May 4th. Also officially recognised as Star Wars day, it’s a global testament to George Lucas’ Magnum Opus with epic lightsabre duels, awesome air fleet battles and baby Yoda.
Let’s take a look at some forcesome vehicles from the creative mind of George Lucas and co to celebrate May 4th in true Mikaniki fashion, counting down the 5 #StarWars vehicles we just loved.
5. Anakin’s Podracer
Claimed to be the fastest racer ever to compete in the Boonta Eve Classic, this blue and silver beauty kicks our list off.
Slaving away in the desert planet of Tatooine, Anakin Skywalker salvaged a pair of Radon-Ulzer Repulsorlift engines and assembled a beast of a machine far beyond his young years.
It was built to standard podracer specifications, with a 3.15 meter cockpit, however it was smaller and sleeker overall in comparison to other racers.
It was a simple, but brilliant construct. An Energy binder, straining the cockpit at the back with a Steelton control cable, linked the two high power engines to complete the racer.
But the true genius was a custom spraying device and system that fed fuel to the fuelling chamber with greater efficiency. Not bad for a kid who joins School of Rock’s Zack Mooneyham in the list of overachieving 10-year-olds.
This baby could reach top speeds of 947 Kilometers an hour, with a maximum elevation of 105 meters courtesy of the Repulsorlift, or antigrav technology.
Just as well, his freedom and the fate of the galaxy rode upon that one race.
4. Joben T-85 Speeder Bike
He survived Order 66. He swapped his lithe lightsaber for a blaster. He also wore his hair in a ponytail for a while. Kanan Jarrus was a true badass.
What’s more, he navigated his new turbulent fugitive life aboard the Joben T-85, also known as the Harley Davidson of Speeder Bikes.
Making its first televised appearance in season 1 episode 11 of Rebels, this solid release from Zebulon Dak Speeder Corporation also used Repulsorlift technology and emphasized speed and maneuverability.
Named after legendary racer Thall Joben, this bad boy ran on a Moll K-19 Power Generator and would often be seen paired with a Dusat aft-firing EMP emitter, which Kanan disabled while zooming around Lothal.
3. Slave 1
Since we’re talking about badasses, we can’t not mention the Fetts, Jango and his son, Boba. Double negatives are the sort of thing they just wouldn’t entertain either.
After stealing it from Oovo IV, Jango properly tricked out this standard Firespray-31-class patrol and attack craft with a number of gizmos, including laser cannons, projectile launchers, and seismic charges and took it to the next level.
Exactly what he needed in his tete-a-tete with Obi Wan Kenobi.
Passed down from father to son after Jango’s death by decapitation at the hand of Mace Windu, Boba found another use for the Slave 1 in his adulthood, when he used it to transport a frozen Han Solo to Jabba the Hutt.
2. AT-AT Walker
Not to be confused with AT&T, The AT-AT, or all All Terrain Armored Transport, was initially used in the Galactic Civil War.
Where you’ve probably recognised it, though, is when the Luke Skywalker-led rebels took on a fleet in Empire Strikes Back.
The successor to the All Terrain Tactical Enforcer, or Triceratops with canons, the AT-AT Walker was designed to put fear over functionality, and posed a credible threat in annihilating the entire rebellion on the planet of Hoth.
But the Achilles Heel would soon be revealed when Luke recalled his farmboy days and came up with a masterstroke to entangle the legs of the ferocious Walkers, causing them to fold in on themselves and collapse.
You know what they say, never underestimate what you can learn on a farm.
1. Millennium Falcon
Call it fan service, but it would be awfully remiss of us not to give this iconic craft a mention on this list. Rounding up the 5 #StarWars vehicles we just loved, is none other than the Millennium Falcon.
Don’t be fooled by the battered exterior, this awesome warship could evade meteor rocks, dodge TIE fighters and hell even destroy Death Star 2 on the back of its Girodyne SRB42 sublight engines modified with a SLAM overdrive that rerouted energy for those insane bursts of acceleration.
It could hit speeds of 1200 Kilometers per hour in atmosphere and 3000 G in space. But that’s not the best part. It was fitted with a Vandangante rigged Isu-Sim SSP05, replacing the standard YT-1300 series, which was what brought it up to a Class 0.5 hyperdrive, twice as fast as most warships in the Galactic Empire.
Oh but that’s actually when the Falcon decides to go into overdrive, with a failure rate of 1.22 times more than the standard YT-2400 light freighter.
A ruggedly handsome ship for a ruggedly handsome owner (Chewie). #MayThe4thBeWithYou
That’s it. The 5 #StarWars vehicles we just loved. But what if our favourite intergalactic heroes lived on Earth? What would they drive? We’ve got an idea. Check it out!
