Star Wars Episode VII The Force Awakens it seems will acknowledge and pay homage to the late Star Wars concept artist Ralph McQuarrie. I wanted to start this thread to to record the instances of McQuarrie's concept artwork that we find in TFA. TFA's stormtrooper design may be only the tip of the iceberg in regard to what the new movie may contain as a tribute to the much respected artist, shown here in a 2013 In Memoriam:



For starters, here is a hangar scene from TFA #2 trailer which is very similar in content and composition to one painted by McQuarrie:

Awesomeness.

Great thread - looking forward to it

Yeah, IIRC that is from the Action Fleet playset.

Another one:

That's a great architectural example jkno - not just costumes and spaceships!

I had a sense of deja vu after watching the TFA #2 trailer regarding the hangar scene. I recalled seeing it in the book The Complete Vader. It is on p. 27 captioned as "Ralph McQuarrie illustrations used on packaging for Galoob's Darth Vader Tie Fighter Flight Controller and Action Fleet Death Star set, 1996"

Cannot wait for this McQuarrie book to come: http://www.theforce.net/story/front/Cel ... 163828.asp

Yeah, it is pretty cool that they are going back to the original concept designs. Can't wait to see more revelations.

A small detail, but it clearly links back to the early McQuarrie Stormtrooper concept art

Nice catch!!

Here’s an excerpt from an interview with Ralph McQuarrie talking about R2-D2:

I think Artoo was just described as a small robot.
I thought of him as running on a giant ball bearing–just a sphere, a circle, wheel-like.
He had gyros so he could go in any direction on this ball.




Sounds (and looks) familiar huh...?

Indeed McQuarrie's description of R2D2 is virtually a specification for the new one!

The "easter egg" of the graphic on the new stormtrooper helmet establishes definite traceability back to the original McQuarrie drawings, confirming the likeness isn't just a coincidence.

As this is in essence a forward-looking retrospective in tribute to Mr. McQuarrie, I've edited the first post to include a photo of the artist.

Very interesting!

Fantastic :D

A nice tribute to Mr. McQuarrie on the starwars.com website:

http://www.starwars.com/video/ralph-mcquarrie-tribute-to-a-master-part-1

The new X-wing design in TFA takes its cues from the original X-Wing McQuarrie paintings. In the original depictions each left and right wing has a single large round engine inlet in the front composed of a top and bottom half. These separate into two hemispherical halves when the S-foils are locked into attack position (linked images from starwars.com):

ANH (T-65s):


Ralph McQuarrie painting November, 1975:


TFA (T-70):