Bandai release schedule

[Hunk a Junk]

To me, the use of the word "scale" when talking about fictional spaceships is an oxymoron. The scale of the ships aren't consistent on screen, let alone in models. Heck, the Falcon's cockpit isn't in scale to virtually any other internal room in the ship! These are fantasy vehicles. It should all be taken with a pound of salt.

 

[monsterpartyhat]

*nothing* in that matte painting of the Home One hangar from ROTJ is properly in scale. Those X-wings are even too small to fit the human figures -- you should never use it as scale reference. As Hunk a Junk said, take it with a pound of salt. Nothing on screen in the OT is consistent about scale.

 

[Attirex]

Yeah....that matte painting is a hot mess.

 

[Analyzer]

To put it simply, yes. Bandai will base their kits on the numbers ILM/Lucasfilm provided, and the existing miniature, with a preference for the latter if available.

Bandai's A-Wing is factually in scale according to the numbers the propmakers/filmmakers provided to them. In the end, all that matters is whether or not you agree with ILM/Lucasfilm that the A-Wing is 9-ish meters.

I'm not so sure some of these numbers come from the original sources. I believe many are based on a variety of sources like live filming set vs models vs blueprints vs sketch notes. Others were essentially "fan-fic" (West End Games RPG creators) which were made "canon" after the fact. From what I have gathered based on the X-Wing game miniatures, the Tie Fighter was re-scaled by Fantasy Flight games based on their own research when they were developing the game. i.e. they ignored the official numbers and created a new official number which Lucas Films in turn adopted as the new "standard". Thus why the size difference between a Fine Molds 1/72 Tie and a Bandai 1/72 tie. They both had access to the miniatures and the same data yet clearly came up with different sizes which seems to suggest there was no real standard.

I believe those numbers should be taken with a grain of salt.

speaking of which...

To me, the use of the word "scale" when talking about fictional spaceships is an oxymoron. The scale of the ships aren't consistent on screen, let alone in models. Heck, the Falcon's cockpit isn't in scale to virtually any other internal room in the ship! These are fantasy vehicles. It should all be taken with a pound of salt.

That is true, but I just wish they scaled from the pilots first instead of scaling the ship rather than sizing the pilots larger or smaller afterwards to fit the cockpit better. I'm not sure if people would question the scale as much if the figures were of a consistent size and the ships tweaked in size from that starting point. Although that is just my opinion.

And to your point, these are not real world things with a known size like military jets so we can;t just compare to the actual thing

Keeping a consistent "person" scale would have been my preferred approach, but then again, you'd have all the people complaining the ship was out of scale from the other way

*nothing* in that matte painting of the Home One hangar from ROTJ is properly in scale. Those X-wings are even too small to fit the human figures -- you should never use it as scale reference. As Hunk a Junk said, take it with a pound of salt. Nothing on screen in the OT is consistent about scale.

Yeah, those X-Wings and even the Y-wing seem way to small. In a weird way, if you take the people out of that scene, I think it actually lends more credence to the larger A-Wing size, especially when you look at those 2 A-Wings in the back behind the Y-Wing

 

[SawbonesAdmiral]

It doesn't matter what to believe, honestly.

The fact is that those were the numbers Bandai were given directly from ILM/Lucasfilm, and Bandai will follow those measurements and scale the craft accordingly with the miniature as reference if availablr

Again, either you agree with the creators and say that the 1/72 A-Wing is 1/72, or you disagree and Bandai's 1/144 A-Wing twin pack is the "real" 1/72 or something.

 

[Hunk a Junk]

Errrr... I've worked in the industry. Taking the "creators" word as gospel is almost meaningless. During production, the crew cares about this stuff only to the extent that it helps them get the shot they need in the can so they move on to the next one. Official measurements is stuff that the marketing and merchandising departments come up with later. Truthfully, George Lucas was the creator and I really doubt he thought about specific measurements. He was telling a story. Things were fudged and cheated all the time.

Personally, I'm just grateful the Bandai kits are accurate to the studio models. If they're in the ballpark, scale-wise, it's gravy.

