Here are some images of MPCs 1/11 scale Speeder Bike from Star Wars. From Wikipedia "Speeder bikes and swoop bikes are small, fast transports that use repulsorlift engines in the fictional Star Wars universe. Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi includes a prominent speeder bike chase; speeders and swoops also appear in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars IV: A New Hope, and the Star Wars Expanded Universe's books, comics, and games.
Various concept sketches came from producer George Lucas' call for a "rocket powered scooter" in Return of the Jedi. While Industrial Light & Magic's (ILM) Nilo Rodis-Jamero designed a blocky vehicle with a large engine, Ralph McQuarrie's designs were more fanciful but with less of a sense of the vehicle's power source. The final designs resulted both in full-scale Imperial speeder bikes used by the actors for film against a bluescreen, along with miniatures mounted by articulated puppets. ILM used a steadicam recording at 1 frame per second to record the speeder bikes' path through the forest moon of Endor -- in reality, a California forest.Playing the footage at the standard rate of 24 frames per second caused a blurring effect, what looked like 100MPH actually was shot at 5MPH , which ILM used to simulate the vehicles' high speed.
The BARC speeder in Revenge of the Sith was designed to appear like a predecessor to the speeder bikes in Return of the Jedi. ILM's Doug Chiang designed Darth Maul's (Ray Park) speeder in The Phantom Menace to resemble a scythe, and Chiang's initial designs for the droid army's STAP vehicle resembled the speeder bikes from Return of the Jedi. An all-CGI swoop appearing in A New Hope stems from a design created for Shadows of the Empire, and the swoop also appears briefly in The Phantom Menace.
Thanks for all the interesting movie trivia about the speeder bikes. Once again; a very nice job on the model with very tasteful weathering. Can we expect a scout trooper to ride the bike anytime soon? I wish I could get a real one........and I could join the Empire's Angels.
ReplyDeleteDave
I hated the figure that came with the kit. He looked stiff and constipated to me even when he was sitting on the bike. I would like to find a more animated one where he's standing beside the bike.
ReplyDeleteI agree. The figure is really not up to an acceptable standard. It reqires a lot of mods and sculpting etc. to get some character out of it. A modeler has to decide if its worth the time.
ReplyDeleteDave
I would like a rider standing there with one hand on a handlebar and his helmet tucked under his other arm looking grim.
ReplyDelete