Lego Review : Lego 7965 Millennium Falcon

Next to the X-wing fighter, my next favourite vehicle from the Star Wars Franchise is the Millennium Falcon! 

“You’ve never heard of the Millennium Falcon? … It’s the ship that made the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs.” so boasts Han Solo when he first meets up with Luke Skywalker and Obi-wan Kenobi in Star Wars IV: A New Hope.

Lego-wise, this is the biggest set that I have attempted to build so far since my return to the Lego-fold. So let's get cracking!!!

Box and Contents

The Box

The box itself is quite impressive and has definite heft to it. Emptying the contents from the box, you would find:

15 Parts packages, 2 manuals (Part 1 and Part 2) & 1 sheet of stickers

You get a total of 15 packages of parts numbered 1 to 6 accordingly (a total of 1254 pieces), a sheet of stickers and 2 building instruction manuals.

Minifigs

You get a total of 6 minifigs with their respective weapons i.e. lightsabers, blasters, or crossbow, which is great! You get most of the important figures related to the Falcon minus the droids. See below:

(L to R): Darth Vader, Chewbacca, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker & Obi-wan Kenobi

Darth Vader and Obi-wan come with paper capes that you are to attach before adding their heads. Just to point out the Chewbacca figure slightly differs from the rest as you don't attach just the head to the torso. Instead, you attach the top half i.e. his head and hairy chest and belt which are in one piece.

Chewie: Top half and torso

 Assembling

Starting with the base as below:

Laying the Falcon's Foundation

Adding more pieces as I go along, now there is a hatch and the base of the outer wall is starting to form up: 

Hatch added and base wall foundations

Next, you can see part of the engine assembly, the chess table and some chairs in the next photo:

Engine Assembly, Chess table and chairs added

The Central Computer console is next up:

Central Computer console added

Next, the front walls of the hull and the side support structures are taking shape

Front Walls, Side support structures are taking shape nicely.

After adding the back walls of the hull, Lego ingeniously came up with this method to create the look of the blue light from the Falcon's Jets i.e. a light blue plastic tube is added to 2 securing joints at each side and attached to the back as below: 

Ingenious use of a plastic tube

Next, the side support structures are built up and reinforced 

Reinforced support structures

Next, you can see on the left, the formation of the cockpit and the side structures are close to completion

Cockpit being built on the left 

Turning it over, you can see the twin missiles (red tipped tubes near the front), the rotating laser cannons in the centre and the landing gear.  

Of Missiles and Cannons

Next, construction continues with the adding of the back hull plates. Use your steadiest finger to stick on the round stickers here.

Continue with the rest of the hull plates as below

The great cover up

Add the front most hull plate and the cover the hatch with another rotating laser cannon.

I've got it fully covered

Next, you have to attach the front triangular sections, the first one is shown below:

Finally, add the remaining front section and the cockpit cover and Voila! You have a fully built Falcon!

Falcon ready for action!

A close-up showing Han Solo in the cockpit below. Do note, you have to pry open the front section to release the minifig.

Chewie! Get me out of here!

Though not movie accurate in that the top half of the hull is not sealed (in fact they would've died from being exposed to space), the opening hull plates allow you to assess and place your minifigs easily around the ship:

Falcon in bloom

Recreating Classic Scenes:

Luke's Lightsaber training:

"I can't breathe in this thing!"

Chewie and R2D2's chess game: (Note C3P0 and R2D2 have been borrowed from my Droid Escape set, no droids or wookies were harmed in the setup of this scene)

"Let the wookie win!"

Luke and Han manning the Laser Cannons:

This scene is not so straight forward as the tunnels don't allow proper access to the guns. So you need to do it in 3 steps:

Step 1: Remove the top laser cannon guns and attach Luke and Han to the platform that has the controls (as below)

Literally back to back action

Step 2: Lower them in the tunnel like so:

"Dude, I forgot to tell you I had onions at lunch" 

Step 3: Attach the laser cannon guns to close off the hatch:

"Oh crap!"