 

[3Dsf]

Well, as for ship size, I think my teeny blockade runner here is around 2mm undersized...

 

[SawbonesAdmiral]

Errrr... I've worked in the industry. Taking the "creators" word as gospel is almost meaningless. During production, the crew cares about this stuff only to the extent that it helps them get the shot they need in the can so they move on to the next one. Official measurements is stuff that the marketing and merchandising departments come up with later. Truthfully, George Lucas was the creator and I really doubt he thought about specific measurements. He was telling a story. Things were fudged and cheated all the time.

I'd say that the information that the marketers/merchandising (aka the people who had to work with the guys who made the thing) provide is a more reliable way of whether or not something is in scale than some guy saying "It doesn't feel in-scale, therefore it isn't", which is what I'm trying to say.

 

[Hunk a Junk]

And what I'm saying is that I guarantee you that everyone involved in the production doesn't care about the ship's size, never did, and never will. They put this stuff out with a quesstimate mostly -- and I'm being honest here, because I've seen it from the inside -- to placate the fans who ask about it. Pablo Hidalgo's job is to make some of this stuff up. It's "official" only until someone on the production team (like JJ) decides it isn't. Whether you, me, or anyone else feels something isn't in scale is just as valid as anything they put out because, really, they're guessing as much as we are. Given that Bandai asked for official numbers and ended up with vastly different sized pilot figures (as we see above) is really good evidence of this.

 

[SawbonesAdmiral]

I've also mentioned that Bandai follows the studio model as closely as possible if available. What I've been trying to get across from my original post is that in the end, what matters is if you agree or disagree that the A-Wing is, with the largest quotes I can muster, "in scale" or not.

I guess I'm just miffed that the Bandai A-Wing is being called entirely inaccurate because it isn't "small enough" or something, when it clearly isn't. Bandai asked info from the source, that's what the source said, and Bandai shrugged their shoulders and followed their itinerary to the letter.

 

[Jaitea]

The main thing is that Bandai are working their hardest to make the most accurate representation of the studio models combined with the full sized sets of the cockpits, thats why they fudge the pilots a bit,.....they follow exactly the official scales of the ships from LFL & do their best to incorporate the in-universe cockpits & pilots

We have been spoiled by this standard,.....no other company so far has given us this level of accuracy, in scale or detail,....(Revell & MPC box scale??)

In fact the most accurate Star Wars model to scale that Revell will sell will be the PG Falcon rebox

J

 

[3Dsf]

Nonsense, Jaitea! Think of all the beautiful and detailed Revell kits made in a whole range of delightful scales. It brings a little sweet randomness to life, don't you think? 1/23 scale here, 1/157.3 scale there. Maybe 1/π next?

 

[Dedalus5550]

It brings a little sweet randomness to life, don't you think?

Hope this is sarcasm.

Taking the "creators" word as gospel is almost meaningless.

Personally, I'm just grateful the Bandai kits are accurate to the studio models. If they're in the ballpark, scale-wise, it's gravy.

And what I'm saying is that I guarantee you that everyone involved in the production doesn't care about the ship's size, never did, and never will. They put this stuff out with a quesstimate mostly -- and I'm being honest here, because I've seen it from the inside -- to placate the fans who ask about it..

Here, here. What Junk says. (Although saying it that way sounds bad.) I've been saying this for a while. In the real world, engineers can't placate the VP of R&D with guesstimates, but in the scifi world, they can. And pretty much always do. Don't forget that one whole half of "scifi" is the word "fiction." We must use the "official" numbers as a starting point. I, too, am quite grateful for what Bandai does, and (mostly) for what Fine Molds did. And i guess we're left with Bandai using ILM numbers. The alternatives would lead to a whole 'nother mess of threads at the forums. Could you imagine Bandai saying they came up with a scale because Dedalus5550/Mike Todd made some good points at RPF? (Full disclosure: I don't make a lot of good points at RPF.)
Mike Todd

 

[Analyzer]

Just to be clear, I don't think anyone is knocking Bandai for shape / proportion / detail issues.

I am also thankful they tackled a few of the lesser seen subjects not done by Fine Molds and I appreciate they stick to standard scales

My point was mainly that people put too much stock in these so called "official numbers"

Someone at one point maybe jotted down how big they think the ship might have been, Lucas or someone else may have come along and said, nah, I think it should be bigger (or smaller). ILM films a scene, but decides they need a close up shot, so they got to stick in a better pilot who is way out of scale. 10 years later, some company going through notes decides the ship size is x because this pre-production note says so. So we use that, But wait, that makes it impossible to do things it does in certain shots, or hold someone of a certain size. Oh well

I am simply questioning why not revise the ship sizes in the "official data" when it becomes obvious the "established" size does not work?

FFG got them to do specifically for the Tie Fighters.

Don't forget, the official numbers for an AT-AT which stemmed from West End Games RPG based on some concept sketch said the AT-AT was 15 meters.

Now (I believe) it is commonly accepted that an AT-AT is 22.5 meters simply because the majority of what was seen on film suggested that

Personally I would prefer to have things that look right size wise when displayed together rather than things that do not when comparing to what was seen on screen.

Of course I do admit, that is the biggest conundrum since there is often conflicting screen evidence (AT-AT for example in some scenes is much bigger than others)

 

[Sent]

Personally I would prefer to have things that look right size wise when displayed together rather than things that do not when comparing to what was seen on screen.

so much this.

But hey, at least it's not as bad as with Home one (official lenght 1,2 km. "Screen evidence" - up to 3.2 km)

 

[Dedalus5550]

So I had heard about the discrepancy regarding the size of the Bandai B-Wing pilot, but I must say I was still kind of shocked when actually seeing it in person

The A-wing pilot is clearly oversized for 1/72 while the B-Wing pilot is clearly undersized for 1/72

IMG_7995

• Analyzer
• Nov 9, 2018

Left to right, Bandai 1/72 A-Wing pilot, X-Wing pilot and B-Wing pilot

IMG_7990

• Analyzer
• Nov 9, 2018

Left to right, Bandai 1/72 A-Wing pilot, X-Wing pilot and B-Wing pilot

IMG_7992

• Analyzer
• Nov 9, 2018

Left to right, Bandai 1/72 A-Wing pilot, X-Wing pilot and B-Wing pilot

However, both the A-Wing pilot and the B-Wing pilot look correctly sized for their ships. That would imply that the ships are not truly 1/72 scale

First, what is the third figure in your pics. Second, the problem with saying the A-wing figure looks correctly sized for the ships is that a lot of people say he is NOT. In scenes from ROTJ, he looks crammed in there in almost caricature-like fashion, like he's not IN it, but WEARING it.
Mike Todd

 

[r0ver]

First, what is the third figure in your pics.

That’s the 1/72 Bandai B-Wing pilot.

 

[Analyzer]

First, what is the third figure in your pics. Second, the problem with saying the A-wing figure looks correctly sized for the ships is that a lot of people say he is NOT. In scenes from ROTJ, he looks crammed in there in almost caricature-like fashion, like he's not IN it, but WEARING it.
Mike Todd

as r0ver mentioned, that is the "1/72" B-Wing pilot

You are correct in that the A-wing pilot does not match the oversized articulated A-Wing pilot that is seen in one of the a-wings models. I am basing my comparison on the live sets and the pics of the other A-Wing that contains what looks like a more reasonably proportional pilot in it. I can't find that pic at the moment when doing a google search, but I will keep trying. It was a pic of someone at ILM appearing to be painting or base coating the studio model and there was a different pilot.

Still, if that pilot is too small, then it actually drives the point home even further that there is an obvious disparity between a 1/72 sized person and the size of that ship and rather than change the ship size, they made the pilot larger, but at least they kept the pilot to a size that could fit without cutting him off at the torso to match the one studio model look

 

[bigpetr]

Did you mean this image?

 

[monsterpartyhat]

Yeah - that one seems to support the theory that the Bandai A-wing is sized correctly relative to, say, the X-wing, regardless of which pilot figure they used for the 1/72 version.