As I sit here holding the YT-2400 in my hand, I'm reminded what a special ship it is to me. As someone who was born in the early eighties I never saw the original Star Wars trilogy in theaters. Home VHS was the way to go for me.

Every few Saturdays I'd pop in one of the films and watch happily with my dad. With an arm around me he'd point and guide my wide eyes to each key scene unfolding on screen. I didn't fully understand the story at that point but the sights, sounds, and sense that something important and timeless was taking place in front of me kept me transfixed. Afterwards we'd talk for hours (well he did a lot of patient listening lol) about that galaxy far far away and all the adventures that it possibly could contain.

Fast forward a few years and my father gave me his copy of Heir to the Empire. My eyes once again grew wide as I realized my heroes were continuing their adventures. Not only were there more stories but other people were writing and creating them.

In the mid nineties, and in my early-mid teens, I went over for a sleepover at friend'a home. He fired up his Nintendo 64 and we put in Shadows of the Empire. My mind was blown again. We must have played that single dang battle of Hoth mission twenty times in pure delight before moving on. We kept going until the early morning when we reached the later levels and I got to pilot the Outrider. I was in love. I was racing at break neck speeds against star destroyers and blasting away TIEs. It was glorious.

I remember now what people all the time said when they saw the Millennium Falcon in theaters. They saw a craft that could take them on distant voyages and dangerous missions. Well the Outrider was MY Falcon and I knew it instantly. Reading the novel only solidified its status in my mind.

I couldn't wait to tell my dad all about it and pick up on one of our long dormant Star Wars chats. We talked the difficulties of galactic politics, traveling to distant stars, how freakin' scary it would be to try to wield a lightsaber, and all things Star Wars geeky.

I'd love to say our talks continued for the years after but that, unfortunately, was not the case. I'll save the gory details but in the time soon after my father developed quite an aggressive brain tumor. Once he passed away my first and strongest connection to someone I could share those far off stories and adventures was gone.

Star Wars was a painful place for a while. I'm happy to say that over time, however, I came away from the experience with a positive outlook, a great deal of personal strength, and an appreciation for the many fine things in life. My apologies to anyone that might feel uncomfortable reading some of the things I've shared.

So... In any event. As I hold a YT-2400 shuttle in my hand, I have a few thoughts..

I feel like I'm holding a part of my childhood in my hand. Star Wars was never a fanciful escape for me but it certainly embodies a feeling of wonder and adventure for me. No other ship than the Outrider so perfectly captures that sense of dashing rogue-like adventure.

So my Sincere thanks to you FFG for bringing this ship to reality. If my dad was around today I know that he would love this game and we'd probably be playing on a kitchen table somewhere weekly over a few beers. Thanks for letting me relive some of my childhood fun and pass it on.

After a long hiatus from X-wing I was brought back in when my girlfriend's fourteen year old brother excitedly wanted to try it out. Astonishingly he didn't know a lot about Star Wars at the time. I'm happy to be able to pass the torch like my dad with me so many years ago.

Thanks for reading my long rant!

Does anyone else have stories of forming connections with any of the iconic ships? Haha please keep it positive and no trashing anyone.

Sincerely,

Moose

Awesome story except for the obvious part. Mine would have to be the firespray and an extremely close interceptor .

Haha sorry if that was all a little heavy. All is well and I'm happy to say I'm a big ole fanboy of this game!

It may be an IP cashcow for FFG but I'm pleased with the tremendous amount of effort they're putting in to make it a quality product and well balanced game.

It was good heavy. Reminded me of the late 80's watching empire while wearing my don post storm trooper helmet . Not much has changed now lol really... Except wearing full RT mod and watching empire.

Wow man, heck of a story. My dad also got me into star wars, I'm lucky enough to still have him around. The first Rogue squadron game came out when i was a kid and for some reason i fell in love with the y wing. So whenever I'm running dutch it brings me back to my friends and i running around the playground pretending to be in space ships. I'm glad you were able to get back into the fold.

I guess I'd say mine is probably...either the B-Wing (traitorous, I know!) or TIE Defender.

And it was for a similar reason - the video games LucasArts put out during that period did such an AMAZING job of really putting you in the setting - made the universe feel REAL and feel HUGE.

They really did nail the setting so well - they captured the spirit of what it would have been like to be a close observer to the events in the movie - a Rebel pilot or Imperial pilot who was just a participant in the overall story arc...

