WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the Season 2 premiere of Star Wars: The Mandalorian, "Chapter Nine: The Marshal," streaming now on Disney+.
Scavenging is a recurring venture in Star Wars, which is one of the major reasons why the universe appears so rugged despite being filled with science fiction technology. In fact, many of the major plot points throughout the Skywalker Saga hinge on the universe's penchant for recycling. For instance, A New Hope began with the scavenging and selling of C-3PO and R2-D2 by the Jawas, and Rey spent most of her early life as an indentured professional scavenger on Jakku. But in the Season 2 opener of The Mandalorian, Marshal Cobb Vanth took scavenging to a whole new level.
After a tense truce had been made between the real and faux Mandalorians, Vanth and Din Djarin take speeder bikes across Tatooine's Dune Sea in order to do reconnaissance on the Krayt Dragon's nest. While Djarin drives the speeder loaned out to him by Peli Motto, Vanth uses a speeder with a unique design – it is a modified podracer engine, and one that looks especially like Anakin Skywalker's from The Phantom Menace.
This call back to one of the prequel trilogy's most iconic vehicles is yet another example of how nothing seems to be ever truly thrown away in the Star Wars universe. Everything from lightsabers to droids have been lost or discarded only to be miraculously recovered and passed around by the following generations. Even R5-D4, a scavenged astromech sold to Owen Lars in A New Hope, makes an appearance as one of Peli Motto's droid mechanic assistants in this episode.
The speeder is actually the second most important piece of iconography that Vanth had appropriated for his own use – he had also bought Boba Fett's Mandalorian armor from the Jawas and had used it to liberate Mos Pelgo from the Mining Collective and restore peace to the ragtag settlement.
However, it is unclear whether Vanth's speeder is actually built from Anakin's podracer engine. The last time Anakin's podracer was seen was after he had won a high stakes race in The Phantom Menace, and later, Qui-Gon and Anakin had sold the podracer for funds. So, it is entirely possible that the speeder Vanth is using was built with parts from Anakin's podracer.
Perhaps we will learn more about Vanth's newfangled vehicle in the episodes to come. After all, with the appearance of a familiar face in the episode's closing image, Vanth, Mos Pelgo and Tatooine will most likely reappear in further adventures of The Mandalorian.