Breaking In the Tauntaun. "The Tauntauns, indigenous to Hoth, had to be broken in by a special group of wranglers before the Rebel Forces could use them as mounts. The breaking-in process was short but very fierce, managing it in deep snow was a task for the most skilled animal handlers in the fleet only." Moonlight Shadow "During the nocturnal AT-AT maintenance shifts on Hoth the snowtroopers (yes, the insulation on their armor was that good) often built snow lanterns. They considered it an art form." The Inconvenient Flaw of the Y-Wing. "The Koensayr's BTL Y-Wing Fighters often got their cockpit opening mechanism jammed in sub-zero operating temperatures. On Hoth it was not good, not good at all." The Ski Trooper Big Air. "Hoth, the One and Only Off-Piste Planet". The Derelict. "Little-known fact: The snowtroopers were keen to repair exotic propulsion systems occasionally found in the frozen wastelands, such as the trustworthy Koensayr R200 Ion Jet engines from a derelict Y-wing fighter. Although the Empire was wealthy, they did not say no to recycled enemy technology." Artist's note on the two suns: This started out as a night shot but at some point I switched to day forgetting to fix the number of spheres in the sky. It's a mistake, yes, but I thought it looked better this way eventually. High Speed Snowspeeder Flyby. "The guys at Echo station 3-T-6 were frequently freaked out by high-speed, low-altitude passes of snowspeeders. The 3-T-6 was located on a cliff at the edge of a high ground plain, it was like a beacon, the speeder pilots just couldn't resist the opportunity. Dangerous stuff!" X-Wing Dawn Patrol. "The trusty X-Wing fighters were excellent machines, good enough to withstand the freezing Hoth nights. They were frequently used for early morning orbital scout patrols during the rebel occupation on Hoth." Powdered! "The three witnesses to Lord Vader's skiing mishap were never seen again." Bossk Has To Go. "Boba Fett and his agile crew arrived on Hoth way before the imperial attack fleet. They were really close to catching Han Solo, they even knew where he was camped with comatosed Luke Skywalker. But before they could make their move there was one thing that had to be done. Bossk had to relieve himself. We all know there are no toilets in most of the spaceships, so Bossk had to step outside the Slave I. Big mistake! Bossk is a Trandoshan, a reptile, an ectothermic creature. It took Fett and his crew eight hours to thaw him enough to snap him out of the immediate hibernation triggered by the freezing Hoth blizzard. By that time the imperial attack was at full speed. They had to abort and start their hunt for Solo again later." The Steps of a Walker. "The sound of an approaching AT-AT walker was a weapon itself. The heavy feet pounding the ground sending recognizable tremors kilometers ahead.... During the assault on Hoth many of the snowtroopers marching along the mighty walkers froze from the horror." Things That Go Bump in the Night. "Little-known fact: The wild wampas loved to tip parked imperial AT-AT walkers over during the cold Hoth nights. Yes, they were that strong." The Player. "Chewie takes a deep breath of fresh air after an unfortunate round of solitaire." The Arrival of a Star Destroyer. "During the night before the assault on Hoth the Imperial troops had to land a Star Destroyer to speed up the process of placing AT-ATs and massive amount of other gear on the planet surface. The icy moonlit landing site had to be inspected by foot to make sure it can take the immense weight of a Star Destroyer without cracking. These four guys were in charge of that task. Can you imagine the pressure? No wonder they don't talk much...." Stormtroopers' Perpetual Winter. "The days and nights on Hoth were harsh on the six who were lost." Lego Snowtrooper in distress. "Guys? Hey, guys? This ain't funny! Guys, where are you? HELLO?" Lehtimäki produced a 38-page hardcover book full of his Lego on Hoth vignettes. The back cover reads, "What if we did not know everything there is to know about what happened on the planet Hoth? The rebel forces had their hidden base there for some time. What do we know of everyday life in and around the base before the evil Empire’s attack? What do we know of the events during and after the attack? Who were the people who did all the hard work? What if they were all made of Lego?

“Two of the great moments of my childhood were the first two original Star Wars movies,” says Lehtimäki. “As a kid I wanted to become a movie director. I made some Super 8 movies but it did not work out that well.”

Lehtimäki’s fanboy nostalgia for the franchise of all franchises, in combination with an itch to create his own worlds, led him to conceive Lego On Hoth, a make-believe series of photo-vignettes in which he describes the downtime, hijinks and rigamarole in the daily lives of Imperial and Rebel forces.

