Surrounded by a storm trooper security detail, LEGO unveiled their largest model to date: a 5,335,200 piece Star Wars X-Wing fighter.
The model is an astonishing 11 feet tall and 43 feet long with 44-foot wingspan, which means that it's unlikely to ever be sold in a store near you. However, its inspiration—set #9493 for you brick nerds out there—is available for purchase, just 42 times smaller. Interestingly, this gargantuan monstrosity of interlocking plastic bricks is slightly larger than the canonical T-65 X-Wing, which measures a mere 37.5 feet in length.
Weighing in at 45,980 pounds, the model took a team of 32 builders from the LEGO model shop in Kladno, Czech Republic about four months to build. That's about 307-odd pieces per hour, a mark of the skill and careful design that went into the jumbo X-Wing's creation.
"Our LEGO Master Builders are always testing their creative skills to top their last larger-than-life creations," said LEGO Brand Relations Director Michael McNally. "The size and structural complexity of a freestanding model 42 times the size of one our retail sets was a challenge they could not resist."
Simply designing and building the model weren't the only concerns. LEGO pointed out that the X-Wing needed to breakdown easily for transport, comply with the California's seismic requirements, and be able to sit safely above the cavernous subway station beneath Times Square.
The model will be on display until May 26, when it will fire up its hyperdrive and cruise to Dagobah LEGOLAND in California, presumably with navigational aid from its astrometric droid. LEGO says that the model was built to celebrate the May 29th debut of LEGO Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles on Cartoon Network.
If this is what LEGO does for an animated series, I can't wait to see what they pull out for the new J.J. Abrams-helmed Star Wars installments. A 1:1 replica of a Star Destroyer placed in permanent low-Earth orbit? One hopes.