Hasbro Star Wars - The Power of the Force: Luke's T-16 Skyhopper Review

The T-16 Skyhopper: Background of Star Wars' "unseen" airspeeder 

I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back home. They're not much bigger than two meters. - Luke Skywalker, Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope

Although we only got to see how good a pilot Luke Skywalker really was during the last 20 or so minutes of 1977's Star Wars, now known as Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope, writer-director George Lucas alluded to the Tatooine farmboy's flying abilities several times before the "kid" ever got into the cockpit of his Incom T-65 X-Wing fighter.

Sharp-eyed viewers might have noticed that there was an aircraft-like vehicle parked in the Lars homestead's garage, or at least part of it, and all of us, I'm sure, noticed the little model Luke picks up and plays with distractedly as C-3PO is coming out of the oil bath tub. 

These little visual cues that hint at the existence of Luke's T-16 skyhopper are also reinforced by several lines of dialogue, including Obi-Wan Kenobi's observation that he understands Luke has become a good pilot, Luke's comment to Han Solo ("I'm not such a bad pilot myself!"), and Luke's offhand remark about being able to "bullseye womp rats" in his T-16 back on Tatooine.

All of this, of course, was done to make Luke's transition from Tatooine farmboy to Rebel pilot somewhat believable, especially since Lucas' original idea to film an actual flying sequence with a full-size T-16 mockup was deemed too expensive to do, which is why Luke and C-3PO go search for the runaway R2-D2 on the landspeeder instead.  (In the novel based on the fourth draft of Lucas' screenplay, Luke is grounded for the whole season after he damages the skyhopper while racing down Beggar's Canyon; this was later depicted with more detail in Brian Daley's 1981 Star Wars: The Radio Drama.)

The skyhopper eventually did get a brief moment of celluloid glory; one can be seen briefly at the very end of the 1997/2004 re-edited version of Return of the Jedi as it flies over a festive Mos Eisley on Tatooine.

Luke's T-16 Skyhopper (Hasbro Star Wars - The Power of the Force, 1997):

Model: Incom T-16 Skyhopper
Top Speed: 1200 KM Per Hour (500 KM Per Hour In Open Air Mode)
Affiliation: Rebel Alliance
Crew: 1 Pilot
Weapons: Pneumatic Cannon

In 1997, two years after Hasbro's Kenner division re-introduced Star Wars action figures and their various accessories, vehicles, and related playsets, the Pawtucket, RI-based toy manufacturer rolled out Luke's T-16 Skyhopper, a three-winged vehicle into which a 3.75-inch scale action figure of Luke Skywalker (or any other character) can be placed to "fly" in its small cockpit.

Although the skyhopper had not really been seem much in the Classic Trilogy, Hasbro, like Kenner Toys before it, was not deterred by this fact and followed its now standard "if it was on screen for even five seconds, we'll do a figure or vehicle" marketing philosophy. 

Luke Skywalker spent a lot of time flying his T-16 skyhopper, a pleasure and utility airspeeder, during his youth on Tatooine. The skyhopper's cockpit is modeled directly after that of the fearsome T-65 X-wing starfighters (they are both manufactured by Incom), which helped Luke during his abrupt transition towards becoming a Rebel pilot capable of handling the high-powered X-wings. Luke's T-16 was a high-end model fitted with a belly-mounted laser cannon and stereoscopic laser sighting device that allowed Skywalker to bullseye womp rats while speeding through Tatooine's Beggar's Canyon at a cool 900 km per hour.- From the package blurb

Luke's T-16 Skyhopper bears a striking resemblance to Colin Cantwell's original design for the never-completed full-sized mockup, the concept model of which was actually handled on-screen by Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) in A New Hope.  It is essentially almost all wings in design, with a smallish, triangular fuselage/cockpit module and a pivoting "blaster cannon" which can "launch" a simulated "missile."

Although the movies, the novel, and the Radio Drama never mention it, the T-16 is two vehicles in one: the covered version and an "open cockpit" detachable compartment variant, which of course has to be flown at a slower airspeed. 

The cockpit of the T-16 separates entirely from the main body of the craft for easy maintenance of otherwise hard-to-reach instruments. One day while working on the ship, Luke ingeniously decided to fit the detaching cockpit with small repulsors, thrusters and steering vanes to create a fully flyable and highly maneuverable open-air escape craft. Furthermore, he developed a release mechanism which allows the cockpit to be ejected from the main body of the T-16 while still in flight. During this mode, the T-16's bulk can land automatically or sustain its flight by an auto-pilot feature, creating a truly effective escape vehicle. - From the package blurb

I've never tried to detach the cockpit from the rest of the skyhopper, but apparently the toy can be very carefully "disassembled" and reconfigured by following the proper steps on the instructions manual that comes with Luke's T-16 Skyhopper. To me, it doesn't look too easy to do this, so I just keep the ship in its enclosed, "complete" mode.  It was, after all, give to me as a gift already assembled, and I don't want to break it.

Weapons and Accessories:

The skyhopper itself does look rather like Colin Cantwell's design, which I first saw when I had Joe Johnston's The Star Wars Sketchbook.  The tri-wing layout looks cool and obviously inspired the look of the larger Imperial Shuttle, even though the way the big dorsal fin cuts across the front of the airspeeder and obscures the pilot's view from the cockpit seems impractical and dangerous. (Maybe the Incom T-16's sensors compensate for the limited forward view, but it still looks a bit dangerous.)

As a collectible for adults or older teens, this Luke's T-16 Skyhopper is nice, provided that the labels are applied properly and that the vehicle itself is protected from direct sunlight that will make the stickers fade and their glue to dry up.  Past experience with my original Kenner TIE Fighter and X-Wing Fighter has shown that unless great care is taken, exposure to sunlight will make the labels brittle and faded, and after several years, they will peel off or gradually flake.

Also, great care must be taken with that missile feature. As I mentioned earlier, I received mine as a gift and it was assembled for me, so I only have the box and the skyhopper, but not the manual.  Thus, I have no clue as to how the missile is fired and how far it will be "launched" by the spring-loaded mechanism.  I do know that it's probably part of the wicked-looking rotating cannon that can be placed either on the back of the T-16 or its ventral weapons pack  Since I am ignorant about the missile's workings, I don't mess with it:  I'd hate to accidentally "launch" it.

Because of the skyhopper's rather intricate two-ships-in-one nature and the missile-launching feature, I do not recommend this vehicle, as cool as it is, for any kid under the age of 8.  It's no longer sold in stores such as Wal-Mart or Toys R Us; comic book shops and specialty stores might have one on their shelves, but definitely not at the original 1997 MSRP of $19.99.  Maybe a few older kids (10 and up) can appreciate a mint-condition Luke's T-16 Skyhopper, but I really recommend this collectible for teenagers and adult Star Wars fans.