A Star Wars exhibition built from LEGO is truly a show with universal appeal.
And it's not in a galaxy far, far away, but at the Melbourne Museum, with the world premiere on May the 4th - Star Wars day - of course!
LEGO Star Wars: The Exhibition is being built by Ryan McNaught, better known as Brickman, Australia's only LEGO Certified Professional and one of the hosts of the hit television program LEGO Masters.
"You can't really beat the brand names of LEGO and Star Wars, bringing two of those universes together," said McNaught at an exhibition preview at the museum on Tuesday.
He revealed the first of the statues to be included in the show - the X-Wing RED-5, which took 382 hours to build, using 64,759 bricks.
The largest installation planned is a five-by-seven metre AT-AT (All Terrain Armored Transport) Walker, a four-legged vehicle used by the Imperial Forces - which in its LEGO version will weigh about 2.5 tonnes.
LEGO Star Wars: The Exhibition is being billed as the largest LEGO brick exhibition in the universe, with more than eight million bricks used to recreate spaceships, characters, battles and weaponry from the beloved films.
These figures are still under construction at Brickman's Tullamarine headquarters in Melbourne, and his team of LEGO builders have the calluses to show it, he told reporters.
One of the show's many firsts is a life-size statue of Princess Leia, a character played by the late and much-loved actress Carrie Fisher.
"Obviously we need to be very respectful and make sure we get her as accurately as we possibly can, so our team of craftspeople spend a long time making sure that we get those absolutely right," McNaught said.
He is also working on a statue of the humanoid robot C-3PO, which will be built from gold bricks imported from Denmark.
Brickman promises that fans visiting the show will be able to make their own Star Wars-inspired creations too.
"People get to build their own lightsabers and have lightsaber battles, they get to create their own spaceships, and see them fly through space and battle against each other," he said.
* Tickets for the exhibition go on sale in early 2025.
