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Biggest Lego model ever is a 23-ton, 5.3-million-brick X-Wing

Posted at 11:12 AM, May 24, 2013
and last updated 2013-05-24 11:21:54-04

The largest Lego model ever built was unveiled in New York’s Times Square on Thursday, and it’s something that will make every kid and adult who’s watched Star Wars happy.

This 45,980 pound X-Wing fighter was made with 5,335,200 Lego bricks, making it the largest Lego model ever built. The replica is 42 times larger than the standard Lego X-Wing sold by the company.

The X-Wing was built at the Lego Model Shop at the company’s facility in Kladno, Czech Republic. It took 32 “master builders” 17,336 man-hours to construct, according to Wired.

Once completed, the model — which weighs 45,980 pounds — was broken down into 34 pieces to be shipped to New York by boat (the voyage took two boats two months to complete). Lest the West Coast feel left out, the starfighter is coming to Legoland California after its tenure in Times Square and will remain there until the end of the year. Twenty-three tons is a whole lot of anything, especially Lego bricks, but much of the model’s weight lies in the model’s steel skeleton, which it needed in order to withstand the vibrations from the subway that runs beneath Duffy Square in Manhattan and any seismic activity it could face in Southern California.

Read more at Wired.