Of the iconic moments native to the Star Wars movie franchise, few remain as well-known as Han Solo’s fateful union with a batch of carbonite. Though Solo eventually found a way out of his (supposed) permanent encasing, fans of the series have long collected figurines, trading cards, and even dog toys dedicated to the classic scene. But what about an entire refrigerator dedicated to Solo’s forced hibernation? Well, just last week, a YouTube channel by the name of Tested — with which Adam Savage, Norman Chan, and Simone Giertz are affiliated — published a video explaining how they accomplished this very feat and the finished product is astounding.
Starting with a standard Frigidaire fridge, Tested contributor Frank Ippolito took to the task of replicating Han Solo’s carbonite-induced expression and stature by sourcing replicas from the franchise’s official prop community. Though due to the fact the sourced props were nothing more than urethane duplicates, Ippolito needed to craft his own copies out of something a tad more durable — as well as a bit more colorful than plain urethane.
“We made a quick mold of all the parts that I got and then we cast it in a clear epoxy,” Ippolito explained to the moderating Chan. “Originally I was just going to do it [as] regular carbonite and then I thought, ‘no, this thing needs to glow.’ So, I tinted [the] epoxy cast 690 a little bit pink so that when it glows it’s got this real nice bright red and then we just filled it in layers in the mold and then embedded LEDs in the end.”
Despite the fact the original carbonite chamber stands roughly 6-foot-7 and Harrison Ford is 6 feet tall, Ippolito built a 12-inch riser to attach to the bottom of the fridge to account for the added length. While this makes the freezer portion of the fridge a bit higher than your run-of-the-mill fridge, achieving an accurate level of detail will surely please fans of Star Wars lore more than it will upset them to have to reach higher for their frozen goods.
While many savvy engineers have produced a variety of unique renditions of Han Solo’s carbonite escapade, Tested’s tribute refrigerator is perhaps the most unique of the bunch. Not only does it perfectly capture what makes the iconic scene so memorable but it does so without taking anything away from the refrigerator itself. A proper salute to a timeless franchise that also boasts the ability to keep a six-pack of beer cold. If that’s not innovation, we’re not sure what is.