Rebel Armored Snowspeeder

Once again we visit the freezing ice planet of Hoth as an analogue for the freezing ice city of Winnipeg... this time to examine the very cool Rebel Armored Snowspeeder. My example comes in the first-issued pink box as opposed to the later (and rarer) blue one. That box also featured a different front photo, showcasing 2-1B, Rebel Commander, R2-D2 with Sensorscope, and a Tauntaun in addition to a single Rebel Soldier. The Snowspeeder was only ever available in ESB-branded packaging, of course.

The box notes the Snowspeeder as being a "space vehicle" which seems a bit off-message in terms of movie screen usage. However...

...the Snowspeeder has to be one of the greatest vehicles in the whole Original Trilogy. First of all, it's flown by Luke so you know it's going to get shown off to advantage. Second, it incorporates a unique and unexpected weapon in the form of the harpoon and cable, which Luke uses (improbably) to bring down a massive Imperial AT-AT Walker. And lastly, it just looks super-cool.

The harpoon description and pictures do take up a lot of real estate on the box, which isn't surprising considering how it really grabbed the imagination as a play feature.

Has anyone not tried to bring down the family dog or cat with the harpoon and cable???

Room for two action figures in the cockpit. Great if you have two Luke X-Wings, you can pretend one is Dack :-)  Nifty switch on the bottom of the ship raises and lowers the landing gear as well.

Setting up the tableau from the box front only requires three Rebel Soldiers plus the heroes and droids. Piece of cake for most kids back in the day I'm sure.

Luke flings open the canopy.

This is the downside of only five points of articulation - sitting in the pilot's seat, Luke looks like a cadaver laid out on a slab instead of a crackerjack pilot used to bullseye-ing womp rats in Beggar's Canyon...

Great looking ship! Light and sound feature are unfortunately defunct on my example, but the lighting track is visible on the laser cannon barrels.

Detail shot of the harpoon and cable. Make sure that if you buy a loose Snowspeeder, it includes the harpoon as it can be a devil to find loose.

Here's how the thing works - just unclip the harpoon from the mount. String/cable was noted in advertising materials to be "two feet" long.

Copyright info is stamped on the bottom of the ship.

Another great looking ship from the Kenner designers. Lots of play potential in this one too - could the Snowspeeder actually fly off into space, as the box blurb indicates? And certainly the 'speeder could have application in all kinds of environments other than the ice planet. A super toy!