The world's largest LEGO Millennium Falcon, all 250,000 pieces of it, kicked off May the Fourth celebrations at a mall in Melbourne, Australia as Star Wars fans await the fall arrival of a new movie and themed video game.
A pair of LEGO Master Builders, father and son duo Dan and Chris Steininger, completed the Millennium Falcon in two days' time. The pair, two of seven LEGO Master Builders, called on fans to help complete the iconic spaceship, along with two TIE Fighters, in time for May the Fourth Be With You.
The Millennium Falcon is about as long as a car and is about 16 feet wide. The 80,000-block TIE Fighters stand about 6.5 feet tall.
The width of the Millennium Falcon offered an "exciting" and "challenging experience" for the father and son tandem, said Dan, the elder Steininger. LEGO builds are usually constructed based on vertical designs, so the construction of the Millennium Falcon required extra hands, he said.
"Usually models the size of the Millennium Falcon can take more than a week to build and it was thanks to the Aussie fans that we were able to build a model of this size in such a short time," said Dan. "This model was ground-breaking for LEGO because of the way it stretches out wide."
The fans and weekend shoppers were especially involved in the construction of the two TIE Fighters, although they were presented a difficult choice beforehand: volunteer builders had to choose to build a TIE Fighter either for the Galactic Empire or the Rebels.
"It was very inspiring to see thousands of Melbournians come together, dress up, play and help build these iconic Star Wars vehicles—we certainly couldn't have finished without them!"
This year's May the Fourth celebrations come in a year that will see a new movie, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and a blockbuster game, Star Wars: Battlefront.
Although the releases of both movie and game are still months away, fans will only have to wait until Sept. 4 to get their hands on new Star Wars: The Force Awakens gear from the Disney store.
"Every lightsaber, every action figure, every LEGO set tells a story for generations of Star Wars fans, and this global event is a celebration of those stories," said Josh Silverman, executive vice president of global licensing for Disney Consumer Products. "We're excited to be part of the countdown to this enormous movie moment."
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