AT-AT (All-Terrain Armored Transport)

from "Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strike Back" (1980)

SCALE: Unknown

INITIAL RELEASE: 1981

MEDIUM: Polystyrene

RARITY: (2)

ABOUT THE DESIGN

ABOUT THE KIT

Just as the original Death Star attack in “Star Wars” had set a whole new standard for science-fiction space action, George Lucas wanted his Battle of Hoth sequence in “The Empire Strikes Back” to raise the bar for ground-based effects.  To achieve this, he reached far into the past – about 2250 years, in fact – to when Hannibal attacked Rome with his fabled elephants.  But in Lucas’ galaxy far, far away, the Carthaginian pachyderms were replaced by All-Terrain Armored Transports (AT-ATs), lumbering mechanical leviathans that stomped across battlefields causing as much psychological damage as physical. 

Brought to life via then-nascent “go-motion” photography that provided the life-like blurs missing from classic frame-by-frame stop motion, the AT-ATs elicited immediate applause from audiences who saw these unique creations in the “Empire” previews that hit theaters months before the film’s May 1980 release.  When the machines were finally revealed in all their glory, no one was disappointed – not even when they were sent to their doom by plucky Snowspeeder-driving Rebel scum.

AT-ATs made brief appearances in "Return of the Jedi," this time sporting a darker, more steel-like paint scheme.

MPC’s AT-AT had moveable legs that made the model pose-able – and highly unstable.  Its cockpit was also moveable, held in position by a stretched rubber-band.  The kit was released twice, once in conjunction with “The Empire Strikes Back,” and again as a “Commemorative Edition” concurrent with the release of “Return of the Jedi” three years later. 

Although the TESB variation of this craft was painted in arctic white, this model boasts the darker, steel-like exterior used in “Return of the Jedi.”   

The model itself is an original 1981 issue.

Original Box Art

Re-Release Box Art