Various Sources: 5/10/98 - When you get wrapped up in so much prequel news, you sometimes forget what has been posted and what has not been posted. Sometimes we get letters and think, "Doh! We thought that had been posted on the page!" We had just such a revelation with the prequel fighters. Many people weren't sure if the fighters were space craft, air fighters, or underwater fighters. Well, as our informants have told us, the Naboo ships fight both in the atmosphere of the planet and in space. Many of you figured this out for yourselves from the recently revamped Official Site. The fighter graphics have tags that say "star fighter".

You're saying "But what about all that water speculation you've been posting?" Well, we were speculating on how those cool craft take off. Like sea-planes? It was just a theory. We still haven't heard the details on that. More to come later.

MODE: This craft is referred to as the "Z-1" at ILM. Its wings move up and down, and also have a swing function, somewhat similar to a Navy F-14. Computer Generated models of this ship have been created by ILM for use in Episode I.

THE BOTHAN SPY: These fighters sit in the Palace Hangars, and are used by the Naboo military. R2 droids enter the ship from below and are pulled upwards automatically, legs and all. These vehicles are used in the atmosphere rather than in space. SPOILERS BELOW (highlight to read):

Note: all of the unofficial pictures of this ship currently in our possession were taken by The Bothan Spy, and first appeared on Ain't It Cool News.

Many of you have wondered about how R2-D2's legs fit in that yellow fighter. If you look at it, at first glance it doesn't look like there's any room for them. Do they come off? How does he fit in? For the answers, we checked in with Bothan Spy. Here's what he had to say:

"And as for R2, I asked this question during filming and even measured it. The legs do fit, with about 1mm to spare - which means the hull of the ship would have to be 1mm thick!! Either they're going to change the hull using CG, or it will just be a 'quirk'."

"During filming, an R2 was placed under the ship, and the color of the R2 required was "written" onto a piece of paper and stuck on the R2 unit! This was to tell ILM what kind of R2 would get sucked up into the ship. I.e. no R2s were actually put in the ships. The photos I sent with R2 in the ship are just his head, which was detachable and slotted on top of the ship!!

So there's the answer. His legs are actually parallel with the length of the ship, not perpendicular, and there's just barely any room to spare. Cool enough! You can even see the trap door underneath that he is sucked in to.

8/5/98 - Next, some of you in the Jedi Council Forums were wondering where the heck the guns are in the Naboo Fighter. For the answer, we turned to the ever lovin' Bothan Spy. He also told us about the pick-ups going on over there now:

"The pick-ups are scheduled from next Monday to next Saturday and that's all. Finito!

As for the guns, they're the cut-away grooves you see on top near the front. Lasers come out from there!"

MORE FROM MODE -- 10/29/97

Mode continues to snoop for us. Now he has some fascinating information for us on the CG ships they're making. For instance, here's what those pictures of the yellow fighter ships DON'T show:

"There has been work done on a ship called the Z-1. This is the same yellow ship that is featured in the various still photos on the official site. What is not visible on the official site, is the ship's wings. The wings apparently move up and down and also have a swing function sort of like a Navy F-14."

9/14/97 - AICN got more of those ship pics in color now:

Here's some commentary on the pics by the spy:

"Many have stated that there's no room for R2's legs. Well, as the second piccie shows, R2 enters the ship from below and is pulled upwards, automatically, legs 'n' all! It is true, however, that it is VERY tight for his 'shoulders' in there - if not impossible to fit at all. I understand ILM may be working on this problem and widening the hole." "The reason I grey-scaled the picture originally was because I did not want to spoil the surprise of their unusual colour! I also edited out the other ships you now see behind, because it shows their design a little too well! BUT - since producing the images, the OFFICIAL Star Wars site has posted their own versions which give away the colour and design of the ships anyway! So now there's no surprise to spoil, hence the full colour, unedited picture you see. These are NOT seaspeeders!! Don't be silly. These ships sit in the Palace Hanger on Coruscant. They are part of the Naboo military. Does Coruscant have a sea flooding into the palace? Nope. Anyway, the storyboards clearly show these ships flying in a blue, cloudy sky! Note: no stars or blackness - yes, a real sky!"

9/9/97 - Mode speaks again!!

The ship in the hanger pictures is the Z-1. The wings actually move and retract in a VTOL(vertical take-off and landing) sort of way. Mode says to keep in mind that the name Z-1 could be a code name used at ILM. The models and CGI images that he had seen of the ship had a strikingly different color scheme than the ones in the set photos.

