'Star Wars' sculptor marks Hamp event

HAMPTON, Va. (AP) - The city of Hampton is commissioning an artist best known for sculptures of "Star Wars" characters to make a statue to mark its 400th anniversary.

Lawrence Noble of Berkeley, Calif., is best known for his sculptures of Darth Vader, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Yoda at the Lucasfilm campus in California.

Noble is now tasked with creating the statue to mark Hampton's 400th anniversary, an event with the marketing slogan "From the Sea to the Stars."

Noble's design features a lantern on top and three panels with bronze figures, representing three of Hampton's main founding cultures -- the colonial settler, the Native American and the African American.

The statue costs $200,000 and is likely to be erected later this year.