Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Slave I (ESB) (Vehicle of the Mid-Week)


The most curious thing about Slave I is the fact that "I" is in it. I mean, do people refer to their spouse as wife 1 or husband 1 right after they get married? No - they at least wait until they get married again before that happens. However, there is no explanation as to why we get Slave "I" long before there's a successor.


Being the only bounty hunter ship in the toy line, Slave I piques our curiousity. That' and its unique design. The ship lands on its "back" and rotates 90 degrees for flight. The seat also rotates, and the guns as well. It came with a Han Solo in carbonite prop, and has a removable panel and ramp/hatch. the outer rudders automatically level out with the horizon, and a lever on the outside allows you to rotate the inner seat with a figure in it. In the original line it only came in an ESB box. In the 1990's+ line it has already come in Power of the Force, Shadows of the Empire, and other boxes to go with its appearance in Episode II.


Why should you buy this ship? Five reasons:


1. As previously mentioned, the only bounty hunter ship made. Automatically cool.


2. The unique design - the only other ship that comes close (with its rotating cockpit) is the B-Wing.


3. Boba Fett's ship - also automatically cool.


4. One of the coolest ships to fly during play - it actually has a handle built into it.


5. "Technically" comes with a figure - Han in carbonite.


Backstory:


Slave I was a modified Firespray-31 class patrol for a asteroid prison police force, but was stolen by Jango fett shortly before the events in Episode II. He heavily modified it, including the rotating cockpit and weapons systems. After jango's death, it was adopted, then lost, then reacquired by Boba Fett, who also continued modifying, including, apparently, the paint job. It was "mostly" destroyed in the events of the graphic novel Dark Empire II. After hsi escpae from the Sarlacc pit, Boba used another ship, Slave II, until he recovered Slave I. He eventually had a Slave III and IV, but found and fixed Slave I again.

1 comment:

China said...

Slave I was impossible to find when it came out. No toy store in my city (San Francisco) carried it. The only time we kids saw it was in the little booklets. We would pine and long for it, put it on our birthday wish lists, etc., but I never met a kid who had one. Strange seeing as how Lucas Ranch was just an hour away.