Opinion: best starfighter designs ever

[eriku]

I have to say the N-1 Naboo Starfighter from Phantom Menace is one of my favorite designs ever. The movie stinks, but the N-1 fighters are damn cool.

[TwinkiePlatter]

My favorites (in no order)

-FRS Mk.III Endymion (from Einhander - PSX)

-Thunderbold (Upgraded ver. of Starfury - Babylon 5)

-Rangnerok (Final Fantasy VIII - PSX)

-TIE Defender (TIE Fighter - PC)

-Black Pyro (Descent3 - PC)

[Marso]

Favorites: (nothing really new here...)

Viper

X-wing

Gunstar

SVA-43 Hammerhead

A-wing / Jedi Starfighter (damn near the same thing)

Not a starfighter, technically, but:

SAF Yukikaze

[Phyrox]

I have the same tastes as most others here, but the fighter designs in both the anime's Gall Force and Crusher Joe are some of my all time favorites as well. I'll have to dig up pics...

Yah, you better ...I check that "Gall Force Scans" thread every other day just to see if I missed your posts of all the good stuff you said you had.

I really like some of the Gall Force starfighters (esp. that small one that leave from the Starlief's side bays in the begining of Eternal Story). If we were talking Starships, I think nearly all of my favorites would be Gall Force designs.

[Commander McBride]

The Sabrefish from Gundam (MSV?)

THe Halo Dropship (Pelican)

[Beltane70]

Wow, this was the first time that I ever saw someone mention Cruise Chaser Blassty! I don't know much about it myself, but I do remember seeing models of this in some old late-80s issues of Hobby Japan.

The fighters in Gall Force are quite cool, my particular favorite being the Solenoid fighters from Gall Force 2.

One of my favorites that hasn't been mentioned is the F/A-37 Strega from the Playstation game Philosoma.

As a few people have mentioned, I also like the Starfury and Thunderbolt from Babylon 5. Mostly because out of the ones that have been mentioned, they are the most realistic. Other than the weapons and powerplant, the Starfury could actually be built with our current technology.

[gerwalk25]

My favorites are:

Star Wars,

OT

-Millenium Falcon

-X-wing

-A-wing

-T-16 Skyhopper

-Cloud Car

-Tie Interceptor

-BF's Slave-1

-Lambda Class Shuttlecraft

TPM, AOTC

-Naboo Starfighter, For some reason I'd imagine it would be able to Transform.

-Jedi Starfighter

-JF's Slave-1

-Padme's Personal Yacht

B5

-Star Fury

S:AAB

-Hammerhead

BSG

-Colonial Viper

-Cylon Centurion

LSF

-Gunstar

-Centauri's Car

Anime,

Cowboy Bebop

-Spike's Swordfish

-Faye's Yellow Tail

Gatchaman, Gatchaman 94'

-God Phoenix

-Galactor's Turtle King

Uchuu Senkan Yamato

-Yamato

Crusher Joe

-The Minerva

Gundam UC

-RX-79 Core Fighter

-Fb-01 Core Fighter, Space Type

-Gundam Zeta

[ArchVile]

The Mobius Zero from Gundam SEED.

Saberfish from Gundam MSV and Zeta Gundam.

X-Wing

Swordfish II from Cowboy Bebop

[Barpharanges]

Yah, you better ...I check that "Gall Force Scans" thread every other day just to see if I missed your posts of all the good stuff you said you had.

UH Oh. I just deleted the Gall Force scans from my picture host. I still have them, but they won't be in the Thread anymore. Great. Must find box with scanner! (And scan some Blassty designs for MSW while I'm at it!)

I am a Bad Boy.

As for nifty fighters, I remembered another fave of mine; The Bronco II from orguss. A stubby little trans-atmospheric fighter, with legs!

[Retracting Head Ter Ter]

I like the Tie Interceptor, but it looks kinda frail and needs a couple of thrusters on the main body to round it off a bit.

Favourite design in all Star Wars and best looking starship all round has to be the Executor. Imperator class follows. Britai's flagship looks cool too, though many think it looks like a green potato.

I like the Fluttering Petal fighter from Renegade Legion.

Some of the fighter designs from arcade shooters aint bad. Can't remember their names though.

[kanata67]

does the cat/rabbit thing from tenchi count???

jetfire

the bubble thing from "explorers" ... anything that can fly through earth has an advantage

the ship from ice pirates was pretty cool... if it came without space hemroids

any of the warhammer 40k eldar ships... they just look so cool

the bird of prey with full-time cloaking would be nice

the ships in "galaxy rangers" were pretty cool

swordfish II from bebop

video game ships like the gradius, darius twin, etc.

more i forget

[CaptRico]

Which fighters do I like?

hmmm.....

