“Daren and I were looking for a prop to build for the Echo Base-theme of the Droid room,” Cole says.
R2 builders Daren Murrer and Cole Horton, both of whom lived in the Cincinnati, Ohio area, knew that the Builders Club was planning a Hoth motif for Celebration V, the 30th anniversary of Empire. You may have seen it on display, or even sat in it, in the R2 Builders Club room at Star Wars Celebration V in Orlando, Florida in 2010. The “it” goes by several names: Rebel Personnel Transport, Flight Crew Shuttle, or as the three incredible (and just a bit crazy) guys who built it call it, the Rebel Troop Carrier. And yet now it’s sitting, in all its amazing full-size glory, in the carport at Rancho Obi-Wan. I’m embarrassed that there’s not even an entry for it in the 1.1 million word Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, which I co-wrote. The Rebel Troop Carrier in a scene from The Empire Strikes Back.īlink and you’ll miss it on screen in The Empire Strikes Back! On a list of the 200 top vehicles in the Star Wars saga, it wouldn’t make last place.