TINMAN: The name "Z-1" seems like a logical name for this ship, indicating that it is possibly a counterpart or precursor to the Z-95 Headhunter, a fighter which existed during the Prequel era (predating the X-wing). The Z-1 will quite possibly be to Episode 1 what the X-wing fighter was to Star Wars: A New Hope.

4/23/98 - MORE SPECULATIN'
Scott, 8:30pm CST

Eliot Fish sent us some interesting speculation about the fighters a few days ago. He noted, as many have stated, that the hull of the fighter looks a lot like a speed boat. He also remembered the Bothan Spy's report about a river and a waterfall next to the hanger. Eliot wonders if maybe the fighters take off from the water like a seaplane? Some other friends of mine were wondering if maybe they fly over the edge of the waterfall? Or through it? Again, we haven't heard anything about it, but it is fun speculation.

On the same subject of the fighters, remember the comments from a few days ago about possible reflection effects? Tom deGray had some interesting comments in response to the post:

"I disagree with a couple of observations being made about the chrome Naboo fighters. First of all, having flown a number of old chrome airplanes, they look chrome-colored in the sky, except when light reflects off of them (then that blinds you). You couldn't notice reflections unless you were right next to the ship, and then it would be blurry (remember, chrome is not the same thing as a mirror). So I would be surprised (and disappointed from a realism standpoint) to see clear reflections bouncing off of them while flying. Secondly, IF they wanted these ships to be reflective, that would be easy to do for the in-flight shots. Remember, almost all shots will utilize CG ships and backgrounds. From an animation standpoint, all of the software ILM will be using will account for reflections. When modeling objects, you give them certain surface characteristics, and one of those is reflectivity. The 3d software will automatically reflect backgrounds off of the objects as appropriate. I do this all of the time in airplane animations with Lightwave - its easy."

4/21/98 - FROM THE EDITING SCREEN
Brian Linder, 8:30pm EST

Cropped Version of Official Photo

Greetings all!  Well, as many of you have already noticed, The Official Star Wars Site updated their Episode I section yesterday with a piece detailing the editing process.   In this update they included an image of writer/director George Lucas, and now Episode I co-editor Ben Burtt, viewing what appears to be an action sequence on a monitor.  Many of you have hypothesized about what this shot might depict.  Obviously, there are many possibilities.

I'd like to submit my theory, that the object on screen is one of the Naboo Fighters we've seen.  It isn't very yellow in that particular shot, but let's keep in mind this is probably an early animatic blueprint.   Also, take note that the long end of the fighter is it's tail.  It's flying off to the right of the frame.  Click the photo to the left and you can see a Naboo Fighter photo that has been composted on top of the official photo.

Speculative Interpretation (Click for the larger image!)

Compare the two photos, and it's easy to see that the wings are positioned very near the front of the aircraft. The tail extends quite far to the rear, well behind the engines on the tips of the wings.  The scene possibly depicts the fighter flying off after jettisoning it's payload, hence the trailing explosion.  Now, if one inspects the object in the lower left of the frame it isn't hard to surmise that this is one of the enemy tanks that we've seen (see composited image). It's facing us with turret slightly elevated.  Many of you have hypothesized that this scene is from a space battle.  However, since this is likely a rough animatic, it's possible that the surrounding environment simply hasn't been rendered or composited yet.  As previously stated, there are many possibilities.  It could indeed be a space battle, the scene could take place on the Naboo surface at night, or maybe the background elements are yet to be composited.  Regardless, it's fun to speculate!  I'm sure we all can't wait to see the finished product!  Stay tuned to TheForce.net!

This picture comes from the French LucasFilm magazine. Visible in the picture are Lucas, Sansweet, Snyder, and others. Click the thumbnail for a larger version.

Click here for more official Z-1 hangar images.

Click here for a large picture of a Z-1.

Click here for a pictures of the Z-1 taken by The Bothan Spy.

FAN PIC: Javier Fernandez has done one of the coolest fighter rendetions we've seen so far. Here's his description:

"I have done my first prequel picture using 3DS MAX 2, and Adobe Photoshop 4. I figured they are flying so low over the sea since their fuselage is boat shaped. To build the 3D model of the fighter I have used as reference all published photographs of it, making sure that it matches with all them. However there are obscured areas in those photographs that I had to invent. The only non-3D element is the sky. I just can?t wait to see what the guys at ILM have done with those cool ships."

Click here to view it!

FAN PIC:Randy Knoble did a great Quicktime rendering of the Naboo Fighter:

"I just took all the available pictures of it and did the most accurate model I could with what I could see. I used Studiopro to build and render it, and Mediapaint to add the words later. It does look like a speedboat, doesn't it...."

You can check it out here! You can send your compliments or questions to him at knobler@post.uwstout.edu.