Obi-wan vs Darth Vader:

"I see your Schwartz is as big as mine. Now let's see how well you handle it"
Oops ..that's from Spaceballs

Size Comparison

Placing it side by side with my X-wing, you can see that the scale isn't movie-correct. The Falcon is much larger than the X-wing in the film but I guess it would probably mean a very expensive set too if it were built to scale.

Final Thoughts

Overall, this is an extremely fun and challenging set to build. I took about 4 and a half hours to complete it. This is probably the best version of the Falcon you could get without forking crazy money (Upwards of US$2000)  for the UCS version which is long out of print.

My main feedback/suggestions for this set are: 

1. Lego, please consider making capes out of nylon or cloth material, paper is way too fragile.
2. Obi-wan minifig's head needs to include his hair, then you can add the hood on top else you cannot do the scenes without his hood.

I got this set off an Amazon Warehouse deal, Condition:  used-Like New which kind of explains the slightly dented box. However, it came nicely taped up. There were no missing pieces and all the packages were sealed and did not show signs of being opened before. You are welcome to try this method to get it cheaper but it is at your own risk. Thanks for reading ! 

Available (should be) at Toys R US outlets and major stores wherever Lego is sold. Of course, you can also check out Amazon US, Amazon France or Amazon UK.

Lego Review: 79000 Riddles for the Ring (The Hobbit)

Yes, it's not Star Wars and I told myself I shouldn't get too distracted by too many Lego themes but I couldn't resist and picked this up from the Metro store at City Square Shopping Mall with a 20% discount while shopping for toys for my nephews and nieces. 
It's a new set based on the new movie : The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

Box and Contents

It's a very small box compared to most Lego sets but as usual it is very beautifully decorated:

Opening the box, you'll see the contents as follows:

2 packs of parts and an instruction manual

As it's a small set, you only get 2 packs of Lego parts and an instruction manual.

Minifigs

You get 2 minifigs but 2 of the most important ones from the movie Bilbo Baggins and Gollum! 

Bilbo Baggins wielding Sting (Elven Sword)

The Bilbo Baggins minifig has nicely detailed clothing imprinted on the torso and comes armed with Sting, An Elven Sword. 

The Gollum minifig below looks impressive (I think it is quite similar to the one released in the Lord of the Rings sets), especially his facial expression and body shape that are accurate to how Gollum's countenance and posture is depicted in the LOTR / The Hobbit films. He comes armed with a fish?? hehe

Gollum armed with fish!

Assembling

There are basically only 2 structures: Gollum's boat and Gollum's Rock.

Gollum on his boat..All Hands on deck :)

I won't go into detail as it is very easy to build. Next up is Gollum's Rock.

Base of Gollum's Rock

Gollum's rock is more like a building structure that has 2 ends that can swivel in and out to hide the Ring. It is more apparent in the picture below which shows clearly the swivelling ends. You can attach the Ring to the rock.

"Get Away from my Precious!"

One cool thing is that among the extra pieces, you get 2 rings and 2 swords. The ring itself has some weight to it and is quite shiny and "precious". The only "gripe" is the ring size is too large in relation to the minifigs so it more closely resembles a bracelet or a set of brass knuckles that Bilbo can use to knock Gollum all the way to Mount Doom. But I do understand that if they did do it to scale, you probably wouldn't be able to see the ring.

A small set nonetheless but no less entertaining especially if you are a fan of the series and what better minifigs to get than these.

You can get it from major department stores where Lego is sold, Toys R Us stores, Amazon US, Amazon UK or Amazon France. Please do check the prices before you buy.

To those in Singapore, it is not worth your while to import this set as the shipping alone will probably bloat the cost too much past the retail price here. Perhaps if you bundle with other Lego sets or items, it may be worth your while.

