[Interview] Graham E. Hancock | The Author Behind LEGO Star Wars: The Force of Creativity

“Let go of my LEGO.”

This May, MCM Comic Con graciously returned to its home away from home, London ExCeL. With plenty of notable actors, artists and many more in attendance, plenty of fun was to be had, autographs to be purchased and more. One big highlight for us from this year’s event was getting the chance to meet Graham E. Hancock, an author who is set to take us on a wonderful journey detailing 25 years of LEGO Star Wars in his upcoming book, LEGO Star Wars: The Force of Creativity.

With much discussed that it’s not non-sensical to cover it all in a single written interview, we’re breaking the interview into two parts with Part 1 focusing on the man behind the book:

Graham E. Hancock | The Author Behind LEGO Star Wars: The Force of Creativity:

Miketendo64: Would you be so kind as to introduce yourself and tell us about your history?

Graham E. Hancock:  Yeah, thanks for having me and talking about my book. My name’s Graham E. Hancock, I am a huge LEGO fan, I’m the editor of Blocks Magazine, which is a monthly magazine all about LEGO, for LEGO fans who love everything about the brick, and I’m now the author of LEGO Star Wars: The Force of Creativity, which is our big new coffee table book that celebrates 25 years of LEGO Star Wars.

Miktendo64: As a passionate fan of LEGO Star Wars yourself, what was the first set you ever built?

Graham E. Hancock: It was Darth Vader’s TIE Advanced versus Y-Wing. It was just so special because the box was different to a normal LEGO box, it had fancier packaging. When you got the instructions open there were little stills from the film at the top of the pages and things.

And the thing that I vividly remember the most is sliding Darth Vader’s helmet over Anakin Skywalker’s scarred face for the first time and seeing that as a Minifigure and thinking “Oh my goodness! This is a Star Wars minifigure.”

The helmet was so intricate and now we take all of this for granted because there’s so many of these amazing LEGO Star Wars sets now, but back then it was completely new. There’s a reason why I’ve been hooked on it for 25 years.

Miketendo64: What was the last set you built?

Graham E. Hancock: Oh, that’s a really good question and I can tell you exactly what I built.

So, for May the 4^th last year, Lucasfilm employees were given a very special exclusive set, which was the Yoda fountain that sits outside the Lucasfilm headquarters, but obviously, it’s a very rare set only for employees of Lucasfilm. So, in the book we’ve got some bonus items and one of those is the instructions on how to build it and all of the pieces required are available online.

Well, my order for those pieces turned up the other week. So, the latest set that I built was the Yoda fountain using the instructions that come with the book and I’ve now got my own LEGO Star Wars Yoda fountain sat on my desk. I’m so happy to have that because it was one of those things that we were really excited to put in with the book and now to actually have my own version of it built using the official instructions. Yeah, it’s just a thrill.

Miketendo64: In the last 25 years, the Millennium Falcon has been a vital part of the LEGO Star Wars series and has seen a few revisions. Which Millennium Falcon set is the one that sticks out the most for you?

Graham E. Hancock: For me it’s got to be the first Ultimate Collector Series one because I remember at the time I was a student. I didn’t have much money and it’s a key memory for me where I was staring at it in the LEGO Store and wondering if I could justify spending this amount of money on a LEGO Star Wars set because it was a lot of money and I also remember saying to a friend there’s “No way this will increase in value because how does a set go up in price beyond £350 pounds?”

How stupid, in retrospect, was that opinion? But I took the plunge, I figured out a way to make it work financially, I went home with the set, built it and it was just the most incredible build experience. I never expected to build anything as sophisticated as that but when you compare it to the play scale one that had come before it was just so next level in every way.

When it was finished and you put that minifigure next to it and the scale was right, it was really gratifying. The new one is even better because it’s technically improved, but for me that personal experience came with the first one. As the first ridiculously big set, it has a special place in my heart.

Miketendo64: As a fan, how big is your LEGO Star Wars collection?

Graham E. Hancock: It is obscenely big, to be honest. I have way too much LEGO in general, and way too much LEGO Star Wars. I have the majority of the LEGO Star Wars sets that have been released through the years, as I’ve been pretty diligent in collecting them.

There are a few gaps in my collection that I’m still looking to fill, but it takes up way too much space. It’s lovely having the sets that I have on display, but then most of my collection is in boxes, taking a huge amount of space as you can imagine.

Miketendo64: Are there any new or upcoming LEGO Star Wars sets that you hope to add to your collection soon?

