Hot Toys' staff puts the finishing touches on their model, which took four months to build.The Millennium Falcon is the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy, and once made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs. If that sentence made absolutely no sense to you, the Millennium Falcon is a legendary ship from Star Wars, piloted most notably by Han Solo (played by Harrison Ford) and his woolly Wookiee co-pilot Chewbacca. The ship first appeared in the original 1977 Star Wars film, and will fly again in the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Now for the really exciting part: toy producers in Hong Kong built a gigantic model of this iconic spaceship and are showing it this week at Ani-Com. The cockpit alone was exhibited at the San Diego Comic-Con two weeks ago, and it bowled over American fans of the series.
Hot Toys, a company that produces high-end figures and is slowly building a global toy empire, is the brains behind the Millennium Falcon model.
Chances are, you know a thing or two about Star Wars, even if you have never seen the original trilogy. The series was so popular on the mainland when it was first released that some publishing houses even put out comic book adaptations of the first film. That popularity lives on: in Shanghai, the Disney theme park under construction is expected to have a Star Wars-themed ride.
Earlier this year, on May 4, Star Wars Day (as in "May the 4th be with you"), two master Lego builders in Australia built what some websites called the world's biggest Millennium Falcon model, using about 250,000 Lego bricks. But at less than 5 metres long, it is not as impressive as the Hot Toys version, which is 5.5 metres long, 3.7 metres wide and 1.22 metres tall and weighs a tonne, making it a 1:6 scale model of the "real" ship.
"The concept of building the Millennium Falcon comes from our founder and chief executive, Howard Chan. 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," said Hot Toys' Chere Li, referring to Ani-Com & Games going on in Wan Chai.
At the San Diego Comic Con two weeks ago, bloggers gushed over the cockpit, with headlines such as "Make some room for a perfect replica of the Millennium Falcon's cockpit" from Gizmodo.
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.
The Hot Toys model is one of the highlights at Ani-Com & Games, which will run until Tuesday in Wan Chai