaw tech mysteriously vanished. Shortly after, smugglers Han Solo and Chewbacca arrived at Vandangante's base in the Corporate Sector, needing repairs for their damaged starship, the Millennium Falcon. Lacking sufficient money, Vandangante's daughter, Jessa, proposed an alternative arrangement. Jessa had connected with a secret group of concerned citizens investigating disappearances similar to Vandangante's across the Corporate Sector. This group, led by an academic named Rekkon searching for his missing nephew, had infiltrated a Corporate Sector Authority Data Center on Orron III, believing it held clues to the missing individuals' locations.

Jessa offered to complete the repairs if Solo and Chewbacca extracted them from Orron III. She stipulated that Bollux and Blue Max, whose immense processing power was needed to download the relevant data, must accompany them. Solo reluctantly agreed, and the group traveled to Orron III. They met with Rekkon, and Blue Max began downloading vast amounts of data from the Authority facility while Rekkon's team gathered at the datacenter. Blue Max detected that building security had become aware of their presence, forcing them to flee. Max created an escape route by triggering alarms throughout the facility and commandeered a large harvester as a getaway vehicle. However, Authority Security Police in a ground skimmer chased them down in the fields, capturing Chewbacca.

Blue Max and the remaining group—Solo, Bollux, Rekkon, a Human named Torm Dadeferron, and a Trianii mother and cub named Atuarre and Pakka—escaped offworld but were not safe. Rekkon had long suspected a mole within his group, and shortly after the Millennium Falcon jumped to hyperspace, he was found dead with a blaster bolt in his back while examining Blue Max's downloaded data. Solo identified Dadeferron as the traitor and spaced him from the ship's airlock. Before dying, Rekkon left a message pointing them to Mytus VII and a facility called Stars' End.

Upon arrival, they discovered Stars' End was a massive prison. They bluffed their way inside by pretending to be a circus troupe called Madame Atuarre's Roving Performers. While the others distracted warden Mirkovig Hirken with a performance, Blue Max and Solo secretly searched for the captives' location. After accessing the prison's systems, Max determined the prisoners were held in stasis booths deep within the facility. He rerouted the station's power to cause a system failure unless Hirken released the prisoners.

However, Blue Max was also monitoring the performance and realized Bollux was in danger. Hirken, a gladiator droid enthusiast, had pitted Bollux against his champion, a Mark X Executioner. Prioritizing his friend's safety, Blue Max refused to assist Solo further until he was taken to Bollux. Solo reluctantly agreed, and they arrived at the arena to find Bollux fighting for his life. Max used his technological skills to analyze the Executioner, discovering a weakness on its underside and transmitting the information to Bollux.

This gave Bollux the advantage, and the damaged labor droid exploited the weakness, destroying the gladiator droid and winning the fight. Bollux's victory caused chaos at Stars' End. A furious Hirken ordered his bodyguard, Uul-Rha-Shan, to attack Solo. The ensuing firefight triggered a massive power plant explosion that launched Stars' End off Mytus VII.

While Solo and the others worked to save the prisoners before Stars' End crashed back onto Mytus VII, Bollux was severely damaged. Blue Max linked into Bollux's systems to keep him functioning, but Uul-Rha-Shan shot Bollux, destroying most of his head. Fortunately, Blue Max used his link to transfer Bollux's essential information and personality into his own systems in microseconds. Solo and the two Trianii rescued the prisoners, including Vandangante, who provided Bollux with a new body and freed the droids from their service. Eager for more adventure, Bollux and Blue Max joined Solo's crew, embarking on smuggling missions across the galaxy.

Blue Max and Bollux supported Solo on several subsequent missions, providing valuable technical assistance with the Millennium Falcon's systems, particularly the ship's unreliable fluidic controls. This led the droids into dangerous situations during the following months. While in the Corporate Sector, the Millennium Falcon was hired to transport a secret cargo from the icy planet Lur. The crew discovered they were transporting Lurrian slaves.

Solo opposed slavery, but the slaving ring's leader, Zlarb, attempted to hijack Solo's ship and force him to complete the delivery. Zlarb's men fitted Bollux with a restraining bolt, but Blue Max remained active inside Bollux's chest. Blue Max linked into Bollux's motor systems and, fighting against the bolt's restraints, managed to tip Bollux over to activate the ship's fire suppression system, creating a distraction that allowed Solo and Chewbacca to overpower their captors. Although Max was damaged, his actions led to Zlarb's death and the dispersal of the slavers.

Solo, expecting ten thousand credits for the job, sought revenge on the slaving ring. The pursuit led them to Bonadan, where Blue Max remained linked to the Falcon's controls. Twice, while Blue Max was on the Falcon, outsiders attempted to board the ship. Max prevented Corporate Sector Authority agents from entering, and Chewbacca apprehended a skip tracer named "Spray" attempting to collect a debt on the ship.