Definitely stuff that sticks with you.

I'd have to say the Falcon for me. I had a toy Falcon about the size of the X-Wing Miniatures version with a rotating turret and retractable landing gear. I just about wore it out over the next ten years or so. I used it as a prop for my d6 Star Wars RPG games. I've always loved the design with the offset cockpit and the quad turrets. I spent a lot of time imagining i was flying it.

I feel like I'm holding a part of my childhood in my hand.

That is basically the whole game for me. I was born in 76, there has literally always been Star Wars for me. My youth was filled with it, read along books with records! , plastic toys, figures... I was just in a College, out drinking away from home when they put out the special editions. Tie fighter was one of the first games I got on my first PC in the 90's.

Every time I play, I feel the way advertisers want you to think about Christmas. Thanks for sharing.

I guess I'd say mine is probably...either the B-Wing (traitorous, I know!) or TIE Defender.

And it was for a similar reason - the video games LucasArts put out during that period did such an AMAZING job of really putting you in the setting - made the universe feel REAL and feel HUGE.

They really did nail the setting so well - they captured the spirit of what it would have been like to be a close observer to the events in the movie - a Rebel pilot or Imperial pilot who was just a participant in the overall story arc...

I hear that. It would be the Defender or maybe even the Phantom for me (surprising yes!!). As you said the star wars games from the 90s were the pinnacle of the star wars experience for me...

TIE Fighter

Rebellion

Yoda Stories

Rebel Assault 2 (a garbage game that i freaking loved for some reason)

Dark Forces

Even the CCG from Decipher that me and my entire boy scout troop, even the scoutmaster (curse him and his superior financial position!!), invested time and money into.

I got into this game when a buddy showed me his hawk...i couldnt believe that that ship was there...and after i asked where the greatest TIE ever (the defender of course) was he told me it and the phantom were coming...i was sold and have been playing ever since.

The game takes me back to that time, middle and high school, when the real world was so far away and hopes and dreams seemed boundless.

Now I am a dad and when my 2 year old gets a bit older he too will be introduces to this universe...and all the awesomeness it contains.

Every single friend of mine has some inkling of my love affair with this ship.

A beloved ship of mine, The Moldy Crow.

You could probably call this ship my first love. Okay, maybe that's a bit too corny, but the effect is there. I'd never felt such adoration for a vessel, as I had The Moldy Crow. OP, you and I have some things in common.

First and foremost, we both have our dads to thank for Star Wars and Heir to The Empire- though the latter was introduced at a different time.

Y'see, my dad was an avid PC player, and when I was a wee boy, I grew up watching dad play DOOM and Duke Nukem. Then he played Dark Forces- and I recognized it all. It was Star Wars. It was that movie I loved so much, but different. My earliest conceivable memory is the Death Star Trench Run. I'll never forget watching that sequence.

So Star Wars goes way, way back for me. For all of us. Thing with my dad is, he was a Marine, baseball nut, so on and so forth. Your stereotypical broguy-gone-dad over time, and I was this little dumpling shaped kid who just liked to watch movies and play games. We couldn't be more different- and remained that way forever. But we always had Star Wars. Even recently despite venom, we could still talk Star Wars. It's all we have in common.

But see, Dark Forces stuck out. The second one in particular. I don't really know what about that particular game it was, but something always stuck out about it to me. Jason Court and company's hammy acting, the great gameplay? Who knows. But I remember that ship.

I remember The Moldy Crow.

I remember collecting toys and such, and loving this one in particular- it was so cool, so sharp, so aggressive! I loved everything about it! And since Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight and X-Wing Alliance were my favorite games, games that my dad and I played together or around each other, I wanted nothing more than to get behind the cockpit of it, or own a model of it so I could fly it around!

But that never happened. There were always weird little EU ships in the toys, X-Wing games stopped coming out, and The Moldy Crow blew up in Jedi Knight, and was replaced by The Raven's Claw. A ship I'll never love. Because it's not The Crow.

It doesn't match my personal hero, Kyle Katarn. It's sleeck and jet black, not rugged and ramshackle. It's more like Vader or Luke's kind of ship, but not at all Kyle Katarn- our bantha herder dressed hero and wannabe jedi. The Crow was his.

