NEW ORLEANS – The Millennium Falcon was originally supposed to be made from a golf cart.
When Ryan Ballard and his Mardi Gras parade organization Intergalactic Krewe of Chewbacchus first set out to raise money on Kickstarter for a parade float to carry the original Chewbacca actor Peter Mayhew and his wife, they thought a humble golf cart was the only vehicle base they could afford with their pledges. The plan was to create an amazing DIY centerpiece float on which the Mayhews – their king and queen – could ride in style during the group's parade this Saturday.
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"Right when we hit the goal I started shopping," Ballard told Wired. "I knew that I wanted one of these Taylor-Dunn B-248s. ... That was like the dream machine, but those are like 12 grand. It was out of budget, we needed to get a golf cart for like $2,000 and build on that."
Then Ballard went on Craigslist – and hit the jackpot. He found a B-248 that someone was selling in Pearl River, Louisiana for less than $1,500. He called his Intergalactic Krewe of Chewbacchus co-hort Brett Powers and the two headed out of New Orleans. When they came back, they had the basis for what might be the nerdiest Mardi Gras float ever built.
Ballard came up with blueprints and diagrams scaled up from a model of the Falcon from the Star Wars movies. Other members of Chewbacchus offered ideas and concepts and soon enough they were building – a process that's taken some four months to complete
To give the Falcon its texture, the "krewe" broke down old computers and attached the parts to the exterior. To make it look as though it is flying, some 300 remote-controlled RGB LEDs were placed in the undercarriage. The throne for the Mayhews was upholstered with fur from DistinctiveFabric.com to make it look like a Wookiee, while slightly anachronistic Nintendo controllers sit atop the headlights. It's covered in Chewbaccas and has a R2-D2 "hood" ornament. There is a Star Wars logo and a Rebel Alliance emblem made entirely out of Mardi Gras beads, a Millennium Falcon armrest and even an R2-D2 ashtray.
But according to Ballard, "The quad laser cannon really brings it together visually."
Check out photos of the construction of the ultimate Mardi Gras nerd party ride in the gallery above.
All photos: Ariel Zambelich/Wired 
