With Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker so close to release it’s making our Midi-chlorians tingle, it makes sense to look back on the trilogy of trilogies and think about the nine-movie saga as a whole, from the start. Madman and insane-contraption builder Colin Furze certainly thinks that’s the case anyway, which is why he’s built a working, jet powered Landspeeder duplicating the iconic vehicle from A New Hope. And it. Is. Awesome.
Colin Furze’s completed Landspeeder build in action.
For those unfamiliar with Furze, he’s an engineer and YouTuber who’s responsible for some of the most palm-sweat-inducing builds ever to grace the internet, with each one of his creations begging the question: “Why doesn’t this man care about his appendages as much as a regular person does?” Furze has built everything from a three-story 360-degree swing to a stupidly fast bumper car to a belt of spinning knives, and if any one of those inventions sounds like it must be safer than it seems, watch the videos. They most certainly are not.
But this Landspeeder Furze has created, this is really something special. He and his team built the life-sized Landspeeder over the course of just five weeks, using a miniature model of the vehicle as a guide for proportions. In the build video (below), Furze shows how the Landspeeder was assembled, and the whole project looks shockingly difficult to execute. For example, the entire body of the Landspeeder is made out of metal, and molding it piece by piece to make an overall shape this smooth and accurate must’ve been mind-bendingly hard.
The build video for Colin Furze’s Landspeeder replica.
As far as the Landspeeder’s specs: it can carry two people, rides on four wheels (which may not seem notable, but kind of is considering the fact that the original Landspeeder was built using a three-wheeled Bond Bug as its basis), and is powered by a 13kw electric motor. But wait, you might be saying to yourself, isn’t this Landspeeder supposed to be jet powered? Yes, and it is. Kind of. An overwhelming amount of the Landspeeder’s acceleration comes from the electric motor but there are indeed two jet engines stuck on the back of it for good measure. And while two jet engines must have an impact on the Landspeeder’s ability to go faster, it’s unclear what kind of effect they actually had. But they’re certainly live—and very loud—and are probably necessary anyway because Furze needs to retain his title as looniest British builder on YouTube.
And because we know that watching either one of these videos increases the need to watch the Landspeeder scene from A New Hope by at least a factor of 100, here is a high-def clip of the original prop vehicle in action. Note that the original special effects relied, in part, on mirrors beneath the Landspeeder to hide its wheels—something Furze tried to copy in his video. And even though Star Wars most definitely pulled off the illusion better, that Landspeeder would never be able to drive you to the market like Furze’s can.
The original Landspeeder in action in A New Hope.
What do you think of Colin Furze’s Landspeeder build? Are you as impressed with the metal body as we are, or do you just turn your nose up at anything that doesn’t actually use an anti-gravity drivetrain? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Images: Colin Furze
