The AST-5 (Armored Sentinel Tranport) is one of the many mini-rigs featured in the Kenner Star Wars line. Unlike many of the mini-rigs which took their inspiration from bigger vehicles in the movies (compare the mini sand skiff to the full sand skiff), the AST did not seem to have a larger counterpart. It was also one of the few mini-rigs never to be featured in any Star Wars novel, cartoon, or other media ever again. In fact, forget I ever mentioned it.
Why should you own this vehicle? Five reasons:
1. Because of its odd design, you can easily fool your friends into believing its from any one of a number of different toy line. Just hide the box.
2. It features not one, not two, but three different positions! "Sentry mode" (folded together standing up), "attack mode" (engine at a 90 degree angle), and "pursuit mode" (engine folded behind the cockpit).
3. It inspired today's folding cell phones. Maybe.
4. For those who missed that "just right" shade or red/orange that the Cloud City Pod Car came in.
5. It has two obvious guns, and when folded up it looks like one of the suits of Cobra armor from G.I. Joe... made by Hasbro...which bought Kenner...wait a sec.
Backstory:
The only backstory the AST has is provided by the box. It looks like it was used by Jabba's guards. Maybe for chasing down escaped prisoners. Maybe for manning the lifeguard stations at Jabba's private beach. Who knows? All we can suppose is that they kept it off-screen during ROTJ - maybe in the garage. Wookieepedia article
12th in alphabetical order
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