4-LOM


4-LOM "FOR-ELLOEM" was an ambitious LOM-series protocol droid who overrode his programming and became a galactic thief and later a bounty hunter. He often worked together with Gand findsman Zuckuss. Following the Battle of Hoth, both 4-LOM and Zuckuss were hired by the Sith Lord known as Darth Vader to capture Han Solo, captain of the Millennium Falcon and hero of the Alliance to Restore the Republic. However, the bounty on the smuggler's head was instead claimed by the infamous Boba Fett.

Becoming a bounty hunter


4-LOM became a bounty hunter after rewriting his programming.

4-LOM became a bounty hunter after rewriting his programming.

4-LOM was a LOM-series protocol droid manufactured by Industrial Automaton who was programmed by a specific individual. The programmer told him about a planet where droids rose up. 4-LOM was assigned to a luxury liner, but logic glitches and personality software corruption allowed 4-LOM to override his programming. 4-LOM rewrote his programming, and became a galactic thief, and later a bounty hunter. As a criminal 4-LOM was known for specializing in anticipating the moves of its targets.

The Droid Gotra used 4-LOM's story as proof that a droids original programmed function did not determine its future. Industrial Automaton however, tried to bury the droids story, fearing that the public might learn their protocol droids could potentially turn into lethal killers. However, Andressa Divo eventually looked into 4-LOM's history. After obtaining Droid Gotra databanks, she discovered that they had targeted a luxury liner, which was never attacked. Divo also learned that it used LOM-series protocol droids and suspected that the Gotra may have caused 4-LOMs corrupted programming all along to create a symbol for their cause.

4-LOM often worked together with the tracker Zuckuss, one of the first traditional Gand findsmen to leave his homeworld, the planet Gand, and claimed several high profile bounties for the Hutt Clan. Working with his partner, 4-LOM would provide analysis and information to help Zuckuss's mysterious ways.

Killing Cribiriz Idollax


One of the first jobs 4-LOM took with Zuckuss was a hunt for the Culisetto doctor Cribiriz Idollax given by Deva Lompop. 4-LOM saved Zuckuss as he was cornered by Idollax's droid bodyguards, and Zuckuss would kill the doctor by cutting him in half with his snare rifle. Afterwards, Zuckuss and 4-LOM agreed to split the bounty in half. Unbeknownst to the two bounty hunters, the doctor Cribiriz Zuckuss killed was actually his brother Sribiriz, leading Cribiriz to vow revenge against the bounty hunters.

Capturing Beris Ford


In 9 BBY, Zuckuss and 4-LOM captured the small-time criminal Beris Ford, keeping him imprisoned aboard their ship and hoping to use the reward for his capture to pay for tractor beam repairs. Weeks later, the hunters took up a bounty placed by Rekias Nodo on Han Solo, and confronted him at Valtos space port. Zuckuss incapacitated the smuggler inside a stun net fired from his snare rifle, and he and 4-LOM loaded Han's cargo into the Mist Hunter, where they imprisoned him along with Ford. Sensing a disturbance in the Force, Zuckuss checked on the stolen cargo only to be attacked by Chewbacca bursting from one of the containers, and was hit with a stun net from his own rifle. Zuckuss was left tied up while the Wookiee rescued Solo and Ford, and the scoundrels fled with their cargo back to the Millennium Falcon. However, the hunters pursued, and after a firefight Zuckuss chased the Falcon into space.

4-LOM, Solo, Chewbacca and Zuckuss escape

4-LOM, Solo, Chewbacca and Zuckuss escape

Following Solo and Chewbacca to a jungle planet, Zuckuss again sensed something was wrong, but 4-LOM continued the pursuit through a heavy cloud layer until their ship's systems—and 4-LOM himself—suddenly powered down, forcing them to drop out of the sky and crash-land on a beach. Zuckuss was trapped in the wreckage, and called out to Solo for help in freeing his legs, though slapped stuncuffs on Solo when he was in reach. However, the planet's technology-negating effects caused the cuffs to release Solo, who left Zuckuss in his predicament. After Solo and Chewbacca found an energy projector transmitting an , Zuckuss attacked them with native spears as they climbed the tall mast. Chewbacca dislodged the projection sphere from the top, causing it to crash on the beach below, which caused mechanical drones to erupt from the sand and attacked all three interlopers.

Kalarassi Five


Around 2 BBY, 4-LOM was among 5 bounty hunters investigating a jailbreak on Kalarassi Five.

The hunt for the Millennium Falcon


Darth Vader addresses 4-LOM and the other assembled bounty hunters.

Darth Vader addresses 4-LOM and the other assembled bounty hunters.

Shortly after the Battle of Hoth, both 4-LOM and Zuckuss assembled, along with fellow bounty hunters Boba Fett, Dengar, Bossk, and IG-88, aboard the Super Star Destroyer Executor, and were hired by Darth Vader to locate the Millennium Falcon. However, the bounty was collected by Fett who tracked down the light freighter to Cloud City on Bespin.

