So lately I've been seeing a frequency of talk about how some ships are "obscure" or "not iconic" (probably related to the new release of the Quadjumper, or Manaroo or K-Wings being present in a lot of high-playing lists), and that hasn't been sitting right with me. As a long-time star wars fan, I have consumed a lot of SW media both the core canon, the old EU and now the new canon. While my experience isn't everyone's, I still feel like it's pretty easy to be familiar with all the ships sourced by FFG for the minis game, and that they also have never gotten truly obscure with it. So I did some research for some other posts I've done here and on Reddit and wanted so share my data with others. This isn't really meant to be an argument about if a ship is obscure or iconic, more a reminder that those things are kind of subjective. I hope that this can help people answer the question "where is that ship from?" or make them think about all the people who might know and love that ship even if they don't.

So I'm gonna break this down wave by wave - but first some ground rules and caveats. For ships which appear on screen in the original trilogy, 1( I'm not going to track down instances in the old EU - they're everywhere. I will simply state the film they first appeared in (with date), and mention scenes or additional films they were in, and then maybe some good showings in the new canon. 2( I'm not going to dial in and track the exact amount of screentime they had. That's for people with more time even than me. Though if you want a rough estimate, check the original soundtrack to see how long the score is for some of those scenes - for instance "Battle of Yavin" is 9:07 long. For ships which appeared originally in the old EU/Legends, I will list their original appearance and some facts, any subsequent "notable" or popular appearances, and if they've appeared again in new canon since. Now, for Video Game releases, I can do rough numbers of sales or owned copies based on some data - numbers either roughed by me or by the publisher - but for book/comic sources my preliminary research indicates those sales numbers are privileged - I can only list the original publishing date and then some other stuff. Also lastly, minor technical spoilers for Rebels and Rogue One, as I will say what ships appear when - but nothing beyond what stuff should be readily available from public trailers and information.

Wave I:

• The X- and Y-Wing, TIE Fighter and TIE Advanced all appear in the original Star Wars (1977), where they are prominently featured in the final action scene. Xs and TIE Fighters are prominently featured in the rest of the trilogy, and the Y-Wing makes a return in ROTJ. In new materials, X and Y wings were heavily featured in the Climax of Rogue One, Ys and the TIE Advanced (along with Big V himself) have made some cameos in Rebels. The TIE Fighter is, of course, ubiquitous.

Wave II:

• Millennium Falcon also original from Star Wars (1977) and probably has the most screen time on film of any of the ships in the game.
• Slave I first appears in Empire Strikes Back (1980), but isn't really seen in action until Attack of the Clones in 2002. It appeared a few times in The Clone Wars series. (And as a note, in Legends, earliest in-universe appearance is in Star Wars: Bounty Hunter - which was in the top 10 or 20 of digital sales on PlayStation Network last year, and a game I have personally bought like 3 times)
• The A-Wing and TIE Interceptor both appear first in Return of the Jedi (1983) in the climax. A-Wings have recently been prominently featured in Rebels (using the original concept art design), and Interceptors have made a few appearances.

Wave III:

• The Lambda-class Shuttle first appears in Return of the Jedi (1983) where it is used by Vader, Palpatine and one is nicked by the Rebellion. It was also added to the Special Edition of ESB in '97.
• The TIE Bomber first appeared in Empire Strikes Back (1980) as part of a major sequence in the middle of the film, and was also shown in ROTJ. It has appeared several times on Rebels and was briefly shown in Rogue One.
• The B-Wing, like the A-Wing, first appears in the final battle of Return of the Jedi (1983). It's prototype was the subject of an episode in the second season of Rebels.
• If you don't recognize the HWK-290, then sadly you have probably not had the pleasure of playing as Kyle "jedi doomguy" Katarn, aka "Mandalore the Bearded". First appearance was in Dark Forces, a PC and PS1 game from 1995. Dark Forces I and II (the games where Kyle has the Moldy Crow) both have about 1 Million copies owned on Steam - which as a platform only appeared first in 2003. The HWK also appears in canon in the Kanan comics.

