PARMA, Ohio - A Parma man's Halloween decoration became a viral sensation on social media this week.

Nick Meyer built a two-story replica of an AT-AT walker, an iconic vehicle from the seminal space fantasy series "Star Wars," on his Luelda Avenue front lawn. Pictures of it have found their way on Facebook, where they've been shared dozens of times.

An AT-AT walker has a shape that's similar to a four-legged animal. It takes its name from the way it walks on all fours.

Meyer's replica is massive. It takes up most of his front yard and is nearly as tall as the two-story house he shares with his wife, Becky. It was nearly finished Thursday morning, with only a small portion left unpainted.

Meyer made the walker with hard foam, wood and plastic barrels.

The Parma man said he began collecting the raw materials for the walker and molding them into the shapes he needed back in April. He put the parts together in the back yard before assembling them on the front lawn.

"It was a weekend project," he said. "We would tinker with it on the weekends.

Several friends came to the Meyers' house over the weekend to help put the walker together, a process that Nick Meyer said lasted two days.

One might think that Nick Meyer is an obsessive "Star Wars" maniac, but he said his fandom doesn't reach that level. While he said that he's seen all of the movies and enjoys them (especially the original trilogy from the '70s and '80s) he said he isn't a fanatic.

"I just thought it would be neat to build a walker," he said. "It's something unique."

The Meyers said they've used their front lawn for large Halloween decorations for the last six or seven years.

"We had a pirate ship coming off the front porch," Nick Meyer said. "One year we built a mausoleum."

Last year, he said, he built a replica of a cabin from the original "Friday the 13th" Movie.

"That wrapped around the whole porch and the front lawn," Meyer said.

Becky Meyer said people have been snapping pictures of this year's project all week and posting the images to their Twitter feeds and Facebook pages.

"People will drive by, stop, and then back up so they can get a shot of it," she said.

Cleveland man Matthew Chojnacki was one of the first to put a picture of the walker on Facebook. He posted his picture with the headline "spotted in the wilds of Parma."

Several of his Facebook friends commented on his picture, expressing admiration.

"As Darth Vader would say: Impressive," wrote John Soeder of Cleveland.

The AT-AT walkers played a major role in the opening scenes of "The Empire Strikes Back," the 1980 sequel to original "Star Wars" movie from 1977.

"The Empire Strikes Back" involves a rebellion against an authoritarian galactic empire, and the movie begins with imperial probes revealing the location of a rebel hidden base on a remote planet.

The AT-AT walkers lead an assault on the rebel base in what became one of the most iconic scenes in any "Star Wars" movie.

You can watch part of that scene below.