Hegemony of the Snow Walker as 21st Century Icon Continues

In our afternoon inbox we discover more evidence that the Imperial Snow Walker (aka AT-AT) remains as strong a feature on our cultural and mythological landscapes as vampires and unicorns. If you’ve never seen our body of evidence, click after the jump:

From a Scout post dated March 9th, 2009…

There have been plenty of mechanical things that have wormed their way into the cultural zeitgeist since the advent of motion pictures. Terminator, the Transformers, and HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey spring immediately to mind (there are many others), but these are devices that have been made conscious through the wonders of alien or domestic technologies, and will almost certainly be cast aside as so much cultural detritus (like Care Bears and Klingons). What I instead see sticking around is a device, something that is manipulated. I’m not talking about the X-wing or the Tie-fighter, or even the Millenium Falcon. None of Lucas’ machines – despite being cool enough for young lads and lasses to drop dimes on (for diecast and plastic replicas in minitaure) – exist outside of their original contexts, except one.

I’m referring, of course, to the menacing AT-AT, also known as the Imperial Snow Walker, first seen in Lucas’ second Star Wars film, The Empire Strikes Back.

When I first saw these quadrupedal giants emerging from the snowy haze, advancing on the rebel defense lines on the ice planet of Hoth, my seven year old ass froze in its movie theater seat. Here was a machine that instilled more dread than a Panzer tank, more joy than a Spitfire, and more envy than Magnum’s red Ferrari. So strong was its appeal that it’s almost as if — like the creatures of the classical world — the AT-AT had always existed in the imagination without ever having been seen for real. And like the beasties conjured by the ancients, it now exists outside its original context. Today, the AT-AT just is...on t-shirts, as graffiti, as pop art, as deviant public fornicator, as dessert, as audio design…even as dutiful pet.

For confirmation, check out the gallery of found images that I’ve compiled below: