Star Wars Spacecraft Basic Primer

TIE Fighter

Do You Know The Difference Between A Tie-Fighter and a Death Star?

It can be overwhelming — the number of different space craft that appear in the Star Wars universe. If you add in all the different ships from the movies, spin-offs, comics, TV series, video games, etc., it probably numbers close to 100 (including the subvariants.)

I’m in the middle of securing a few 1:12 scale models of some of these craft for my Star Wars-themed toy photography. I did some research and found that this subject is so deep, there have been post-graduate-level white papers written about it.

Of course — hat tip to George Lucas. He’s created a franchise that will far outlive him and his children and hid grandchildren and beyond. Which creative person do you know who wouldn’t be honored by such success?

I have always tried to be pretty cautious around the Star Wars stuff I do.

1. Out of respect for the franchise because I love it.
2. To honor Mr. Lucas.
3. Because I am afraid of the Star Wars police.

That last one was tongue in cheek but believe you me, if you talk about Star Wars and don’t get your facts right, you’ll hear about it.

I initially set out to create a complete list of the craft but soon realized that is a task that would take months of research. So I’ll call this a BASIC primer and list just the BASIC craft.

If you see something that piques your curiosity, use a search engine and you’ll no doubt find hundreds — if not thousands — if not tens of thousands of references to that ship online in various forms.

I’ll mention some of my favorites but here’s a list that I consider representative of the MAJOR ships in the storyline, in alphabetical order except for my favorite. I’ll put my all-time favorite at the top of the list, and to show you how deep this stuff goes, I’ll list all the sub-variations of this fighter that I can find.

1. Tie FIGHTER — sometimes called a Tie Starfighter.
   a. TIE Advanced x1, TIE/sa Bomber, TIE Boarding Craft, TIE/sh Shuttle, TIE/IN interceptor, TIE Advanced v1, TIE/d Defender, TIE/sk x1 Striker,
   TIE/rp Reaper, The TIE/rb, known also as the TIE Brute, TIE/fo space superiority fighter, TIE/sf space superiority fighter, TIE silencer, TIE Whisper, and the Tie Dagger. See what I mean?
2. Acclamator-class assault ship
3. Corellian corvette
4. Death Star
5. Ebon Hawk
6. Geonosian solar sailer
7. Ghost
8. Imperial landing craft
9. Jedi Starfighter
10. Lambda-class shuttle
11. Millennium Falcon
12. Moldy Crow
13. Mon Calamari cruiser
14. Naboo royal cruiser
15. Naboo royal starship
16. Naboo star skiff
17. Nebulon-B frigate
18. Neimoidian shuttle
19. Outrider
20. Radiant VII
21. Raven’s Claw
22. Razor Crest
23. Rebel blockade runner
24. Republic assault ship
25. Republic attack cruiser
26. Republic cruiser
27. Rogue Shadow
28. Sith Infiltrator
29. Slave I
30. Star Destroyer
31. Starfreighter
32. Techno Union Starship
33. Tantive IV
34. Theta-class shuttle
35. Trade Federation battleship
36. Trade Federation cruiser
37. Trade Federation landing ship
38. Venator-class star destroyer
39. Virago YT-1300 light freighter
40. X-Wing

CONCLUSION

As you can see, even this basic list is pretty long. I have decided to start incorporating some of these craft into my Star Wars toys photography because they are such an important part of the overall Star Wars storyline.

If you know of anyone who has 1:12 scale models, statues or figures of any of these craft, please contact me.

Remember, toys are joy.