The trailer for The Mandalorian has blessed us all. I’m sure by now, like us at Nerds on Earth, you’ve watched it approximately 192,349 times.
I’ve typed the word “Mandalorian” into Google more in the days since the trailer dropped than I’ve heard or spoken that word in all my days before it. I am bad about rabbit holes, to be honest. Alice has nothing on me and an internet connection.
As a result, I’ve learned more about Mandalorian armor and weaponry in the last few days than I knew there was to know. The wealth of wikis, interviews, schematics, and more I stumbled across had me pulling up images from the trailer to see what weapons the titular Mandalorian might be packing on his person. Let’s take a look!
The Mandalorian’s (Largely) Confirmed Loadout
1. Helmet
Many people might be able to spot a Mandalorian by his armor alone, but all people know they’re facing one of their renowned warriors when they’re staring into that T-shaped visor.
The helmet is classic. You mess with it too much, and you pretty much ruin the whole aesthetic. In fact, I might even say that this is the one piece of his getup that needed to stay pretty darned true to all that came before it to keep the internet from imploding.
His does appear to be lacking the range finder/targeting antennae that was prominent on Boba’s helmet, but most of these helmets housed HUDs (heads up displays), I believe, so maybe we’ll get some sick POV shots–something right out of Iron Man.
2. Armor
Mandalorian armor consists of several pieces of plating worn over a body suit of sorts. It strikes a good balance between protection and mobility; with none of the joints receiving too much coverage to keep dexterity and agility at their peak.
The composition of the metal of the plating is where things get really interesting. Both Jango and Boba Fett’s armor was made of Durasteel, an alloy that was easy to come by and served its purpose well enough. The dent in Boba’s helmet proves that it is at least enough to stop a single shot from a blaster (see above).
However, an alloy called beskar was used in a lot of Mandalorian armor, and it is considered far superior to Durasteel. Beskar, or Mandalorian iron, could stop blaster fire, as well, but was also resistant (but not immune!) to lightsaber damage–able to withstand slashes or glancing blows.
A lot of Mandalorian battle technology was developed specifically with the Jedi’s offensive capabilities in mind, so this was a major boon!
3. Pistol
I can’t tell the model of this thing…it doesn’t look like a WESTAR-34 or -35 featured by Jango, nor does it look like the Sacros-11 Disintegrator featured by Boba. But these things can change model to model, so who knows?
All I know is that I got chills seeing his hand resting just off of its butt in what looks for all the world like a genuine Wild West duel! Mandalorians had a sort of code that permitted for duels to be staged to justly settle disputes, so maybe that’s what we’re seeing in that scene in the trailer.
4. Longarm
The rifle strapped to the Mandalorian’s back has received a lot of attention since it was revealed in promo images. Some folks believe it resembles the Amban Phase-Pulse Blaster as seen in the holiday special from 1987. Others look at the butt of the rifle and say that is definitely a Cycler rifle.
/Film has a pretty interesting breakdown of the looks and possible make of this gun, so I’ll just point you there.
5. Vambraces
Mandalorian vambraces (a piece of armor for the forearm) came packed with all kinds of goodies. In the trailer we see him deploy a sort of cable to keep a target from fleeing similar to what Boba used on Luke at the Sarlacc pit and Jango used on Obi-Wan on Kamino.
Other technologies these things have been shown to house apart from the usual array of communication options:
- Repulsors
- Toxic darts
- Flamethrowers
- Built in blasters
- even small shield emitters
Who knows what we’ll see?!
Where’s the Jetpack?
One piece of classic Mandalorian kit that seems to be missing is the jetpack both Fetts were known to leverage. It was engineered to give the warriors a bit more mobility to keep up with those pesky leaping Jedi!
It granted them some short distance flight capabilities and packed a friggin’ rocket! But maybe the Mandalorian just thought better of having a bomb on his back, you know? Who knows? Perhaps we’ll yet see him acquire this other piece of the iconic look of the Fetts and others.
Who knows what other cool gadgets and gear this guy will pick up during his exploits. I personally like the idea of him acquiring upgrades sort of like one does playing an RPG as his narrative plays out! Let’s get crazy, there’s no reason to feel confined to what we’ve already seen.
Perhaps we’ll get the chance to see something introduced in The Mandalorian reach the same kind of icon status as some of the gear above that we’ve come to know and love.
Tabletop Takeaways: Tips for Dungeon Masters with a Narrative Spin