Wave IV: (aka, "okay, so let's start getting out there")

• The Z-95 Headhunter first appears in Han Solo At Stars' End, published first in 1979, meaning it's been in the lore longer than some of the ships on film. It is very consistently mentioned in Legends and even used by some major characters. A variant was shown in The Clone Wars, and has been mentioned a few times again in new canon materials. First visual appearance seems to be in illustrations in WEG which started publishing in 1987.
• The E-Wing originates from the Dark Empire comic series, first published in 1991 (which means E-Wings are older than I am). It then very consistently appeared in Legends comics and novels right up until the Disney acquisition and the canon split.
• The TIE Defender first appears in the PC game TIE Fighter in 1994, and in many other flight sims since. While TIE Fighter only has about 150k copies on Steam, this should not indicate the game is small or obscure, in 2007 IGN named it #3 of "Top PC games of all time". Recently in canon, it appeared in DLC for Star Wars: Battlefront and has appeared in the third season of Rebels.
• The TIE Phantom begins to push our bounds of obscurity. First appearance in Rebel Assault II for PC/Mac/PS in 1995 - only having about 30k copies on Steam. However, the unit also appears in the expansion for the game Empire At War, first released in 2006 and with the combined "Gold Edition" having nearly 1.5 million copies on Steam, which brings back up the reference pool for it quite a bit.

Wave V: (I like big ships I cannot lie?)

• The YT-2400 was first shown in the Shadows of the Empire multimedia project in 1996, appearing in novel, comic and video game form. Original publisher states the video game sold over 1 million copies originally. The 2400 has also technically been top level canon since 1997 when it appeared in the Special Edition of A New Hope. It was also featured in an episode of Rebels in Season 3.
• The VT-49 Decimator only really appeared in the MMO Star Wars: Galaxies, which started in 2003 and was shut down in 2011. While it was in an expansion, the Decimator appeared in its first and the initial release sold over a million copies, and the space combat expansion was generally well-received (where it was basically an evil Falcon). Also, it has appeared in the mobile game Star Wars: Commander, which is published by Disney and not stated to be "non-canon".

Wave VI: (aka, Scum got ain't got ****)

• The M3-A Scyk also first appears in Star Wars Galaxies, with stats noted above, but it is the starter ship given for free to all players outside of the tutorial, which means basically anybody who played the game has probably flown it.
• The StarViper, as Xizor's Virago first appeared in Shadows of the Empire in 1996, much like the YT-2400. However, the generic version reappears in the expansion to Empire At War (also noted above with the Phantom) which means despite only having a few appearances it's gotten quite some milage out of it.
• IG-2000 and the Aggressor in general will begin the trend of Bounty Hunter ships for XWM. First appeared in the short story collection Tales of the Bounty Hunters from 1996, where most of the ESB crew were associated with their ships, and which has 4 stars on Amazon. The IG-2000 also specifically got some additional coverage in the Shadows of the Empire comic and in Empire At War: Forces of Corruption. Also if you collected the old Decipher cards, visual representations of it and the other bounty hunter ships appeared in a set released in 1997 - so the visual design has been around a bit as well.

Wave VII:

So this is probably the most "obscure" level Wave, though it seems because FFG had some very specific design goals.

• The YV-666/Hound's Tooth has the same story as the Aggressor, Tales and additional big appearances in SotE comics and Empire At War. However, in addition to that both the class and the specific ship are canonically mentioned in several episodes of The Clone Wars.
• The Kihraxz appears in Galaxies like the Scyk and Decimator, which was it's only real appearance. Anecdotally, the Kihraxz and it's upgraded version were said to be popular because of their customization in the game. It and it's Vaksai model also appear in the background of some canon Darth Maul comics.
• The TIE Punisher only really appears in Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, first released in 2001, where it is an upgraded version of the Bomber known as "Advanced Bomber" or TIE Interdictor. A collection of it and it's expansion is available on Steam, and has about 200k copies owned. The game itself seems to be thought of fairly positively however.
• By my metrics, the K-Wing is probably the most obscure regular ship FFG has released. It's only real appearance was in the Black Fleet Crisis trilogy of novels, the beginning of which was published in 1996. The books have middling reviews, but the K-Wing is mentioned in several reference books after. But, let us also remember these novel trilogies were fairly important when they were the new EU material of the time, especially right before the 20 year anniversary. I would assume though, it was picked primarily because of its specific role/capabilities, like the Punisher.