Lego Review: Lego 9493 X-wing Starfighter

With the arrival of the new year, I decided to ring in the changes to this blog to give it a fresher, cleaner look. I hope you like it. If you're wondering why the sudden rash of posts on Lego sets, it's because I decided to get off my butt and start building stuff! 

To start us off in the new year, it's none other than my favourite Star Wars vehicle, the X-wing fighter!!

Box and contents

 As you can see from the pic above, the box is colourfully illustrated and looks pretty impressive. Now let's open it up to see what is inside:

1st  row: : Pack 1, Pack 3, Instruction manual
2nd row: Pack 2, Pack 4, Pack 5
3rd row: Lego Storage Box, Sticker sheet, survey promo card

 The thing that's different here is there usually isn't a storage box included in Lego sets so I'm not sure if this is a Korean Exclusive. I happened to get this from a seller on GMarket (now renamed qoo10). Cool bonus though!

Minifigs

Included in this package are 4 minifigs, 2 droids and 2 pilots. First the droids:

R2D2, R5D8

That is exactly the same R2D2 figure that was in the Droid Escape set I reviewed earlier, along with a R5D8 droid. Same easy assembly, just pop the head on and the legs into the torso.

Next up, the pilots:

Luke Skywalker, Jek Porkins

You get Luke Skywalker and Jek Porkins in pilot uniform. The torso, hands and legs are the same, the distinguishing features are the helmets, the heads (Porkins has a beard and visor) and the weapons (Luke wields a lightsaber and Porkins a blaster)

Assembling

Following the manual, you start with Pack 1. I'm not gonna go through the building process step by step but I'm gonna show the progress as I went along. This is what the initial base of the X-wing  looks like after step 22 Page 18 of the manual:

The progress after Step 22, Page 18

As you can see the parts are rather colourful, which helps you to identify different parts quite easily. End of Pack 1 is shown below:

End of Pack 1

Pack 2 onwards, you get to add more components to the base you created using Pack 1.

The following 2 pics below show how the tapered edge of the front of the x-wing is achieved. You attach this V-shaped portion as shown below: 

V-shaped section added to main body

 Next you swivel in the long edges of the V and secure it to the main body (as below)

Fast forward, this is what the front portion looks like completed:

Packs 3 and 4 contain the pieces to assemble the wings of the vehicle. The assembled wing looks like so:

Pack 3 contains 2 wings with the same orientation which you attach like so to the main body:

Pack 4 contains the pieces to the other 2 wings which are mirror opposites to Pack 3. All attached:

Now we're talking!! you can see the X-wing body at near completion.
On to Pack 5. Below shows rubber bands (2 in each cardboard pack, 4 bands in all) which you have to attach to the back of the vehicle.

Rubber bands

They are used to secure the top and bottom wings together  else they will be loose and flap all over the place.See the bands strung on the black knob?

Securing the Wings

Next up are the jets, see assembled example:

The red translucent piece is to give the impression that the jets are fired.
All assembled below:

Jets on!

All that's left are the weapons: 4 guns and 2 proton torpedoes. An assembled gun looks like so:

Assembled Gun

And there you have it, a completed X-wing (below)

All raring to go! 

Close up of the cockpit (this time with Porkins at the controls & R5D8 behind him):

Porkins & R5D8

Also in this picture, you can see the proton torpedoes (small stick with white rounded tip, resembles a microphone or a cotton bud), below the cockpit. Do note that the droid units (R2 or R5) are facing the side when you attach them to the vehicle, not exactly correct if I remember correctly but I'll let it go.

All in all, I really enjoyed building this. It took me slightly less than 3 hours to assemble (includes time taken to position the pieces for better camera angles). 

Available (should be) at Toys R US outlets and major stores wherever Lego is sold. Of course, you can also check out Amazon US, Amazon France or Amazon UK.

Alternatively, you might want to hunt down the Korean version of this set if you want to get the free storage box (as shown below).