Han, Leia and Luke watch little Ben Solo play with his best friend, “Bacca”.
LEGO is a huge outlet for our family. One of our favorite uses for the bricks is in storytelling.
A website I’ve been following over the past four years is FBTB.net. The site features news and reviews on LEGO products and hosts frequent LEGO building contests. They also host a LEGO fan gallery during Star Wars Day at LEGOLAND in Carlsbad, CA. When they announced an open call for builders to submit their models to be displayed during the Star Wars event, I quickly registered my LEGO Ideas project, The Moldy Crow, to help get exposure and feedback.
One of the five contest categories FBTB announced for this years event was titled “Skywalker Family Reunion” and Calista was excited to enter her own build. She thought of a series of small vignettes featuring Ben Solo as a little boy playing with his furry friend, Chewbacca, reminiscent of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes.
Thus, Ben and Bacca was born.
We brainstormed different ideas to show Ben and Chewie playing together, but her big inspiration came from watching how our son plays with me, jumping on my back, shooting nerf blasters at balloons, chasing our less than enthusiastic dogs around the house, and hunting for stormtroopers. She worked out the sets and I pooled the bricks. She created a story she wanted to tell, and I advised on what the interior of the Millennium Falcon looked like. She chose the characters, I made sure they had the right hair and clothes.
There were so many skilled and great LEGO creations featured in FBTB’s Fan Gallery and being a part of the event was awesome. Our son got to meet costumed characters from the 501st Legion of Star Wars cosplayers. It was a joy to see him enthusiastic about the Storm Troopers, The Imperial Guard keeping a watchful eye on R2D2 and R5D4, Kylo Ren offering Light Saber lessons.
And to top off the amazing weekend, Calista won in her themed category!
Detailed images are available on The Suboken Brick Projects Flickr page.
A huge shout out to Ace and Don from FBTB.net for hosting a great event. And a heartfelt thank you to everyone who welcomed our little family to their LEGO fan community. It was a pleasure to share stories and ideas with all of you.
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