5/14/2009

Millennium Falcon Month, Day 8: LEGO

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In the late 1990's LEGO released Star Wars vehicle sets for the first time offering both classic ships alongside newer ones from The Phantom Menace. This set came out in 2000 and retailed for $99.99. In 2004, LEGO released re-designed sets of all the classic Star Wars ships, the end result being ships that looked more Star Wars-y but less LEGO-y. I think the earlier sets hit that sweet spot of looking like actual LEGO sets, but still being recognizable for what they were.

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Unlike the newer version, however, there's only room in the cockpit for one figure. This set came with several figures; Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca, C-3PO, R2-D2, and the star of our two month long monthly feature, Han Solo. This set would have been absolutely essential to fans of A New Hope because this was the only way to get Han Solo, Chewie, Cinnamon Bun Leia or C-3PO.

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In order to enhance the ship's play value (I guess), LEGO added a tiny little "escape pod" that ejects from the left side of Falcon. The upper quad-cannon rotates, and so does the sat dish. The quad-cannon also opens up for you to put a gunner in, but its really nothing more than an empty space where the figure stands, there's no chair or anything.

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While there are all kinds of hatches to open on the main hull none of them really provide decent access to the interior of the ship, in order to play around on the inside you have to remove the entire top portion of the ship. The upper hull rests on a single peg, so happily you don't have to dis-assemble the ship to open her up. The inside is a little sparse. You have a couch, a swiveling char, the chess table, and a smuggling compartment. On the left side is where the escape pod is stored, and on the right is the boarding hatch. However, there were several little tools and pegs included, so if you look in the photos you can see little wrenches and oil cans and stuff all over the interior, which I imagine would be accurate if the Falcon were real. Also, past the bulkhead behind Threepio in the above photo is another little storage compartment with two doors that can be accessed from the outside of the ship.

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This is the same location as the picture above with the chess table removed. Sadly, they didn't give us a little LEGO training remote for Luke to practice with.

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A view of the aft section where the smuggling compartment is located.

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"Hey down there! Could you give us a hand with this?"

This is probably my second favorite Falcon I own. Well, of the ones you can actually pick up and play with (hint, hint).

3 comments:

Dan said...

Didn't one of the storm troopers in Star Wars say that all the Falcon's escape pods were jettisoned? I guess that means it could have them. My BFM has an escape pod that 3PO uses to take out fellow droids in.

Heavyarms said...

Yup.One of the officers on the Death Star tells Darth Vader that several of the Falcon's escape pods had been jettisoned, so we know it has them.

Rawpower95 said...

I remember having the 2004 version. Unfortunately, I have no idea what happened to it, along with a lot of my old Lego sets. I want the Ultimate Collectors' one. TOTALLY worth $500.