New vehicles, droids and troops in Solo

Back with the other trailers I wondered if that was a structure like a fixed building or a landed ship because of the swivel mounted guns in the center. Now we know it can fly – cool!

 

Back in the olden days, when not much was officially known, the company WEG that published many Star Wars source material , also in the ‘Imperial Sourcebook’ from ’93.

As there was no information yet on the history of the old Republic, the clone wars and the transition to the Empire, they assumed that the Empire had incorporated the army of the old Republic to itself, and establishing the Stormtroopers Corps separately, drafting troops from an unknown and mysterious. source.



So back then the thinking was, that the main host of imperial ground forces was built upon the Imperial Army without counting the new Stormtroopers in. These army troopers where designed after the grey outfit General Veers is wearing during the assault on Hoth, and the AT-ST drivers showing up on Endor.




All of this had become obsolete with the release of the prequel trilogy and the following material on the clone wars and the becoming of the Empire.

Until now. At least somebody might have picked up on the old ideas and put them into a new relation.

The troops on Mimban are clearly imperial – but no Stormtroopers. I’m very intrigued how they will now fit in the canon of the Imperial military organization as it is really a bit of a time travel back 25 years.

 

Exactly the same over here! That was also my way 20-30 years ago how to expand that galaxy far far away in my mind (and at the play table), beyond the horizon of those films.

Even Timothy Zahn was send bulk of those WEG books by Lucas Films before doing the Thrawn novels, as sourcebooks and inspiration. From that imperial sourcebook, at least he used the AT-PT in his story.

 

“Almost there!”

Nonetheless, it’s still fascinating that with every movie, the technical dimension of the Star Wars galaxy is expanded ma bit more.

I can’t remember exactly in which thread it was (Star Destroyer color discussion for Rogue One?!), but back then the question how Imperial Star Destroyers get build was brought up, and @Lt. Hija responded (having a family history in ship building), that most likely assembly groups are pre-manufactured on a Planet’s surface, while final installation might be done in orbit.

And here we have it on Corellia, look at those sensor domes (complete with auxiliary shield generators) going up in the sky.



The whole Shipyard ISD construction side from the Corellian Engineering Corp. is one of my most favorite aspects of that movie so far. It nicely connects to Han’s quote in ANH:

“It's the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs. I've outrun Imperial starships, not the local bulk-cruisers, mind you. I'm talking about the big Corellian ships now.”

 

I just noted another thing here: Do we finally get a type of armor that let the wearer live after being hit by (blaster) shots?



Those blast marks look quite serious. Could also be that Becket shot the former owner in the torso and then took that armor for himself from the dead body.

 

Meanwhile, that new AT-DT walker found its way into the mobile game ‘Star Wars Commander’. So if those programmers didn’t mess up everything, those walkers are a more heavy version of those open cockpit, one driver AT-RTs from the clone wars. Which by the way, matches the three clawed food quite well.

Such a personal walker is something that was not in the imperial arsenal so far as both AT-ST and AT-DP are far bigger and enclosed.

AT-DT







AT-RT

 

Hah, now that’s what I call a real mud trooper!




Also intriguing, Dryden’s guards armed with swords and precision rifles wearing those high end helmets. Interesting that they look very techy but have to open to make full use of the gun’s scope. Wonder if they could not have the crosshairs already displayed on that visor’s inside with some remote signal from the weapon.

 

“Echo Station 3-T8. We've spotted imperial walkers. Imperial walkers on the north ridge”

I would be much surprised if that’s not the foot of a tripped imperial AT-AT we see behind Beckett.
So will we see those all-time classic mechanical monsters back in action on the Mimban battlefield, what do you think?