This would have been the Republic’s Main Starfighter | R-41 starchaser | Star Wars Ships
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- The ARC-170 and Z-95 Headhunter were two of the most important Republic starfighters during the Clone Wars. See how this ship, the R-41 Starchaser, was planned to be the Republic main starfighter, but destiny was not on its side. See how it compared to other star wars ships like the X-Wing and TIE Fighter, as well as our size comparison to the Imperial-1 class Star Destroyer. Also learn how the R-41 may be coming back to Canon via the Resistance tv show.
Patreon: / metanerdz
Vote for the next video!: metanerdz.com/
Get Star Wars Books: amzn.to/2ybWYP0
Anything bought via this link gives us a small commission.
Instagram: / metanerdzlore
Twitter:
MetaNerdz Merch!: goo.gl/sbmSp4
Discord: discordapp.com....
Facebook: / metanerdz
Thank you Patrons! : Will Taylor, Robo Doc, Streeter, Kenneth Gorman, MetaGonk, Thomas Fernandez, Alan Rogers, Lettuce, Brian Keating, Somchate Wasantwisut (Pao), Jesus Ceja, Joshua Cooper, Kent Bierley, Daniel Glomb, Gary Gaskin, James Cella, PastryBoyFritter, Jean J Rodriguez, John Patz, pclazoen, Chris Garcia, Rusty Rowboat, Sebastiaan Hassink, Taylor Simons
If you want to learn more about us and help feed the cats.
Help Support this Channel: / metanerdz
ALSO: Thank you to everyone who give Superchats in the live streams, you guys rock, and I got your names on the Metaboard.
#StarWars #Sci-Fi #MetaNerdz
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ***************************************************************** ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.
"because it was designed for the clone wars, by the time of the galactic civil war it was considered to be outdated"
the hundreds of clone wars era designs still in service during the vong wars: "Am I a joke to you?"
“I love my star chaser,she runs well and keeps the pirates and imperial patrols away,with a couple of after market upgrades and mods,you can have a ship better then military grade for less credits” says infamous slicer/smuggler to Holonet reporter just minutes before she blasts up cantina In a dispute over her droid
Lol, what is this from?
I'd love to hear about the history of the Z95 Headhunter, it's a total unsung hero of the Galaxy. In Legends, it was the most manufactured, modified, maintained, reused, recycled and upcycled of all the snubfighters in the whole galaxy.
i really like the R41 star chaser i think its a solid design
Could use a paintjob though.
This needs to be rearmed as the Rebel’s official missile boat. Remove the wingtip cannons and replace them with wingtip concussion missile racks. Add a pair of modular ordnance racks on top of the ship. Done.
I'd REALLY like to hear where the length figure came from, because looking at the cockpit, this ship is significantly SMALLER than an X-Wing! and the Lucasarts flight sims did not always give very accurate lengths.
The R-41 looks like the child of a Marauder-class corvette.
I know this is late but I think that it’s cost of 55,000 was not the original price. Allow me to elaborate. Generally, whenever a product does bad or people don’t buy enough of it, companies who can’t make s profit off their product at least try to make their money back and thus lower the price in order to get them to sell. And having a pretty good quality manufactured ship on the cheap? Who could resist that? If I had to guess, I’d says it’s original cost ranges anywhere from 120,000-145,000.
Again with the amazing background music!
It don't care if it's better! I'm stickin with my Z-95 Headhunters,ARC-170's,V-19 Torrents,and V Wings through and through!
This ship is so cool I always wanted this to be cannon.
Yeah because Disney likes their thicc ships
Canon*
R-41 Starchaser: When you absolute need something in service _right now_ and you don't have time to mess around with organizing production lines or specialist maintenance
For it to be easy to maintain enough to warrant any use, especially in the Outer Rim, the parts would had to have either been insanely common across multiple ship designs or there would have had to have been a really strong demand for the R-41 specific components (via a large consumer base for the R-41 specifically) to complement it. I'm thinking this fighter was allot more common in the Star Wars universe than the information we have at first leads us to suspect.
Also, nice shot of it next to the R60 T-Wing, another in universe Hoersch-Kessel marketing failure.
If I was a pilot in Star Wars I would have wanted a Z95 but after seeing this thing I would switch to the r41 but would use the money I would have saved on it to add upgrades like xwing level shield and extra missiles
So this thing was between a X-wing and a Tie in performance, with shields, hyperdrive, and better firepower than a Tie, and it was even cheaper, and for some dumb reason the Empire decided not to make that their fighter over the Tie?
The manufacturers of the TIE series were devoutly loyal (hell, they are still working with the First Order) and effectively nationalized. So the cheap ship from a loyal group you had firmly in your pocket or the cheap ship from a group of questionable loyalty. As an Imperial administrator which would you choose?
Depends - Would giving HKD a reason to be loyal (Hey, sell only to us and we'll buy all the Starchasers you can make!) impact Seinars loyalty?
Either way I'd proably go HKD. Their ship, overall, outpreforms Seinar's for cheaper and if all it takes to break Seinars loyalty is going with a competitors Starfighter then the whole 'which of the two would be more loyal' question doesn't really apply since both companies loyalty would be equally questionable.
Did a little more digging. Hoersch-Kessel was the primary ship manufacturing corporation for the CIS in Legends and one of the main in Canon. Recusant, Munificent and the Lucrehulk are all attributed to them in Legends... Might have had a bit to do with it.
Big contracts for Sienar big wigs, who offer patronage in return...
It's not cheaper. Even comparing used ships, TIEs are notably cheaper.
You are the best Star Wars channel.
Great video Metanerdz. Good follow up with the comment from last video.
It has a very star trek vibe with its design
Looks like something the star trek bajoran resistance would come up with
I'm really loving the new music you've got going on in these newer videos
This is the mystery ship in SWTFU 2 that I never knew
I want one now
Hay man love the channel keep up the good work like I always say
It's amazing how this ship is overlooked - having ion cannons and a warhead launcher are a huge boon!
Love your stuff. You motivated me to buy the essential guide to warfare!
These stats may not make much seance on paper being well armed/armored and cheep but in the X wing game they were introduced in they had clunky handling and a horrible profile that pretty much equaled free kills to ties.
Aye, they traded Tie Fighter speed and manuverability with more weapons, which doesn't do a whole lot of good when they explode from a single shot.
This is the Pyro GL from Descent.
It's the Glenn Quagmire of Star Wars ships.
Giggity.
I love the design of the R-41 Starchaser and it's counterpart in the new Star Wars Resistance TV show! :-) I'm not going to watch the show but I do like how it looks.
It would have been a good buy for a planetary defence force. They could get more ships for the buck, which if they didn't have a pilot shortage (more could always be trained up) means more fighters available.
And numbers make a difference.
Prehaps even have done a licensing deal to make their own, since the company was desperate.
While a hyperdrive is just extra weight when it comes to home ground planet defence, it still opens up options for carrying the fight back to your enemy.
And having a relief force that's stationed off world.
And what if you have more than one star system to protect?
This is the mystery ship I saw in SWTFU2 that I never knew, pretty cool
it took me so long to find that fighter from one cutscene I saw, I thought it was v-wing airspeeder somehow flying in space.
But I'm glad it's decanonized, it's price makes no sense, it should be a price for used/off market one, you can't get shields and hyperdrive that cheap, and those stats too.
Maybe that 55k was a typo and that was the used price.
A min\max'ers dream.
I always take this as my 1st ship in RPG sessions.
Then it is set as reserve or escort, when getting better ships.
Cool idea
I like that starfighter. They should have given that ship a chance to see what it can really do before forgetting about it! You can't just throw away or sell something without even trying it out first!
this seems like a pretty good ship
The trick is, if you've only got a limited supply of trained pilots as the Rebellion typically was, you want to protect them reasonably well. Add in the ease of transitioning from the T-16 to the T-65 and the R-41 wound up behind the 8-ball.
it looks like a rickety barge lol but it’s got a certain rough but ready look, function of fashion.
