Silver Speeder

A modified zZip Product Concepts Limited X-X landspeeder, the Silver Speeder was a sleek, powerful landspeeder which was capable of traveling at a maximum speed of 390 kilometers per hour at up to three meters above ground level. The speeder was 3.7 meters long and had a blocky, angular fuselage with angled sections attached to either side and a large spoiler mounted at the rear, above the engines. The Silver Speeder failed to live up to its name after it came into the possession of the bounty hunter Boba Fett, who repainted in subdued shades of mostly gray and green to make it less conspicuous.

The enclosed cockpit had room for a single passenger in addition to the pilot. A large window to the front and small windows on either side allowed the pilot to see out of the vehicle. The speeder was controlled by a yoke in the cockpit, and the dashboard featured numerous controls, including those for the weapon systems, as well as a monitor screen. The Silver Speeder had additional space for up to ten kilograms of cargo.

Fett outfitted the Silver Speeder with several nonstandard components. A pair of magnetic harpoon beams were emitted from yellow protrusions at the front of the side sections and could be used to ensnare similar sized vehicles at a range of up to ten meters. Above these were emitters for a pair of laser cannons with a range of twenty meters and two grappling cables. Three vibrosaws were mounted to the front, left and right of the vehicle to attack targets within one meter.

Originally a standard zZip X-X landspeeder, the Silver Speeder was owned by an Iotran woman. At some point between 21 BBY and 15 BBY, the bounty hunter Boba Fett was hired to hunt down the Iotran. Fett had a difficult time catching his target after locating her on the planet Rivvidu due to the power of the Silver Speeder. Impressed by the vehicle, Fett decided to keep it. Fett had the landspeeder repainted to make it appear inconspicuous and outfitted it with nonstandard components, including weapons to assist him in his work.

In 15 BBY, Fett was approached by Sise Fromm, the leader of the Fromm Gang criminal organization, to capture the Annoo resistance member Kea Moll and her friends, the speeder racers Thall Joben and Jord Dusat, after the group destroyed Fromm's weapons satellite, the Trigon One, and his stronghold on the planet Annoo. Although Fromm's rival, Jabba the Hutt, had put a bounty on Fromm, Fett owed the Annoo-dat crime lord a favor and accepted the contract. Fett took the Silver Speeder to the planet Boonta, where Joben and Dusat were due to enter their racing landspeeder, the White Witch, in the Boonta Speeder Race. The bounty hunter's first attempt to capture his targets failed; Fett's BL-series Battle Legionnaire, BL-17, lured Joben into a trap, but the intervention of the junk droid Proto One allowed Joben to escape in the White Witch.

Fett gave chase in the Silver Speeder, following the White Witch even as Joben headed into the Boonta Speeder Race. The bounty hunter attacked Joben throughout the race, unaware that Sise Fromm's son, Tig Fromm, had concealed a thermal detonator on the White Witch and set it to detonate at the end of the tenth and final lap. Fett first used the Silver Speeder to ram the White Witch in an attempt to make it crash. When this failed, he used his speeder's grappling cables to grab hold of the White Witch, but Joben's co-pilot, the R2-series astromech droid R2-D2, cut the cables, allowing Joben to break free. Fett then used his laser cannons to blast a hole in the White Witchs fuselage, causing it to vent smoke, but Joben managed to retain control while R2-D2 sealed the leak. As the race neared its end, Fett tried once more to stop Joben, using the Silver Speeders magnetic beams to grab hold of the White Witch. However, the magnetic beams inadvertently dislodged the thermal detonator, which became attached to the Silver Speeder. Fett used his jetpack to escape the doomed speeder, moments before it exploded as it crossed the finish line in second place behind Joben. Furious that Tig Fromm's interference had led to the destruction of the Silver Speeder, Fett apprehended both Sise and Tig Fromm after the race with the intention of turning them over to Jabba the Hutt.

During the early years of the Galactic Empire, the Silver Speeder was owned by the bounty hunter Boba Fett. A clone of the Mandalorian bounty hunter Jango Fett, Boba Fett was orphaned when his father was killed at the beginning of the Clone Wars in 22 BBY. During the Clone Wars, the young Fett followed in his father's footsteps by becoming a bounty hunter himself and, by 15 BBY, he had gained a fearsome reputation. Fett acquired the Silver Speeder on the planet Rivvidu, taking it as a prize after successfully collecting a bounty on the speeder's previous owner, an Iotran woman. Fett subsequently modified the speeder with several weapons to assist in his future hunts.

The Silver Speeder was created for the Nelvana animated television series Star Wars: Droids, making its only appearance in the fourth episode, "A Race to the Finish," written by Peter Sauder and Steven Wright and first broadcast on September 28, 1985,. The speeder was also depicted in the 1987 picture-book adaptation of the episode and later received entries in the second and third editions of A Guide to the Star Wars Universe, the Star Wars Encyclopedia and The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia. The 2004 Polyhedron 170 article "Star Wars Droids: The Adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO" by Rich Handley and Abel G. Peña expanded on the speeder's history and provided roleplaying statistics. Artist Jeff Carlisle based his illustrations for the article on the television show, but had some trouble drawing the Silver Speeder when he discovered it was never shown in its entirety in the episode.

• A Guide to the Star Wars Universe, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded
• The Essential Guide to Characters
• Star Wars Encyclopedia
• A Guide to the Star Wars Universe, Third Edition, Revised and Expanded
• "Star Wars Droids: The Adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO" — Polyhedron 170
• The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia