Review: MILLENNIUM FALCON
From Jalassociatecomics
MILLENNIUM FALCON #4504 (2004 RELEASE)
I’ve been dying to get this set ever since it came out, back in 2004. The iconoclast of all Star Wars ships! In terms of popularity, you have the Slave I ranking third, the X-Wing Fighter second and the Falcon itself coming in first. In response to this, Lego has vastly revamped all three Lego sets featuring the crafts and, of course, 4504 is the most hyped. What can I say? It more than surpassed my expectations.
The box is huge, coming with a flip-top cover which reveals more pictures but, sadly, no movie stills. Unlike the previous rendition of the Falcon which threw in Luke, R2-D2 and Ben Kenobi, this one is packaged as an Episode V set with a snowtrooper and an E-Web cannon flung in for good measure. However, the cannon looks puny in comparison with the massive ship, and the scene recreated needs far more than just one snowtrooper. Oh well, they tried.
Off comes the lid and out pop the eyes. There are 985 pieces in the set, resulting in loads of bags, packaged colour-specific and not according to the building steps. Some of the bags are double-packaged, strangely. As with all extra-large glue-bound instruction booklets, this one flops about too much and is consequently hard to handle. Though the amount of and type of pieces required for each step are listed, the booklet is where most of my gripes are concentrated. A clone-trooper torso is printed instead of the snowtrooper one, the colour of a piece varies from sub-step to sub-step and dark grey is very, very easy to confuse with black. However, it would be unwise to judge a set by its booklet alone.
We’ll work from the appetizer slowly up to the entrée, if that’s fine. Minifigs. Five in all, which by me is a bit too little for a set this size. But I get Chewie! Yes, finally I possess a Chewbacca minifigure! Han and Leia come in their Hoth outfits, never-before-seen, and in a flesh-tone colour. This has seen a negative response, but starting from the basketball range Lego is applying flesh-tone to all their licensed sets, since they resemble actual actors or sports stars. It is bitter-sweet as the colour has made the figurines look more realistic but has ridden them of their compatibility with the classics. And then there is, of course, the afore-mentioned snowtrooper with a great printed torso and nicely-moulded headpiece with attaches to the backpack. C-3PO appears as well, in all his milky-golden glory.
Speaking of compatibility, the set comes in the new shades of grey, popularly known as “blue-grey” or “bley”. Fans are divided over this, but hey, a bit of change now and then is fine by me.
Moving on to the actual model now. The overall structural integrity is very solid, but building this baby demands all the concentration you have. Make sure you attach the bricks firmly together. Missing out even one step could prove fatal too. But enjoy the process, after all Lego is a building toy anyway.
The detail put in here just blows me away. There is now a full walkway around the interior of the craft, unlike with the previous incarnation. The back is decked out with a hyperdrive engine (the tile, is, sadly, stickered on), a couple of tool racks and even a little stand to put Han’s winter suit hood on. What looks like a bacta tank storage pod is put in as well, complete with funky trans-blue “head” pieces. Little maroon 1 by 2 pieces are placed, seemingly randomly, on the plated roof and protruding “teeth”, creating the intended battle-scarred look, whereas the previous Falcon looked brand new. I just love the way the roof is composed of separate tiles that open up; it makes the ship look way more accurate and in no way compromises its sturdiness in general. The turret looks great too; you can lift the top off to reveal a little seat with a targeting computer in front. Nice! The new escape pod is much, much worthier as compared to the butt-of-all jokes earlier version. Now fully enclosed, it is one of my favourite bits to the set. It blocks off quite a chunk of the walkway, but that’s to be expected. On the opposite end, if you were to pull the docking bay out mid-way, a bar connected to the landing ramp helps lower it. An awesome touch and an interesting detail, albeit a tad flimsy.
Now, on to the chunkier and by far more controversial portions of the ship. The teeth or mandibles look fine on the box cover, but after getting them built I was thinking to myself: gosh! So small! I’ve done some research and most official drawings and photographs depict the Falcon with much longer teeth, wider and as thick as the rest of the craft. Modifying this portion also proved extremely unwieldy.
Next to it sits the cockpit which, in my opinion, is one of the few parts of the set that is not an improvement on the former rendition. I was quite appalled to find that the portion on which the minifigures were singing was left hanging loosely in mid-air. Using some of my own (washing machine) bricks I did a bit of fixing. Also, while the cockpit in the film sits four comfortably, you have trouble getting just Han and Chewie into the cockpit. Plus they’re seated one in front of the other, not even sitting side-by-side! Anyway, we’ll continue and I’ll stop ranting about the small barren patch of land surrounded by perfect paradise.
Two jointed ribs encircle the Falcon, the one at the back with a transparent tube running down the centre, most possibly the exhaust. The separate roof plates attach to these ribs. Attaching the ribs to the ship itself is a truly delicate process, awkward at first but easier the second time around.
The Falcon sits proudly in the centre of my living room coffee table, roof tiles proudly open, escape pod detached (with Chewbacca standing on it doing maintenance) and with all the other Star Wars Lego sets around it seeming to bow in submission. This set being the “holy grail” so to speak of Star Wars Lego, it will be that way for a very, very long time. I am ever grateful for this marvellous piece of Lego design (the minor hiccups are excusable any day) and here’s my overall opinion in three words: I love it! This is among the best of the Star Wars models to date and is more, much more actually than simply an improvement or a second version. The Millennium Falcon is special, that I know.
RATING: 4.5/5 STARS
