Recommended music: TAUNTAUN – For The Lost (Skip to track 7 below)
For this #StarWarsSaturday post from the archives, I originally ventured out to my snowy backyard to bring you this beast. From the Hasbro Star Wars Power of the Force 2 Collection, it’s Luke Skywalker’s Tauntaun!
Just moments after the opening scene of The Empire Strikes Back:
EXT. PLAIN OF HOTH – DAY
A small figure gallops across the windswept ice slope. The bundled
rider is mounted on a large gray snow lizard, a Tauntaun. Curving
plumes of snow rise from beneath the speeding paws of the two-legged
beast.
The rider gallops up a slope and reins his lizard to a stop. Pulling
off his protective goggles, Luke Skywalker notices something in the
sky. He takes a pair of electrobinoculars from his utility belt and ,
through them, sees smoke rising from where the probe robot has crashed.
The wind whips at Luke’s fur-lined cap, and he activates a comlink
transmitter. His Tauntaun shifts and moans nervously beneath him.
…
This creature received an update here for the first time since 1980, with not only an upgrade in sculpt and paint but also an action feature: a press of his saddlebag would result in “realistic running action.”
I always liked this shot in the film. It resembled Ralph McQuarrie’s “winterized lizard” concept and showed off the detail on set. This went beyond just the miniature used in the preceding shots of the tauntaun. Luke’s tauntaun with the broken horn received another update about 15 years later, but I skipped that release in favor of tauntauns with two full-size horns. 😛
The Empire Strikes Back turned 45 years old this year! I “figure” there’ll be a new Episode V figure to share here for the rest of the year. Happy 45 years of ESB!
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