ESB Rebel Hover tank on Hoth?

shabad

shabad

Well-Known Member
RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
I celebrated the anniversary of ESB by watching the original 1977 ANH (love the original so much) and the ESB DVD yesterday.

I also watched a great behind the scenes documentary by the BBC from 1980 about John Williams composing the soundtrack to ESB. It included lots of behind the scenes footage I had never seen before. One of the most interesting was in the first few seconds of the documentary there is a scene from the Norway filming location with a rebel "Hover tank" in motion that appears to be made with a snow mobile. It was a completely new Star Wars vehicle to me.

ESBrebelhovertank2.jpg


I also found it in the hanger scene. Lower left corner.

ESBrebelhovertank.jpg


It reminds me of the skiffs in ROTJ. A friend pointed out to me there was a recent Lego set that looks just like this and he knew a little about this vehicle but hadn't known where the original screen shot of it in motion came from.

I tried searching the RPF for details on it but not knowing what it's called I couldn't find anything. I'm sure this isn't new, just new to me. I think it's incredible when after 30 years there are still many new things for me to discover about ESB.

Does anyone have any additional information or images of this vehicle?
 
shabad said:
One of the most interesting was in the first few seconds of the documentary there is a scene from the Norway filming location with a rebel "Hover tank" in motion that appears to be made with a snow mobile. It was a completely new Star Wars vehicle to me.
Click to expand...

Ya I've seen those up in Canada....not the Hover tanks, the snow mobiles....(bad joke).

Nice discovery, almost like discovering a new species. :) Amazing how clear it is in the rebel hanger right under our noses. I remember seeing it before in the hanger thinking it was just a permanent security placement for protecting the hanger.
 
How awesome is it that after so many years we are still seeing something new in these great films. Fully justifies me watching ESB again tonight.

Cheers

Sebastian
 
sebastian said:
How awesome is it that after so many years we are still seeing something new in these great films. Fully justifies me watching ESB again tonight.

Cheers

Sebastian
Click to expand...

I tried telling this to the gf...she just said "Thank God I have my Kindle" :lol
 
Yeah, I have a pic of Luke at the gun on top, and another pic of Luke, Han, Chewy and Leia on the top of the tank.

They filmed some scenes of Rebel troops using the lasers to slice up the interior Echo base walls, that footage was all scrapped.

Also, Luke and the gang were filmed using the tank for fighting Wampa's that had broken onto the base. Again, footage was shot but due to the Wampa suits not working very well that subplot was scrapped too.
 
Last edited:
shabad said:
Totally, my wife was off with her iPad waiting for it to end...
Click to expand...

lol my gf is great about it though. She'll sit with me on the couch, just won't pay much attention as she reads her Kindle (I got bonus points for getting it for her for Christmas). She does the same thing when I play video games. She's pretty cool about it, saying it allows us to still be together while enjoying time apart :p

Anyway, ESB night it is!!! I gotta see this thing moving now
 
Seriously guys? I've known about that thing for years.

lfl---0505.jpg

lfl---0540.jpg


Where do you think Luke liked to play "shoot the bad guys" on his down time? Inside the Hoth Hoverbuggy, of course. Pew pew pew!

lfl---0285.jpg
 
James Kenobi 1138 said:
Yeah, I have a pic of Luke at the gun on top, and another pic of Luke, Han, Chewy and Leia on the top of the tank.

They filmed some scenes of Rebel troops using the lasers to slice up the interior Echo base walls, that footage was all scrapped.

Also, Luke and the gang were filmed using the tank for fighting Wampa's that had broken onto the base. Again, footage was shot but due to the Wampa suits not working very well that subplot was scrapped too.
Click to expand...

I need to dig up those pictures again now that I'll know more what I'm seeing.

My friend (Nekokaiju here on the RPF) was familiar with it as well - that it was, as you say, going to be used as a mining tool which is why the Echo base walls have those distinctive lines. That means they had thought out how the rebels had carved out the base but ended up leaving out all the footage related to it since it tied into the discarded Wampa attack.

I think they left it out of the ground battle because it didn't "float" very well and rode too bumpy across the snow to be convincing as a Landspeeder like vehicle. It moves like a snow mobile in the brief scene you see it in the John Williams documentary.
 
Here's a horrible photo of it (at least I think it's the speck in the centre), which doesn't help at all. Thought I'd add it for completion. If someone have that CSI image enhancer lying around, you could get a amazingly detailed look :)
 
moffeaton said:
Where do you think Luke liked to play "shoot the bad guys" on his down time? Inside the Hoth Hoverbuggy, of course. Pew pew pew!

lfl---0285.jpg
Click to expand...

Thats the pic I have. I started a Thread a few years ago because the tip of the cannon looks like Jango's blaster.

I've known about it for years too !
 
The thought has crossed my mind! LOL.

I also really want to build a 1/12th or 1/6th scale version of this:

pdt8.jpg
 
Here's a behind the scenes shot of it being used to store a snowspeeder canopy
x.jpg


From the John Knoll "365 Days" book
 
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