Behind the Scenes Look: World's Largest LEGO Star Wars X-Wing

 

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It all started with a vague e-mail:
 
 “We are sending a black SUV to pick you up in New York City at noon on Thursday, which will take you to an undisclosed location. Be waiting in front of Starbucks on 8th  Ave.

 

No other information can be given, but you won’t want to miss this very exclusive event.”
 
 Now, an email like that normally would go straight in my SPAM folder (or get me thinking I received a message meant for Jack Bauer); but since this came from LEGO,  I replied “Okay."
 
 We hopped on the train to NYC at 6:45 a.m. Once in the city, our arranged  ride picked us up, and we were happily greeted by Justin and his wife,  Dianna -- great friends from JediNews.co.uk who had also received the cryptic e-mail invite. After a two-hour drive, we pulled into an airplane hangar that boasted a small LEGO sign on the door. As we walked in the door, we saw something that we never thought we would see – a Star Wars  LEGO X-Wing the size of an airplane!
 

 

 

Click on any thumbnails below to see the pictures full size in a new window

 

 

As most of you know by now, LEGO unveiled the world’s largest LEGO structure ever constructed this morning (May 23^rd)  in Times Square to celebrate the new Cartoon Network series, "The Yoda Chronicles."  Many of you may also have seen a teaser set sent out to some websites for promotion, and you may have wondered, "Why hasn't Yodasnews  posted about this?"

 
 Well, the reason is that since we were given this exclusive early look on May 16th,  we had to sign documents mandating that we not disclose anything prior to the public unveiling. Not a picture, comment or tweet -- until now.
 
 There were only 5 VIPs at this special event and each and every one of us had our jaws on the floor.  For the first 5 minutes,  all you could hear  was “WOW” and “Oh my….”  as we walked around this stunning piece, that took over 17,000 hours and 32 builders to complete over 4+ months!  It has been in the planning stages for 18 months and weighs in at almost 46,000 pounds and is constructed of over 5.3 million bricks.  It stands over 11 feet high with a 44 foot wing span and 42 feet long nose to tail.

 

 
 Once the wow factor died down a bit, we didn't know what to do first. Take  pictures? Video? Talk to the staff there?  We had a day to take it all in so we started with an interview with Lego Master Builder Erik Varszegi – You can see  that video below.

 

 

 

LEGO went all out to make sure we saw this magnificent beast from every angle. They had a forklift at the ready to take us up more than 40 feet in the air. We spent the next few hours going up and down to get shots from various vantage points to bring you the best images and videos as it sat nearly finished in the hangar, where it has resided since it was shipped here from Germany earlier in the month.

 

 

 

 

 

 Just when we thought we had seen it all,  Erik called out, "Want to hear it?"  With the help of Lucas Film (who supplied them the
 audio right from the movie), LEGO powered up  the X-Wing with lights and sound. We got a great video of it (see above), so we’ll let the video speak for itself, but the entire hangar rattled as it powered up!

 

 

 

 

 Outside of LEGO employees, we were two of only a handful of people to have seen the X-Wing before the public did.  We were honored to be selected by LEGO for this opportunity and hope our readers enjoy this exclusive behind the scenes coverage. LEGO even went as far as to have the windows of this massive hangar covered so the planes and helicopter taking off would not get a glimpse of it.   Before we left,  we were handed a secret box (which you have now seen at Yakface.com and other sites), said to be one of the most limited sets and VIP items given out, being given this set in front of the x-wing with the crew that built it made it even better! There was also plenty of LEGO friends around the hangar waiting to head to Times Square.

 

 

 

 

We can’t thank LEGO enough for inviting us to see this as it was being built, and for providing us exclusive interaction with the entire team and the ability to get these great images and video!

 

 

 

 

 

 If you have a chance, we highly recommend you head to Time Square in the  next few days and see it in person for yourself.  There will be photo ops and each day a certain amount of lucky fans will get to climb in the cockpit and take a picture inside it. And don’t forget to tune into Cartoon  Network for the "The Yoda Chronicles," debuting on Wednesday, May 29 at 8 p.m.