Back in 1977, a little film called Star Wars had pretty much captivated the sci-fi community, except in Japan. There, George Lucas' pet project was bested by a movie based on the popular anime series Space Battleship Yamato. The namesake of the series was a Japanese World War II battleship rebuilt into a gigantic spaceship to cross the galaxy and retrieve the one device that could save a plagued planet Earth. 

But what if they built the ship out of Lego parts? Hong Kong Lego artist Vincent Cheung might have given us a glimpse at what that would look like with his amazing replica of Space Battleship Yamato. Vincent spent 40 hours over 10 nights putting together this downscaled Lego model of the Yamato. No detail has been left out, from the smallest gun to the hulking hull of the converted battleship. Even the stand the ship rests on is built from Lego pieces! I don't know how many Lego pieces went into building this, but an estimate of 2,000 pieces is probably a safe, but rather low guess. Check out Vincent's gallery at Brickshelf for even more amazing pictures of the Yamato and of his other Lego works.

[via The Awesomer and Klocki]