Wave VIII: (aka "Revenge of the New Canon")

• This wave includes the release of the T-70 X-Wing and TIE/fo Fighter, both from the sequel trilogy era, with their appearances in the 2015 The Force Awakens, where they both get pretty good coverage for a first outing, something like 3 sequences each in the movie.
• It also starts the release of ships originating from Rebels, which began showing in 2014, and according to stats by Disney gets an average of between 1 to 2 million views per episode. The VCX-100 Ghost is featured in basically every episode of the series, and the TIE Adv. Prototype appears in Seasons 1 and 2 in the hands of the Inquisitors. The Attack Shuttle (aka VCX-100 Auxiliary Shuttle) Phantom also pretty consistently appears in the first two seasons, until it is blown up in the first episode of Season 3.
• We also round out the Bounty Hunter ships with Punishing One and Mist Hunter. Mist Hunter basically only appeared in Tales, but the Punishing One and the JumpMaster appeared in some additional stories and roleplaying supplements.

Wave IX: (It's all canon down here. Everythings canon now. How canon are you?)

• So we start this jumble of a wave off with the ARC-170, which first appears in Revenge of the Sith (2005). Retroactively, it appears fairly commonly in The Clone Wars, and it's wreckage appears a couple of times in Rebels.
• The TIE/SF appears in The Force Awakens along with the /FO, and it gets about the standard treatment for a film ship showing up really only in one scene where Poe and Finn steal it - then it is blown up. This thing can really move!
• The Fang Fighter and Shadow Caster are both sourced from the second season of Rebels. Fangs appear in a single episode to destroy A-Wings and also get a showing in the Kanan comic, they come back a little in subsequent season(s). The Shadow Caster is also the prominent subject of an episode, though it shows up again later. However, it's design is based off unused concept art for cancelled seasons of TCW where it was flown by, guess who; Ventress, and that Lancer-class appeared first in the canon novel Dark Disciple (2015).

Wave X: (The New Movie hotness)

• U-Wings and TIE Strikers are of course from the relatively new anthology film Rogue One. The U-Wing is a very prominent ship in the story, serving as a ship for the protagonists for quite a lot of the movie. The Striker follows the usual rule, only showing up to be really cool in the last bit of the movie.
• Sabine's TIE Fighter appears in the first season of Rebels, where it's actually stolen by Zeb and Ezra (though Sabine does the paint job) and appears in a couple episodes. Interestingly, it's used before Ahsoka or Rex have an opportunity to fly it.
• The Upsilon and Quadjumper appear in The Force Awakens. Quad is given a somewhat memorable moment which might generously be called a scene (and appears in the backdrop a time or two), but the Upsilon shuttle has a decent number of scenes where it ominously flies places, though doesn't get much "action".

Wave XI: (The Legends Awaken)

• The Auzituck gunship is a wookiee ship which appeared in the pilot movie for Rebels. It's also been shown in the Vader comics and some kids books, where it's able to apparently fight Imperial Gozantis and run away. Auzituck is also a name which has been in many early drafts and iterations of Star Wars
• Going back to their ship source roots, The TIE/AG Aggressor is from Star Wars Galaxies, where it was the imperial equivalent of a Y-Wing. Interestingly, FFG published it without shields/missiles in their pilot-focused RPG book, Stay On Target, but it had missiles in other RPG publications - probably done so for the mechanical opportunity in XWM. The Aggressor also was mentioned in some reference materials.
• And, finally the H-6/Havoc is brought in. Already in Armada, this heavy fighter/bomber which first appears in Star Wars: Starfighter, released on PC in 2001. Starfighter is available on Steam and PlayStation Network, with just under 800k owners on Steam. The H-6 design also appears in Jedi Starfighter and one of the Galaxies MMO expansions. Interestingly, despite being called a bomber, the default H-6 prototype didn't have all the ordnance racks the Havoc did - but the Havoc conversion done by Captain Nym did add Astromech sockets. Also interesting, the H-6 has six forward lasers, and would probably be a candidate for ATK 4 if that wouldn't be terrifying for Scum.

