Review – Star Wars AST-5 Mini-Rig

In the early 80s, when I was young and collected Star Wars action figures, I had a fairly significant figure collection but a small number of vehicles. It always seemed that it was easier for me to add a new figure to my collection — figures ran about $3/each — than it was to add a vehicle (much more expensive pieces). That changed, though, on the day that I picked up the Vehicle Maintenance Energizer (seen here at www.theswca.com and the Tri-Pod Laser Cannon (www.theswca.com). Both of these inexpensive items greatly expanded the playability of my figures and I soon added actual mini-rigs, the tiny one-man vehicles that Kenner produced without Lucasfilm reference materials.

The excellent book, Star Wars: The Action Figure Archive (a book every Star Wars toy fan should own), says:

“Not appearing in any of the films, the minirigs were fairly inexpensive vehicles made to carry one character. They were done to provide more play value at a lower price than the larger vehicles.”

That’s pretty short, but it’s an accurate description of the entire line.

This commercial gives you a decent look at a few different vehicles in the line.

In my opinion, the mini-rigs were an awesome idea. Give kids a vehicle that cost about the same as two action figures and make it look like it might exist in the Star Wars universe. Truth be told, I loved all of these vehicles so much that when the Star Wars RPG rolled around in the late 80s many of these vehicles found their way into my campaign. Yes, the toys are just that cool.

I’ve recently started adding the old mini-rigs to my toy collection, and since these are such great toys it was only a matter of time before they started popping up here at battlegrip.com. More mini-rig reviews are on the way, but today we’re taking a look at the AST-5. Also known as the Armored Sentinel Transport.

The AST-5

A weird-looking contraption that’s either a flying machine, a stationary gun emplacement, or some combination of each, the Armored Sentinel Transport stands roughly 6-inches tall and bristles (if two can count as a bristle) with cannons. The vehicle has three basic configurations, all of which I’ve shown here.

Above is the vehicle in flight mode. One of the photos on the box (shown above) has a kid holding the vehicle by the tail section, which makes about as much since as a carrying point as anyplace else on the machine. In this mode, the AST-5 is no doubt an air vehicle, incapable of space travel and not even strong enough to go up against a Snowspeeder or a Cloud Car. Based on its size, I’m not even sure if I’d pit this thing against an AT-ST. A Landspeeder? Sure. It’s not as if the Landspeeder even has a gun. Hell, I’d even be willing to go up against a PDT-8 with this thing. (Though to be honest, I’d go up against a PDT-8 with a Jawa, a Power Droid, and an Ewok and probably knock it out.)

From flight mode we switch to what — I assume — is most likely the vehicle’s “landed” position. By pivoting the “wing” (what the box calls it, not me) down, the vehicle can stand upright as shown in the picture below.

When landed, it’s easy enough to pop the canopy open so that figures can climb in. Here we see an Imperial Droid about to take off; no doubt Grand Moff Tarkin is giving the orders. In my opinion, this mode can also be used as a low-level VTOL flight mode. Even though the commercial above doesn’t show the AST-5 flying i this mode, I’m gonna say that it’s a perfectly acceptable flight position (you just can’t move very fast, since this isn’t the high-speed flight mode).

Finally, we get to the vehicle’s final (and easily strangest) mode: an upright gun that makes very little sense (but kinda looks neat). In this position, the AST-5 is an intimidating-looking device, armored orange death with laser cannons that’s just ready to blast anything that walks in front of it. There isn’t a single photo of the vehicle in this mode anywhere on the box, but it’s shown in this position in official Kenner catalog photos from the time so it must be an authentic mode.

(Maybe it can go up against the Cobra SNAKE armor. I mean, I can almost see how it could be treated as some sort of bizarre armored suit that Jabba’s henchmen would wear; after all, it’s way too orange to be an Imperial machine.)

Closing Thoughts

It’s orange, small, unusual, and a great toy. The AST-5, as with all of Kenner’s mini-rigs, isn’t exactly a high value Star Wars toy but it’s a toy that someone like me — that is, someone who played with these when he was ten — will enjoy having in the toy collection. It’s as durable as the best Star Wars toy from the early eighties, cheap to pickup, and constantly available on eBay, making it a great starting point for anyone looking to relive their (Star Wars) childhood.

You can see more photos (and comments) at the Star Wars wiki and Action Figure of the Day.

Philip Reed keeps an eye on eBay in an attempt to collect more Mini-Rigs that slip through at a low price. MIB is best, but since he’s gonna open the box then loose Rigs are just fine.