Well, here's what I got so far(I'll add more later...) :

BEST FIGHTERS OF SCI-FI:

- Naboo Fighter from Star Wars: Episode 1

- GunStar from The Last StarFighter

- B-Wing and Y-Wing fighters from Star Wars

- All playable League fighters from the first Colony Wars game

- Main fighter from the Gradius III game

- Rappers from the Wing Commander movie

- Valkyries from Star Trek: Invasion

- Vanships from the anime Last Exile

- Swordfish II from Cowboy Bebop

- The ThunderRoad from Explorers

- Balsam fighter from Gall Force: The Movie

Well, that's my list. I could have more, plus I would have included the VF-2SS from Macross II, but I didn't because I think it wouldn't count.^^;

Edited April 19, 2004 by CaptRico

[Akilae]

Well... I rather liked Z-95 headhunters.. they were just so easy to shoot down.... j/k

TIE Interceptor, Avenger, and Defender... also the gunboat and missile boat. The Rebels never had any fighters that really outperformed those... maybe the B-Wing, so wierd that it's actually pretty cool.

Since people are bringing in arcade games... The R-series from R-Type... a lot of the designs in R-Type Final were pretty cool.

[Phyrox]

Rico:

How in the hell do you copywrite a starcraft you didn't design?!

That's some trick.

Seriously, if you are just doing "fanworks," leave the copywrite stuff off.

[Druna Skass]

Oh damn how could I forget this one, more of a Mobile Armor (I know technicaly it's not a MA but...) counts...

RX-78GP03 Dendrobium Orchis

[Sundown]

Pretty much every freaking starcraft in the holy Original Star Wars Trilogy.

The Excelsior class cruiser from Star Trek.

Big nod for the dropship from Aliens.

And a small nod towards the Raptor from Wing Commander, which is really the Gunstar tweaked, and not so CG-riffic.

-Al

[Bloodcat]

I dont count the Aliens dropship as a starfighter. Its a dropship. One that would die to fightercraft. Lovely design though.

Ive gotta go with the B Wing. Its just pure love.

The Naboo Starfighter comes up in second place.

Cant think of anything else. There are plenty of great starfighters, but most of them don't get me gushing over em..

[Graham]

OK, just gonna stick with Hollywood ships for this post. I'll cover anime starfighters in another post.

I'm quite partial to the starfighter from the 'Buck Rogers in the 25th Century' TV series from 1979 starring Gil Gerard.

Also like the GunStar from 'The Last Starfighter'.

The Colonial Viper from 'Battlestar Galactica' is another of my favs.

The X-Wing also gets a mention, as does the Y-wing. Never liked the A or B wings at all. Thought the 'A' was too small to be a starfighter and the 'B' too ugly

While TIE Figters look cool, they have piss-poor visibility in nearly all directions, so they get no marks from me.

The Star Fury from 'Babylon 5' is probably the most realistic portral of a Star fighter, although like many Sci-Fi ships it suffers from poor rear and side visibility.

Graham

[RTShark]

Starfury from Bab 5 - Not so much for its looks as for the fact that they at least tried to make it move like a space fighter would.

I've gotta agree here. Though I like the Thunderbolt design a little better.

It's possibly the only Starfighter design I've seen that actually looks like it was designed to operate well in space and is shown acting in a physically realistic manner for something that's working in space.

[Warmaker]

I don't like too many out there, but:

I have a soft spot for the Vipers from Battlestar Galactica.

I liked the fighters from Space: Above & Beyond.

Star Wars has a bunch of fighters I like, movies and from the numerous games.

- The X-Wing is a no-brainer. God bless whoever made this design.

- Y-Wings are cool in their slow, suicidal "torpedo bomber" own way.

- TIE Defender

- Missile Boat

- TIE Interceptor- Next to the X-Wing, my favorite starfighter, esp. in the games like X-Wing vs TIE Fighter and X-Wing:Alliance. Truly skilled pilots don't need no stinkin' shields.

- I want to drop in the B-Wing for an honorable mention! Not because they're cool or anything like that. It's just that they look like perfect crosshairs to line up in my TIE's sights! "I have you now!"

Now for Starships:

- Imperial Star Destroyer (My favorite)

- Super Star Destroyer

- Yamato (Space one!)

