Holy crap! If you don't mind me asking, about how much does it cost to have something like that made?
Well, admittedly it's pricey! To have one built normally costs $1800 US Dollars with the shipping coming in around $400. And that's BEFORE the RC modifications that I'm building into it!
MY custom Sandcrawler cost me LESS, however. When I contacted my friend in South America about building me one, he gave me the choice of building me a brand new one from scratch (for the prices mentioned above) OR bidding on (and hopefully winning) an
already existing (mint) specimen that he had built, and that a friend of HIS was auctioning on Ebay.
I decided to try my luck at the EBAY crawler, figuring that if I lost, I would just have him build me a brand new one at full price.
But as Luck would have it, I won the EBAY crawler for $1200!
This Sandcrawler can now keep the rest of my big vehicles company, including my 6ft long Millennium Falcon!
Some stats about my Custom-built Sandcrawler:
As I mentioned before, her measurements are 29 inches (2-1/2 FEET) in height, and 61 inches (5.1 Feet) in length. It features a removable side panel for access to the crawler's "ore-processing room", a removable top panel for access to the detailed Main Control Overbridge , a front loading main ramp into the main hold, and working interior / exterior lights.
The treads seen in these photos are NOT the final ones that this custom Sandcrawler will sit on.
These treads seen here are solid, in-articulate prop pieces (just like on the OTC Diamonds Exclusive Sandcrawler). They do NOT roll. There are currently some tiny recessed wheels under the Sandcrawler that allow it to be rolled. But that's it.
However, for an additional fee, I have commissioned to have this toy fully converted into a rolling, functioning, steerable RC toy with working treads! (Just like the Lucasfilm model)
For the conversion, we are using the electronic rolling treads from a 1/10th scale RC german tank as the functioning RC platform. There will be one PAIR of rolling treads at each of the Crawler's 4 corners (that's 8 total).
The final treads and the faceplate housings will also be painted in a darker, grimier color than the rest of the crawler for that desert weather-beaten look.
There were some minor inaccurate detail errors evident in the photos of this custom toy (no square window opening on the side of the crawler, etc.), but I've ordered these various errors to be corrected/re-built before shipping.
In the end, the Sandcrawler that I'll receive in another few weeks from South America will be considerably more accurate than the way it appears in these photos.
This custom Sandcrawler toy is made of 1/4 inch thick hardboard, fibergass, plastic, and metal. It's considerably heavy.
I am simply waiting for all the detail modifications to be completed, and then I'll be taking delivery.