Wave XII: (IT'S HAPPENING!)

• So, let's start at the top, with the obvious. The Alpha-class Xg-1 Star Wing fighter, aka "Assault Gunboat" - Possibly one of the most requested ships is finally in the game. The Assault Gunboat originally appeared in the X-Wing PC game (1993) as the mid-level upgrade for the Imperial Navy, giving them a shielded ship. X-Wing has since been re-released on PC in 2014, and according to SteamSpy has about 200k owners. However, the fact that it comes from a PC game called "X-Wing" and predates several players of this minis game should give it some chops. Sadly, outside of the flight sims like TIE Fighter (where it was playable first) the Gunboat has very niche appearances in few works, as the Defender seems more popular for "scary shielded imperial ship". FFG has previously used it in their other works, such as in Edge of the Empire.
• The Sheathipede-class Transport shuttle, aka "Phantom II" has a fairly robust history. It appeared first in TPM (1999) and then appeared in each subsequent Prequel Trilogy film, as well as numerous appearances in The Clone Wars TV Series. However, it's appearance in X-Wing is mostly drawn from it's showing in Rebels, where the Ghost team captures an old model from a Separatist base and uses it to replace the earlier destroyed Phantom in Season 3. All pilots show do I think actually have an opportunity to operate it, unlike Sabine's TIE.
• The M12-L Kimogila Heavy Starfighter is another classic SWG design, a "Heavy Fighter" built by MandalMotors (Manufacturers of Fang Fighters and the Syck in addition to some other things), and introduced in Jump To Lightspeed. Since there's not much else to talk about with SWG, I'll instead make this bullet point longer by talking about how you can A( note the design similarities to other MandalMotors ships, and B( Note that it actually has a pretty spot on Upgrade Bar, this fat double-wing fighter is said to have heavy lasers, both missile and torpedo launchers and uses an astromech for navigation.

Wave XIII: (Let the past die. Kill it if you have to)

• So, everybody should know this but both of our members of this truncated Wave come from The Last Jedi (2017). The Resistance Bomber appears to have gone through some name iterations, but MG-100 StarFortress SF-17 is the most... comprehensive? I guess B/SF-17 is just one form of abbreviating it, using B/ as a "Bomber" designation. They are shown in the opening sequence of TLJ in a very dramatic bombing run where all of them explode to get on target.
• The TIE/vn "Silencer" also appears, and is Kylo Ren's personal ride, where he takes it on a joyride for a scene and shows it to be a "superiority" fighter by virtue of destroying enemy fighters still in the hangar. The "vn" originally stood for "vendetta" proving that FO designers (and by extension Pablo Hidalgo) are just edgy teenagers inside.

Wave XIV: RENEGADE WAVE

• The TIE Reaper first appeared in the 2016 Rogue One, in a background shot and then eminently as a Deathtrooper transport in the final battle. It has also had a sprinkling of mentions since then. Fun fact, it's official name was given first in Galaxy of Heroes, because when the guides for Rogue One were written, it hadn't been named yet.
• And we get an Aces pack in a wave? I guess for the sake of consistency, I will mention that both the U-Wing and X-Wing have been shown in possession of Saw's "Partisan" fighters. The partisan-pattern X-Wing was shown in background shots and promo materials for Rogue One, and the Partisan-patterned U-Wing showed up for a couple of episodes in Season 4 of Rebels.

Epic Ships:

I'm not very experienced with epic, but for consistency I figured I'd burn through them really quick - and this helps illustrate my point about reference pools.

• The Rebel Transport is the GR-75 Transport, first appearing in Empire Strikes Back (1980), then later in Return. It was also put in the SE of ANH in '97. The ship has appeared in Rogue One, and in Rebels (where it was ****-canned by three TIE Interceptors).
• Tantive IV is of course the CR-90 Corvette, appearing on screen in the opening scene of Star Wars (1977), and appears again in the battle in Return of the Jedi (1983). The design has appeared in many new canon materials, such as many episodes of Rebels and in Rogue One.
• The Raider-class Corvette would have eternally won the "most obscure" crown, as it was created by Fantasy Flight in conjunction with LFL to have something at the appropriate scale for XWM, but it appeared in the new canon Thrawn novel and was shown prominently in pre-release materials for EA's Battlefront II, where it is apparently associated with Imperial Special Forces.
• The Gozanti-class was originally an "Armed Transport" which appeared on screen in The Phantom Menace (1999) and again in Attack, and several episodes of TCW. The imperial version shows up very commonly in Rebels.
• The C-ROC version of the Gozanti comes originally from Rebels.