And I never got my model. So I took it a step further. I let characters in fanfiction I'd write use a "fixed" and souped up variant. I'd look for weird ways to get the crow into games like Jedi Academy- I even requested the only working mod of it that now exists. You search Moldy Crow, and you might stumble onto something I did. I talked to Steven Hacker and other model makers, even gave references to some who wanted it.

I even debated the size of the ship with wiki admins, who never regarded it. But never did I get my chance to fly it. To own it.

Then while looking to see if anyone had made new content about my favorite ship, I saw a curious model. It was a miniature, but it was accurate, and I clicked the link. It was for the X-Wing Miniatures Game.

I sprung into action and read all I could. They put it on a small base, nailed the colors- ecstatic, I told everyone I knew about my excitement! From Millennium Falsehood to my father, even my Great Aunt who didn't care, everyone knew about it.

So I preordered it... And I waited. I told my dad, "you know, we play this game. I'm going to fly it against you!"

"Alright but I'll fly Vader, and with Vader, I never lose."

And I waited, and finally, it came. In a little white box that I've kept right there. It was finally there in my hands.

After a decade and a half of pining for something like that, I got it. I got my model, I got my toy. And at 21 years old... You bet your rear end I flew it around my room. Not many chances to be a kid again, so often. But this was my one. Eventually, I simmered down, and delicately packed it into a box to play it against dad.

And it was the only match, as of writing this, I'd ever won. So not only did I get what I wanted, I got my victory. It's also the last game I played against him, and will likely remain that way for good, because of certain bitterness and hate between me, my father, and my step-mother/his wife. Some wounds five years in the making never heal, and after five years of mental abuse, I'm not pining for getting what I had back.

The Crow was that ship that always was there to pick me up in a hurry, to deliver me to my next goal, and it was that one ship I never got. Now I have it, and it remains as I vaguely remember first seeing it, in just the right lighting to reflect the Dark Forces loading screen.

And that, Genetlemen, is what The Moldy Crow means to me. I sincerely hope that if they bring back Kyle Katarn and Jan Ors, that they'll bring back The Moldy Crow.

My Millennium Falcon.
My Enterprise.
My Moldy Crow.

I'm glad you had great and memorable experiences with your father. And I'm glad X-Wing can have such an effect on us all, making the game just that much more enjoyable in a unique way for each and every one of us.

The ship that holds a special place in my heart is the B-Wing. I remember my dad and I watching Return of the Jedi plenty of times on VHS together. My favorite scene would be when the space battle of Endor began and the B-Wings were unlocking their foils into attack position. I couldn't get over how cool they were.

But the reason why the B-Wing has such a connection with me was because the year I turned five (or six?) I broke my arm in horrible playground incident the day before my birthday. After the doctors completed the surgery on my arm, my dad brought me one of my birthday presents to the hospital- and it was the B-Wing! It took so many more hours to complete with only one hand, but it was still just as fun to play with with one hand as it is with two.

Fast forward to this past May. 14 years later, my friends are getting into X-Wing and have the core sets, so I buy a B-Wing off the shelf of our LGS and jump into the battle with them. Now, I have two huge fleets of Rebels and Imperials and I'm in deep for everything X-Wing.

Awesome thread. I admit I don't have any connection with a ship that is quite as intense (though I've always love the speedy, sleek little A-Wing), but I do have similar connections with pilots. Wedge, Tycho, Wes, Hobbie, Corran, even Nera Dantels - all of them have amazing stories that are just as integral to the way I think about Star Wars as any moment in the films.

Hands down, the TIE Defender. LOVED flying it in the "TIE Fighter" game.

I too was born in the eighties and did not see the OT in theaters. As a kid I actually did not really notice the movies. I first saw them in 90 or 91 and ended up liking the force/lightsaber stuff a lot. I never paid much attention to the ships because the space wizards were Star Wars to me. That changed when I got Star Wars:TIE Fighter.

I did not like flight sims that much, so I figured I would not be very enthralled with the game. I was wrong. I stayed up all night playing the best I could with a mouse. Trying to turn meant continually lifting and moving the mouse rapidly and each time it landed it made a loud noise. When my parents complained about the noise I gave them the typical kid answer: Well I need a joystick! For whatever reason it worked and the next day I had a joystick to enjoy the game with. I must say I don't think I would really care much about XWMG if it had not been for Star Wars:TIE Fighter. I loved the TIE Advanced (Avenger) in the game due to the look and the sheer speed while maintaining a decent offense. To this day it is my favorite star wars ship.

I remember when Star Wars came out, I didn't get to see it in cinemas but I did get a bunch of awesome toys. It was a bit later that it got shown on TV and I remember I had a VCR recording of it that got watched pretty much every day when I got home from school. Makes the ship I'm most tied to the X-wing for sure I really grew up with that movie and the toys and figures. Still have my original white X-wing with it's blasters that always came off, it's pretty beat up though.

Much later I came into the PC X-wing series but the one that got me hooked absolutely was TIE Fighter, that game changed my view of the whole Empire and forever made the TIE Defender one of my favourite ships of all time after climbing your way through the ranks to earn the most OP fighter Star Wars has ever seen.

It had me hunting one of these forever. Never could find one that I could afford as they went for crazy $$ on ebay. I was unbelievably happy to see it released for me to play with in X-wing.

HWK for me. No real story behind it, and I never played any of the video games that had it. I think I just like the role it plays and I have a soft spot for underdogs and support teams.

I have a hard time not including it in a Rebel list. In fact, I just recently ran a list that 3 HWKs! (played 3 games...2 victories, 1 decisive loss).

I never expected to have an attachment to it, given my general disdain for EU content.

Now I have it, and it remains as I vaguely remember first seeing it, in just the right lighting to reflect the Dark Forces loading screen.

My earliest memories of Star Wars are watching the copies my grandfather had recorded on vhs off TV. I can still quote the advertisements. He called Darth Vader "buckethead" when my siblings got scared. He helped me make lightsabres, xwings and tie fighters in his workshop from woodscraps.

Fella passed away 2 years ago.

When I watch ANH I can hear his voice, recall his jokes and remember what he looks like. When I see a table of Xwings and Tie fighters .. it reminds me of times. For this reason .. Xwing and Tie for me.

When I was about 5 I saw Empire at the cinema. It remains the first movie I can remember seeing, although I had been to see others before. Like many seeing their first star wars film it left quite an impression on me.

Inspired by watching the film my friends and I started to make our own "space base" out of lego. It was very similar to Echo Base on Hoth. We populated our base with a ragtag collection of ships, most of which were fairly small that the pilot sat on top of rather than inside. For some reason I can't remember I wanted to build a bigger ship. I let the bricks lead my creation and I ended up with a ship that looked very like the Y-Wing. I don't think I consciously remembered it from the film, but the maybe subconsciously... Anyway, the ship became the biggest and best creation in the fleet, despite being built by the youngest of the gang, and remains something that stirs pride in me 23 years later. Unfortunately no pictures exist, but ever since the Y-Wing has held a special place in my heart.

Since playing the game I have also come to love the defender, phantom and interceptors, but that's more about gameplay than anything else.

Growing up poor, my first Star Wars toy didn't come to me until I was 8. This was in '83 and it was Darth Vader's Tie Advanced with the Darth Vader action figure. Having the Tie Advanced in my collection is pure nostalgia.

Now I have it, and it remains as I vaguely remember first seeing it, in just the right lighting to reflect the Dark Forces loading screen.

That's freaking awesome...that's exactly what flashed into my head when I first saw the hawk

My #2 Tie Bomber with the blue ribbons and five kill marks. She has a calm, no nonsense demeanor and is always the last ship standing. She's actually an Ace! With those five kills. Flew #2 on my friends bomber list along the wing, and ever since, always does that position and always survives last. Was my first ship too.

No doubt it's the X-wing for me. I still remember the day I bought my first toy one.

I was 6 in '77. I carried it with me everywhere and played with it until the stickers wore off and the wings wouldn't lock. I still have my battle damaged one I got after RotJ I think.

I was five when I saw Star Wars at the drive-in in 1977. For me the X-wing will always be the sentimental favourite, I wanted to be a Rebel pilot and save the Galaxy.

Y wing for me

It was my first kenner toy spaceship and i loved how it had bombs, electronic noises, could fit my R5 (not R2) droid...if you took the batteries out you had an unintentional 'smuggling compartment' that c3p0 and other droids were frequnetly shipped in.

I loved it because it was cool, and looking back much better built than the Xwing toy, but i also loved it becasue nobody else i knew had one.

Been a fan of Y wings ever since. I find the ffg sculpt a bit flat and underwhelming which is a shame.