In May, Candace Payne captured the internet's attention when she put on an electronic Chewbacca mask and shared her joy of making Wookiee roars and growls in a heartwarming, contagious Facebook Live video.
It's now the most-watched video on the platform, and it's not difficult to see why. The mask easily allows anyone to become the lovable Wookiee from the "Star Wars" franchise.
Take a look:
chewy takes over @techinsider@kimrrenfropic.twitter.com/A6lHQoHuHn
— Alyson Shontell (@ajs) May 20, 2016Though the Chewbacca mask went viral on Friday, May 20, the mask itself has been on store shelves since fall 2015. Tech Insider caught up with Hasbro product design manager Bill Rawley to find out more about how the mask was made from the company's global headquarters in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
Rawley has a job that would make anyone envious. He oversees all of Hasbro's "Star Wars" products. So when it comes to masks, this isn't his first rodeo. At any one time he can be working on as many as 30 "Star Wars" projects ranging from action figures fans scramble to collect to lightsabers and helmets.
The Chewbacca mask itself has been in production since last spring where dozens of people across multiple teams of designers, engineers, sculptors, and more worked closely with Lucasfilm, the team behind "Star Wars."
Two of the biggest challenges in making the mask? According to Rawley, one was sculpting the Chewbacca frame. The other involved getting the Wookiee's coloring just right.
"Capturing the sculpt was a little challenging because we work with our vendors over in China that don’t necessarily know or aren’t as familiar with Chewbacca," Rawley explained. "But we thankfully have an expert sculpting team here in Rhode Island that was able to take our first pass at sculpts from our China vendors and our partners out there and they were able to tweak it."
Rawley says getting the paint job correct on the mask was a bit of a challenge as well since they use an airbrush method.
"When you manufacture and you’re making multiple masks, you want each one to match and be exactly the same," he explained. "So we had a little bit of a back and forth with our vendors out in China to make sure that we can get a consistent, good paint job on the mask, something that looked very close to what Chewie actually is in the movie. It’s difficult trying to make a hard plastic version of a soft, furry guy, but it worked out well."
The Chewbacca color itself on the mask was selected from Hasbro's extensive Pantone book of colors, which had to be approved by Lucasfilm. Rawley says they'll then tweak that color to make it darker or lighter until everyone's on board with it.
Of course, the coolest addition to the mask — and the real seller — is the authentic Chewbacca voice which makes anyone transform into the iconic "Star Wars" character. And that's not just anyone voicing Wookie roars for the mask (though Rawley says everybody on the team does do the occasional Chewie roar).
"We actually get the files from Lucasfilm," says Rawley. "So they’re the actual roars that Chewie uses in the movie and that they use for all their entertainment."
However, the final roar you hear in the mask isn't straight from the movies.
"We have a fantastic in-house sound engineering group that is able to take those professional sounds and then tweak them so that they still sound right coming out of toy production speakers that we put in our manufactured product," Rawley adds. "If it’s not just right, even though it’s the correct sound, it just won’t sound right, and they’re able to tweak that to make sure it sounds fantastic."
When Payne's video went viral months after the toy's release, Rawley says the video started circulating around the company quickly. Then came the influx of excited emails. For Rawley and the teams at Hasbro, it was validation of the team's efforts.
"It’s about time because I’ve known how amazing this mask is for awhile now," Rawley joked. "No, no. It’s fantastic ... It makes you feel good as a designer because that’s what you’re really working for. We’re all here because we were inspired by toys we played with when we were kids and here you are making an impact on somebody else’s life. That’s a payment in itself right there. Yeah, we get paid, but when you see that genuine love of a product that you’re working on, it makes you come back the next day. Not that it’s hard anyway."
As a reminder, one of the Chewbacca masks currently resides outside his office as a doorbell for those wishing to come inside.
Since Payne's video went viral, Hasbro confirmed in a statement to Tech Insider the video "sparked significant interest" in the product and that the company has been working with retailers to make more Chewbacca masks available. It's not clear how the viral video, which has over 155 million views, has affected sales. Hasbro does not disclose sales figures for its merchandise.
But it seems like the Chewbacca mask is doing all right at the moment for Hasbro. It's among the best-selling "Star Wars" toys at Toys 'R Us. Demand currently has the product out of stock on Walmart's site, and you'll find hiked prices across Amazon.
As for Rawley, his work is never quite done. If you're a fan of all things "a galaxy far, far away" you know that there are plenty more "Star Wars" movies in the pipeline.
Rawley is currently working on the next batch of toys for a little movie called "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," in theaters this December. Those toys will begin to hit shelves this fall. He's also already looking ahead to "Star Wars: Episode VIII" which will be in theaters the following December.
Perhaps somewhere in there will be another Chewbacca mask waiting to take the internet by storm.
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NOW WATCH: People can’t get enough of this woman laughing hysterically as she tries on a Chewbacca mask