Episode 9 Ship Speculation *Spoiler Warning*

[boris_2]

It's the weekend and I'm bored so I thought it would fun to get the engines fired up on Episode 9 ship speculation. I've only got a couple of snippets so far

<spoiler>



The first is the reported Eschalonclass shuttle that's being built at Galaxy's Edge. It looks like a hybrid of the Cargo Shuttle with TIE wings


Next up is some leaked Lego ship info. Apparently will be seeing sets such as :

• Resistance Y-Wing
• FO Order Drop ship
• FO TIE Bomber

So again they're mining the OT Ship seam.

Finally, there's reports of Kylo having a new TIE Fighter that's white, with black and red stripes. I'll keep looking to see if I can find more info but please feel free to add anything you know

As with all things, at this stage it's only idle speculation and could just as likely be confused misreporting but it's fun so there

</spoiler>

 

[Oddball_Fett]

So again they're mining the OT Ship seam.

They're continuing the tradition of the "uglies". Even the U-Wing was an X and Y-Wing mashed together.

Ship in your pic looks cool though for an ugly. Not fussed on the idea of Starfighters with colourful racing stripes though, I hated it when they did it in the EU. It just screams fan made to me when I see it. Those TIE Interceptors with the 'ace' stripes? Bleah.

 

[VideoViper]

For the expected $100 price tag I am hoping for a command shuttle, but I wouldn’t say no to the troop carrier that we should have gotten in TFA.

I don’t thing we will get the gorilla at-at or at least not in scale

 

[boris_2]

Slim pickings at the moment, but there was one or two ship shots in the new teaser trailer. I'll stick them up here and wait for better images to come along



This is either a new Interceptor or a modified Silencer, but probably the best ship shot (careful how you say that) of the whole sequence





Some speculation that this is the same ship that abandoned Rey in Ep 7 but I don't think there's enough evidence of that yet





Some kind of Skiff speeder



Probably the Ep 8 design A-Wing but a nice shot


We also had this new "Treadspeeder" on display at Celebration

 

[Darth_Duranium]

Cheers Boris, nice to see those for longer than a fraction of a second. Yeah, I think that's an A-Wing, as you mentioned. Seems to be in loads of the new artwork for Ep. IX.

Took me a few seconds to make some sense of the Treadspeeder, guess it's shaped a bit like the Corporate Alliance tank droid.
Love the new TIE, looks dapper in that livery.

 

[DarkArtist]

Well I'm guessing if we do see any toys of the new ships in EP IX (unless Hasbro has a surprise or 2 up their sleeves (hint Hasbro this is the time to bring back ACTION FLEET) I'm guessing we'll be limited to the Mattel Hot Wheels line and Fantasy Flight (not that I have an issue with that) and whatever Disney stores decide to put out.

Personally I'd love to see Hasbro give the Micro Machines line, Action Fleet line and Titanium lines another chance. give us great ships and characters and the merchandise will sell.

In regards to the MM line... hold off for now on playsets etc... just concentrate on vehicle packs and mini figures (use similar formula to the Rogue One stuff with 2-3 ships and 4 mini figures). Action Fleet - go back to the old days of Galoob and give us great ships/vehicles with 2 mini figures (they can even reissue some of the older ships as a "retro" line and introduce all new ships and vehicles from the prequel and sequel trilogy. and as far as Titanium goes.... just make new ones already... this was an awesome line and a great way to get many ships and vehicles that we would most likely never get.

 

[darth_sidious]

Unfortunately, I doubt Hasbro has plans to revive any of those lines for Episode IX - from the rumor reports I've been reading, there might not even be a basic 3.75 action figure line for the movie. I think we're going to have to look to other companies to cover the ships from this final film in the saga. HW is doing a pretty good job, but they still need to fix their case assortments - considering they've been selling SW merch for years, I doubt anything will change this late in the game though. The first wave will probably be everywhere, the second will trickle out and everything after will be difficult to track down. If Hasbro wants in on that market again, I think its best if they pick one line and go strong - bringing back multiple ship lines causes consumers to pick and choose and weakens all the lines in my opinion. HW has hold of the diecast market, so if Hasbro brought back MM, and stuck with it alone, it might be more successful.

 

[DarkArtist]

Unfortunately, I doubt Hasbro has plans to revive any of those lines for Episode IX - from the rumor reports I've been reading, there might not even be a basic 3.75 action figure line for the movie. I think we're going to have to look to other companies to cover the ships from this final film in the saga. HW is doing a pretty good job, but they still need to fix their case assortments - considering they've been selling SW merch for years, I doubt anything will change this late in the game though. The first wave will probably be everywhere, the second will trickle out and everything after will be difficult to track down. If Hasbro wants in on that market again, I think its best if they pick one line and go strong - bringing back multiple ship lines causes consumers to pick and choose and weakens all the lines in my opinion. HW has hold of the diecast market, so if Hasbro brought back MM, and stuck with it alone, it might be more successful.

I'm sure we will have a 3.75" action figure line... that's Hasbro's bread and butter and the majority of merchandise sold of SW product. I expect to see figure leaks within the next 2-3 months (maybe a small treat at SDCC followed by a big leak in mid September and full product launch on October 4th (Force Friday).

in regards to the die cast line.... if Mattel has a foothold on the ships I'm okay with that. Micro Machines can still come back... if done right. maybe use the same company that Disney uses for their micro figures/vehicles line at the parks and make them available at regular brick and mortar stores instead of just at the parks. also let the Disney stores bring back the "Action Fleet" concept of ships. I liked the ones Disney made for TLJ with the micro figures. I'd be all for Disney doing something like this again.

 

[Tyranusspotting]

Unfortunately, I doubt Hasbro has plans to revive any of those lines for Episode IX - from the rumor reports I've been reading, there might not even be a basic 3.75 action figure line for the movie.

Now who would spread such nasty rumors?

 

[ReverendStrone]

So with the D23 Ep IX sizzle reel now public, I reckon it's time to kick off some more ship speculation.

There's a great gallery of stills from the teaser here, thanks to SWNZ ...

We see what appear to be Imperial rather than First Order Star Destroyers, which is really interesting and cool.

And there's one shot of a Rebel armada jumping in ...

We see Resistance era X-Wings, and what i am poresuming are A-Wings also from the new era. Does anyone know their starfighter sweel enough to be able to tell whether the A-Wings, B-Wings and Y-Wings in this image are new interpretations or based on their classic designs? Are these Rebellion era craft or newer variants, I wonder?

That looks like a classic OT era blockade runner, and it would not surprise me if it literally is the Tantive IV, given how many hard OT callbacks JJ seems to be embracing with the film, but what's the other transport that we see here? It looks a lot like it could be one of the Resistance Intersystem Transports from Galaxy's Edge. What do you guys think? That would be a neat link to the park attraction.

 

[darth_sidious]

That new frigate looks like it could be some type of troop transport - as there appears to be a large bay in the front.

 

[Rodders]

Nice to see the B Wing.

 

[boris_2]

Thanks for the pics Rev and DS

Looking at the B Wing - is the main wing a bit longer than the OT classic, or am I imagining it ?

 

[Rodders]

I don’t think so, Boris_2.

 

[darth_sidious]

The center wing might be slightly elongated, just as the nose of the A-Wing is, considering these are upgraded versions of those models, not CW / Rebellion era technology anymore. If you take a look at some promotional pictures from the OT - the center wing does look smaller, but if you scroll down to a shot from the actual movie, they look very similar in length.

https://www.starwars.com/databank/b-wing-fighter

 

[boris_2]

Thank you both

 

[Rodders]

Hopefully we'll get to see them in action against a capitol ship in this movie.

 

[ReverendStrone]

io9 has an article and sneak preview clip from the coming TROS home video release featurettes, one of which is all about that big fleet. I was unable to pen the full article or get the video to play, but maybe you'll have better luck via this link ...

Meantime, JediTempleArchives has published a gallery of screen grabs from the featurette featuring concept art and final models of some of these shops, which you can check out, here ...

I spotted some interesting things:

* a ship based on the unused Cloud Riders starship from Solo.
* cool YT variants.
* a variant on Ketsu's ship from Rebels.
* a Pelta-class frigate from The Clone Wars and Rebels.
* a Mandalorian fighter from Rebels.
* Guavian Death Gang ship from TFA and Resistance.
* a Lancer-class frigate from Legends.
* reuse of arts from various Corellian starship classes reconfigured as new ships.

 

[boris_2]

Mixed feelings here Rev. These pics are wonderful but I doubt we'll ever see them in model form. It's a treasure trove

 

[Darth_Duranium]

Bring. Them. On.

So cool to see all those concepts and animation ships become properly canon, and some of those new designs are supercool. Looking forward to the blu-ray!

 

[Darkside_ObiWan]

io9 has an article and sneak preview clip from the coming TROS home video release featurettes, one of which is all about that big fleet. I was unable to pen the full article or get the video to play, but maybe you'll have better luck via this link ...

Meantime, JediTempleArchives has published a gallery of screen grabs from the featurette featuring concept art and final models of some of these shops, which you can check out, here ...

I spotted some interesting things:

* a ship based on the unused Cloud Riders starship from Solo.
* cool YT variants.
* a variant on Ketsu's ship from Rebels.
* a Pelta-class frigate from The Clone Wars and Rebels.
* a Mandalorian fighter from Rebels.
* Guavian Death Gang ship from TFA and Resistance.
* a Lancer-class frigate from Legends.
* reuse of arts from various Corellian starship classes reconfigured as new ships.

I find this a little annoying in some ways, really. There are lots of awesome looking, unique, new designs there...and they're relegated to what amounts to a extremely brief cameo, in a way you can't really see them, as part of the background...in a series that has been extremely unimaginative with its main designs. Lots of very nice designs there, even the ones based on other ships are different enough, yet what we got in the sequels was Y-wings, A-Wings, X-wings, TIEs and Star Destroyers that only have relatively small differences from the original designs to the point they might as well be the same. Just seems like such a waste.

 

[ReverendStrone]

Yeah, I agree with you folks. I wish we could actually properly see these ships, because for the most part they're just indistinct pixels in the distance.

And yes, the prospect of miniatures is remote, tragically.

That said, perhaps someday someone will give Star Wars the Eaglemoss Star Trek treatment. A guy can hope.