This past weekend may have been the greatest weekend ever for all Star Wars fans. It was Star Wars Celebration, but it wasn’t just any normal SWC. Leading off the weekend was a dream come true, a brand new trailer for a new Star Wars movie! It then finished with a LOAD of tidbits on next year’s spin-off, officially titled Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One.

But now that Celebration 2015 is officially done with, it’s pretty much set that this past weekend was the last time we’d see anything but The Force Awakens on the Star Wars front for the next 8 months (other than maybe SDCC this summer). But that’s completely okay, as The Force Awakens is the biggest thing Star Wars to hit in the last decade.

So to kick off getting ready for The Force Awakens, here are a bunch of new images (really the first) focusing on the behind-the-scenes, giving some really great looks at a number of things.

Some pretty great stuff, right? These are the first real images we’ve seen from the set of The Force Awakens, and they couldn’t be better. They may not be as phenomenal as that trailer we saw late last week, but these images have one element that real Star Wars fans should be very happy about. Practical effects. If there is one thing that separates the original trilogy from the prequels, it’s the use of practical effects vs. green screen. So seeing that J.J. Abrams and his team are going full force and using practical effects as much as they can, it’s a huge sigh of relief for fans everywhere.

I know that for myself, I enjoy the use of and time put in with practical effects much more. There’s no doubt that special effects and CGI will be used when they’re needed, I mean, it’s called Star Wars. But seeing fully built X-Wings, structures, and such things like a real and fully functional BB8 droid gets me SO pumped! Can it just be here already?!

Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens in a galaxy near you December 18th, 2015. Directed by J.J. Abrams starring the originals Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher with Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Domhnall Gleeson, Andy Serkis, Lupita Nyong’o, Gwendoline Christie, and Max von Sydow.