Spray accompanied Chewbacca, Bollux, and Blue Max to Ammuud to investigate a local noble family's involvement in the slaving ring. During the trip, Blue Max detected a fluidic circuitry failure that caused a hole in the ship's hull, which Bollux plugged with his body. This allowed Chewbacca to patch the hole, but the Falcon was forced to crash-land in the mountains outside Ammuud's main spaceport. Spray forced Bollux, with Blue Max inside, into an escape pod, instructing the droids to find Solo when he arrived with Authority agent Fiolla.

Bollux and Blue Max gathered information about Ammuud, meeting Solo and Fiolla upon their arrival. After Solo's dealings with Mor Ewwen Glayyd and the reunion of the Millennium Falcon crew, Blue Max returned to his position linked to the Falcon's systems. He soon detected the slavers' ships approaching to attack. However, Solo and Chewbacca were saved by the arrival of a Security Police Star Destroyer. "Spray" was revealed to be an undercover Authority Territorial Administrator named Odumin, who had used Solo's crew to investigate the slaving ring. Solo used Odumin as a hostage to ensure he received his ten thousand credits from the Corporate Sector Authority, and the Millennium Falcon crew left the Corporate Sector.

Solo spent his ten thousand credits earned in the Corporate Sector, purchasing a compact holoprojector for Blue Max. Their travels took them to the Tion Hegemony, where the Millennium Falcon crew found a new opportunity. Solo encountered Alexsandr Badure, an old friend from the Academy of Carida, who, with his partner Hasti Troujow, had discovered the location of a log-recorder that could lead to the treasure of the Queen of Ranroon. Badure hired the Millennium Falcon to help find the treasure on Dellalt, the site of Xim's treasure vaults.

They were joined by S. V. Skynx, a Ruurian scholar of pre-Republic history, who brought Xim-era data tapes and the head of one of Xim's war-robots, which Blue Max studied. However, their plans were disrupted upon arriving on Dellalt. J'uoch, a local gang leader also seeking the treasure, ambushed them. Although Blue Max used the Falcon's weapons to fire on J'uoch's gang, the attackers forced them to retreat and stole the Millennium Falcon.

This forced the crew to travel through the mountains in constant rain, testing Max's moisture-proofing. Their search for the treasure and the stolen Falcon led to their capture by the Survivors, descendants of Xim's honor guard living in the Dellalt mountains. While the organic members were imprisoned, Bollux—carrying Blue Max—was studied by the Survivors, fascinated by technology.

Blue Max, having examined Skynx's data tapes, translated their pre-Republic dialect and learned that Solo and the others were to be sacrificed. Using this information, the crew devised an escape plan. During the sacrificial ceremony, Blue Max used his new holoprojector to display images of Xim and his droids, shocking the Survivors. This allowed the crew to escape, sliding down a mountain on a large gong to evade pursuit.

Their escape led them to J'uoch's camp, where they witnessed one thousand Guardian Corps war droids marching to battle, engaging J'uoch's gang. Blue Max, familiar with the Guardian Corps through Skynx's materials, devised a plan to stop the droids that would result in their destruction.

Although conflicted, Blue Max and Bollux agreed to proceed. Using signals from Skynx's tapes, Blue Max ordered the droid army onto an old bridge, causing it to collapse and take the droids into a crevasse. Solo interrogated the droids' commander, the assistant steward of Xim's treasure vault, and learned that the Queen of Ranroon's treasure was hidden inside the vaults.

After navigating the vaults, the crew found the treasure, which was mostly worthless: war materials like kiirium ingots, commonplace at the time but valuable in the past. However, it was an archaeological find that would occupy Skynx for years. Skynx offered Blue Max and Bollux jobs helping him sift through the treasure, and the droids accepted, parting ways with Solo and Chewbacca. Solo missed Blue Max and Bollux, and the droids sent Solo holocards for several years after their parting, although they eventually lost touch.

Before his reprogramming, Blue Max was taciturn and unpleasant, typical of Imperial automata. After Klaus Vandangante's reprogramming, Blue Max became cheerful, friendly, and talkative, making humorous remarks even in dire situations. Although knowledgeable, Blue Max often seemed like a precocious child, lacking emotional maturity and social skills. With expansive memory and problem-solving skills, Blue Max amazed others with his ingenuity. He used these qualities during his adventures with Han Solo, who allowed Blue Max to explore the galaxy, earning Solo's respect despite his initial dislike of droids.

Blue Max and Bollux were inseparable, with Bollux carrying Blue Max and acting as a parental figure. Blue Max prioritized his friend's safety and was willing to risk anything to help Bollux. Bollux taught Blue Max how to interact with organics, including playing dejarik.

Blue Max had insatiable curiosity and absorbed information eagerly. He felt affinity for other droids, even Xim's Guardian Corps war droids, struggling with the idea of destroying them because they were following their programming. Blue Max primarily interfaced with Bollux's systems through a computer socket in the droid's chest. He had protrusions, telescoping appendages, and a red photoreceptor on top, standing at about 0.4 meters tall.

Blue Max was created by Brian Daley for The Han Solo Adventures trilogy, first appearing in Han Solo at Stars' End in 1979. The character was first pictured in the Han Solo at Stars' End comic strip, which ran from October 6, 1980 through February 8, 1981. The comic was illustrated by Alfredo Alcala.