On Valance's trail


4-LOM and Zuckuss soon caught wind of a bounty placed on Cadeliah, who was traveling with the cyborg bounty hunter Beilert Valance. The two were intent on capturing the girl, and followed Valance to the Spur Orbiting Market, where they briefly clashed. Valance managed to sever 4-LOM's arm and escaped to bring the girl to Lowik. The pair of insect-headed hunters followed Valance to the forest world, and once again clashed with the cyborg, but this time against members of the Rebel Alliance as well. Valance was able to buy the two off of his trail by giving them a Fire ruby. The Mist Hunter left soon after, Zuckuss vowing the two would resume their hunt in three rotations.

Following his winding path, the duo eventually did catch up with Valance and his new partner Dengar in the Y'Toub System, engaging in a short dogfight through an Asteroid field before the Corellian bounty hunter achieved a truce with 4-LOM and Zuckuss. This peace came in exchange for information regarding the bounty Jabba the Hutt had recently placed on Boba Fett, and his location on Nar Shaddaa. The two sets of hunters then departed the system.

War of the bounty hunters


Boba Fett carries 4-LOM's head onboard the Slave I

Boba Fett carries 4-LOM's head onboard the Slave I

On a landing platform on the smuggler's moon of Nar Shaddaa, 4-LOM and Zuckuss rigged a thermal detonator onto the Slave I, catching Fett as he was returning to his ship. Zuckuss approached the armored hunter and engaged him from the front, while 4-LOM came from behind, forcing Fett to drop his weapons at gunpoint. The duo implored the location of Solo, but Fett was angered at the revelation that the two had entered his father's ship, and remotely activated its canons to blast them away. Zuckuss was kicked off the platform after the explosion, and 4-LOM had been blown in half. Fett, needing information, decapitated the droid and took his head onboard the Slave I. Placing a restraining bolt on 4-LOM's head, Fett learned that the bounty was placed on him by Jabba himself. Fett took 4-LOM's head with him to Jabba's Palace.

Just as the droid was attempting to convince Fett of his usefulness, Fett disposed of 4-LOM's head by tossing it off of the bridge leading to Jabba's Palace. In the deserts of Tatooine, a Jawa eventually found 4-LOM's head, trading it to Sardis Ramsin, leading it to eventually fall into the hands of Cribiriz Idollax back on Nar Shaddaa. Idollax used the head to create a large, spider-like droid, barely maintaining the personality 4-LOM once had. In an alley on the moon, the monstrous 4-LOM attacked his former partner Zuckuss, who had recently joined a team of hunters, and had sensed 4-LOM's presence. The team fought this monster droid while Zuckuss tracked down the nearby Cribiriz and killed him. Zuckuss then destroyed the device controlling 4-LOM, freeing him. The rebuilt 4-LOM malfunctioned, fleeing into the alleys of Nar Shaddaa, leaving Zuckuss alone once again.

4-LOM eventually made his way to an abandoned Hutt freighter in the Wreck Belt of the planet Lotho Minor in the Outer Rim. There, the reprogrammed droid launched a trap for Zuckuss to fulfill his programming to murder his former best friend, but Zuckuss, journeying to the ship with T'onga's crew after joining it, managed to overcome the droid. Afterward, Zuckuss restored his friend's real programming. With his partnership with Zuckuss restored, 4-LOM then joined Zuckuss on T'onga's crew.

Legacy


Exantor Divo later recorded 4-LOM's origins and his mother's theory about the Droid Gotra's involvement in Scum and Villainy: Case Files on the Galaxy's Most Notorious.

Characteristics


4-LOM firing his DLT-19 rifle

4-LOM firing his DLT-19 rifle

A cold, calculating and ambitious mechanical, 4-LOM suffered from logic glitches and personality software corruption that allowed him to escape his original programming.

A LOM-series protocol droid, 4-LOM stood 1.67 meters tall and was covered in battered rusted black droid plating. His head was designed to emulate the insectoid species he was designed to serve, with two large green compound photoreceptors.

Equipment


4-LOM utilized a standard DLT-19 heavy blaster rifle that was capable of firing electromagnetic pulses as well as standard blaster bolts as well as a BlasTech Industries DLT-19x targeting blaster. The droid's chassis further housed an integrated stun-gas emitter, which allowed him to deploy stun gas against organic enemies.

Behind the scenes


Concept art of 4-LOM by John Mollo

Concept art of 4-LOM by John Mollo

4-LOM first appeared in the 1980 film Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back, where he was portrayed by Chris Parsons, who was also a stand-in for Anthony Daniels and played K-3PO and E-3PO in the same movie. His costume was made from a variety of different parts of protocol droid costumes originally designed for C-3PO that the set designers of The Empire Strikes Back cobbled together.

In 1982, Kenner released action figures of 4-LOM and Zuckuss, but transposed their names.

Freemaker Adventures


4-LOM appeared in the LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures Season Two episode "Return to the Wheel," which premiered on August 3, 2017. He and several bounty hunters including Dengar, Bossk, IG-88, and Zuckuss captured the Freemakers but they escaped after Kordi created a fight between the droid and organic bounty hunters.

Non-canon appearances


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