LEGO Millennium Falcon (4504)
By Lando Da Pimp

Based on the Escape from Hoth scene from The Empire Strikes Back, LEGO has created a great building set of the ship that made the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs. This is the second version of the Millennium Falcon LEGO has produced and they have improved on a lot of the details.

The set includes only 5 figures this time. Han Solo in his Empire attire, Princess Leia with her cinnamon bun hairdo, golden rod C-3PO, and the Mighty Chewbacca. The last figure is the Imperial Snowtrooper appearing in a few small scenes from the film. As Han, Leia, Chewbacca, and C-3P0 are attempting to lift off Snowtroopers and Vader attempt to stop the Falcon from taking off. The Snowtrooper has always been my favorite form of the Stormtrooper and with this set he comes with a really cool weapon that would go along great with the AT-AT.

I found the set complicated to build at times. That is a good thing because I like a challenge. Because the Falcon is a circular form, the outer shell is tricky to attach. LEGO did a great job in figuring how to accomplish the look of the Falcon with their modular bricks.

The build time for me was about 2 1/2 hours. You start out with a basic square shape, building the interior details, including the gun turret, hyper drive, and the holographic chessboard. Using a series of pieces with the positive sides facing outward you wrap a long bendable constructed piece that forms the outside appearance giving the rounded form. The top of the Falcon is built to open up with a series of wing elements that, when closed, cover the Falcon with its details enhanced with a set of stickers.

The loading ramp is on the right side of the ship. Pulling on the side lowers the ramp into place. Pushing the piece back in to the ship raises the ramp. On the other side is the never-seen escape pod that is discussed in Episode IV. The escape pod slides in and out of the ship when the hatch is raised. Underneath the front of the ship is the ships log, which is also a nice detail.

I was disappointed that there are only two seats in the cockpit. Han and Chewbacca easily fit into place with a control panel and lever. The cockpit window comes off and on very smoothly, making it easy to remove the characters. This design does allow for the cockpit to be functional, but also look proportionally correct.

I also like to see how sets interact with other sets. I rebuilt my Cloud City set (review) to place the Falcon on the landing pad and reenact the scene where Lando is introduced. The Falcon doesn't quite fit on the platform but that just gives me the excuse to buy more pieces to add on to it.

I would love to see LEGO make a more advanced version of this ship similar to what they have done with the X-Wing, Tie Bomber, and the king of all sets the Star Destroyer (product listing) set (10030). I love my X-Wing and plan on picking the Star Destroyer soon. The biggest improvement of the set is that it looks a lot more like the Falcon than the set released in 2000. I would have loved to see this set even bigger to include a lot more of the details but don’t let this detract you from purchasing this set. I'm really impressed with what this set includes.

For more information on this building set and other sets from the Star Wars franchise visit LEGO.com/StarWars. Be sure to check out the famous scenes from the movies rebuilt in LEGO. Then you can submit your own!

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