The iconic E-11, a standard mid-range weapon used primarily by stormtroopers, is based on the real-life Sterling sub-machine gun used by the armed forces of the United Kingdom over the second half of the 20th century.

[3] Other heavy repeating blasters were Lewis light machine guns with the barrel shroud and pan magazine removed.

[5] Burtt hit the guy-wire of an AM radio transmitter tower with a hammer and recorded the sound with a microphone close to the impact.

In Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, the second film of the prequel trilogy, the color and the direction were reversed.

This plasma is fired through collimating components in the barrel such as galven circuitry and focusing lens to emerge as a coherent energy bolt held together via magnetic bottle effect.

However the bolt's inherent instability is a limiting factor in precision aiming, and it will start to lose coherence while traveling to the target as the plasma dissipates.

[10] Prolonged use will also result in overheating the weapon,[9][11] which can be counteracted by utilizing alloys with greater heat resistance,[12] and employing heat-dispersal vents[13] and cooling packs and compressors.

For example, the DC-15 blaster rifle used by clone troopers can blast a hole .5 m (1 ft 8 in) wide in a wall made of the fictional material ferroconcrete when set on maximum power, but doing so consumes more gas and reduces its ammunition capacity from 500 shots to 300.

[10] Others are highly customizable like the A300 blaster rifle used by Rebel commandos on Scarif, with a removable shoulder stock, swappable barrels of different sizes, and other attachments.

[16] Certain modifications however are considered inhumane and banned on civilized worlds: the Trandoshan doubler or tripler when added to the barrel of a blaster pistol turns it into a devastating hand cannon.

[24] With this weaponry, a fleet of warships can reduce the upper crust of a planet to molten slag as part of a "Base Delta Zero" bombardment.

[33] In episode 236 of Mythbusters, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman set out to test whether a person could dodge a blaster bolt fired by a stormtrooper.

Adam was able to determine, based on examining footage from the Star Wars films, that the average speed of a blaster bolt was 130–135 mph (209–217 km/h).

After building a pneumatic cannon to mimic a blaster and setting up a replica starship passageway, the team tested the myth by firing projectiles at each other from a distance of 40 feet to see if they could be dodged.

The myth was declared busted when neither participant proved capable of dodging the shots, explaining that the limitations of human reaction time made it impossible to do so.