- USS Enterprise-A (Pretty and classical look)

- USS Enterprise-E (For the technologically advanced look for the Feds)

- Klingon Vorcha Attack Cruisers

- Klingon B'Rel Bird of Prey (and K'Vort. They're practically the same but the latter's larger)

- Meltran ships from DYRL

[the white drew carey]

CRUISE CHASER BLASSTY

Dunno what that is? then check out my avitar

Ditto. Blassty's the bomb!

[the white drew carey]

In keeping with graham's idea of seperating Hollywood from Anime, I'd have to say that one of my favorite Hollywood ones is the Drac fighter from Enemy Mine. For the limited amount of screen time it gets, it's still one of the best when it comes to bang for your buck. The ship just exudes cool. The design is very alien and is still rocks to this very day.

Rock on, Jerry!

Edited April 19, 2004 by the white drew carey

[GreatMoose]

1: UD-4L Cheyenne, hands down.

2: WH40K Marauder, Destroyer pattern

I dig the utilitarian designs.

[renegadeleader1]

lol that reminds me of a cobra rattler. I like it though.

[Akilae]

It would seem we're also moving on to starships now... if that's the case.. the Warlock class from B5

[Knight26]

Let's see from the realm of TV and movies only, therefore I can exclude my own designs, what can I say I am partial to them.

Starfury's (B5) one of the most realistic designs I have seen on TV

Viper MK2 (New BSG) A major improvement over the original, better visibility and the way they animated it, well it looked like actual physics were in place.

B-wing + A-Wing (SW) To be honest these are best designed star wars craft, from a practical standpoint, while not as iconic or flashy as the X-wing or tie fighter they are clearly better designs.

Gunstar (LS) Not a really a fighter but more of a light gunboat, it's design was fairly realistic and well thought out with a seperate pilot and gunner.

Hammerhead (SAAB) Great transatomspheric fighter, looked real and for the most part acted real, at least it had thrusters for manuevering, though I was never wild about the control layout in the cockpit.

Bad Designs (I know I will get flamed for some of these, but sorry the designs really are piss poor, even though I hate to admit it)

X-wing, Ties (SW) Hate to say it but these designs are not that great, poor visibily being the primary concern, lets face it in an X-wing you have virtually no forward visibilty and in the TIEs you have only forward visibilty.

Any trek "fighter" things are more akin to the scale of gunboats, bomber or corvettes, but what am I saying I think almost all trek designs stink.

I agree with some of the others listed here, though you only asked for fighters and I will not mention them then. Design is a lot more then just visual appeal to me, realism and usibility count a great deal in my thoughts and a fighter with little to know visibility is junk in my opinion. Realism also counts a great deal in my opinion and most sci-fi movie and TV designs are not realistic in my opinion. A little fudging is ok for storytelling considerations but not too much.

[mighty gorgon]

I've been thinking about all the sci-fi movies I've seen and games I've played and the worst transformers ever thread got me thinking why not a best starfighter thread. Also feel free to add some ones you hate.

There is only one BEST STARFIGHTER DESIGN... EVER:

(trumpets)

Lockheed F-104 STARFIGHTER

Regds,

Gorgon, the Joker...

(p.d.: I can't believe nobody as come out with this silly joke yet...)

(p.d.2: check the link, the coloring of this particular 104, with the "ripped" skin is GREAT)

[Anubis]

I've been thinking about all the sci-fi movies I've seen and games I've played and the worst transformers ever thread got me thinking why not a best starfighter thread. Also feel free to add some ones you hate.

There is only one BEST STARFIGHTER DESIGN... EVER:

(trumpets)

Lockheed F-104 STARFIGHTER

Regds,

Gorgon, the Joker...

(p.d.: I can't believe nobody as come out with this silly joke yet...)

(p.d.2: check the link, the coloring of this particular 104, with the "ripped" skin is GREAT)

That "ripped" paintjob is great.

[Ali Sama]

My favorites are:

Star Wars,

OT

-Millenium Falcon

-X-wing

-A-wing

-T-16 Skyhopper

-Cloud Car

-Tie Interceptor

-BF's Slave-1

-Lambda Class Shuttlecraft

TPM, AOTC

-Naboo Starfighter, For some reason I'd imagine it would be able to Transform.

-Jedi Starfighter

-JF's Slave-1

-Padme's Personal Yacht

B5

-Star Fury

S:AAB

-Hammerhead

BSG

-Colonial Viper

-Cylon Centurion

LSF

-Gunstar

-Centauri's Car

Anime,

Cowboy Bebop

-Spike's Swordfish

-Faye's Yellow Tail

Gatchaman, Gatchaman 94'

-God Phoenix

-Galactor's Turtle King

Uchuu Senkan Yamato

-Yamato

Crusher Joe

-The Minerva

Gundam UC

-RX-79 Core Fighter

-Fb-01 Core Fighter, Space Type

-Gundam Zeta

you know what a starfighter is right?

freighters, yacts, cars, star ships and shuttels are not star fighters.