So, I hope this wealth of data can be helpful and informative to those who wonder where ships originate, and maybe give some context to people who do not know/recall where a ship comes from. There's one final aspect of the ships I want to talk about, which for lack of a better term I call "cross-promotion". I actually got into X-Wing from following FFG's RPG Star Wars line, and I refuse to believe I am a statistical anomaly, and I can tell you that a great many of those EU ships in the minis are also in the various RPG supplements. This makes a lot of sense, because you can reuse art assets and names and data is already approved by LFL. Also, I doubt that it has never occurred where someone has popped into their FLGS, picked up a new sourcebook and flipped through to see a Scyk or YT-2400 and then elsewhere in the same shop is a miniature of that same ship. FFG has even tried to recommend use of X-Wing as an alternative to their own starship combat rules for the RPG (which aren't perfectly written - and in a half-bizzaro world fat turrets and swarms of "generic" minions will statistically eat up small numbers of ace pilots if they lack bullet sponges). And of course, the vice versa happens to, you might join an RPG game and recommend your group acquire a VT-49 Decimator or as a GM throw in some TIE Punishers (called TIE/IT Interdictor in the RPG) at players.

(All dates and appearances is sourced from Wikipedia or the Star Wars Wiki, numbers come from Steam Spy)

Very fun. Although there has yet to be an "obscure" ship for me (been a SW geek since 1977, read all the books in the '90s), it's fun to revisit the exact origins of these ships!

I would point out that the X-wing and Tie Fighter games are available on other distributors, and since a lot of people reccomended purchasing the GoG version since it comes with all three releases*, Steamspy probably doesn't tell the whole story.

As opposed to the Steam version, which only has the last release which for some inexplicable reason replaced the games' awesome and thematic soundtrack with a loop of the John Williams soundtrack. Nothing against Williams, but he just doesn't have enough material for the games to use.

Yeah, I used SteamSpy specifically for the ease of numbers. This why the original dates are also mentioned, they've been available on many platforms for some time.

Based on the title I was expecting to read a rant about ships that most wouldn't recognize being better than the X-Wing. I was pleasantly surprised.

Joe Boss better give your *** a "Good Post!" sticker for this.

Cool, now can you do one for Armada? I mean there is the Scruug H-6 the one starfighter Armada has that X-wing doesn't. Not to mention where did the Gladiator Star Destroyer come from.

2 minutes ago, Marinealver said:

Cool, now can you do one for Armada? I mean there is the Scruug H-6 the one starfighter Armada has that X-wing doesn't. Not to mention where did the Gladiator Star Destroyer come from.

I mean, I don't play Armada but theoretically I could certainly do this type of Analysis for Armada

I don't know if that would be weird to just pop over to their board and start such a topic out of nowhere though...

1 hour ago, Marinealver said:

Cool, now can you do one for Armada? I mean there is the Scruug H-6 the one starfighter Armada has that X-wing doesn't. Not to mention where did the Gladiator Star Destroyer come from.

The Scruug H-6 comes from Star Wars Starfighter and Star Wars Jedi Starfighter, piloted by Nym a pirate who has a bone to pick with the trade federation so he helps out the protagonists from those games. The gladiator Star Destroyer comes from the old 80s cartoon series Droids, I believe the one in the show was under the command of Admiral Screed.

Interesting fact on the subject of "cross-promotion" and the Gladiator, stats for the Raider and Gladiator appear in the most recent Age of Rebellion adventure, Friends Like These, which also heavily involves Mandalorians - including Kad Solus and Old Teroch.

I think the only ships so far I've not recognized instantly have been the Decimator, the Khiraxz and the Syck. Everything else has at the very least given me an 'oh yeah THAT ship' realization when seeing it.

