Landspeeders are fictional anti-gravity craft used through the Star Wars movies and Star Wars Expanded Universe. They are depicted both in civilian and military capacities, and several versions have been merchandised as toys and models.
Origin and design
Landspeeders first appear in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Two of them—Luke Skywalker's (Mark Hamill) X-34 and a V-35—were designed by special effects genius John Stears and were fitted around cars. Skywalker's landspeeder was designed and built by Ogle Design around the chassis of a Bond Bug.[1][2][3] One of the major challenges the production crew faced was disguising the wheels to create the illusion that the craft was hovering.[4][5] For certain shots, they shot from camera angles that masked the wheels; for long-distance shots, they used reflective material, gelatin on the camera lens, and shadow effects. A small blur could be seen under the speeder, which George Lucas called "The Force Spot" (stated in Special Edition Tape).[4]Production designerRoger Christian used an angled mirror and a broom attached to the vehicle's underside to create, at certain angles, the illusion that the craft was hovering and kicking up dust.[3]Star Wars creator George Lucas used digital technology to enhance the landspeeder effects in the Special Edition of A New Hope.[4]Industrial Light and Magic's (ILM) Doug Chiang design the Naboo Flash speeder with a "race car look" while the Gian speeder's appearance is ILM's response to Lucas' request that the Naboo troops have "a pick-up truck with guns."[6][7]
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A Star Wars fan named Daniel Deutsch built a full-scale replica of the landspeeder that can be driven like an automobile.[9] It first surfaced at the Neatorama website where it was discovered by rapperKanye West who posted pictures of the landspeeder in his blog. One of the photographs show former N'Sync member Joey Fatone posing next to the landspeeder. Kanye West described the replica landspeeder as made of a "custom aluminum chassis, fiberglass body, and an electric drive system that hits lightspeed at 25 mph".[10]
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