Via Starwars.com:

The top item on my Christmas list for 1979? Oddly, it was a Star Wars toy without a second of screen time in the movie.

That didn’t matter, because Kenner’s Imperial Troop Transporter was cool enough to hold its own alongside landspeeders and TIE fighters. It was a deadly-looking vehicle that reminded me of a shark, with a dorsal gun turret and six side-mounted compartments for stormtroopers. It also offered a pretty amazing feature for an era before YouTube and MP3s: realistic sounds from the movie.

Santa was good to me, and the troop transporter became a mainstay in my Star Wars adventures, as well as an excuse to beg for more stormtroopers. (Those side compartments just didn’t look right empty or occupied by Death Squad Commanders.) The troop transporter ferried bad guys to the battlefield, brought prisoners back from it (in restraint hoods), and it could make six noises  including blasters, stun bolts, and R2-D2 beeps.

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