World’s Largest LEGO Model Unveiled in Times Square
It’s a Star Wars X-Wing Starfighter, and holy balls, is this thing massive.
It’s a Star Wars X-Wing Starfighter, and holy balls, is this thing massive.
Next week, Cartoon Network will premiere its new Star Wars-based animated television special, The Yoda Chronicles. To celebrate the show, LEGO COMPLETELY LOST ITS MIND. But in a good way. Behold the world’s largest LEGO model ever built. It is 11′ high, 43′ long, and has a 44-foot wingspan. And since 11am this morning, it’s been sitting in the middle of Times Square.
Leading up to today’s unveiling, LEGO would say only that “something big” would be happening today in Times Square. But, as world-famous man-boys members of the press, we were lucky enough to get a sneak-peek at the X-Wing last week—a mission that involved being taken by private car to an undisclosed location (which turned out to be an airport hangar in Islip, Long Island) for a private tour, and signing a non-disclosure agreement that prevented us from leaking any information about the big surprise until it became public today.
The thing is truly spectacular, and not just by nerd standards—though there were lots of nerds present at the unveiling, because, let’s be honest, the combination of LEGOs and Star Wars is the ultimate geek aphrodisiac. It took more than a year for a team of designers, builders, engineers, mechanics, and logistics experts to pull this whole thing off, and the stats are pretty astounding:
-It contains 5,335,200 LEGO bricks.
-It weighs 45,979.61 pounds (including bricks and steel infrastructure).
-It took 32 builders 17,336 hours (about 4 months) to construct, working in the LEGO Model Shop in Kladno, Czech Republic.
-It’s a one-to-one replica of LEGO Star Wars set #9493; the model is 42x the size of the retail construction set.
-The model was heavily engineered to withstand all the transportation, setup/break down and to ensure it was safe for Times Square given the subway system below and California’s seismic requirements for the LEGOLAND California Resort installation.
In addition to the X-Wing Starfighter itself (which, by the way, MAKES NOISE AND HAS A GODDAMN ENGINE THAT SHAKES LIKE A REAL PLANE), lifesized LEGO models of all the major Star Wars characters were also on display. We are partial to Chewbacca, because, obviously.
The model will remain on display at West 46th Street for the next three days, at which point it will be transported to LEGOLAND in California. If you are a badass, you will figure out a way to go see this sucker in Times Square. And if you are a super badass, you will take a picture of yourself in the cockpit and then share it with your friends on reddit or whatever hip new chat room the kids are twittering from these days.
The Yoda Chronicles premieres on Wednesday, May 29 at 8pm EST/PST on Cartoon Network.
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