Lit A/V The Force Awakens and the EU [TAGGED spoilers.]

I'm 85% certain it is either Palpatine's clone body after his essence transference goes wrong, or a new, more family-friendly design for Jedi Master Thon.

 

I flipped through the photos and I didn't notice an X-Wing. I'm truly not obsessive about this thing, am I.

In further news, desert city set pics with lots of extras just make me think of Mos Espa ca. 97 (actually one of my first internet experiences), especially with those podracer-engine-like engines. So been there, done that.

 

It's with the Falcon set--you may have been looking at the desert set.



Edit: man, double-ninja'd. Sort of.

 

Gossip column spoilers are just too hard to process properly.

 

AHHHH IT'S TOO LATE NOW I KNOW THE ENTIRE MOVIE IT'S ALL RUINED

Just kidding.

 

If that really is the new X-wing, it's not bad. I wish the nose was a little longer (looks kinda stubby at the moment), but otherwise a very nice update.

Sent from my R2 unit

 

Keep your sexytalk to the Social Thread.

 

Hmm. The engine intakes on that X-wing look somewhat different from what I'd expect. They're semi-circular, not circular.

Maybe that's just a factor of it being unfinished. Or maybe it's a new version...

 

C'mon, leave RF alone.

 

Oh, was the "new X-wing variant!" idea already brought up earlier in the thread? Sorry, haven't read back past the bonobo discussion yet.

 

I'm pleased they're continuing the tradition in which the starfighter technology stagnated on the X-Wing whereas previously it seemed to be developing at such an exponential rate that there was a new starfighter in every movie (to sell more toys).

 

You figure Rebels will have TIE fighters, and maybe some early X Wings at some point. So it kind of makes sense
to have the same kind of stuff in the ST, that they see on TV. You go to the Toy aisle, and you can get A Rebels X wing, and an episode seven X wing.

 

Is it just me or does that X-Wing look a bit more like a Z-95 Headhunter (like the one Wedge flew after his parents were killed - with each engine being a half-circle)? And you know what? Mara Jade flies a Z-95. And Doug Chiang drew a Z-95, among other EU ships, in the Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels.

In actuality, that X-Wing looks kinda like Chiang's take on the X-Wing from his younger days, as shown in the Episode I web documentary "Thousands of Things." It also has the split engines.

 

Actually that X-Wing looks really fake. This is why CG is much better than practical effects.

 

GET OUT.

 

It's unfinished and unpainted. Of course it looks fake.

Lt.Cmdr.Thrawn Yeah, that Phantom Affair Z-95 was the first thing I thought of. If those are the true intakes, I think it's more likely based on McQuarrie's X-wing concept art. I'm sure that's what the Phantom Affair Z-95 was inspired by too.

 

The smooth fuselage looks like the McQuarrie painting, too. Though I really wouldn't be surprised if it was a design by Chiang, even if it's nearly the same as that painting. He said in that doc that after seeing the first film when it came out, he rushed home and drew his own version; imagine if that were you and forty years later you get the chance to really put that design (or one similar to it) on the big screen.

EDIT. Looking through some of the design work for ANH, it looks like many of the drawings from Johnston et al use a split-engine design.