THE DUEL BETWEEN DARTH VADER AND LUKE SKYWALKER in The Empire Strikes Back is such a pivotal part of the Star Wars universe, it was always going to be one of the centrepieces of the exhibition. It did create a lot of pressure to ensure we did justice to this iconic scene.
Being such iconic characters and such a recognisable moment in film history, we spent a considerable amount of time designing both builds digitally first. It not only helped us to try different techniques and get the builds looking as good as possible, but crucially it allowed us to share the designs with LucasFilm for their feedback and ensure complete accuracy.
LEGO® BRICKS
BUILD HOURS
LEGO® BRICKS
BUILD HOURS
Each character was built independently, but the posing was designed with the characters together. We did this to ensure the angles were correct, and most importantly, the Lightsabers connected convincingly.
DARTH VADER being so tall (just shy of 2m) meant that it was actually hard to construct in a safe & stable manner. Thankfully, his pose was mostly straight, which helped a lot.
Vader’s long cape meant the footprint of the model was larger than most of the other character models. To make it structurally sound, we had to add thickness, which consequently added to the overall production time.
Breaking up the sea of black bricks, Vader’s belt and chest panel provided welcome pops of colour. These intricate details were built separately using specialized LEGO® elements to guarantee accuracy before being attached to the main model. Interestingly, we first constructed a standalone version of his helmet, which not only served as a reference but also allowed us to implement subtle, time-saving improvements when building the full-scale version.
LUKE SKYWALKER was a harder build from the very start. With his dynamic pose, his back foot was not flat on the ground, and we were diagonal for most of the build. This made building the first few layers tricky, as we had to build off the baseplate and build 2 layers at a same time to immediately lock the pieces in place and maintain stability.
Luke has many detailed elements on his belt, and a few of these had to be placed diagonally, too, due to his fighting stance. These didn’t always fit as we intended, and we often had to problem-solve these as we went, using cheese slopes and additional plates to lock the pieces into the model.
A first for us in a model of this scale was the three-point ball joint connection for Luke’s holster. This intricate design demanded careful planning, especially when attaching the second joint, as it had the most potential for movement. Through the strategic use of plates, tiles, and brackets, we were able to achieve perfect alignment.
The Lightsabers were also designed separately as complete hilts, then modified to fit within their hands, as well as allowing wiring to connect the LEDs to light up their blades. The blades were constructed using thousands of Transparent Clear 4 x 4 round plates with a 2 x 2 hole in the centre, with an LED light column in the centre.
Witness these incredible models and more at the world-first LEGO® Star Wars: The Exhibition! Embark on an epic, hands-on adventure through the Star Wars galaxy – Created by Ryan ‘Brickman’ McNaught and his talented team with over eight million LEGO bricks and 25,000+ build hours. Now open at Melbourne Museum.
