Snowspeeder-Full size studio prop-just how big was it? Case closed with found part.

[MrV]

It has been mentioned in previous posts that have not come up with a definitive answer... but i want.....an answer!

Just how big was that full size studio T47 Air speeder (Snowspeeder)?

Nobody seems to have an answer. General agreement would say the full size scale is around 5.1-5.3 metres (i work in metric and ongoing measurements will all be metric) long as specified in Wookiepedia and also the Bandia model (1:48) scale. My theory is that the classic MPC kit, not specified on the kit box, but accepted to be 1:22 scale- is built to the actual studio scale dimensions, but more on that later.

With this very button below (The UHER stereo mix 500, as seen on many of the films props) i plan on scaling the cockpit that will lead me to scale the ship through studio photos and also using some other photoshop techniques.


I might also reach out to anybody "in the know" about what happened to the full size prop that was at Disney (Outside Wattos Junk Yard shop) for years up until Galaxy's Edge was build. Where is it? surely it was not scrapped?? Finding this piece would really confirm just how big these studio props were. Click here for images of this mystery ship when it was in the back lot tour area..

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[ZeroSum]

Well... good luck!

 

[blewis17]

Well... good luck!

Yes, and MTFBWY on this one.! Reminds me of this commercial...

 

[MrV]

Yes, and MTFBWY on this one.! Reminds me of this commercial...

Hahaha, Yes! you and me are on the same flight path here.

 

[MrV]

Ok, so i started some photoshop scaling with my UHER knob.
Based on this image this cock pit panel is Approximately 348mm long (Based on each scale bar being 29mm long)

Based on this image below the cock pit width this is Approximately 784mm long (Based on each scale bar being 16mm long, UHER knob height)

Not sue if anybody know the original chest box measurements but a comparison would be interesting.

Now, this same distance on the MPC kit measures 35mm (35 x 22 (1:22 scale) = 770mm
Pretty darn close. Only 15mm out.
Now the same distance on the Bandia kit (1:48 scale) comes out at being 20mm (20 x 48=960mm).

Quite a variation in scales. This also begins to explain the huge difference in the MPC blob pilots and the anatomically correct Bandai versions.

My point is beginning to show that this is starting to demonstrate that there are almost certainly two different scaled snowspeeders. The design version on paper that is much larger than the smaller "full size" film prop.

My next step is to type up a chart of the variations between the MPC kit and the Bandai kit. I will also do some helmet measurement comparisons as they are a nice round reference point from various angles and we generally can work out the diameter of a helmet.

 

[division 6]

Squares on chest box are 1"x1".

 

[joberg]

Good luck with your new project As for Disney's record of leaving 1:1 props/vehicles/sets, etc...to rot under the sunny rains of Florida...that's another rant/thread discussion. My thought is: it's gone

 

[jkno]

Good luck with your new project As for Disney's record of leaving 1:1 props/vehicles/sets, etc...to rot under the sunny rains of Florida...that's another rant/thread discussion. My thought is: it's gone

Florida men from Disney...

 

[MrV]

Squares on chest box are 1"x1".

Thank you. That is good news. My scale bar gives me about 24mm width for the tile. 25.4mm = 1''. Close enough.

 

[MrV]

So, which figure is more accurate? I know. Your brain is saying one thing but your eyes are saying another...

Figure left is the totally awesome MPC upgrades by Falcon3D parts and right is the original MPC figure. What were they thinking?

Now a neat way to measure a diameter is to use....a sliding door! So i got a diameter measurement of my 1:1 helmet (cant remember who's kit this was) that measures 240mm wide (See photo).

Scaling the two figures i get a helmet diametre for Falcon3D at 176mm (8x48=384) and for the MPC 242mm (11x22=242)-bang on for the MPC!

Going back to my scaled image i get a helmet diameter of 256mm. A slight difference of 16mm but my point is that a 384mm sized helmet is just not right in terms of matching screen shots.

As you can see, even our rebel pilot is beginning to go nuts thinking about this.

 

[MrV]

An overall comparison of scales and dimensions. As you can see, totally different dimensions showing the MPC version to be quite a bit smaller than the Bandai kit. The "point to point" distance is the are the two tips at the front.

 

[MrV]

I have drawn up this scale sheet from screen grabs. This scale is based on my height about 185cm and the helmet diameter being 240mm. The same red circle and scale bar have been transferred to these screen shots to help with some scale approximations.

Image below shows the canopy measuring approximately 1600mm long. The MPC kit converts to 1562mm long. Pretty close.

Image below shows the cockpit width measuring approximately 950mm wide. The MPC kit converts to 836mm wide. Again, pretty close.

Another angle below shows the cockpit width measuring approximately 800mm wide. The MPC kit converts to 836mm wide. Even taking into consideration the variation of the two images above and below (being a difference of 150mm) These calculations show the MPC kit being much closer to the actual film prop than the Bandai kit.

 

[MrV]

Big news! Thanks to forum member Wavey who provided a good quality photo of the Snowspeeder cannon prop (Found several years ago and sold at the Prop Store London). I have been able to match a real world found part to the section of the cannon. This has let me scale and measure the length of this cannon prop, thus providing an overall size of a full size speeder prop used for ESB.

That found part is a slide tray from a slide machine. I can hear the phones ringing now-"Mum!, Dad! do we still have our slide machine?" The trays i have found are Hanimex Rondex 120 Slide Rotary Carousel Magazine. It is possible other makers made the same size tray in various countries.

Your Honor, based on this new evidence i can confirm the length of the Prop cannon is approximately 2200mm long. The MPC same part calculates to 2134mm long. Close enough! This establishes that those Rebel pilots were crammed into those cockpits, because they were small and cramped.

The establishes that the full size speeder prop length was around 3.5m-3.7m depending on where you measure from. Much smaller than the 5.3m long detailed in Wookipedia and the Bandai 1:48 scale.

An with this information i commence my 1:1 scale T47 Airspeeder build!
Standby....

 

[James Kenobi 1138]

 

[MrV]

One more update. My Revell Engine arrived so i have been able to get a pretty accurate measurement of the rear of the cockpit width. As you can see they have used the two clear plastic 4 x cylinder heads. Again it matches very closely to the MPC dimensions.

 

[Vaderman]

Nice work on the scaling! Still, there is the distance from the camera of the various objects, parallaxing, etc. I am surprised at the discrepancy between the models.

This reminded me of something…

 

[Vaderman]

Well, looking at the pictures of the dancers on the speeder, it looks as though the speeder is longer than the full body length of two of them. Your MPC scale makes it ~12 feet, but it does look longer than that.
I would expect the older (1980) MPC kit to be less accurate (because we weren’t as obsessed back then!) and Bandai seems to really sweat the details and accuracy.
I wonder if dimensions given to the model companies are so different because the numbers they were given were simply derived from different measurement points?
In 1980, licensing of movie tie-in products was still in its infancy. I wonder if people approving a model kit had access to the information they needed or if they just “punted”?
The Bandai kit, only what, 5 years old? Is built with all of this scrutiny, the licensing people know that it matters to the fans and they need to get it right. I could see them even knowingly changing it to make it fit better in reality - 5.7m (~18 feet) does make more sense.

Maybe the Bandai length includes the bit of harpoon hanging out of the back?

 

[James Kenobi 1138]

Maybe the MPC measurement were from the filming model and not the full size? I don’t know, just speculating.

 

[James Kenobi 1138]

 

[MrV]

View attachment 1601236

Nice Photo, another one that i have not seen before. Heads must have been touching the top of the canopy!