The Imperial Shuttle first appeared in 1983’s Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, when Darth Vader was arriving at Death Star II in orbit above the forest moon of Endor. Up until that point, we had never really seen how Imperial officers and enlisted men were shuttled between the Star Destroyers and other capital ships, and their destinations.

The AMT/Ertl 1:89 scale kit features landing gear and positionable wings. While detailing is pretty good, there are areas for improvement. I have seen some outstanding buildups of this kit, some including lighting as shown in the Kalmbach Publishing book “A Galaxy Far, Far Away”. Another interesting variant included a large Rebel Alliance logo on the vertical fin.

The kit is molded in light gray styrene and has raised panel lines. Builders wishing to add more detail can sand off the raised detail and scribe in the panel. The kit also features three figures in the cockpit – two seated pilots and Darth Vader, who stands in the rear of the flight deck, behind the pilots’ seats.

The completed model is over 8 inches long, and has a 20-inch wingspan.

Review by: Rich “Lonewolf” Dula

Entry created: April 17, 2010