O livro de fatos Trajes de Star Wars: A trilogia original nos dá detalhes consideráveis sobre o desenho e a estrutura do fato Chewbacca original.
Espelho e crânio
A peça facial (incluindo toda a cabeça e pescoço) foi pintada de PET com o cabelo de iaque inserido pela agulha, um fio de cada vez.
Chewbacca's mask uses a mechanism based on Freeborn's man-ape design from 2001. A rigid polyurethane skull was made to fit the performer's face, including a hinged jaw for when the actor opened his mouth. The skull translated motion through to the mask's attached foam rubber skin, which mimicked the behavior of living skin, stretching as needed. The thin, flexible skin was "art worked' or painted, and then
individual strands of hair were hand-punched into it with a hypodermic
needle. "I only wanted one thin layer of hair, otherwise I lose my
elasticity and the movement is restricted," said Freeborn. The
interior of the mask was also fitted with toggles, small plates that
Mayhew could depress with his tongue. The toggles were linked to the
mask's lips and allowed it to snarl. Freeborn also constructed
Chewbacca's feet by adding a sculpted paw-like structure to a pair of
Mayhew-sized tennis shoes.
Corpo
O undersuit é tricotado de lã de angorá e o cabelo é de pêlo de iaque, separado em diferentes grumos por cor e depois tricotado diretamente sobre a lã. O cabelo adicional era então amarrado na base de lã onde o cabelo tinha saído (durante o uso).
The "walking carpet" bodysuit was patterned
and constructed at the costumier, Bermans and Nathans. New Productions
department member Stephen Miles was tasked with knitting the suit.
"Stephen went and bought a special machine to actually knit the
initial Chewbacca costumes," recalls fellow Bennans colleague Gerald
Moulin. "It was the first time they had a knitting machine," says Ron
Beck. "After he [Miles] knitted the suit, it had to go to people who
were like wig makers to have all the hair put in. Underneath that he
[Mayhew] just wore this enormous onesie sort of thing. He used to get
very hot." The knitted suit was an acceptable base, though it did not
hold the hair as well as the costume team hoped. "His suit is knitted
from Angora wool and knotted with yak hair," said Mollo. "It's all
handmade and once, by the way, we had to thicken his hair and re-knot
him because in hot weather he molted," said Mollo. "Multiple colors of
long yak hair were hand tied to the elastic wool base in a specific
pattern that helped bring life to the costume. George wanted it to
look more like an Alsatian (German shepherd)," he adds. "So we had to
work out which bits were black, which were brown, and get the pattern
and proportion of the color." "We made it like pajamas, with gloves
from elbows to fingers and foam rubber fingers. So if the artist
needed to spend a penny [relieve themselves] they could, and then put
it all back on themselves. That worked fine," said Freeborn.