This year is the 40th anniversary of Star Wars and to celebrate this joyous occasion, LEGO has pulled out all the stops time round and created what is possibly the most intricately detailed Star Wars Millennium Falcon LEGO set ever. Yes the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs finally has a LEGO set worthy of it. This is after what seemed like an eternity of rumors, teasing and leaks. The return of the Ultimate Collectors Series (UCS) 75192 Millennium Falcon is now here for 2017. Join me as I review this awesome set that will set fire to the Star Wars LEGO fan world.
LEGO UCS Millennium Falcon
Due to its rarity, the original LEGO UCS Millennium Falcon has developed a legendary status as one of the most coveted sets due to its size and scale, coming in at 5,197 pieces in 2007. This 2017 version boasts 7,541 pieces, beating the previous record holder, the Taj Mahal of 5,922 pieces. And is currently the most expensive LEGO set ever made, at a low, low price of $799.
I don’t know about you but to me that’s quite a bit of money. To true Star Wars fans, this would absolutely be worth it. For the price, the LEGO ultimate Millennium Falcon measures over 8” (21cm) high, 33” (84cm) long and 22” (56cm) wide. It is the minute detailing that makes it really shine. The designers went all out with the greebling, packing in an insane amount of detail, texture and nuance into the design. Given the price and difficulty, this isn’t a set for kids, more so appealing to adult collectors.
What is in the box?
The entire set comes in 17 groups of bags averaging about 400+ pieces each. I would estimate that to build this would require 16-17 hours. That would be 2 whole days assuming 8-hour work day. If you were to build this purely for leisure, slowing down to admire the details and techniques, it would probably take double the time. So assuming an hour or 2 a day spent on building, that would take you 2 to 3 weeks.
Included in every LEGO set is the instruction booklet, except that for the new LEGO Millennium Falcon, it is more like a big ring-bound book of 466 pages spanning 1,379 steps. The first few pages feature concept art and talk about designs and designers who made all this possible. It gives fans an idea of the history behind the iconic design of the Millennium Falcon. That itself would make a nice collector’s item.
External
Externally, it’s covered in exposed pipework and recesses that makes it feel so true to life. Instead of a solid chunk of flat plastic, the shape is achieved with panels that attach off from the main superstructure. It looks good from a distance but up close it might look slightly gappy.
The panels are removable with a lowering boarding ramp. The beauty of it is its interchangeable parts. Not happy with the round antenna sensor dish, swap it with the rectangular one. The top and bottom center decks are adorned with quad laser cannons plus a concealed blaster cannon. And the whole unit sits on 7 landing legs.
Internal
Well, on the inside, we have loads of tiny fun details. A must for any Millennium Falcon fan would be the sofa and holographic chess area. And of course the engine room where Leia and Han had their first kiss. At the back of the ship is where you can store your figures or add a few custom areas because there’s plenty of empty space there. The famous cockpit is there but get this, you can squeeze up to 4 mini figures inside.
To top it off, also provided is the combat remote training helmet. And of course the swivel chair with the engineering station featured in A New Hope. The rear compartment features the engine room with hyper drive and console, 2 doorways, hidden floor compartment, 2 escape pod hatches, engineering console and an access ladder to the gunnery station.
Crew
Now here is where you get a whole host of mini figures to supplement the Millennium Falcon model. There are duplicate mini figures but from different episodes. From the classic trilogy, there are famous 4 classic ones: Han Solo, Chewbacca, Princess Leia and C3PO. From the later episode VII are: Older Han Solo, Rey and Fin.
Han and Leia mini figures’ heads can be turned to reveal their breathing masks decoration as featured in the the Empire Strikes Back in the asteroid slug’s belly. Other decorations include the classic crew weapons like Han’s blaster pistol and Chewbacca’s stud-firing bow caster. Episode VII/VIII crew weapons include Han’s blaster, Rey’s small silver blaster and Finn’s medium blaster rifle. Other mini figures included in the package are a Mynock, BB-8 and a couple of Porgs.
Nerdy Facts
Quality was the main thing for the designers and had taken almost a year to get the design right. The biggest challenge was the weight distribution. Adding over 2,000 pieces to the original model stresses the structure extremely. To pick up the model would require both forearms under the unit.
The Porgs were an extremely late addition to the model. Understandably of course.
As an Easter Egg, a shield from a First Order Trooper is used in the model as a hinge plate.
The cockpit includes a brand new brick design. This design will show up in other LEGO sets from other product lines.
If you notice the center of the round sensor dish. It is actually a Ninjago hat belonging to Sensei Wu. It was sand-colored but it is gray in this model.
Conclusion
The LEGO Star Wars Ultimate Collectors Millennium Falcon has undeniably got to be one of the greatest and best LEGO set ever. With a monumental scale that enabled the designers to add every conceivable detail, including half an interior (leaving space for fans to supplement their own UCS Falcons), it’s hard to imagine how LEGO will be able to top this set any time soon. Meanwhile if you have $799 lying around and lots of time to spare, go for it. I hope you get as much pleasure from building this fantastic LEGO set as I did reviewing and writing about it.
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