The Secret Behind C-3PO's Red Arm.

Ever since the first sneak-peak images were released for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, fanboys all across the globe have been left scratching their heads about something highly mysterious. Unfortunately, the film itself failed to satisfy this conundrum. If anything, it made the puzzle even worse.

Why does C-3PO now have a red left arm?

The in-canon solution as to why the golden protocol droid sports a brand new arm has yet to be revealed. Perhaps the story behind the limb swap will come to light within a future novel or comic. Here are some silly possibilities I devised that could explain the new red arm:

• Got caught 'wanking it' to a Twi'lek snuff film, accidentally splashed corrosive oil on his old arm.
• Han Solo ripped the old arm off and beat Jar-Jar Binks to death with it.
• He lost a bet to R2-D2, had to shove his old arm in a trash compactor.
• Luke Skywalker got drunk on Ebla beer, discovered his emerging 'artistic' side.

Surely, there's some perfectly geeky explanation as to why C-3PO had to swap arms, but I'm going to drive past all of the nonsensical geek speak and get to the heart of the matter.

C-3PO's left arm is red because it sells more toys to nerds.

"You simply must buy me to make your collection complete, Master Luke!"

Star Wars collectors, and as a sub-segment toy collectors, have a tendency to express OCD-like behavior. They simply must own every iteration of a character in toy form. With C-3PO having a newly colored limb, that means these fans must update their collections to represent C-3PO as he exists now. More C-3PO figures sold means more bucks for Jedi Master Mickey and the folks over at Disney. It's as simple as that.