A monument to Darth Vader has been unveiled in Odessa, Ukraine as a Soviet-era statue of Vladimir Lenin was converted into the Star Wars character to avoid demolition under a recent law against Communist symbols in the country.

Located on the premises of a factory in the Black Sea port city, the Lenin statue was slated to be taken down alongside many other remnants of the Communist past.

However, the factory’s workers and area residents suggested that the statue remain, but be transformed into what the artist says is the world’s first-ever monument to Darth Vader, local news web site Dumskaya reported.

View photos

The original statue of Lenin (left) and his replacement, Darth Vader (Photos: Getty Images/Dumskaya.net)

Aleksander Milov, a Ukrainian artist designer, and animator, who participated in the Burning Man Festival in Nevada earlier this year, was hired to transform the decades-old dilapidated statue into the Darth Vader monument, using parts made of titanium alloy. A WiFi hotspot was also installed in the statue’s head.

Dumskaya quoted Milov as saying that he hopes the monument will become one of Odessa’s tourist attractions.

Incidentally, Ukraine is also the only country where Vader and Yoda took part in a parliamentaryelection as the Internet Party of Ukraine put them on their list of candidates a year ago in an apparent PR stunt. The party didn’t make it into parliament.

Watch a video featuring some of the most valuable ‘Star Wars’ toys ever made: