The Architecture of Star Wars

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The Architecture of Star Wars

July 11, 2011

All photos copyright Lucasfilm Ltd.

Nerd talk: if you were once apt at assembling scale models of X-Wings and TIE Fighters or attentively taking apart and rebuilding that huge Millennium Falcon toy you got for your 8th Christmas, then you clearly spent significant parts of your childhood speculating on the nuts and bolts that made up the built universe of Star Wars. After all, you figured that the Death Star had to have had more than one corridor or one shipping dock (that much was revealed in Return of the Jedi). You’d seen the making-of videos, when Lucas and co. rigged scaled models of ships, cities, and planets alike with sparks and miniature explosions. And you glimpsed those early, Sketchpad-esque animations detailing the mechanics of Operation: Skyhook, Luke and friends’ mission to destroy the first Death Star. But where were the drawings and plans–the details!?

Click through to see more of Star Wars: The Blueprints!

Well, hopefully, with age you’ve adopted more serious concerns and sought out life’s greater mysteries and meanings (though we’re not sure that’s entirely true for all of you). But for nostalgia’s sake, you’ll want to get your hands on Star Wars: the Blueprints, a book so big it needed its own trailer (below). The new tome contains the most comprehensive compilation of working drawings and architectural plans that served as the basis for the ships, space ports, planets, buildings and infrastructure against which the Star Wars films played out. With over 500 photographs and illustrations, the book lays out in detail everything from the workings of Tatooine’s quirky farming machinery to the robotic constitution of R2-D2. Here’s to hoping you’ll be able to build your own droid!

The book, which weight 35 pounds and cost $500, is limited to 5,000 prints, so you’ll have to act fast to secure your own copy. To find out more about the book, click here, or watch the trailer above.