They made Millennium Falcon with 10,000 Lego bricks
Local Lego user group piece their way to fame with iconic Star Wars spaceship
Two years ago, these Lego enthusiasts were competing against each other.
But this year, they have found fame working together.
The six men formed local Lego user group Titans Creations in May 2013 after meeting for the first time.
Now, they have put together a 10,000-piece cross-sectioned version of the iconic Millennium Falcon spaceship from the Star Wars franchise. Their masterpiece has attracted buzz from Star Wars fans.
"We met at the Bricks World Lego MOC competition, where we competed individually," said Mr Ivan Ho, 35.
"We clicked and hit it off right away because we were all superhero-themed Lego builders."
The men, who are between the ages of 23 and 42, started playing with Lego bricks as children.
They took a break as they grew older before realising their passion.
For them, the time when Lego was not a part of their lives is known as the "dark age".
They first teamed up in February to build a 3,000-piece Viking Longship, which won a contest in a tie-up with the launch of Vikings Season 3 on History Channel.
In March, they received an e-mail from LUG of Malaysia, a popular Lego user group that works with Legoland Malaysia, inviting them to submit their own Star Wars-themed Lego creation for a contest.
Legoland Malaysia celebrates Star Wars annually in May to mark Star Wars Day on May 4.
It is a play on the series' key phrase "May the Force Be With You".
The team had two months to build something no one had built before.
NOT DONE BEFORE
"We took two weeks before we settled on this design idea," said engineer Freddy Tan, 34.
"Our initial idea was to make a smaller scale version but we knew we would be taking part in a competition, so we needed to up our game."
Mr Ho, a business development manager, said: "In the Adult Fan of Lego (AFOL) world, The Millennium Falcon is the holy grail of all the Lego sets because it's the biggest Star Wars set ever created.
"It's also the most expensive set in the secondary market (resale market on sites like eBay).
"In the whole world, no one has done a cross-section open-concept Millennium Falcon before."
They took two months to make it.
Undergrad Clement Chen, 23, who was in charge of light installations, had to get his priorities in order to avoid falling behind in school.
"It sort of relates to what I'm studying, which is engineering," he said.
They came in second in the competition and have since received worldwide attention, including being featured onthe Huffington Post and tech website CNET.
The men had to juggle their jobs, families and their hobby.
"The routine was quite crazy.
"All of us would meet during the weekends to build at Freddy's house as he is the main designer and planner.
"We also chatted online to make sure we were all progressing as similar speeds," said Mr Ho.
Mr Eric Ong, 42, an engineer, said: "We used a blueprint as a guide and since we have full-time jobs, we would take parts home to work on them during our free time.
"Thankfully our family members were supportive but there was still some grumbling.
"My wife would say, 'Why is this thing still lying here? It's collecting a lot of dust.
"Why are you spending time on Lego instead of doing other things?
"There are common misconceptions about this hobby like 'Why are you still playing with kids' toys when you're so old?'," said Mr Tan.
In the Adult Fan of Lego (AFOL) world, The Millennium Falcon is the holy grail of all the Lego sets because it's the biggest Star Wars set ever created.
- Mr Ivan Ho, 35
FYI
WHAT
Star Wars: The Force Awakens exhibition
WHERE
VivoCity atrium
WHEN
Till Dec 20
Their Falcon gets the thumbs-up
To make their Millennium Falcon, Lego user group Titans Creations used about 10,000 Lego bricks.
Their Falcon is 110cm long and 85cm wide. In contrast, Lego's very own Star Wars "Ultimate Collector's Edition"version is 84cm by 56cm, said Brickipedia, an online database of Lego products.
Titans Creations' Falcon is even built to mini-figurine scale, making the ship's dimensions a perfect fit for Lego character figurines that man the spacecraft. The team took it a step further by adding 24 LEDs to light the corridors, hyperdrive, rear thrusters and cockpit.
They had trouble finding pictures for reference but finally built the structure based on Star Wars illustrator Hans Jenssen's interpretation.
He sent Titans a message to congratulate them on a job well done.
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