“With my photography, I’m revisiting an unfulfilled career path, I guess. With the attached little stories my photos are like tiny one-frame movie scenes,” he says. “And I get to direct Star Wars!”

Lehtimäki began arranging his son’s toys in mini-dioramas in June of 2009. The first objects in front of his DSLR? The actual Millennium Falcon, X-Wing and Y-Wing Fighters toys. His concentration on Lego came later and Lego On Hoth later still.

Driven only by curiosity, with no plan, Lehtimäki started uploading pictures to Flickr. “I didn’t really know how it would work. When the first Lego pictures were uploaded I realized pretty soon that I was onto something and I began working on the Lego theme more actively,” he says.

The iconic-toy-plus-most-loved-movie-in-history formula along with Lehtimäki’s fictional Hoth anecdotes is catnip for any fan of the Star Wars universe. It’s the Toy Story narrative device paired with Lucas’ intergalactic mythology.

“I like the idea of expanding beyond the silver-screen and imagining what happens in the background,” says Lehtimäki.

The most popular Lego On Hoth photo is “The Inconvenient Flaw of the Y-Wing” (third image), but Lehtimäki — possibly because of his self-described obsession with the Y-Wing Fighter — was not entirely pleased with how it turned out. The appearance of drifting snow in the image is actually floating particulates — it was shot underwater. However, Lehtimäki abandoned the technique shortly after making the image because of optic distortions through the camera casing, which also created difficulties focusing.

“The underwater technique was apparently just bonkers enough to raise interest. And after this photo was uploaded I was ‘discovered,'” he says. “It was crazy.”

In the 72 hours after uploading “The Inconvenient Flaw of the Y-Wing,” Lehtimäki’s photostream had over 600,000 hits. The mechanics of the web are, to Lehtimäki, as fascinating as the photographs he posts. Flickr is “the core” of his online activity but he maintains Twitter and Facebook accounts to feed the beast.

“I try to understand how it all works, and yet I have no idea how a photo is received once I upload it,” he says. “The reaction has been overwhelming, I’ve received only the most positive and encouraging feedback. Nice comments from photographers and designers, and some pro-photo blogs have been just unbelievable in their kindness. The most active audience by far is the Lego community, builders and photographers.”

And just as Lehtimäki has been able to share the fun with his son, so too have parents around the globe shared his images with theirs.

“I have had some heartwarming messages from parents telling how their little kids like my photographs, knowing this I’ve kept my photostream safe for the smaller viewers out there,” he says.

It takes Lehtimäki just a couple of hours to shoot each image; simplicity is his mantra. Most photos are shot in the evenings after his child goes to bed. “This was a hobby I found to be a relaxing distraction from the daily routine and a creative outlet for ideas I cannot really use in my job. Editing doesn’t take long because I try to catch everything in-camera,” he says.

The photograph Lehtimäki is most proud of is “The Moonlight Shadow” (second image) as he battled with trenchant lighting problems in its production.

“I like the way the AT-AT casts a shadow over the Snowtroopers and really allows the little snow lantern’s light to show,” says Lehtimäki “I managed to create just a tiny amount of flying snow in the photo, a minute detail, but for me it is what really nails this.”

The fact he “sucks” at digital printing was not enough to discourage Lehtimäki from finding a simple home-brew solution for making a book of Lego On Hoth. Wanting to have and hold his Lego photography on printed paper, Lehtimäki maquetted the layout and had only three copies printed through Blurb. He has no intention of publishing it.

“I gave the book as a unique present to my kid; it’s about his toys after all,” says Lehtimäki.

By concentrating solely on Star Wars Lego models and figures, Lehtimäki has not only found his niche, he has kept his ideas “simple and focused.” It’s also less of a grab on his child’s toy box.

“It just feels better not to use all the kid’s toys for my photography,” he reflects. “They belong to him.”

A few months ago, Lehtimäki came across some photographs he had made as a child in the early ’80s. They were of Legos. One photograph was of a Y-Wing Lego model he had built.

“I had forgotten all about it, but it appears I was doing this already 30 years ago,” he muses. “Nothing’s changed.”

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Correction: We initially reported that Avanaut’s Flickr photostream received 600,000 page-views in the 72 hour period following the upload of “The Inconvenient Flaw of the Y-Wing.” Avanaut’s photostream in fact received in excess of 1 million page-views in those 72 hours, and 600,000 on the third day after upload alone.

All images: Vesa Lehtimäki A.K.A. Avanaut.