First off, I know this shows my age but I keep wanting to call this ship the J.R.

Being serious though, where the hell did the E wing and also that three vaned TIE come from? Presumably in one of the spin off novels?

The three vaned TIE? You mean the Phantom? I know the TIE Phantom was in the PC/PSX game called Star Wars: Rebel Assault II, but I believe it had another appearance that I can't think of off the top of my head (having never played it).

The E-Wing is used in a variety of expanded universe books and comics that follow both Rogue and Wrath squadron, so you'd likely see it in the post Endor period until the Vong war.

Phantom was also in XWA if I remember right

The E-Wing first appeared wayyyyy back in the Dark Horse series Dark Empire. The Defender showed up in Rebel Assault 2, as I recall.

Phantom was also in XWA if I remember right

It totally wasn't.

The E-Wing first appeared wayyyyy back in the Dark Horse series Dark Empire.

You're quite correct. The rebels/new republic (they get referred to as both during this period) get re-issued with them as replacement fighters when taking on the Empire's latest super-weapon-of-the-month, the World Devastators.

They pop up in a lot of subsequent books as well, but they never really replace the X-wing because writers kept coming up with the X-wing Mk3,456,765,691 mod II (version B) and so on which somehow was able to compete with designs thirty years its junior despite being visually completely identical.

The defender originally popped up in the TIE fighter game. Essentially, the problem with the TIE fighter game (as opposed to X-wing) is that the player is flying fighters that are more fragile and less well armed than the enemy (rebel) fighters. So Lucasarts responded by simply inventing an imperial fighter which was better armed and tougher (which always seemed a slightly lazy way around it), which you got access to about five missions in and NEVER FLEW ANYTHING ELSE. Nevertheless, explaining its existance resulted in a really, really good storyline about prototype designs and traitors, which was incredibly good fun to play. The TIE Advanced named pilot Maarek Stele - for reference - is the 'canonical' name of the character you play in TIE Fighter.

The three vaned TIE? You mean the Phantom? I know the TIE Phantom was in the PC/PSX game called Star Wars: Rebel Assault II, but I believe it had another appearance that I can't think of off the top of my head (having never played it).

The E-Wing is used in a variety of expanded universe books and comics that follow both Rogue and Wrath squadron, so you'd likely see it in the post Endor period until the Vong war.

Indeedy. The Defender also appeared in the 'Forces of Corruption' expansion pack for Star Wars: Empire at War.

OT: If you havn't played this, do it. It's a brilliant RTS and a superlative Star Wars game. DO EEET.

The three vaned TIE? You mean the Phantom? I know the TIE Phantom was in the PC/PSX game called Star Wars: Rebel Assault II, but I believe it had another appearance that I can't think of off the top of my head (having never played it).

The E-Wing is used in a variety of expanded universe books and comics that follow both Rogue and Wrath squadron, so you'd likely see it in the post Endor period until the Vong war.

Indeedy. The Defender also appeared in the 'Forces of Corruption' expansion pack for Star Wars: Empire at War.

OT: If you havn't played this, do it. It's a brilliant RTS and a superlative Star Wars game. DO EEET.

The Phantom appeared in the same expansion, as did the Virago and the B-wing.

The three vaned TIE? You mean the Phantom? I know the TIE Phantom was in the PC/PSX game called Star Wars: Rebel Assault II, but I believe it had another appearance that I can't think of off the top of my head (having never played it).

The E-Wing is used in a variety of expanded universe books and comics that follow both Rogue and Wrath squadron, so you'd likely see it in the post Endor period until the Vong war.

Indeedy. The Defender also appeared in the 'Forces of Corruption' expansion pack for Star Wars: Empire at War.

OT: If you havn't played this, do it. It's a brilliant RTS and a superlative Star Wars game. DO EEET.

Just skip all of the ground based missions. They suck. Hard.