From a galaxy far, far away, comes LEGO Star Wars show
Two of the most powerful cultural forces in the universe - Star Wars and LEGO - have combined to create a galaxy-first exhibition.
LEGO® Star Wars™: The Exhibition features characters and scenes from the iconic film franchise, painstakingly recreated in tiny plastic bricks - from the light-saber battle between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, to a two-metre-high recreation of the Death Star.
The models were constructed using over eight million bricks - that's four 40-foot shipping containers full of LEGO - by the Brickman team at a workshop in the Melbourne suburb of Tullamarine.
The project took dozens of people 25,000 hours to design and build over three years, one brick at a time.
"All of these LEGO models here have no instructions," explained Brickman Ryan McNaught, Australia's only LEGO Certified Professional and one of the hosts of the hit television program LEGO Masters.
"It's not like a big LEGO set that we buy and we can put them together, it's craftspeople of unique skill and talent putting those together," he said.
It's expected more than 350,000 people will visit the exhibition at Melbourne Museum, which has already sold about 7,000 tickets before opening day on May the Fourth - Star Wars Day - otherwise known as this Sunday.
Darth Vader and several Storm Troopers showed up at a media preview on Wednesday accompanied by ominous music, and were among the first to enter the exhibition followed by a large contingent of politicians and reporters.
On show inside was a lifesize model of C-3PO built from pearl gold and metallic silver bricks, ordered especially from LEGO headquarters in Denmark.
There was also a two-metre-high rotating Death Star, with cutaway sections showing hundreds of tiny LEGO baddies at work in various tiny scenes referencing the original trilogy.
The Victorian premier Jacinta Allan - well versed in all things Star Wars - even hoped to try out the master of evil Emperor Palpatine's throne from the second Death Star, as Darth Vader and his cronies looked on.
Lord Vader, am I allowed to take a seat?" she asked politely, only to get some intimidating deep breathing from the dark side in response.
Never mind, she did hit the right buttons in the Millennium Falcon cockpit, sending it briefly into hyper-speed.
The LEGO company's first intellectual property deal with a cultural franchise was with Star Wars back in 1999.
"I wouldn't think that the Lego brand would be what is today, if it wasn't for Star Wars and that collaboration way back 25 years ago," said Troy Taylor from the LEGO Group.
Among the most challenging pieces to build was a model of Darth Vader's helmet - as an iconic piece of pop culture, it had to be exactly right.
The eyes of LEGO models are crucial to their success, and in Vader's case some rare windscreen bricks from 2012 managed to impart the appropriate amount of evil.
The most challenging build of all, according to McNaught, was a 2.6 metre high model of General Grievous, a purely digital character who appeared in Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and had to be a thicker construction in parts to make it structurally sound.
Fans visiting the show will be able to make their own creations, such as LEGO light-sabers that illuminate on video screens and can be used for duels.
"This sort of stuff has never been done anywhere in the world before, the combination of physical and digital," said McNaught.
And as any Star Wars fan would know, building your own light-saber is the ultimate step to becoming a Jedi.
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