"That Piece of Junk?"

Studies indicate that 3 out of 4 carbon based life-forms have either seen StarWars or heard of it. But how many people do you know that can tell the difference between a Y-Wing and a A-Wing, A AT-ST and a Chicken Walker? Very Few. Even after more than 30 years since their debut the StarWars legend has not subsided. I well know that there are a number of Die Hard Fans out there, I consider myself but a young Padawan in terms of StarWars Lore. However I want to examine a very important aspect of the StarWars Galaxy, The Space ships and vehicles that made the original movies so brilliant. I will go over the 5 most popular and the 5 most underated in my opinion.There is a deep, intricate history to all of these vehicles and ships so I will give brief backgrounds on these choices and my own take on them. So grab your light saber and helmet and prepare to make the jump to Hyper-Space.May the Force be with You...






Incom Corporation T-65 X-Wing Space Superiority Fighter.
That's what the official title of the X-Wing is. The last design by the Incom corporation, the X-Wing's designs were actually stolen by the Rebel Alliance after the companies seisure by the Empire. It's pretty weird to think that if the empire got its way the Death Star would be deploying X-Wings instead of Tie Fighters! I always though that the design was rather odd. The wings seem to only make the ship a greater target. But if these things can crash land in a swamp and still take off, they definitely get my vote.















Corellian Engineering Corporation YT-1300 Originally a freighting vessel the YT-1300 was heavilly modified and was reputed to have been the fastest ship in the galaxy. My personal favorite, The Millenium Falcon was cool because it always delivered in the clutch. From kicking into hyper space at the last moment to destroying the Deathstar. Some of my favorite scenes from the movies were shot in side the Falcon. From the hologram game that R2-D2 plays Chewbacca in to part where Solo and Luke shoot down the Tie Fighters. Could you imagine flying the Falcon and have to know what all those flashing buttons and lights were for?















Sienar Tie Fighter Ants pouring out of an Anthill, that's what I thought when I saw all those tie Fighters coming out of the DeathStar. I really find the design unusual. Those super thin wings look like they would break easily. Some memories I have the of the Tie is when the Millenium Falcon follows the lone Tie fighter through space and then are almost captured, Darth Vader had his own custom Tie with slightly different wings. In A New Hope when Vader comes screaming out with his Ties' Escorting him I thought "Ohhhhhh.....Yeahhhh...It's Butt kickin' time..."














Kuat Drive Yards Imperial Star Destroyer. That was a mouthfull! The DeathStar's are some of the more formidable ships in the StarWars Galaxy. Even though they slightly resemble a grey wedge of cheeze. Emperor Palpatine had his own custom Destoyer called the Executor. Could you imagine one of these monstrosities landing in your neighborhood?












Custom Deep-Space Battle Station. Perhaps you had the same misunderstanding I did with the Death Star. At the end of A New Hope, Luke destroys it and then in Return of the Jedi its back. I thought it was the same battle station, only it was half blown up. In fact it was a bigger better model that wasn't completed yet. If any of you have played Rogue Leader you can sympathize with me on the diffculty of flying the Falcon into the Death Star, knocking out it's shield generators and then getting the heck out of dodge!








When I say "Underrated" I am speaking of ships that actually appeared in the Movies. Hasbro kind of went overboard with releasing ships and action figures that had about 2 seconds of film time. I want to include what I think to be some of the ships that were not as popuar as the ones above but still kicked butt.









Kuat Systems FIRESPRAY-Class Patrol Ship. AKA, Slave 1. This was the ship piloted by Boba Fett. Fett himself meets a pretty lame but gruesome demise when his jetpack breaks and he lands in that Sand Worm pit. However the Slave 1 was a very different ship compared to the others. The main reason being that it flies vertically. When I had the Slave 1 toy I was such a novice because I would pretend to fly it, but holding it the wrong way, until a friend told me very delicately, "Hey stupid! It flies the other way!"











SoroSuub X-34 Land Speeder. I guess the Land Speeder would be the equivelent to owning a 1988 280zx. It was kinda fast, and looked semi sporty. It would be neat though zipping around Tattonie going 300 miles an hour, (that's about 500 km for you Metric Folk) Being a moisture farmer wouldn't seem that dull of a job with one of these babies to roll in. Or maybe even showing up in to the office!









Koensayr BTL-S3 Y-Wing. This was the flagship of the Rebel Alliance until the X-Wing came and stole the limelight. The only thing I remember from the movies about these ships is that they were blown up ALOT. I had the toy and the back of the jet engines there was a removable plastic shell, I had no idea what for. I feel sorry for the Y-Wing, While I was racking up flight hours on the X-Wing, the Y was docked silently...waiting for its time to shine.











Imperial All Terrain Scout Transport Walker. Or, as about 99.9% of the population know them simply as Chicken Walkers. They sure seemed deadly but after seeing them in action on Endor I would say they were flawed from the get-go. All it takes is two 3 feet tall Ewoks and some rope to take down the gigantic At-St? Not Good. The Bigger At-At walkers had a similar problem at Hoth when the Snow Speeders would trip them with the cable lines. You know, It might be a little off topic, but those graffiti-tagging Ewoks have no respect...












Bespin Motors Storm Twin Pod Cloud Car. Yep, this goofy contraption made the list. I can't see why the people on Cloud City would like these. I guess they would be good if you and your girl friend were not talking but still needed to drive to work together...I can't believe they released a Cloud Car Pilot action figure. What would you even do with it? I guess you gotta milk that Star Wars cash cow for all its worth!





In conclusion I'd like to state than in writing this article I learned that Star Wars lore is better documented than some of my school history books. The level of depth and detail given to the different characters and places is amazing. If you are intersested in finding out more about the ships I highly reccomend the book Star Wars; The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels. I would also like to end this article with a wondefull picture of Princess Leia. See it as sort of a after dinner mint to finishing this article!