WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the Season 2 premiere of Star Wars: The Mandalorian, "Chapter 9: The Marshal," streaming now on Disney+.

The Mandalorian is, in large part, about characters' efforts to transport valuable cargo. From prisoners in carbonite to bars of beskar to The Child, the plot often hinges on these high-stakes deliveries, trades and heists. To help conceal and keep some of that loot safe, creators and production designers of the popular Disney+ series have returned to a device with the humblest of origins: the camtono.

In Season 1, Episode 3, The Client pays Mando for The Child with a small, round safe full of beskar. It opens, somewhat like an upside down DeLorean, and reveals its contents. This secure container is a camtono, a Star Wars prop that dates back to The Empire Strikes Backeven if its strange name only dates back to around 2017.

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We see it again in the Season 2 premiere of The Mandalorian, when, in flashback, Timothy Olyphant's Cobb Vanth makes off with one full of crystals during the mining collective's violent invasion of Mos Pelgo after the fall of the Empire. Grabbing the camtono is an attempt at survival since Vanth knows whatever it houses is bound to be worth something. He ends up bartering it for Boba Fett's armor when a Sandcrawler happens upon him in the desert. This enables him to keep his town relatively safe from slavers, bandits and Tusken Raiders, if not from krayt dragons.

The repeated use of the camtono is an in-joke for the type of encyclopedic Star Wars fans who pour over every background character and collect the original Kenner toys, but it's also an example of good continuing worldbuilding. The camtono made its debut in Episode V when a human male character is seen fleeing Cloud City with one under his arm. Closer inspection revealed this item to be an ice cream maker.

Star Wars has always been industrious with its use of household items as space-age gadgets. There's Qui-Gon Jinn's communicator, which is actually a woman's razor, and even lightsabers were originally handles from camera flashes. But there's something extra absurd and delightful about the ice cream maker. Perhaps it's because it's not really disguised or retrofitted at all, or perhaps it's because it's in the possession of an extra in a cutaway scene, but the moment took on a life of its own.

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For years, fans referred to that extra -- appropriately -- as "ice cream man." Then, in 1997, he was given a name, Willrow Hood, and his own trading card as part of the Star Wars: Customizable Card Game and the subsequent Star Wars: Card Trader video gameHe's been an action figure, a Lego minifigure and even an emoji.

Willrow Hood and whatever he was carrying were canon, but we didn't have much of an idea about the device's purpose until The Mandalorian. Season 1 confirmed it was meant for storing and transporting valuables, and now Season 2 has demonstrated it's a common enough item that it's recognized by different types of beings on different planets. What started out as an on-set split decision evolved into a fan-favorite reference, an Easter Egg and, finally, a useful piece of in-world equipment.

Created by Jon Favreau, The Mandalorian stars Pedro Pascal, with guest stars with guest stars Gina Carano, Carl Weathers and Giancarlo Esposito. Directors for the new season include Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rick Famuyiwa, Carl Weathers, Peyton Reed and Robert Rodriguez.

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