By Brent McKnight | 7 years ago

Some of us occasionally have grand ideas, like, “I should build a life-sized replica of a TIE Fighter in my garage. How cool would that be?” For the vast majority, that is as far things go. A special few may scratch out rough designs, pick out a spot, or even do some preliminary construction work. By this point common sense, or a better half, usually puts the kibosh on these plans, and we’re secretly grateful, this did, after all, sound like a ridiculous amount of work. But for all of the thousands of people who dream like this, for all of the myriad ideas floating around, there’s always one person who just won’t let the dream die, willing to play things out to the bitter, crazy end. For these people I am eternally grateful, because, while I’m a lazy sack of crap, they actually do things like build a life-sized TIE Fighter from Star Wars.

To be fair, this isn’t quite “life-sized,” that was hyperbole on my part. This is only a 1:2 scale replica of Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter, hence only about half the size of one you would find long ago, in that galaxy far, far away. An enterprising group of Germans, called Project X1 Props, built this totally amazing, super, super intricate recreation. When all was said and done, the finished product cost more than $20,000, and took the team an estimated 1000 man-hours to complete. Like I said earlier, I’m far too slothful to tackle anything even remotely this intense, but I’m glad other people do, and I’m glad there is the internet, so I can share with all you nice people and gawk at it like a slack-jawed yokel. Most of us don’t have that kind of time or money, but we’re grateful that other people do.

This Vader TIE Fighter was unveiled recently at the Star Wars Celebration Europe in Germany. You can check out the video below to see some of the process and an in-depth look at their creation. A word of warning, however, if you don’t speak German, you’re not going to walk away with as much information as if you were fluent. Still, some things are readily apparent. First, these guys may speak one of the more severe sounding languages on the planet, but they’re still ultra-cuddly nerds. Second, they are absolutely, completely, and totally stoked on what they built. Their enthusiasm is so damn adorable you’ll just want to give them all a hug.