I love the starchasers design. Looks somewhat feasible aerodynamics wise, at least compared to other star fighters.
i like to use this fighter in awakening of the rebellion its pretty decent there
Why the hell this ship didn't become popular with the Empire Navy? It's deadly and still cheaper than a TIE fighter!
The “Pirate Snubfighter” from The Mandalorian Season 3 (Chapters 17 and 21) has an uncanny resemblance, but some key differences, between the Star Chaser and this fighter could be explained by customizations or variants.
With an improved power plant to increase shielding and speed and a class 1 HD she’d make for a good escort and raiding ship.
this makes as much sence as tank producshon in WW2
or just the entirety of WW1
It's too good! That's why it was rarely used
Its the GR75 of starfighters...
Cheap to buy, better shields, better hull, better hyperdrive, and good weapons, I'm pretty sure the Rebels could've found a way to make this their main ship with the X-wing. Imagine these two working together against the Empire.
Edit: Oh I'm a dumbass. Everything that was better was for the X-wing and not the R-41. Forget a majority of the things I said above this.
the hyperdrive is worse
Rex Roylance Thanks for saying that. I thought all the good things were about the R-41 and not the X-wing. Don't know how I mixed that up so bad.
In Legends the Rebels did use the R41 but that's more because they were grabbing any ships they could. X and A Wing still outclassed it though so those remained as the rebel fleet work horses
Hey loved it again but could you do a video on the ISB please or the Maxmia-A class heavy cruiser
Maybe do a video on various hot rod and/or tuner ships?
Horch & Kessel drive yards was the main ship supplier for much of the CIS. Ie the Luchrehulk, the Munificent, and the Recussant. This likely dissuaded the Republic from wanting to give them any contracts. The Empire also worked to distance itself from the Sepratists former suppliers so it's not surprising the fighter got a bad reputation and poor sales thanks to politics. I'm guessing the 55k price tag was the reduced for quick sale price not the original price.
Has Shields, cheaper than a TIE, Hyperdrive, easy to maintain... explain to me why the Republic went for a ship that costs three times as much again?
It's slow, maybe unreliable.
it just wasn't available in time, being 10 years late can kill a Fighter design, Contract wise
Upon Clone Wars outbresk, republic had the V-19 torrent, which the kaminoans ordered 10 years before the war. So contracting was the main issue.
During the war it was a viable option, but was starting to show it's age already and new designs were rapidly coming.
IRL comparison would be Gloster Gladiator & Hawker Hurricane vs. Hawker Typhoon & Gloster Meteor.
Additionally, corrupt government showing favor to companies, mid-war with Seinar & Kuat getting majority of Republic\Imperial contracts.
Rebel Alliance took any ship, but when they got the X-Wings plus their design schematics for own production, they stuck to that.
Actually, turns out it's often as fast as an X-Wing, so I was wrong there.
Digital _
It had an unacceptably small missile payload, which in the Republic doctrine was a deal breaker.
For the price, you can upgrade hyperdrive, astromech, shields and weapons systems to X-Wing levels and still come out 2/3’s cheaper.
This thing is just stupid with more firepower then a X-wing and less the cost of a bloody tie fighter Jesus
I don't think it actually has greater firepower, just close to. Poor shields maybe.
The X-Wing has 4 medium laser cannons (compare to the 2 light laser and 2 light Ion cannons on the R-41), a 6 shot mag (3 each) for its dual proton torpedo launchers (1 missile launcher with 2 shots on the R-41), stronger hull, better shields and a better hyperdrive with astromech support. The Ion cannons are in effect the only advantage (other than price) that the R-41 has over the X-Wing, and that is iffy.
it's not stronger but it is effective, if you were to use one I would suggest more powerful weapons, proton launcher instead of concussions, and better shields and hyperdrive
Zerg rush with these babies!
