{"id":209830,"date":"2025-12-25T06:18:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T06:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/209830\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T06:18:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T06:18:10","slug":"the-empire-strikes-back-on-jubilee-avenue-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/209830\/","title":{"rendered":"The Empire Strikes Back\u2026 on Jubilee Avenue \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few days ago, in a neighbourhood not far away\u2026<\/p>\n

A three-metre-tall, 3.5-metre-long All Terrain Armored Transport walker from Star Wars showed up outside a home on Jubilee Avenue in the Lord Roberts area last Sunday to spread some nerdy holiday cheer.<\/p>\n

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The Christmas AT-AT display (Supplied)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The science-fiction combat vehicle, dressed in multicolour Christmas lights, was built by Aaron Frost and his students in the University of Winnipeg theatre department\u2019s advanced stagecraft class as a lesson in three-dimensional set pieces.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe used to make little fireplaces as their final project, and I just thought, you know, let\u2019s do something way more fun,\u201d Frost said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The AT-AT vehicle was originally featured in The Empire Strikes Back and is instantly recognizable by its four gangly legs and grey plating.<\/p>\n

Frost\u2019s students were instantly on board, so Frost found approximate dimensions of the fictional vehicle from the internet and was able to scale down the structure to a workable size.<\/p>\n

The project came to life last year using scrap materials over the course of three months on Friday afternoons, but the statue wasn\u2019t doing anything for anyone, unseen in the stagecraft shop.<\/p>\n

On film, the vehicle is featured roaming the Hoth planet \u2014 a world of snow and ice \u2014 in the Star Wars universe; Frost set up the U of W version in his front yard last Christmas, but he lives on a dead-end street in Charleswood and figured it deserved more attention.<\/p>\n

So, this year, one of his friends \u2014 a big Star Wars fan \u2014 agreed to host it in his yard on the busy thoroughfare.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was completely on board,\u201d Frost said. \u201cAnd then with the holiday season, throw some bright- coloured lights on it and it looks super fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

In October, it got out to meet people attending Winnipeg Comic Con at the convention centre. The structure was a hit, Frost said.<\/p>\n

He is thinking about adding to the fleet down the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiving him a little friend would be hilarious,\u201d he said. \u201cHeck, maybe 10 years from now, there might even be three or four.\u201d<\/p>\n

Star Wars fans and regular folk alike can visit the display in front of 724 Jubilee Ave. until mid-January.<\/p>\n

Nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Nicole<\/p>\n

Nicole Buffie
Multimedia producer
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Nicole Buffie is a reporter for the Free Press city desk. Born and bred in Winnipeg, Nicole graduated from Red River College\u2019s Creative Communications program in 2020 and worked as a reporter throughout Manitoba before joining the Free Press newsroom as a multimedia producer in 2023. Read more about Nicole<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Every piece of reporting Nicole produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A few days ago, in a neighbourhood not far away\u2026 A three-metre-tall, 3.5-metre-long All Terrain Armored Transport walker…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-209830","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}