Up Close with Giant LEGO X-Wing It's a dream come true for fans across the entire nerd spectrum: a life-sized X-Wing fighter built entirely of LEGOs. (Just take a second to let the awesomeness of that sentence sink in. In celebration of the upcoming Cartoon Network series The Yoda Chronicles, the LEGO Group unveiled the iconic Star Wars ship — the largest LEGO structure built to date — in New York City's Times Square on Thursday. The ship will remain on display in New York for three days, then be transported to the LEGOLAND California Resort in Carlsbad, Calif., for the rest of the year. The huge structure is comprised of 5,335,200 individual LEGO bricks. At 11 feet tall, 43 feet long and 44 feet wide, it weighs almost 46,000 pounds (that's including the steel infrastructure designed to hold the pieces in place.) It's a one-to-one replica of the traditional X-Wing retail model, only 42 times larger. From conception to completion, the plane took more than one year to make: After months of brainstorming and computerized design, a 32-person team completed construction over the course of four months in Kladno, Czech Republic.
Then, the X-Wing was broken up into 32 pieces and transported to Long Island, N.Y., by freight ship. SEE ALSO: Brickstagram: A Man's Journey Through Cancer With LEGO We got a sneak peek of the plane last week at an "undisclosed location" (Long Island) and met a few of the project's consultants and creators. One of them, Erik Varszegi, who holds the title "LEGO Master Builder," said the designing process was fairly easy. "Essentially, it's just a blow-up of our existing model," he told Mashable. "The real feat of engineering here is the steel truss frame that's holding it all together." The plane's travels through New York, and eventually to California, will resemble its original journey. The plane will be broken into pieces and reassembled over the steel frame. Varszegi said the model and its infrastructure are specially engineered to withstand movement, so the rumble of the subway system below Times Square and the potential seismic activity in California won't pose any problems.
Visitors in Times Square will get a chance to climb into its cockpit, too — which, again, the ship is made to withstand. SEE ALSO: Artist Uses 200,000 LEGO Bricks for Masterpiece "Aside from the Millenium Falcon, the X-Wing is probably the most iconic ship from the series," Varszegi said. "With all of our retail redesigns of the ship — there have been about four or five since it was first introduced — we always come back and try to outdo ourselves. I think this one definitely accomplishes that." Thursday is a particularly special day for the unveiling: Exactly 30 years ago, on May 23, 1983, Return of the Jedi opened in theaters. Be sure to check out the plane if you're in New York this weekend. If not, it will reside in California for the rest of the year. The first of three episodes of The Yoda Chronicles will premiere on Cartoon Network at 8:00 p.m. EST on May 29. Take a look through the photos above. What do you think? Which structure would you like to see recreated in LEGO form?
Tell us in the comments below. Post image via The LEGO Group/AP; gallery images by MashableFIRST LEGO League Qualifier – Manhattan: CCNY Date(s) - 21 Jan 2017 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM City College of New York Saturday, January 21, 2017 8:00 am – 4:00 pm FIRST LEGO League Manhattan Qualifier 2nd Floor Great Hall New York, NY 10031 8:30 am Team Registration 9:20 am – 9:45 am Opening Ceremonies 10:00 am - 12:00 pm Noon Core Values, Robot Design and Project Judging 10:00 am - 12:00 pm Practice Rounds 12:00 pm - 12:45 pm Lunch 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm Robot Performance Rounds 3:15 pm - 3:45 pm Awards & Closing Ceremony
View all Portraiture Architectural models Sculpture Home decor Children's books Available for sale or lease The model doesn't attempt to replicate any particular place or any specificThe goal was to imitate the feel of the atmosphere, the clutter, and the bustle of this bohemian part of Manhattan. At crosswalks, LEGO citizens pause at "don't walk" signs with toes down to the pavement, waiting for a gap in traffic large to cross through. Workers load packages into a metal door opened up from the sidewalk. A tourist looks up and pauses to snap a photo, obstructing pedestrian flow on a busy sidewalk. A turning car tries to squeeze through a line of pedestrians crossing a busy avenue. Standpipes, subway grates, parking meters... the more you look, the more there is to see! To replicate the effect that real Greenwich Village is a neighborhood where buildings are charming, not imposing,
Sean built the upper floors of the buildings in a smaller-than-possible scale, too short for even a LEGO mini-figureTaking a page from Disney World's "Main Street USA" where buildings are built to 7/8 scale, this gives the structures a "quaint" feeling, while still looking realistic. There are no skyscrapers in this part of New York, and large parts of "The Village" are Historic Districts comprised of small, old, beautiful buildings with lots of character. The neigborhood is always bustling with hundreds of places to eat, an active night life, quirky shops, and lots of charming narrow streets serviced by wide, busy avenues. Named after Sean's favorite New York City bagel place, this little red walkup building has a seperate entrance for the apartments above. Fun details include window air conditioners, venetian blinds, window shades with pullstrings, and a personal satellite dish on the roof. Alas, New York City cannot go 4 blocks without a Starbucks, and a LEGO New York is no exception.
one of the buildings in this Greenwich Village model, this Starbucks has all the amenities needed for a quick but costly This tavern was inspired by one of Sean's favorite Irish pubs, "Fiddlesticks", on Greenwich Street in theIn the model, the front of the pub opens up on nice days, and tables are set up on the sidewalk. Above the tavern is a few floors of apartments, serviced by some fire escapes on the side of the building. This residental street contains several different turn-of-the-century walkup townhouses. stairways and ironworking , and the unique cornices. The street is also tightly lined with trees, with narrower sidewalks; this is common on many of quieter side streets of(If any part of Manhattan can be considered quiet.) This is an early 1900's city walkup that has received a more modern-looking extra floor on the top. The lower section of the building still has fire escapes, and there's a Chinese restaurant at street level. A brick facade was simulated by using 3 different shades of red LEGO elements.
This small townhome would date back to the early 1800s, and is is squeezed between a tall glass mid-rise and a late 1960s apartment block. These are two old buildings on a busy street that were eventually bought by the same landlord so that a large avenue-facing retail space could be created. The walls on the ground floor were replaced with plate glass, and the old rear and side windows of the white building were bricked up. The age of this brownstone is evident in its old chimneys that were used for fireplace heat, long ago. It has since been updated with a central air conditioning system, located on the roof. The building is 2 lots wide and, as is common with such buildings, has two seperate entrances serving each half of the building. This ornate building has two retail floors downstairs, and offices on the upper floors. The roof is loaded with gizmos: A central air conditioning unit, cell towers, a water tower, etc. The building also has an under-sidewalk loading bay