There are a number of sites out there that show all the changes which apparently occurred between the Rogue One trailers and the release version of the movie. Whole scenes deleted, dialogue removed, etc.

All part of the natural process of film making.

One of these late-breaking changes messed with the various U-wing toys, including our miniature.

I suspect that early on the U-wing had a forward boarding ramp. Some concept art seems to suggest this:

Certainly the FFG art does:

But in the final version of the film (and in the art for the "Rogue One Ultimate Visual Guide"), the area seen as a boarding ramp above is all a huge window. I will try to get a picture from that source for comparison.

I do recall from the movie (en route to Eadu, I think) how bright that large window was with the blue-white mottled backdrop of hyperspace.

I have another small toy version of the U-wing that seems to make the same "mistake".

Interesting.

I honestly think a lot of the scenes in the trailers that weren't in the movie were filmed or edited (Jyn on the catwalk with the TIE hovering) strictly for the trailers. There's been a good bit of back and forth on whether the reshoots significantly changed the film or not, but some scenes in the trailers just don't seem to fit the movie.

That said, I'm not sure the concept piece you posted supports a front ramp unless there's more to it on the left. The one in the background clearly shows the side doors and it looks like we're seeing the bottom of the one in the foreground indicating it's hovering just like the background one.

That said, you're absolutely right about the card art of course. I don't recall the interior of the U-Wing to be configured in a way to make that work, though. The cockpit tub takes up a good bit of the space right there. The card could just be artistic liberty or an early concept of the U-Wing. I really wish there was a giant Star Wars encyclopedia that chronicled things like this and the rest of the production process for the movies, full of pictures, art, renderings, script excerpts, etc.

Clearly there are two different models of U wing, one with the helicopter-style floor window, and one without.

Yup.

Definitely.

(The floor window bugs me because it really doesn't leave a lot of room for the thickness of the nose of the ship...)

Or maybe it's not a floor window at all, it's just TV screens...

mk.1 and mk.2 u-wings?

Here's the "Ultimate Visual Guide" piece I mentioned. Lots of ventral window, there.

10 minutes ago, Kharnvor said:

That said, I'm not sure the concept piece you posted supports a front ramp unless there's more to it on the left. The one in the background clearly shows the side doors and it looks like we're seeing the bottom of the one in the foreground indicating it's hovering just like the background one.

I totally agree. At best, the rainy concept art painting implies (and perhaps not all that strongly) a ramp, simply because the foreground troops are so close to where the bottom of such a ramp might be. In conjunction with the FFG art (and toys), it appears the design changed last-minute. Nust an interesting factoid.

I've heard the U-wing's role described as a helicopter in more than one place; that certainly seems to fit it's form and function.

Another related tidbit: the "Ultimate Visual Guide" says the U-wing pilot sits on the left side (where K-2SO sat) and the co-pilot sits on the right (where Cassian sat).

Both stations have full control, but it makes it just a bit more odd that K-2SO doesn't have a pilot card.

The UVG was written before the movie was complete and probably in step with while the mini was being designed (or even after) so little weirdness like that is kind of hard to drop with FFG. They work with what they got at the time.

16 minutes ago, UnitOmega said:

The UVG was written before the movie was complete and probably in step with while the mini was being designed (or even after) so little weirdness like that is kind of hard to drop with FFG. They work with what they got at the time.

Whatever. Neither one of the boarding ramps on the FFG model I have opens. . .

I am not blaming FFG for anything, just trying to reconcile a difference I noticed.

By the way, the novelization of "Rogue One" also fell into this editing trap. After the U-wing crashes on Eadu and Cassian has left the ship with Bohdi Rook, Jyn does the following (emphasis mine):

Jyn pictured Cassian assembling his weapon and exiting the ship. She remembered the first time she'd held a sniper rifle, staring down the scope under Saw Gerrera's direction, measuring her breath so she could confidently, quietly, kill a man from a kilometer away.

It might have meant nothing.

Here heartbeat quickened. She spun toward the boarding ramp and started down into the mud."