Mandalorian Space Ship Appears in Eastern Russia, a Star Wars Fan Is The Creator

So you can imagine how excited I was when I saw that someone in Eastern Russia took on the task of building a replica Razor Crest ship from the Mandalorian Series. I reached out to Ayaal, a 28-year-old from Yakutsk, and I was instantly hooked on his story. He started cosplaying when he was just 11 years old, after watching "A Knight's Tale." That was the moment he made his first knight costume.

I've never met a real Mandalorian

Ayaal is a graduate of the Mining University in his region, and he is obviously a big Star Wars fan as well. As shocking as it may sound, he has never undertaken a project of this scale, and the idea came to him right after watching the first season of the "Mandalorian" in 2019. If you haven't seen the series yet, you're bound to have a good time watching this space-western with amazing visuals and an exciting yet slightly stretched-out story.

When Ayaal wanted to start working on this project, he did not have sufficient funds, so he even went as far as selling his car to make this dream happen. "We, as Star Wars fans, and in particular fans of the Mandalorian series, decided to create the Razor Crest, knowing that no one has done it before. Doing the impossible felt inspiring to us," Ayaal says about his latest creation.

The build started in November of last year, and a team comprised of Ayaal and a few of his close friends had to plan everything carefully in order to achieve their goal. They calculated the height at 12.46 feet (3.8 meters), the length at 45.93 feet (14 meters), and the width at 32.8 feet (10 meters). While they could easily find inspiration for the ship's exterior hull, recreating the interior was not going to be as easy.

This is the way!

"To figure out the inside layout of the ship, I took several screenshots of the episodes," Ayaal recounts. This isn't just a story about someone's love for Star Wars, but also a story of people working together towards a common goal, a story of camaraderie. "My friends worked with me for free, we were so inspired that financial gains were not something we were after." Now I feel like calling up all my buddies and coming up with a crazy project of my own.

Finding a hangar to accommodate such a big ship was not going to be easy or cheap. They needed good lighting, a flat floor, and proper heating, as temperatures in that part of the world can easily go below -4 degrees Fahrenheit (-20 degrees Celsius). And the guys even had to deal with one of the coldest winters in 20 years! It sounds like the Earth-version of Hoth, doesn't it?

They used all of their savings to buy fiberwood, wooden blocks, screws, and everything else they would require to build the Razor Crest. The actual build began on the 10th of December, and tasks were distributed among the team members. Iliya would create the Mandalorian's costume, Vanya would take care of the social media content, Arsen was on the electric part of the ship, Egor was the man in charge of welding, while Ayaal and Kolya would put all of the pieces of the puzzle together.

Do, or do not, there is no try!

Work on the framework went on for ten days, and the guys still had a lot of things to worry about ahead, even though they were not even considering the idea of building the actual interior of the ship. After going viral on TikTok, fans were pressuring Ayaal and the guys for interior shots, and they realized they would have to make one further step with this project.

With all of the funds now depleted, their only chance of finishing the build was taking on donations from their followers, and some sponsors also came onboard very soon. I asked Ayaal what the most difficult part of the project. "Building the engine was the most challenging thing. It had to be very lightweight so that it could be sustained by the framework. So we opted for styrofoam," he replied.

Building the ship was just part of the job, as more effort was required to take this thing out of the hangar. A total of 30 people showed up to complete the task, and they worked for four days at temperatures of -22 degrees Fahrenheit (-30 degrees Celsius). "When you're too involved with the process, you don't realize what it is exactly that you're working on. We didn't see our Razor Crest build in its full glory. But it felt epic to see it standing there, we felt like we were a part of the series ourselves," said Ayaal with pride in his voice.

May the Force be with you!

It takes some serious determination to be able to take such a crazy idea beyond the living room, and Ayaal mentions that he draws inspiration from the people around him. "My hard-working parents are my main inspiration. And of course, the people that work in the production teams responsible for creating all of the wild costumes and decorations. They are the hidden stars of the film industry."

This just goes to show that you don't need a lot of money to bring your dreams to life. You don't need to be born in the most hi-tech region of the world to create something out of nothing. And Ayaal and his team will not stop here. So Star Wars fans get ready because they've got their eyes set out for an X-Wing next—that's if they can raise the budget to do it properly.

So if you happen to be in the neighborhood in Yakutsk, you might stumble upon this ship alongside a little Grogu replica and a Mandalorian Bounty Hunter in disguise. The lesson for today is a simple one: dream big, and whatever it is that makes you happy, do it, and you'll be fine!

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