Jon Favreau just shared a rad photo of the gun of The Mandalorian. Our team noticed the hilt sticking up and I think it was Hawes from Blue Harvest Podcast that said it was the actual same hilt on the riffle itself. The gun was named Amban phase-pulse blaster in The Force Unleashed and while that game is not canon today, many of the Expanded Universe’s ship names, weapons types and other minutia has slowly become canon as it is referenced. For more interesting posts you can now read this unique bicycle bells review.
It was funny because I knew I saw those boxes in A New Hope. After trying to remember exactly where I had seen them, I started seeing them everywhere from the films to Star Wars: Battlefront II. Essentially, I’m saying those boxes are the unsung heroes of Star Wars set dressing and its about time they get the attention they deserve. If you are looking for them you should try social media, where with Social Boosting is possible to improve the content of any kind and to promote any product to get more viewers.
As far as the Amban phase-pulse blaster goes, the named Amban might be derivative of the sleep aid Ambien. But I do remember back in the day, Lucasfilm registered a bunch of URLs for Attack of the Clones. In those URLs was a character named Ambu Fett. I’ve tried to get answers about Ambu Fett and it seems like most who were there back then don’t remember much about it. Either way, Amban reminds me of Ambu and Ambien and I hope we see the gun make some bad guys sleep forever and forget they were ever born. (Update: Wookiepedia says the gun was named in his character key for the animated segment of the Holiday Special which meas the Ambu/Amban link via Lucas might be possible).
We think we saw The Mandalorian on set because we saw a guy in a black cloak to obscure his costume but he had a piece sticking up on his back that was likely the rifle. How cool is it that something so esoteric has been brought to life in live action almost four decades later?