New Cloud Car . . . ?

[Mr. JabbaJohnL]

On that otheR Site's forums, I found some pics (here, here, and here) of what would appear to be the prototype for an all-new Cloud Car. There was a new snowspeeder here and here, too. The Cloud Car looks pretty damn great. Looks like the pods can split apart, and Hasbro packed it full of missiles, which is to be expected. It looks like the sections between the pods can be extended or retracted, for whatever reason. Anyway, hopefully there will be official confirmation on this at Toy Fair or sooner, since this looks killer.

[El Chuxter]

Oh my sweet, sweet Lord, it is a prototype Cloud Car! JT was my hero for pointing out the deal on the MARS Trooper sets, but I think you just trumped him.

The Snowspeeder doesn't really look new to me. It looks like there's a tiny bit of retooling, but, otherwise, I can't tell the difference from the earlier versions (unless they scaled the size down slightly, which wouldn't show up in a pic like that).

[Mr. JabbaJohnL]

The difference in the snowspeeder isn't obvious, but if you compare it to the old one, there are some changes. The cannons are now mostly smooth, and all the "raised" detailing on the old one has been replaced with grooves. That's not huge, and we probably won't know how different it is for a while, but it's definitely a different sculpt.

[JediTricks]

Nice find, JJL! Looks authentic to me, the screw-holes and missile styles and the hatch hinges and the docking business are very Hasbro styled, these would have to be amazing forgeries to pass this design off.

What do you think is under the movable "hood" at the front of each pod?

BTW, here's their most recent answer about the Cloud Car, from Nov 16th:

Toymania.com: Often, Hasbro's response to a question about a requested vehicle (like the Cloud Car) that "it is still readily available to fans on ebay" - however, looking at the improvements in paint and deco on any Hasbro re-release(as seen in the multiple releases of the TIE fighter) fans feel that any re-release would be an improvement on the original. Maybe you could explain to me the reasoning that Hasbro would prefer fans to buy from the secondary market rather than from your vendor partners?
Hasbro: Vehicles, just like characters, are not created equally. We cite the Cloud Car specifically as an example of a vehicle which is available on eBay for less than the cost if we created a new one and released it, for example, in the Starfighter Vehicle Assortment. We *do* know that there is an audience of fans who want to have a new-era (non-Vintage) Cloud Car in their collection, however based on demand it appears to be more of a niche audience. If/when we eventually do a Cloud Car, we need to be sure that the audience is big enough to justify the tooling investment.

Very very sneaky the way they worded that.


It's definitely new, I love that they sculpted the hatch detail and you can see it on the unpainted canopy. I fear I'm seeing the lower flaps on the Snowspeeder not being movable again, but I'll definitely buy this no matter what.

[LTBasker]

Both vehicles look great, especially the Snowspeeder. The proportions look far better and the detailing is very sharp.

[Mr. JabbaJohnL]

What do you think is under the movable "hood" at the front of each pod?

I'd guess just detailing, but maybe they have something more action-oriented planned. Either way, I didn't notice them until you pointed them out.

That Q&A answer is indeed very telling, that seems to confirm it in my mind.

[DarkJedi5]

This is the best news I think I've heard in months regarding the future of the line. They promised some new OT vehicles and if these are them (with hopefully a surprise or two left for toy fair) I'll be buying two of each. The cloudcar looks brilliant, all those actions features should draw in the kiddies while it can look very true to the film as well. My guess is the hatches on the nose swing open for storage much like the hatches on the Magnaguard fighter, you can even see the little lip they design in so you can get a fingernail in there to flip it open and hinges on the other side. I don't really know what to say about the snowspeeder yet. Sure it looks great but until I see it next to a figure it's gonna be hard to tell if the scale is right. But yes, the detail is fantastic and it should be quite a toy. They'll need to rerelease the Cloudcar pilot cause I'm going to need three more of them and a new Dack would be necessary as well.

[Tycho]

Don't put the large missiles in and it will look like the movie. The side missile launchers hide away like they do on General Grievous' ship.

When painted the right color, this will look very authentic. I am so buying 3 as soon as I can!

The snowspeeder I won't be needing.

I already bought a pile of Cloud Car pilots - 8 I think - and 2 will be walking around Cloud City, but 6 will go in the 3 ships I bought. However, an ethnic variation, like a black Cloud Car pilot or an Asian or Hispanic one would be easily welcome as a pack-in or a new carded figure. They can re-use the body mold from the white guy CC Pilot and that would be fine with me. I'm really excited about this one!

In this very polling, folks voted 26-2 for this ship - virtually unanimous!

I can't wait for this. It probably won't be released until maybe summer 2010 though. Now the wait begins.

[JediTricks]

I just now noticed while I was talking on the phone with a buddy who is all excited about these that in order to expose the outer missile launchers, you have to slide the WHOLE POD inwards. That's kinda cool! Instead of trying to make a tiny hinge system, the whole pod is on an internal slider, that's brilliant and fun.

BTW, 2 more new vehicle test shots, these are Prequel:
http://forums.sirstevesguide.com/showthread.php?t=41671

I'd guess just detailing, but maybe they have something more action-oriented planned. Either way, I didn't notice them until you pointed them out.

I'm betting it's just detail as well, but I'm fine with that, it could use it. I turned up the photo brightness a little before I noticed it.

That Q&A answer is indeed very telling, that seems to confirm it in my mind.

Yeah, they really played that one well. It comes off like "no way we'd do it", but in hindsight they are setting us up for this.

[bigbarada]

Okay, I'm suddenly getting excited about Star Wars collecting again!

I'll definitely buy a Cloud Car. If it's an exclusive then it will probably come with a repack of the OTC Pilot, but i'm holding out hope that we will see an all-new, SA Cloud Car Pilot as a carded figure.

The Snowspeeder is also very awesome to see, especially after just purchasing the new Snowspeeder Luke figure. I hope to buy a few of these. Now we just need new versions of Dak, Jansen, and Wedge in their Snowspeeder gear.

Still holding out hope that we see a BAT-AT soon.