I know this isn't cataloging every appearance, but I haven't seen anyone mention that a Lambda shuttle makes a cameo in Rogue One. It's on Scarif when Krennic's shuttle is landing, a Lambda takes off from the pad just above the tower.

2 hours ago, UnitOmega said:

I don't know if that would be weird to just pop over to their board and start such a topic out of nowhere though...

Consider it a Public Service Announcement (and why are we whispering?)

Neat write up. Most of the ship designs for stuff not shown on screen were done by Decipher for the original Star Wars CCG card game, the only such game to ever dethrone MTG as best selling more than one month.

Wow, great list and helpful for the ships I haven't seen before being lured into this game. You reminded me of a recent Tweet from Lucasfilm story group member Pablo Hidago.

He goes on to say:

1 hour ago, RebelRogue said:

I know this isn't cataloging every appearance, but I haven't seen anyone mention that a Lambda shuttle makes a cameo in Rogue One. It's on Scarif when Krennic's shuttle is landing, a Lambda takes off from the pad just above the tower.

It makes a bigger cameo taking Vader across to the Rebel flagship, along with two Tie Bombers which most believe are Tie Shuttles.

2 minutes ago, InterceptorMad said:

It makes a bigger cameo taking Vader across to the Rebel flagship, along with two Tie Bombers which most believe are Tie Shuttles.

Honestly, the distinction between "Bomber" and "Shuttle" configurations on the TIE/sa in the new canon seems to be "did we unload all the ordinance in the space frame?"

23 minutes ago, Javelin said:

Neat write up. Most of the ship designs for stuff not shown on screen were done by Decipher for the original Star Wars CCG card game, the only such game to ever dethrone MTG as best selling more than one month.

I loved that game so much! The text box on all the cards had some great obscure information. I was crushed when Decipher lost the license before even getting through all the movies.

i forgot to mention this but great post!

The ships I was least familiar with were the ones from SW Galaxies although a large number of these ships have appeared in various roleplaying games throughout history.

I know I look back at my old Toys-R-Us Micro Machines Master Collector's Edition box the only ship that is obviously missing from X-Wing is the Stinger. It had IG-88's ship and the Hound's Tooth as well as the Virgo and Outrider all of which would have been considered obscure at the time.

I did a similar topic for Armada, as requested.

On 2/3/2017 at 10:55 PM, InterceptorMad said:

It makes a bigger cameo taking Vader across to the Rebel flagship, along with two Tie Bombers which most believe are Tie Shuttles.

haha good point.

Updated the list for that which has been revealed for Wave XI and some commentary edits (As the Defender has physically appeared in Rebels now, not just in trailers).

Glad to see FFG still willing and able to dip back into the Legends well for interesting mechanics and frames.

Great job on that list! I can't think how much time you did spend on this. Thank you.

(now we only need some "obscure" ship from X-Wing sims to appear in the next wave...)

On 2/3/2017 at 5:50 PM, UnitOmega said:

• The E-Wing originates from the Dark Empire comic series, first published in 1991 (which means E-Wings are older than I am).

I remember when Dark Empire came out... it and the first book of the Zahn Trilogy were so exciting, because it had been such a long time since there had been any new Star Wars content.

You kids these days are so spoiled with new Star Wars content!

(For the record - Star Wars and I share a birth year... and I beat Star Wars by a few months!)

On February 3, 2017 at 10:58 PM, UnitOmega said:

Honestly, the distinction between "Bomber" and "Shuttle" configurations on the TIE/sa in the new canon seems to be "did we unload all the ordinance in the space frame?"

Pretty sure that those were TIE Boarding Craft, originally designed and story boarded for ANH, only to appear as the Bomber and Shuttle in ESB. All three share similar frames but have differing port pods. There's some that believe the TIE Shuttle actually had inverse bent wings but it's difficult to see in the final movie.

Anyway, Boarding Craft (with a few Stormie squads aboard) make more sense in R1 than bombers acting as escorts. The Boarding Craft was also depicted in EU cross section books as the method the storm troopers used to board the Tantive IV in ANH after it was captured.

I was more talking about how in, say, Rebels, apparently the ability to carry a load of passengers isn't so much a particular variant in configuration, just that the ordnance bays are emptied. They even have some bench like slabs where racks of munitions normally go, or something.