Full scale millennium falcon cockpit8/24/2023 ![]() Members of “Bad Guys Doing Good,” the 501st’s fundraising branch, often suit up to visit burn units at children’s hospitals, raising money and awareness for organizations such as the Make-A-Wish Foundation. (purchased by The Walt Disney Company in 2012), wear their Stormtrooper garb to conventions, parades, festivals and fundraisers. The all-volunteer 501st, which is unaffiliated with Lucasfilm Ltd. The MidSouth Garrison ( ), covering Tennessee and Kentucky, of which Lee is a member, currently has 145 active members, according to its website. Today, the 501st has more than 11,500 members in 47 countries worldwide. “Albin Johnson, the founder of the 501st, told me I was the only member in Tennessee at the time. “I ended up getting good replica fiberglass armor,” Lee says of his costume. That group, First Through the Door, would eventually rename itself the 501st Legion of Imperial Stormtroopers ( ). In 1997 (20 ASW), Lee found another resource online-a group of master craftsmen and professional prop designers who were sculpting higher-quality Stormtrooper uniforms. Nonetheless, how could he refuse? He bought the costume, wearing it to parties and even surprised his youngest brother’s elementary school class in it, scaring a roomful of 6 year olds. “I never really wanted to be a ( Star Wars) character,” Lee says. In 1995 (18 ASW), while searching the Internet, Lee stumbled upon a comic book storeowner in Texas who was selling a Stormtrooper costume he had built out of fiberglass. You actually have the resources to pay for the things you want to make things happen. “As an adult, you’re dangerous,” Lee continues. “I had a huge imagination and the support of my family,” Lee says, who realized hundreds of thousands of other kids who had done similar drawings were now grownups too. Lee, now 49, has already achieved one of those dreams, and he’s close to fulfilling the others.ĭream one, building his own robot, began with early sketches of R2-D2, the quirky droid made famous in the Star Wars saga. Lee had three big dreams: to build his own robot to build his own spaceship and to build a tool that would help others to do the same. He had to find out how Hollywood and the mechanics behind its movie magic worked. When he was 12 years old, the film lit a fire inside him. After all, when the first film was released in theaters in 1977, it changed the lives of fans forever-especially Lee’s. If you’re as big of a Star Wars fan as Lee, you probably live on a BSW (Before Star Wars) or ASW (After Star Wars) timeline, too. “Since77.” Lee’s license plate sums up his perspective on life perfectly. So what is it about Star Wars that drives people worldwide to spend half their lives figuring out how to replicate their favorite fantasy? For Nashville, Tenn.-based sci-fi and technology enthusiast Chris Lee, recreating the Star Wars universe is something he’s wanted to share with the world for 38 years and counting. With a mindset similar to those who find themselves dressing up for comic book conventions or steampunk gatherings, these fans transport themselves into a fantasy universe. ![]() ![]() It may be this passion for film-a childhood desire to see their favorite movie come to life-that drives talented inventors, designers and artists to dream big and make it happen. What motivates film fanatics, especially followers of epic classics such as Star Wars, to recreate their favorite movie in real life? Some may believe that by reconstructing parts of the film, they’ll enter its universe, in essence becoming an extension of the story itself. His project has not only pulled together a community of likeminded super fans from online forums around the world, but he has also inspired the local community to pull together in hopes of making this dream come true. Follow the story of Chris Lee of Nashville, Tenn., the founder of The Full Scale Millennium Falcon Project, as he evolves from a 12-year-old boy drawing R2-D2 sketches in 1977 to a full-fledged ‘Star Wars’ universe maker-38 years later.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |