Millennium Falcon Month, Day 5: Collector Watch Case

My lovely wife (who is leaning over my shoulder and reading this as I type) snagged this one for me one day back in 1996 or 1997. I can't remember if it was a Christmas or a birthday present or what. I like it because it looks classy. You know, like some brushed aluminum antique Millennium Falcon or something. It also came with a Darth Vader watch, which was just a wrist strap with Darth Vader's head on it. Flipping the face open revealed a simple LCD instead of the lifeless face of Luke Skywalker with smoke billowing from his eye socket like I hoped. I still have the watch somewhere. I think.

BONUS ITEM: If you open up the case, there's a tiny little map of the galaxy inside! Unfortunately, the Kessel Run is not marked.

Millennium Falcon Month, Day 4: Taco Bell

During the big lead-up to the release of the Star Wars Special Editions, Taco Bell released a set of Star Wars themed toys with its kid's meals. Included in this set were a this Falcon, a Darth Vader & Yoda Magic Cube, a Puzzle Cube, a Balancing Boba Fett, a Floating Cloud City, and the slightly infamous Exploding Death Star (Which reportedly was recalled. To make the Death Star "explode" you press a button, which makes the Death Star spin and centrifugal force makes the Death Star open up like a flower. Supposedly these parts flew off during operation, forcing the recall and briefly causing a huge increase in demand for the toy on the secondary market. Nowadays, the Death Star typically sells for a few dollars more than the other toys in this set.)

This version of the Millennium Falcon is supposedly is a "gyroscope" and there is indeed a weight inside the toy that spins. It came with a rip cord that you insert to make the weight spin, but the weight doesn't spin very well, and the little peg on the bottom of the ship that it balances on is so thick that the gyroscopic function is really kind of useless. (And I've long since lost the ripcord that comes with it anyway.)

But I have one and you don't, so there.

Millennium Falcon Month, Day 3: Burger King

Yep. You read that right. Burger King.

This Falcon was part of a set of 30+ toys that Burger King released with their kids' meals in conjunction with Episode III: Revenge of the Sith circa 2005. The toys were all in the "super-deformed" style, and came in one of 5 categories; pull-back vehicles, plushies, wind-up figures, 3-D viewer figures, and water-squirting figures. They must not have been a big hit, because most of the Burger Kings in my area were selling complete sets of the toys for $25 bucks.

I enjoy this little version of the Falcon just because it's such a different and neat little take on the ship.

Millennium Falcon Month, Day 2: Titanium

Not much to say about this one. If you're familiar Hasbro's Titanium line you know the drill. It's a 3-inch die-cast vehicle. The top and bottom turbolasers and the satellite dish all swivel.

I'm not 100% certain, but this is probably the only Star Wars Titanium vehicle I have, I just don't care that much for the Titanium stuff. (I do have a few Battlestar Galactica Titaniums, though.)

Millennium Falcon Month, Day 1: Micro Machines

(LEGO Han Solo included for scale)

During the mid-90's, Star Wars was experiencing a huge resurgence, with the POTF2 and many, many, MANY other toy lines. One of the great things to come out of this resurrection was the Micro Machines line of Star Wars vehicles, which included not only teeny, tiny versions of your favorite ships, but also the Action Fleet which were larger and included teeny, tiny figures to pilot them, as well as several larger vehicle-shaped playsets.

Galoob released this version of the Millennium Falcon for three years. In 1993/94 it was included in a 3-pack along with Micro Machines versions of the X-wing and Star Destroyer, and in 1995 it was included in a new 3-pack with Luke Skywalker's Landspeeder and the Jawa Sandcrawler. There were also die-cast versions of the ship available as single-carded toys and these were, as far as I can tell, the same mold.

I'll be honest, I don't know which of the two 3-packs the one pictured came from. I have the other four vehicles it was included with, and I have 3 or 4 more Falcons as well.

Millennium Falcon Retrospective

The Millennium Falcon.

If there was one ship that you could say is synonymous with the Star Wars Original Trilogy, it would be the Falcon. Sure, each film opens with the slow pan of a Star Destroyer...but Star Destroyers are, much like the Imperial military itself, nameless, faceless, utilitarian, spartan, bland, generic, lacking in personality. No, the Falcon is much more. She has personality, she can be cranky, finicky, fast, graceful, or all of them.

Think about it, the Falcon provides an anchor point for the climax of each of the films in the trilogy. She's pivotal in the destruction of both Death Stars, and Lando and Chewie ride off into the galactic sunset at the close of The Empire Strikes Back in her.

With that in mind, I'm doing something a little different this month. Rather than just a haphazard, slap-dash "Oh, look at this toy from my collection" kind of approach, I'm going to take you through the different Millennium Falcons from my collection. I'm no expert, so I'll try to give you what information I know about the ones I present. I can guarantee you, though, that I will close out this retrospective with two versions of the Millennium Falcon that will make your jaws drop, unless you're some kind of cynic or something. So, April will be Millennium Falcon month here at Addicted to Plastic.