Graham E. Hancock: There’s a new Imperial Star Destroyer coming and from the pictures of it I have seen already, I can’t wait to get it. It looks like a lot of fun to make and because it’s been a while since there’s been a play scale Star Destroyer, it’s going to be really interesting to see how they’ve updated it and refined the design from the last one.

Miketendo64: Having had the chance to see how much LEGO Star Wars has grown over four decades (90s, 00s, 10s and 20s), what has that experience been like for you and what would you say has been LEGO Star Wars’ greatest advancement?

Graham E. Hancock: Wow that’s another good question because there have been different phases to LEGO Star Wars and it has shifted over time. If you think back to those first sets like that TIE Fighter versus Y-Wing, the sets looked amazing at the time but when you look back at it now compared to what LEGO Star Wars sets look like today, they look blocky.

It’s no surprise when you think about it because at the time they were still using roof slope pieces to try and make curves, so the pieces they were using to shape the spaceships had originally been designed to be house roof pieces. They were making do with all these different elements but then after a few years of LEGO Star Wars the LEGO system as a whole started to bring in what they called the shape system.

This is where you get slightly curvier elements that are a bit more organic and they were a game changer for LEGO Star Wars because it meant that when you had something like Jango Fett’s starship for Attack of the Clones and things like that you could actually have these things shaped much more closely to what they were like in the movie. If you look at the Trade Federation MTT from 2001 and the one from 2007 and compare them, the first one is so blocky compared to the second one because they’ve got all these nice elements that they could use and they could get a better shape on it.

Then for me another big milestone was when the Clone Wars came out in 2008 because the sets were massive, like the Twilight was huge. The Republic Gunship was huge and the value for money on them was absolutely phenomenal and the range that they had was great. From huge sets to lots of small sets, you could make a really good Clone War out of that product range if you collected a bunch of it, that was kind of another huge moment where they really stepped up the level of what they were doing and getting into some more obscure vehicles and things as well from the saga.

Ever since then I think it’s really been a process of refining the offering so they’ve really nailed how you do those sets for kids where they look really good on the outside as a model, but then there’s minifigure interactivity and things on the inside. But then alongside that, making sure that the sets for adults are even more detailed compared to what they were back in the early days of doing the adult LEGO Star Wars sets.

For even more LEGO talk, we hope you check out the second part of our interview with Graham E. Hancock and in the meantime, for more MCM London Comic Con May 2024 content, be sure to click on this link here.

About LEGO Star Wars: The Force of Creativity:

Celebrate the 25th anniversary of LEGO® Star Wars™ building sets with The Force of Creativity coffee-table book. The ultimate treat for yourself or a Star Wars gift for a fellow fan, this lavish 312-page illustrated book features interviews with more than 50 insiders at the LEGO Group and Lucasfilm. It tells the inside story of the ever-evolving LEGO Star Wars brand, from the creation of popular building sets to immersive real-world experiences, video games, animated storytelling and the fan community.

View previously unseen development art, character designs and more to gain an unparalleled insight into the creative process. This deluxe collectible book for adults is presented in a slipcase with an exclusive ‘time capsule’ – a treasure trove of must-have LEGO Star Wars memorabilia that includes art prints, facsimiles, new building instructions and a cardstock replica of the impossibly rare 1999 Toy Fair invitation box that marked the start of an epic adventure of 25 years and counting.

Purchase of LEGO® Star Wars™: The Force of Creativity does not qualify for gifts offered during the LEGO Star Wars™ Day promotional period, 01/05/2024-05/05/2024.

• Coffee-table book for LEGO® Star Wars™ fans – Celebrate 25 years of LEGO Star Wars building sets with The Force of Creativity, a 312-page, hardcover illustrated book presented in a slipcase
• Collectible book for adults – Interviews with over 50 insiders at the LEGO Group and Lucasfilm, plus development art, character designs and more to reveal the story of the LEGO® Star Wars™ brand
• LEGO® Star Wars™ memorabilia – The ’time capsule’ in the slipcase features a development sketch for an early print ad (1999) and a postcard of an early version of the first LEGO Star Wars logo
• Other time capsule items – A facsimile of a rare Toy Fair booklet (2010), development art for an unreleased LEGO® Star Wars™ Zam Wesell minifigure (2020), an unproduced animation script and more
• Star Wars™ gift for adult fans – Treat yourself or give this collector’s edition book to another adult fan of LEGO® Star Wars building sets, real-world experiences and video games
• Measurements – The book measures over 11 in. (26 cm) long and 12 in. (31 cm) wide