[renegadeleader1]

well since I started this thread its time I weighed in.

NO GODDAMNED CAP SHIPS!

NO GODDAMNED MACROSS STUFF! (that includes the ghost!)

NO GODDAMNED HOVER VEHICLES!

NO GODDAMNED F-104's!

okay now that thats out of my system

heres what is good

starfighters-bombers-dropships-gunboats

not good

cap ships-cars-transformers-gobots-freighters-shuttles-pimpmobiles(centuari's)-repulsor craft-hover tanks-and anything else that isn't space only/transatmospheric and of a relativley small size.

EDIT: on futher review I will alow one pimpmobile The homeboys in outer space's Space Hoopty

Edited April 19, 2004 by renegadeleader1

[Ali Sama]

star fighters

the last star fighter

gunstar

star wars

xwing

bwing

jedi fighter

a wing

gunbuster

buster machine 1

buster machine 2

star trek

peregrin

favorite space fighters

buck rogers

main reartht fighter

battles tar galactica

viper

cylon fighter

v

the visitors fighters

mobile suite gundam

zeta gundam

core fighter for gp01

gundam wing

space byeond etc.

hammer head

star wars

tie intercepter

vaders tie

mospeada

legiloss thread combo

Babylon 5

starfury

cowboy bebop

bebop

Edited April 19, 2004 by Ali Sama

[do not disturb]

the x-wing is the freshest crap out, hands down. with the b-wing in close 2nd.

after that, i'd say buck rogers ship(don't know what its called) but i always thought it was cool.

[Ali Sama]

well since I started this thread its time I weighed in.

NO GODDAMNED CAP SHIPS!

NO GODDAMNED MACROSS STUFF! (that includes the ghost!)

NO GODDAMNED HOVER VEHICLES!

NO GODDAMNED F-104's!

okay now that thats out of my system

heres what is good

starfighters-bombers-dropships-gunboats

not good

cap ships-cars-transformers-gobots-freighters-shuttles-pimpmobiles(centuari's)-repulsor craft-hover tanks-and anything else that isn't space only/transatmospheric and of a relativley small size.

EDIT: on futher review I will alow one pimpmobile The homeboys in outer space's Space Hoopty

lol. alot of the suggestiosn are space fighters. a sttar fighter is a fightter able to travel betweent he stars and fight there. None of the macross ighter qualify. even with a fold booster. which isa one shot travel.

NONE of th evlakyries ever made are star fighters.

[VF-19]

X-wing, Ties (SW) Hate to say it but these designs are not that great, poor visibily being the primary concern, lets face it in an X-wing you have virtually no forward visibilty and in the TIEs you have only forward visibilty.

Actually, the nose of an X-wing slopes downward, so you have great forward visiblity. The pilot sits high enough that the control panel doesn't really get in the way. As for the TIE fighter, it also has upwards visiblity. But then again, looking straight up doesn't help when there's somebody on your six...

My Fav fighters!

Most of the Freespace designs (can't remember all the names)

X-Wing

B-Wing

Tie Interceptor

Missile Boat

Some Starlancer designs (again, memory flunks on me)

I think that's about it...

[mighty gorgon]

well since I started this thread its time I weighed in.

NO GODDAMNED CAP SHIPS!

NO GODDAMNED MACROSS STUFF! (that includes the ghost!)

NO GODDAMNED HOVER VEHICLES!

NO GODDAMNED F-104's!

okay now that thats out of my system

heres what is good

starfighters-bombers-dropships-gunboats

not good

cap ships-cars-transformers-gobots-freighters-shuttles-pimpmobiles(centuari's)-repulsor craft-hover tanks-and anything else that isn't space only/transatmospheric and of a relativley small size.

EDIT: on futher review I will alow one pimpmobile The homeboys in outer space's Space Hoopty

Ok... ok... time to get serious (but the 104 was a great and true Starfighter ):

FAVORITE

X-Wing

Darth Vader's Tie

Slave I

LESS FAVORITE

????

WEIRD

Interceptor from the UFO Series (1970, Gerry and Sylvia Anderson)

OUT OF CONTEST

The Angel interceptors from Captain Scarlet (I guess they could not get in space, but I don't remember)

Regds,

Gorgon