@Silver Echo So take a Y-Wing instead? :)
This starfighter would of been good for a planetary defense. I would of used this for the CIS planetary defense
Given that the Starchaser was made by H-Kessel who also made the Lucrehulk I feel like the Starchaser would be more common in Separatist hands for their organic pilots.
if you could get it the same size of the headhunter or x wing it would be worth it .... even if it was out dated if yo 20 g credits to upgrade it it would still save you money
I think I saw a ship similar to this at the Battle of Scarif. Can't figure out what it is tho.
I doubt it would have appeared. U-Wings, Dornean gunships, a few others maybe.
It was in TFU2 the battle of kamino
Must have gotten it mixed up then.
That was it.
Please can you make a video about the death star or executor?
Idk about yall but if I had a private military this would be my go-to fighter
Looks almost like a warhammer 40k fighter
As much as I like the R-41, I think its missile payload is lacking.
6-12 missiles in my opinion is a good number for a dogfighter. I also like the inclusion of Ion cannons because that adds much versatility to the craft.
In my opinion the greatest weakness of the R-41 was is size. The stats of the R-41 are average but it is a huge ship, and that makes it a huge target. I personally think the cost of the ship is justified because of the size. The X-wing has much miniaturization on its side, meaning the parts are more expensive because they are higher performance.
If I was to write the lore, I would say the R-41 uses off the shelf parts to keep the costs down and repairs easier, while the other ships use specialized parts.
Honestly in rpgs, I always dump the missiles in favor of stronger shield and improved hull so it could live a little longer, and removed the need to buy new missiles. This meant the little fighter wasn't as effective in heavy fighting, it made for a great multi-purpose ship that could cover Y-wings. Always did like the design
It looks like a mini venator
Thanks to the mouse , we don't get a Mara jade and so much more.
Looks like something pirates would use
The republic should have used this powerful star fighter
How do you feel about the Lego Darth Vader Castle?
Imperious class star destroyer
I guess people didn't buy it because they based a book off of it's cover with how ugly it was.
The " good guy every girl ignores even though he's just as or even better than the popular guy" ship
Obligatory "I'm late", but I think the R-41's price is a symptom of failure, being sold desperately cheap (at a loss) to recoup as much as they could from the already built fighters. If I had to price them w we re they not to have failed against the Z-95, I'd say 85k credits at least, perhaps more depending on the order.
How come some z95s have 2 engines but some have 4? I think is hast to do with the operator.(Jedi/clone)
there are many different models of the 95
Sub-variants. Two engines equals less maintenance time, but it means less redundancy. Given the age of the design, and that it was a designed by two companies (Incom & Supbro) a plethora of versions were made and the ship was easy to modify.
An ugly duckling but effective fighter
Also could you do an vid on the Headhunter?
Review of c-73 tracker starfigther
heeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyyyy it's my ship
Make it canon!
The Starchasers were on wholesale without warranty by the time of the Rebellion since HKD was out of that line of business (And soon shut down completely) so they weren't really making spare parts, and probably were a lot pricier when they were new.
the ship in resistance might have r-34 components, but like most ships seen racing and those being used by the pirates
its an ugly...its got the rear section of an a-wing
This thing resembles The Phantom I
This fighter is like the
F-4 Phantom 2. Big ugly kinda slow but damn if it won't get the job DONE!
Christian Blanchard but the f4 didn’t get the job done
I don’t understand. You could have three of these for one x wing. Three of those are way stronger than a single x wing
... if you have 3 capable pilots to put in them.
He said a very tiny amount of them were capable of seating 3 pilots, but even then they were gunners, so you didn't NEED them
How was it that cheap?!
HKD probably found a way to use cheaoer materials, or cut costs on construction
Sold at a loss, maybe, due to poor popularity? Rejected government contract?
@@chrissonofpear3657
Or at minimum profit, hoping they get large-scale orders
Probably a combination of trying to secure contracts for large orders and cheaply designed airframe. This ship was outperformed by all contemporary fighters. TIEs were more nimble and faster, Z95s were also faster than it, and had better protection.
Bad news, your R-41 Starchaser assessment is false.
Wookiepedia never stated if the 55,000 credits price tag was new or used, but it did reveal that the R-42 Starchaser was said to be completely identical to the earlier model, but with a second seat for a gunner & 2 more missiles, and it cost 115,000 credits new, and 55,000 used. 1 more seat and 2 more missiles can’t cost that much, so the posted price of the R-41 has to be the used price, and the price for it new must’ve also been about 115,000, (possibly 110,000 on the low end.) Meaning it loses its extreme price to feature appeal, and in comparison the TIEs at 60,000 new & 25,000 used are suddenly way cheaper, and the X-Wings at 150,000 new & 65,000 used are suddenly a far better investment.
Well... It just needs a new coat of paint...
That price makes no sense with those stats
It missed out on big contracts, I assume.
So it is in the resistance show 😕
A cool ship but has cardboard thick armor and light weapons
This being cheaper than a TIE Fighter goes to show how worthless the standard TIE really was.
Actually the Tie Fighter was fairly advanced for its time. While it would go down if it took a hit, the ship was one of the most manuverable and fastest fighters of its time, with powerful laser cannons that are actually quite stronger than the R41. Its only real weakness was the fact that the Empire relied heavily on them for almost 20 years without replacing them with newer ties or upgraded designs. By the time they realized the rebels were a credible threat, they were tangling with X-wings that, while couldn't outmanuver them, had the speed, offensive, and defensive abilities to more than make up the difference. Then it came down to the pilots, as only six tie fighters launched initially to defend the death star, and just six skilled pilots wrecked nineteen rebel star fighters. (7 killed by vaders group, one crash, 3 survivors, the rest killed by the six Ties).
Also, the tie could power itself with its solor panels, could hover in most enviorments, and wasn't too needy in the maintenance department. Fragile as all hell, but verstile and absolutely deadly in mass swarms.
_ I can't maneuver! _ Stay on target. _ We're too close! _ Stay on target. _ I slept with your sAIIGH _ Stay WHAT?!! _
Nova courier plz
It looks like a old republic fighter but it’s not.
I can redesign it into a better starfighter
Huh... interesting...
No better hyperdrive than class 0
None
But the arc 170 makes more tons of sense in the Clone Wars than that chunk of whatever that is to me
55,000 is for a used one. Nothing else makes sense. Only the used price is given because you cannot get a new one anymore.
Fails to adhere to the Rule of Cool for fighters. It's never going to match the X-series fighters for that.
I feel sorry for Resistance sometimes. a show that was less of a speeder crash (or as Disney would say a Malfunction that caused unexpected downtime) as the potential of a show with tricked out Star Fighters in it and Aliens and such has real potential - but a combination of infantile and inconsistent Writing, Ill educated Interference from the Lucasfilm writing group shi*show and a general air of being to woke and to kiddy - is enough to put plenty of people off the show and add in that sometimes it was just really generic and dull too really wasn't going to be shifting Hasbro toys of all the ships.
Which is a bit of a shame as some of them had real potential and what with the Sequel Trilogy era being kinda dead - the only place they can fit some of those into now is slotting them in the background somewhere on a streaming show. which is a tad ignominious perhaps. So like I said I feel sorry for the show - if it had someone prepared to stand up to the morons running lucasfilm whith a proven track record that wouldn't put up with their idiocies then Star Wars shows like that could have shined and instead of beeing an exploded depthcharge of a show - that just sits around looking spikey and worrisome as you wait for it to sink like a stone or blow up in your face. Pehaps one day someone will sneak some of the ships into a toy model line or something - but if Hotwheels charge $7 each these days who'd pay that for them now ?
It's not like Disney's ego allows them to realise they have devalued Star Wars so much as a franchise now that continuing to charge loony licensing fees only undermines the potential even more as it prices itself out of the mainstream and deepens the death spiral ever more.
Poor ol' Star Wars it really deserves better than being adopted by White Slavers.
First
It flies like a brick
Not quite as ugly as a Gungan, but close........
Early!
To bad because I post first, still pretty good
It is still amazing because I am using slow internet on a device that doesn't help alert me quickly. This is a stroke of luck.
Well I'm glad it's not because wow it's ugly