The Clone Wars Incredible Vehicles

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Reverend Strone
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The Clone Wars Incredible Vehicles

Post by Reverend Strone »

I just received this book from SWNZ affiliate BookDepository and as a fan of the design of the series, I think it's a great pick-up.

Image

This book is a combination of the older Incredible Crossections style of books and the Guide to ... series, with 128 pages devoted to the many spacecraft and speeder vehicles seen in the first three seasons of the show. Each vehicle gets a technical specification chart and a short write up, with some also receiving some additional extrapolation and context in the form of relevant character and story notes. Some pages feel a little bit like filler content, but then others are dense with imagery and info, so it's a bit uneven but on the balance feels satisfying to me.

A number of the more featured vehicles get the full cut-away treatment, which, while digital rather than illustrative like the older crossections books were, are still mighty nice and very detailed. Each ship is given a class, model, size in feet and meters, manufacturer and weapon list. The write-ups are short but the pictures (all renders) are crisp and big enough in most cases to make out as much detail as you'd want. The images are notated in the same way as the images in the visual dictionaries are, with hairline arrows and notes calling out features. In the tradition of the visual dictionaries, most of these notes are fluffy filler, but occasionally there's something genuinely interesting and cool that perhaps links back to an existing piece of movie or EU lore. Most only get one image, which is a bit of a let down for those of us who get excited by seeing top, side, front and third angle orthographic views, but a few receive more thorough representation, generally according to how featured they are in the show. The Twilight, for example, has four pages all to itself, while speeder bikes of all sorts are grouped on a single spread.

One of the delights for a concept art fan like myself has been spotting original trilogy McQuarrie and Joe Johnston call outs in the modern designs. It's obvious the makers of the show love those OT designs and have pilfered the unused concept art heavily for inspiration, something that connects it well to the classic era. There are plenty of visual references in the designs represented in the book, so anyone flipping through with their Art of ROTJ or ESB books open next to this new book should have fun spotting the links.

Despite being aimed at a younger audience, I found plenty in here to enjoy and look forward to taking the book with me to bed each night to paw over the images and technical details. It's pretty cheap, so go grab yourself a copy.

It's available right now from BookDepository with free shipping for $19.59 AU if you need it right away or at an even more attractive $15.77 AU if you are prepared to wait another two weeks. I'm not sure why it's listed twice at two different prices but if you don't mind waiting you'll save a few bucks. :)
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thehiflyer
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Re: The Clone Wars Incredible Vehicles

Post by thehiflyer »

Thats a great review,thanks for the heads up!

I think I love the vehicles from Star Wars more than anything else and Im glad they made a book highlighting the new stuff. I know what you mean about the OT concept art, some great stuff hidden all the way through the series so far. I was very surprised to see the Boba concept helmet make it into the season 4 trailer too :)

Ill definitely have to pick this one up.
WTB: MIB VOTC C-3PO,TCW BATTLE PACK CAPTAIN FORDO, TCW AT-TE
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Buzz Bumble
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Re: The Clone Wars Incredible Vehicles

Post by Buzz Bumble »

Really?!? According to my list I got from the publisher a couple of months ago, that book wasn't due for release until 3 October (at $30 here). Very strange. It must have been released earlier for some reason.

Yet more money going out ... these next two months are ging to be expensive. :(
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MattG
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Re: The Clone Wars Incredible Vehicles

Post by MattG »

Cool; I'm quite a fan of the visual dictionaries and cross-section books, and this one is very tempting.
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Reverend Strone
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Re: The Clone Wars Incredible Vehicles

Post by Reverend Strone »

Yeah, as far as Clone Wars series tie in reference books go, this one is probably one of the best yet in my opinion. The likes of The Visual Guides have had a tendency to be a bit fluffy and filler packed in the past, however pretty, but this one stands a little taller, both physically and in terms of quality of content. Hard to go wrong for those prices too.
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