Hong Kong toy makers display giant model of Star Wars spaceship Millennium Falcon at anime fair
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 23 July, 2015, 4:58pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 23 July, 2015, 7:43pm
Alan Yu [email protected]
It is 5.5 metres long, 3.7 metres wide and 1.22 metres tall and weighs a tonne – at a scale of 1:6 compared with the spaceship that has appeared in several Star Wars films since the first, in 1977, and will feature again in the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Photo: Nora Tam
Toy producers in Hong Kong have fashioned a gigantic model of an iconic Star Wars spaceship - whose cockpit alone was enough to bowl over fans of the movie series in the United States when it was exhibited at San Diego two weeks ago.
Hot Toys, a company that produces high-end figures and is punching above its weight as a global toy empire, is the brains behind the Millennium Falcon model.
It is 5.5 metres long, 3.7 metres wide and 1.22 metres tall and weighs a tonne – at a scale of 1:6 compared with the spaceship that has appeared in several Star Wars films since the first, in 1977, and will feature again in the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
The Millennium Falcon will be a highlight at Ani-Com & Games – Hong Kong’s annual anime, comic book and gaming convention – in Wan Chai from tomorrow till July 28.
"The concept of building the Millennium Falcon comes from our founder and chief executive, Howard Chan,” Hot Toys marketing communications manager Chere Li said.
“He is a diehard Star Wars fan. The whole building process took four months. We hope this model will touch other Star Wars fans visiting the fair.”
Star Wars enthusiasts know the Millennium Falcon as the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy and the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs. If that sentence made absolutely no sense to you, just know it is a legendary Star Wars ship, piloted most notably by Han Solo (played by Harrison Ford) and his woolly Wookiee co-pilot Chewbacca.
Chances are, you do know a thing or two about Star Wars, even if you lived in mainland China in the 1980s and have never seen the original trilogy before. Back then, several Chinese publishing houses put out comic book adaptations of the first Star Wars film.
In Shanghai, a Disney theme park under construction is expected to have a Star Wars-themed ride.
Hot Toys showed off just the cockpit of its Millennium Falcon model at the San Diego Comic Con two weeks ago and many blogs gushed over it, with headlines such as “Make some room for a perfect replica of the Millennium Falcon’s cockpit” from Gizmodo.
Most recently, on May 4 – Star Wars Day – two master Lego builders in Australia created what some websites called the world’s biggest Millennium Falcon model, using about 250,000 Legco bricks. But at nearly 5 metres wide, it would still be trumped by the Hong Kong version.
Hot Toys’ product, however, will certainly not be the biggest recreation of the famous ship: in 2012, a group of Star Wars fans started a project to build a full-scale version of the Millennium Falcon in Nashville, Tennessee. The project founder bought 35 hectares of land for the project, which is still ongoing.
Additional reporting by Allen Au Yeung
