Darth Vader was one of the biggest and scariest bad guys of my young childhood. He was the ultimate villain in fact, until I saw what the Emperor could do to Luke in Return of the Jedi. Even then, there has always been something about not seeing Vader’s face and his ability to choke someone by squeezing his fingers from across the room that I always found delightfully terrifying.

Now members of the Japanese military have made Darth Vader bigger than ever…with snow! As part of the Sapporo Snow Festival, over 200 snow and ice sculptures were created. One of these sculptures was created by Hokkaido-based 11th Brigade of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force and is called Snow Star Wars. The sculpture’s design was approved by Lucasfilm ahead of the Star Wars: The Force Awakens re-starting the Star Wars franchise later this year.

The whole process took about a month and utilized heavy machinery to get enough snow and ice in place to create this behemoth of a snow sculpture. The Japanese military has been a part of this festival since 1995 and considers the experience a good training exercise.

Snow Star Wars Snow Star Wars

The Sapporow Snow Festival runs until February 11th and is expected to draw around 2 million visitors.